《The Nebula (dropped)》 Prologue The Nebula (proofread) (A.N. this is the same world as The Puppeteer so it¡¯s possible that Malcolm may appear as in this time he is now vice president next to his father who is CEO) *** ??? : Virtual Reality has been around for over 20 years now, it was a system pioneered by the famous Virtual Works lead by Jonas Brim. The first success was its first game Second Life which was a fantasy medieval period game. Following the success, games began appearing in a mass of many different genres from alien invasion to zombie apocalypse. With the success the capsules also evolved to help with areas not related to entertainment. Schools started using it to increase daily hours without wasting more time of the kids, the military could train their soldiers in real life combat without killing them, and even wars were handled in VR to lower the casualty rate. Now the only frontier humans haven¡¯t been able to go into has finally opened up. Yes people, Virtual Works are releasing the first Space game ever. This game is unlike the others, here magic is ZERO, yep folks, here you will be fighting with your own skills with a gun and piloting. With us today is the vice President Malcolm Brim. A man in a tux comes out; he looks like he is in his mid-forties, has black, with a spot of grey, hair, an average build and has an air of noble gentleman. He comes out waving and then shakes the hand of the host. Malcolm: Good afternoon everyone. Host: Good to see you again, it¡¯s been years since you came here, I think it was before you joined the company and was playing your father¡¯s game and released that insane job. Malcolm: Haha yes those were great times but I think we should leave those for another time. Host: Yes let¡¯s first talk about the new game, so tell us a few details. Malcolm: Ok. Well, first off the game is obviously more in a futuristic period, no magic this time, it¡¯s set around 500 years from now and is possibly the largest game in history because it actually takes the real universe into prospective. Host: So you¡¯re saying that it¡¯s the real universe we will play in? Malcolm: Yes, but the realism will lower as we get further from earth, since we don¡¯t know exactly how it is on those planets, at best we can only pinpoint the suns¡¯ location from here and let the AI do the rest. This game will feature many races but we will be able to play only with the most humanoid ones, anything to outward isn¡¯t playable because of the diet and different mentality may cause real life problems. Host: I¡¯m sure it¡¯s been on everyone¡¯s mind but how or where do we start the game? Malcolm: The game has three factions that we can join at the start, the Terran Federation, the Dominion and the Liberation. The Liberation is a neutral faction for those who want don¡¯t want to be tied down by oppressive government; they are kind of like renegades. The Dominion is a union of Human and other races that want total control of the galaxy for evil, in the opposite side is the Terran Federation, but both have an oppressive government wanting total control. The Terrans can also be thought of as capitalist government that wants money over all and will oppresses others for it. Players begin in mining stations within the boundaries of the union they choose. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Host: Why mining stations, is it safer? Malcolm: No, actually it¡¯s more dangerous there than normal because they have the weakest single-man ships and are the best place to train capable fighters, those who can¡¯t pilot their own ships can join together with others as mechanics and such and work together to overcome those odds. This brings us to the job systems. At the start of the game you can choose from a few sets of skills such as mechanic skills or fighter skills, please remember that they are skills not jobs. It¡¯s very possible that you get skills you can¡¯t use due to lack of real life skills. Host: Similar to someone getting a pilot skill to pilot a ship and not having the coordination to do so. Malcolm: Exactly, you can get a job like pirate which is a combat job and still have mechanic skills. Host: So jobs aren¡¯t everything in the game. Malcolm: Jobs are like a position since this game is made with modern ideas in mind, unless you¡¯re doing things solo you will get a job which is similar to military ranking. Host: Ok, now about those ships that players get at the start, does everyone gets one or only certain players? Malcolm: No, everyone gets one; the ones that survive the best and keep their ship intact will be able to stay a pilot. The ships they get at the start is an old rusty mining ship with one gun slot and three equipment slots, one of those already has the mining drill and other one has a basic storage, they have no weapons at the start. Host: So this is a dog eat dog game. Malcolm: Exactly, as such we have placed the obvious restriction of 18+ since children would not be able to pilot a spaceship. Host: One last question before we go, it¡¯s about the mining, is this to give players something to do or a way to test players? Malcolm smiles and thinks for a few moments. Malcolm: Both, we put it like this to see how good someone is and if they can figure out the ins and outs of the game. Host: Well, with that we are out of time, thank you for coming here and speaking to us about the new game. Remember everyone, The Nebula goes live in one month.
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Volume 1 Start of a Legend Chapter 1 The First Flyer (proofread and edited) Noah Collin was watching the TV show that talked about The Nebula, the newest VR game that is said to implement real life physics in it and could even possibly give real life scientists the answers to real life space travel. The show was obviously the one Malcolm appeared on; Noah has idolized Malcolm for a long time hearing from his dad how great he was, his dad was one of the rare few that gained Magus Puppeteer in Second Life and learned how to create the puppets himself. (yes, some time in the future I will add the father) Now retired from the games Noah¡¯s dad just watched from the sides and taught others in-game and enjoyed the peace and quiet whenever he wanted. Noah on the other hand was roaring to go in the new game by Virtual Works. Noah¡¯s dad had taught him that VR games are just like reality as such he was always made to learn martial arts to be used in game if needed. Though not a master he is quite skilled in Jujitsu, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jujitsu and Aikido. His father, a friend of Malcolm, had been able to preorder a few of the first copies of The Nebula through Malcolm and was planning to play with his son or at least start out with his son. A week before the game went live, the games were released to pick up and were quickly sold out in the game stores, but thanks to the weeklong shopping spree they were able to distribute a large number of copies. Noah and his father were able to get the game on the first day and were cleaning the capsules in their house getting ready and reading up on the possible starting locations. Though Noah¡¯s dad suggested they begin at the capital Noah¡¯s eyes were on frontier zones of the liberation faction. It was so plain to see that even from far away Noahs dad could see it. Dad: Noah where are you going to start? Noah: Frontier Station Maximum. Dad: Haven¡¯t you seen that frontier zones aren¡¯t available as starting places? Noah: WHAT?! Since when?! Dad: In every game you normally start in larger towns, also the frontier doesn¡¯t have an established asteroid mining station, did you forget what Malcolm said when he was on the show? Players begin in mining stations to learn about the game. Noah: Ahh¡­ I wanted to go to the frontier¡­ I guess it¡¯s not so bad at least¡­ let¡¯s see in the liberation zone the closest I can go is¡­ Kelha II station, it has a large mining zone near the station and it¡¯s one of the larger producers of ores in the region. Dad: That¡¯s more like it, search for a few other options just to be safe that it¡¯s the best one. Noah: I don¡¯t want a place everyone will go like the capitals. Dad: Hmm, true¡­ The impatient ones will go and do stupid stuff near there and get everyone in trouble. After we looked through the areas that the company released beforehand we installed the game, which took a long time for the system to finish. At the end of the week there were news saying that exactly at noon the game would go online and we could wait in the capsule for the time to pass as there are tutorials for the game which will let you learn the basics. Dad didn¡¯t want to, but I was interested. I recently turned 18 so this will be the first time I play a Virtual Game since most of them are for 18+ players. I lie down in the capsule, which has a gel-like seat that is amazingly comfortable, and watch the lid close, sealing me inside.
Would you like to log into The Nebulas?
Noah: Yes. My vision goes black as I feel myself fall until I end up and a white room.
Scans of your brainwave and iris show that you are a new player. Do you want to activate your account?
Noah: Yes. Suddenly I appear in a large white room.
Time until game begins 2:30:42
Would you like to do the character creation now or later?
Noah: Now. Suddenly a 3D model of me appears, it was of a young man with a lean muscular build which was made from all the martial arts I had done during my life, he had brown hair and navy blue eyes.
Currently only humans (Terran) are available other human like races must be unlocked in the game. You can customize your characters face as long as 70% stays the same as the original, you can only make yourself taller or shorter by 20%, which is 194cm for tallest and 134cm for shortest. Your body can only be changed 10% by increasing or lowering muscle mass or fat.
Noah: Change the eyes to silver color and the hair to red. The changes appear on the character, it looked cool with the color but it felt odd so I changed it back and felt that my normal look was fine.
Please which faction you will support and the location you wish to begin.
A map appeared showing the info that the Official site had released. I pull the liberation area closer, find Kelha II station and clicked it.
Do you wish to begin in Kelha II station in the Orthion Sector under The Liberation?
Noah: Yes. As I confirmed, the map vanished and my character gained some cloth made of leather which was dark grey with blue lines along the edges.
Please choose your character name.
Noah: Noah. ¡°my name isn¡¯t that common so it will work for a character name¡±
Please choose your set of skills you will start with. Note: you will not be given a job just skills.
Mechanic Skill SetFighter Skill SetTechnician Skill Set
Ship Maintenance Ship Repair Weapon Maintenance Weapon Repair Scrap Ship Creation Scrap Weapon CreationLaser Weapon Mastery Missile Weapon Mastery Piloting Skill Evasive Maneuver MasteryProgrammer Tech Maker Weapon Planner Ship Planner System Manager
Noah: Wow those are impressive skills¡­ Why does a Mechanic have more skills?
They are needed for a larger variety of tasks than other jobs. While Technician works only with the ship system.
Noah: Oh cool. I didn¡¯t know that, if that¡¯s the case then I¡¯ll go with the mechanic skill set since it seems the most useful.
Character creation complete. Time until game goes live: 2:05:10. Would you like to do the tutorial?
Noah: What can I learn in the tutorial?
How to control your body, exercise to get accustomed to your game body and how to pilot a ship.
Noah: ¡­pilot a ship? But doesn¡¯t the fighter set give that?
My creator says that those that choose fighter set are cocky and don¡¯t do the tutorial but those who don¡¯t choose it might choose to do this¡­ at least some smart ones will.
Noah: ¡­I guess it pays to be not be a muscle head and be born with a smart dad. I¡¯ll do the tutorial. The large room suddenly lit up and when I opened my eyes again I was dressed like my character and was inside a large room that looked like a mix of a gym and an airplane hangar.
Your objective is to complete the obstacle course as fast as possible, you can do it as many times as you like for as long as you like.
Noah: Cool that¡¯s convenient. I took my time at a leisurely pace to see how well I did which took me three minutes to do so.
For completing the tutorial course in three minutes you gained:
+1 str +1 vit +1 sta +1 dex
Noah: ¡­I can get stats here, it seems low though but since I was going at a slow pace I wonder if I do this faster how much I¡¯ll get. Next round I did it seriously which resulted in one and a half minute.
For completing the tutorial course in one and a half minute you gained:
+2 str +2 vit +3 sta +2 dex
Noah: So it does rise with the speed. I make a wide grin that goes ear to ear and repeatedly do the course seriously, each time I do it the stats I earn gets lower until finally I didn¡¯t get anything. Total stats gain I got from it: (Note: all players start with 10 for all stats.) Str +35 Vit +32 Sta +30 Dex +20 Noah: heh heh, if ever I get in a fist to fist while still level 1 I will definitely win.
Time until game goes live: 30:56.
Noah: Wow! Even after all that I still have half an hour¡­can I begin the piloting course? Suddenly at the spot that looks like a hangar the floor opens up and an old looking ship comes up.
This is called a Dingy and it is the first ship a player gets for mining purposes. You will gain ownership when you have mined enough to buy it. Price: 5000 credits
The ship looked like it would fall apart but I guess it was better than I was thinking considering we are talking about a spaceship, to give a huge ship to an unknown man would be stupid. I go up to it the back opens like you see in military ships. It had a decent enough storage for a beginner ship though I¡¯m sure its small compared to larger ships. When I reach the pilot cabin I see an somewhat old leather chair and while the control looks much newer it is very dusty. I sit down and after getting as comfy as possible and strapping in the seatbelt I confirm that I¡¯m ready to the AI.
For ship ignition search for the button on your left side near the left handle.
I look a bit and find a dirty green button and press it. When I press, the monitors and lights come alive and so does the engine.
For lift off pull both handles slightly up then press the blue button next to the right handle after you have stabilized the ship to retract the landing gears.
I pull slightly up and I could feel the ship lift off the ground, after I was high enough I pushed it back to its original place then looked for and pressed the blue button. ¡°Landing gear retracted¡± said a computerized voice.
The ceiling will soon open, please lift off and experiment with your ship.
After I received that message the ceiling above me spread open and I could see the expanse of space all around me. I pulled the handles and lifted the ship up until it was out into the space. I looked around bit looking for a pedal and found one. Just like in a car there were two pedals I pressed the left and nothing happends so like in real life it must be the brakes. When I pressed the right one I heard the ships engines roar and started to move forward. I took control of the handles for some reason and wondering how to turn this I pushed the left one forward while keeping the right in place and like I hoped the ship turned left which meant if I pulled the right one back it would do a fast turn which it did but I lost control for a few seconds. It took a few seconds to regain control. I needed to brake the ship and counter the momentum by pushing the right handle forward and pulling the left one slightly back.
Through smart intuition you have gained 3 int and wis.
You have gained the pilot skill
Small Craft Pilot Skill
Through intuition and natural skill you have successfully learned how to pilot a small craft through the frictionless void which many fail to do so. Increase control when piloting a small craft by 10%
Noah: Heh that was intense. I thought I would vomit before I got this under control¡­ I guess intuition is the right word for it.
Time until game goes live: 1:10. Would you like to enter the game after countdown is done?
Noah: Yes. I watched inside the ship as the countdown got closer and when it got to 3 everything around me began going dark, 2 I was in the void, 1 a light appeared all around me and 0 I find myself inside a large station. I was in a daze by how that all happened. I snap out of it when various players began appearing. I started to look around and found a man waiting at the door of the room so I walk up. ???: You guys must be the new recruits, we¡¯ve been in need of men for mining and I was told there would be thousands of you to teleported in. Noah: I think they will be coming at different times. ???: True. The teleporter room probably can¡¯t hold more than 100 men in here without crowding, everyone come on, my name is General Marcus Snocon, you can call me general or Marcus I don¡¯t care, follow me so that we can have you assigned to a ship. He started walking and I followed behind, the same could be said for everyone behind me, we walked through a huge space station for a good ten minutes, there weren¡¯t that many people though and it felt somewhat abandoned which caused me to think that players would be playing the part of all the techs. After a bit we arrived in a humungous hangar easily 100 meter high, all around there were ships but only about 20 were worth looking at, the rest were junkers like the ship I trained with. Marcus: Alright, just walk up to any ship you feel comfortable with, they are pretty much the same so it doesn¡¯t matter, I will come around to those who call when they find the ship they want. Everyone spread then, some even ran, obviously those would be the ones that crashed first. I walk around calmly and look from one ship to the next. After five minutes I spot one I want, to the naked eye it would look like the others but I could tell it was in a better state of repair than the rest so I call out to the general. He comes over after a few seconds. Marcus: So you choose this one huh¡­ I was watching you look around, you have a good eye, this junker is the one in least disrepair, good eye kid. He scans the ship and me and after a bit he confirms my ownership. The number on the side said BR545 which I think was the registered number plates for it since most of the others had a similar one. Marcus: Work well so you can keep this one, it¡¯s already mounted with a mining drill and basic storage compartment so you¡¯re ready to go. Noah: Thank you, Sir. I salute him and get into my ship, I could easily see the different to the ship I had trained with, the chairs weren¡¯t ripped and there wasn¡¯t much dirt and dust on the panels. I put the headset on and started the ship. Just so you know, until now only three other people have started their ships and no one has lifted off yet. With me starting the ship right up a few people looked towards me. Before I continued I called the tower to get permission to lift off. Noah: Ah, h-hello is the pilot of BR545 looking for permission for lift off. Tower: Permission to lift off granted, safe travels. With the permission given I pull back the handles lifting off the ground until I was a good 10 meters up when I stabilized the ship and pulled the landing gears in. I then looked around for the exit and found it to my left, it was wide open, which made me wonder how there was air in here but then I though ¡°this is the future they can easily make an artificial atmosphere¡±. I pull the left handle and push the right one slightly and make the ship turn until it faced the exit then I accelerated and left behind the other players. I didn¡¯t go too fast while inside for safety measures and to ensure that I don¡¯t destroy my ship leaving the station but it was a safe exit and I¡¯m sure the other players are desperately trying to turn their ships on. Heh newbies. After exiting the station I stop my ship and open up the computer screen that is mounted on all ships, (hologram ones, sweet) it showed a map of the surrounding areas with the base at the center and me as a red triangle. As I looked I suddenly hear a call from the radio. Tower: Hello BR545, this is general Marcus, the man that registered you up, what¡¯s the hold up. Noah: I¡¯m searching for the asteroid field on the map sir, I¡¯m not about to fly blind in the middle of damn space just to get lost. Marcus: Heh heh a smart one for sure, you must have trained with the ship a bit but you don¡¯t know how to use the map yet. Noah: No, Sir. I was only given instructions on how to pilot the ship not about the functions of the system. Marcus: I see, then let me explain how it works. For the next 10 minutes he explained how to find the map and how to mark waypoints which then appear on the windows of the ship thanks to the AI system installed in the ship. I was even taught the commands for the AI to auto lock on a certain destination. It didn¡¯t take long for me to find the asteroid field and point my ship in that direction. Noah: Thank you for the help sir, I will need help later as I don¡¯t know how to activate or use the mining drills. Marcus: Get to an asteroid first then call back. Someone will help you. With that the call shut off I accelerated towards the fields. During that whole time I didn¡¯t see a single ship leave the hangar which I found funny. It took a bit of time to reach the asteroid field it was much further than it looks, even when going 200m/h it took me 10 minutes to reach the first few rocks which were tiny. I slowed down as I moved deeper since the rocks were now the size of my ship. I kept going until the rocks became sparse but the at least four times my ship¡¯s size. I then sent out the call to the station. Noah: Hello this is BR545, requesting assistance for first mining operation. Tower: BR545, it¡¯s Marcus. I¡¯ll help ya out since most of those idiots are having trouble even getting their ships off the ground, from the readings it says you¡¯re deep in the asteroid field near the larger rocks, right? Noah: Yes, Sir. Marcus: Good. Now I''m going to need you to fly up to and land on the nearest rock, every ship has a hook shot around the ship they use to fix the ship into the rock, you just need to get into place and give the command ¡°Launch Landing Hook¡± and it will do so. Also to lift the beak of the ship, instead of pushing the handles forward turn them up or down, this will lift the half of the ship from that handle. I give it a try and twist both right and left handles upwards and the ship begins lifting the beak up. Noah: Alright sir, I get the motion now, let me try getting closer and land. I start up the ship and move close, when I was about 100 meters away I lowered the speed and lifted the beak of the ship until I was at a 45 degree angle and moved closer. At 5 meters I stopped the ship and put it parallel to the asteroid. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Noah: ¡°Launch Landing Hooks¡± ¡°Launching Landing Hooks¡± The AI parroted my command and I heard the sound of the hooks being shot out at very fast speed and the sensors in the hooks indicated they were fixed in the rock. Before I gave the command to retract the line I lower the landing gear then give the order. Slowly the hooks pull the ship in until it landed successfully. Noah: Sir, I¡¯ve landed on the asteroid successfully. What now? Marcus: Release the scan probes, they will scan the asteroid and see how much ore is in it. Just say ¡°Release Scan Probe¡± and the system will do the work. Noah: Ok, then, ¡°Release Scan Probe.¡± ¡°Releasing Scan Probes, scanning commencing, time estimated until total scanning: 10 minutes¡± I hear the sound of doors opening and I look back to see two doors on the side of the ship open up and small old circular probes appear, there are around 10 of them. When they leave the ship a blue light appears below them on the rock and on the hologram of my ship it appears as well the small speck. After all the probes are out they all fly in different directions. On the hologram a number appear showing 0% which I guess is how much they scanned. After a bit, when the percentage reached 10%, the area around me had been mapped out and under the number appeared the word ¡°Iron¡± in bold letters. Marcus: Hey boy you there? My sensors say you have scanned 10% of that asteroid, right? What ore is in it? Noah: It says iron. Marcus: Thank god, we are in desperate need of some iron, many of the ships can be repaired now thanks to that. Well boy, time to get digging, say ¡°Activate Mining Drill.¡± Don¡¯t be afraid when your chair lowers, it will take you to the drill controls. I say the command and just like he said the chair disconnects and I ride down until I¡¯m below the ship inside a large circular area. The controls are similar to the pilot controls. No pedals but there are two handles which have a larger range of movement. As I move them the drill on that side moves in a similar manner. Marcus: Get ready kid, there¡¯s about 1 meter of rock before you hit the iron, your ship can handle 8 tons of cargo, the drills will deactivate once you¡¯ve filled your ship, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed by now that the controls are simple. The red button at the end of the handle is to spin the drill, just move it on the rock and get smashing. Noah: Yes, Sir. The channel cut off and I was finally alone in space. Noah: Wow this game is much more complicated than what I heard others say about VR games, I really have to learn how to drive the ship and use all the equipment, I can totally understand the 18+ restriction now. I turn my attention to the drill and press the buttons to test the them. They were pretty new which meant that only the ship itself was old. I guide the left drill first and while spinning I drive it into the rock. The drill hits the surface and quickly burrows through it making large cracks. I drive it 1 meter in but then feel large resistance from harder material so I pull it out. After it was out I noticed something on the window, it was some small bars that stacked on top of each other, every few seconds one vanished. Noah: ¡­maybe that is a gauge of the heat, that¡¯s useful. While the left one cools down I drive the right drill in and the cracks that had formed on the first drill spread further and large rocks begin floating out which a few system-controlled claws pulls on and throws them into space, ¡°that explains how I¡¯ll collect iron and not rocks¡±. As I drill I shove the left hand and pull the right one out to cool down. After five minutes I expose a large 2x3 meter area of reddish rock. Not deterred I press on and begin drilling, iron I must say is much harder to drill into and I have to change every few second to keep the drills from overheating that was until this.
You have gained new skills
Drill MasteryBasic1
Through effective use of mining drill you have learned to use them in a way that speeds up digging and lowers the amount of heat up it suffers. Drilling will be 5% more effective Drills will cool down 5% faster
Mining SkillBasic1
One of the oldest known skills and still widely used in the galaxy to gain precious metals. You can now see weak points in rocks more easily; they will appear as small lights Mining into asteroids or on planets is 5% easier
If you think 5% is very little let me tell you it isn¡¯t, also the mining skill is a blessing from the heavens, I can now see small cracks that with just a bit of drilling create huge cracks in the surface. It took possibly another hour before I collected 8 tons of iron ore and filled my ship. As soon as the AI pulled the last ore into the cargo, the drills deactivated and stored themselves away. Noah: Hahaha finally I¡¯m done, that was a productive day I think, and I still have a ways to go. After I lay back on my chair it returns to its place in the pilot¡¯s cabin, as it hitched into place I heard the sound of the hooks that came loose from the rock and were returning to the ship that began floating into space. I pull the my ship away, the landing gears up and have the AI mark the coordinates to the station on my map, it appears a few seconds later and I begin on my way back. Moving through the asteroid field I spotted another Dingy ship like mine coming from the direction of the station, I just passed it without calling and go off at a slow pace passing the large rocks carefully until I was out of the field and then I put the petal to the metal. I soon reached the station and sent a call to get permission to land. Noah: Tower, this is BR545 requesting permission to land, cargo¡¯s full and need to drop off. Tower: We hear you BR545, I¡¯m sending the coordinates to your system, your AI should show the drop zone to you, it will appear on the window as an arrow, after you land on the drop zone you will be paid and can go to the dock zone 1. Noah: Thanks. I close the channel and head inside the station through the opening I took to get out. I lower my speed after getting in and look for the arrow the man told me about and find it near the back, as I pass I look and see the area I lifted off from, there were about 20 of the 100 ships destroyed from crashes and players where just walking around with a few pointing up at me. After a bit I reach the drop zone and land, lots of robots appeared to unload which the ship¡¯s system did automatically. I exited my ship to stretch a bit and was met by general Marcus and an older man. Marcus: Good job boy, you¡¯re the only one that was able to properly lift off and go mining. Noah: Um¡­ didn¡¯t the others take the course to learn as well? ??? : Apparently not, more than half couldn¡¯t even start their ships and then some that could destroyed their ships because they didn¡¯t know how to control them. The man stretched out his hand to me. ??? : Mores Cane, I''m the owner of the asteroid field you are hired to mine from. Noah: I¡¯m Noah, Sir. Mores: Well Noah, you have a bright future if you keep working so well like that, I see it like this, if I have at least 1 miner I¡¯m getting money all the rest that destroy their ships can do mechanic or technician jobs for all I care, what I need are miners. Marcus: If you want, I would suggest finding some good friends that don¡¯t know how to fly and teach them. Everyone in your group, the one you got here with to get a ship, flunked the test for miners. We will soon be getting a new group after we change the ships, I suggest going around and making some friends, it will help to have more miners and less flunkies. Noah: Can do, Sir. Marcus: You can normally find them all around, we told them that testing for miners was happening and they would get their chance soon. Mores: Make me proud Noah, and here, this is the pay for your cargo plus a little bonus for being the only one to do his work. The man pulled out a large packet of cash and handed it to me. Mores: Good luck. He then walked off, while I look at the cash. Noah: Sir, how much does 8 tons of cargo cost at the moment? Marcus: With the low supply, since we don¡¯t have miners¡­about 120 credits for 1 ton why? I count through the packet of money for a few seconds Noah: there is 2000 credits here. He get a bit wide-eyed when I say the total I got, almost double the pay is an impressive accomplishment. Marcus: Impressive for your first pay. Noah: Ya, I would but it¡¯s probably the only time, since I¡¯m the only one that did the mining¡­ wait I was the only one right. Marcus: Ya, why? Noah: On my way back I spotted a ship like mine coming from the direction for the station Marcus: Oh, that must have been from group two, there are several groups around that must have been the first one after you to get out. Noah: I see, what can I buy with 2000 credits. Marcus: Hmm, let¡¯s see. He touches something and a hologram appears in front of me. I looked closer and could see many names, but there was also a 0 next to them showing the stock, only a basic laser and armor plate had 10 next to it. Marcus: I think you can buy it, both a Basic laser and armor plate, also the plating comes with a refurbishing of the interior of the ship to remove the rusty parts. Noah: That¡¯s a big upgrade. Marcus: Only hard workers can afford the armor plate so we give an extra service Noah: How long will both take? Marcus: Hmm if we start after you land it should be done next morning, so you can rest for the rest of the day. Noah: Ok, then I¡¯ll take the laser and plating, better safe than sorry. I hand over 1800 credits for both of them and get in the ship and take off. The landing zone for me was in the same place as before, the AI already had the spot marked so all it took was a bit of skill for me to land the ship. When I arrived there were already droids ready. As I got out the droids moved in and began removing the old plate off the ship while some went inside and checked wiring and the structure inside. Once I moved out of range of my ship I was swarmed by players asking how I flew, if I was a pilot in real life or if I had some cheat. I just push my way through saying I just practiced and to get off. Thankfully some armed droids got in the way and blocked the players from me just as Marcus appeared. Man he is fast on his feet, maybe they have teleport devices to move around Marcus: Alright you newbies, stop annoying the only person qualified to be a miner, all of you can head out and find another post around the station. The players were completely pissed off after hearing this, shouting at Marcus saying he couldn¡¯t do this, that they had a right, but they were silenced quickly after he spoke. Marcus: This was a test, one to see if you could ride a ship or not, you had many years to learn the bare basics and you couldn¡¯t, so stop complaining. I could hear some of them whispering about his comment then just hung their head and walked out with me following behind. There were some people waiting outside when I left. ??? : What did he mean we had years to learn the basics, we just started playing? Noah: It¡¯s called tutorials, I¡¯m sure you guys were rushing so you didn¡¯t do any, you could have done the tutorial before the game began, there was plenty of time. They all facepalm themselves realizing their screw-up and walking away. I went to the cafeteria and bought some food and sat down, it was peaceful until an older man sat next to me. ??? : So how was it flying, heard only one person was able to actually fly. I stare at him for a bit until I tilted my head. Noah: Do I know you? ??? : *sigh* Can¡¯t even recognize your old man with just a few changes to his looks. As soon as he said that my mind made an image of my dad and overlapped it and I could see the similarities, only difference was that his hair was full black now and not black and grey and he looked younger. Noah: Wha¡­ Sorry Dad, you made yourself younger and I couldn¡¯t recognize you. Dad: No problem, so now are you stuck on the sidelines like the rest of your group? Noah: Nope, I¡¯m having my ship upgraded right now, flying in space was fun but a little hard since you need to know how to drive the ship before actually doing. Dad: How¡­ how did you learn? Noah: Tutorials, they teach the basics and give you small craft piloting skill. I made sure to say this quietly to my dad. Noah: Let me eat then we can go somewhere, we can talk and I can teach you what you need to know. I finished up the soup and we left. Instead of heading to some rooms we were assigned while we work here, I walked into the hangar to see my ship. Noah: Over there they removed the old plating and are going to put new ones. I pointed at the skeleton of the ship that was having old plates removed. I then told him about the ignition, lift off, lifting gears, controlling and turning. As I finished Marcus came in with a new group behind him. Marcus: Oh Noah, you¡¯re here, and this is? Noah: My father. Dad: I¡¯m Noland Blank nice to meet you. Marcus: You should be proud, your son is the first to fly and return with a cargo full. He turned around and gave the same speech he had given my group. Dad: Mind if I join this group? Marcus: Sure go right ahead. Dad: I¡¯ll be off, be seeing you later, son. He pats my head and leaves towards the ships. I watch him look around and enter a Dingy that is somewhat beat up. Soon enough the engines start and after a bit more it lifts off, then turns and leaves. Marcus: You taught him didn¡¯t you? Noah: If I didn¡¯t I would be a horrible son. He laughs at my reply and walks off, this time I continue watching and this time there were about four that took off and left the station, and six that took off but couldn¡¯t control the ship and crashed. I got bored quickly and walked off. I took the time to explore so I went to the observation deck and found quite a few people. There was one group that was crowding around a young woman. She had platinum blonde hair with sky blue eyes and was dressed in the pilot jumpsuit. Her friends on the other hand had different cloths which meant they were the flunkies from her group. As I looked our eyes met and she came over. ??? : Hello you¡¯re the first one that got in the air right, ship BR545 I nod while looking at her, she was really beautiful. ??? : I¡¯m Jessica, I saw you when you were returning to base, I¡¯m in group three¡­where are your mechanics and techs. Noah: ¡­my mechanics, I haven¡¯t met anyone to do that for me. Jessica: Haven¡¯t you gone to your quarters yet? There are people from your group there that you can make a crew with, I joined up with some friends. Noah: Really I didn¡¯t know, thanks for the heads up, I¡¯ll go check that out. Jessica: Sure and one more thing.
Jessica has sent a friend request.
Noah: Sure, out here you need friends to survive. I then leave and head to the quarters. When I arrive I find a large apartment complex filled with the people from my group. When I walk in the others look my way, no one else is wearing the original suit they had but now some had guard cloths, while others were wearing mechanic and technician cloths. The ones dressed like guards didn¡¯t care much but the others looked at me while I search for my room, number 1. I found it relatively quickly and entered. It was a somewhat plain room, had a bathroom, a living room with a sofa and a room with a single bed and a closet in the corner. All in all it was a very plain room that didn¡¯t have much decoration and colorwise was mostly grey or white. Before I could leave I heard a call from outside, when I looked there was a tall elderly man with grey hair and strong muscular build that betrays his age, standing there in mechanic cloths. ??? : Hey there kid, so you¡¯re the only ship worthy man here, name¡¯s Ernest, thought you might want a mechanic. Noah: Hi I¡¯m Noah, I was actually hoping that someone would be willing, I have the mechanic skill set but I haven¡¯t trained with it so I¡¯m not too confident in using it much myself until I train more. Ernest: Hm, you got a tech as well? I shake my head to his question. Ernest: Let me introduce you to some friends, we actually do similar jobs in real life. He called over 4 other men over, it was kind of intimidating, they ranged from 30-68 years old, not counting the years they packed on in game, and they were big each of them stood a above me at 180cm to 190cm tall and muscular, the two mechanics were rightfully so, another on was a tech and were similar to me, lean muscular, and the last was a guard that looked more like a pro wrestler than anything else. Of the mechanics, there was Ernest, Jonas, who had short black and white hair was easily the tallest in the group and James was a large man with red hair and almost pale skin, he looked a bit Irish. Of the techs there were Morgan, he looked more like a model than anything, with slick black hair and similar black eyes and Adam, the shortest of the group with shoulder length blonde hair and slightly tanned skin. Last but not least was Basil, he is an African-American and is a very strong looking man and the most muscular with biceps a bit smaller than my head, the others say that he is an ex-army commander and a very good shot with large guns and is also good at training others in weapon maintenance and construction which made me happy since I have those skills and I need to train. Ernest: So kid, mind letting us join your crew? Noah: I don¡¯t see a reason why not, but just so you know we all just started, so I won¡¯t have a ship to carry everyone for quite a bit. Adam: Don¡¯t worry, we are station hands anyway, well everyone except Basil. Basil: Damn, it¡¯s going to be boring working the guard shifts for a while. Morgan: If his ship had any kind of guns you can take secondary control of it from inside. Noah: Um, the droids are currently installing basic laser guns can that be used. Basil¡¯s eyes lit up when he heard this; it was easy to see that he was excited to leave the station even if he didn¡¯t do anything. Basil: Heh heh, guess I get to ride in space earlier than you boys. He gave a loud laugh that showed his enthusiasm. Noah: The ship should be ready by tomorrow, it¡¯s being refitted with better armor and the guns. He whistled hearing it was being refitted. Jonas: If I¡¯m not mistaken all the people that were able to get to mining got a bonus and are refitting their ships, there are 10 groups in all, I think, and the company here will continue testing until all the ships are occupied. Noah: Really, I guess you can call it an investment from the boss; he came and met me since I was the first to unload. Ernest: Hmm, got lucky kid, to meet the boss out here isn¡¯t easy. Jonas: True, they say he calculates all his gains and losses and I think he sees paying us extra the first time as a gain and not a loss since we will be armed to defend ourselves against bandits. Noah: Hmm¡­ I didn¡¯t see any bandits when I was out there. Basil: That¡¯s cause the games system is preventing them from approaching while testing is going on, when all ships are occupied then we will see if the bandits will continue hiding. We continued talking for quite some time until the clock showed it was time to sleep, the others left so I could get some shut eye and to get some for themselves. I lie down on my bed and look up at the white ceiling wondering about my ship that had been taken apart to fix up. Noah: I wonder what my ship will look like tomorrow, wonder if they are going to make it better than before or just fix it up. I fall asleep while thinking about it, excited to see it in the morning.
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Volume 1 Chapter 2 Top Miners (PR and edit) I woke up in the morning to the alarm in my room and heavy banging on my door. I lazily get up and open the door to have my new crew walk in all wide awake. Noah: What are you guys doing so early in the morning? Adam: I¡¯m pumped to see captain¡¯s ship; I want to take a look at the ship¡¯s structure before you leave. Morgan: I¡¯m also interested in the ship¡¯s systems, if we learn from them we might be able to transfer this to the real world with a bit of work. Basil: Who gives a shit about the real world, what is important is what we have here, come on kid, get ready so we can see that Dingy of yours, I want to see what one of those look like armed and in its prime. Without much of a choice I got ready and ate a bit of food in the cafeteria before we headed to the docks. When we reached it we saw about forty or so ships surrounded by droids, half of them were because the ship was damaged while the other half was getting upgraded. Suddenly a droid appeared if front of us and shot a beam that scanned us. Droid: *beep beep* Miner Noah detected, the upgrades to your ship are ready please come, all other personal must leave the hangar. Ernest: We are his crew now so we want to see the ship we will be working with. Droid: *beep beep* Confirmation of crew¡­ complete. The following are now part of Miner Noah¡¯s crew: Ernest, Adam, Morgan, Basil, Jonas, James.
You have formed a crew with others, your current ship allows for 1 crew to accompany you to man your weapons.
Droid: *beep beep* Crew formation complete. Please follow me to your ship. The droid walked off with us behind through the hangar past a large piles of burnt or rusty metal ships. Near the back were 5 ships that were completely different from the rest. First there wasn¡¯t a speck of rust on the plating and the armor looked brand new, if I had to say anything it was that it looked like it came out of the factory this moment. Mine was in the middle, I could tell since there was a big BR545 written on the side. I look at the others ships, on the left I saw one surrounded by women, the next was surrounded by guys that looked like thugs. To the right I saw very smart looking guys who I might guess were scientists that might be studying the ship and last was a small group of various different kinds of people. Before I could say anything my crew walked over to my ship. Ernest opened the hatch and walked inside while Jonas and James went to check out the engine. Morgan and Adam also went inside, my guess to check the wiring of the ship. Basil was looking from the outside at the lasers, there were eight, four on the top side and four below, each seemed to be able to turn and aim independently from one another but I think they would aim at a single target and follow it. I followed behind them and walked in to find Ernest and the techs checking the wiring of the ship as well as the structure from below. Ernest: Damn does droids completely replaced all the wiring and even redid the structure itself, this thing could literally be said to have come out of the factory if we didn¡¯t see it being torn apart by the droids. Adam: I know what you mean, we checked out our ships yesterday and it felt like the ship would catch fire without even turning it on. Noah: Were the ships really in that bad of a condition? James: You don¡¯t know the half of it, I¡¯m amazed these junkers can even lift off, you should check out the pilot¡¯s seat, they remodeled that as well. I walk over to see and just as he said the seat was replaced with a much newer seat that looked infinitely more comfortable than the other one, the panel was also replaced with a new one that seemed to shine, all the buttons were clean as well and I could see where each one was without having to search through dust and dirt. Suddenly a large hand hit my back, it was Basil, and he had a big grin on his face that showed he was ready. Basil: So captain, are you ready to see this baby fly for real? The droids said that this thing was flying at 35% its original speed yesterday because it was old. My mouth dropped when he said that, if flying at 200 m/s was 35% then I feared for my life at what top speed would be. Then I heard a voice from outside and saw James and Jonas giving me the thumbs up showing they are done checking their part. Basil: Seems they are done outside. Wow was it in there boys? Ernest: Well I¡¯m done, nothing out of place and everything is brand spanking new. Adam: Same here, can¡¯t complain. Noah: Have you checked the weapon controls Basil? Basil: Yep, but I can¡¯t activate them here to test them since we are in the station. Noah: If it¡¯s like that then we better get ready. Ernest: Don¡¯t forget to find out what the quota is from the droids. Noah: Ok. I left the ship with them leaving only Basil inside and walk over to a droid. Noah: Ah hello, could you tell me how much is needed for the quota? Droid: *beep beep* Quota for now is 24 tons of iron; you are to report to the asteroid you scanned yesterday; your pay will be half of what you are capable of bringing from today on until you can purchase your ship. Noah: Ok, thanks. I go back to the ship and jump into the pilot seat, Basil comes over as I get things ready. Basil: So how much will we need? Noah: 24 tons of iron ore to meet the quota. Basil: Do you know where to find iron in the asteroid belt. Noah: Yes I scanned an asteroid yesterday so it shouldn¡¯t be hard to find if I have the computer set the coordinates to that one, you should get to your seat, I don¡¯t know how fast this thing will go at full speed. He left as I turned the ship on. I noticed instantly the difference, the original junker made much more noise than it was now and it didn¡¯t vibrate as much as well. Noah: Tower this is BR545 asking for permission to lift off. Tower: Marcus here BR545, you¡¯re clear to lift off. Did you remember to get your quota? Noah: Yes sir, 24 tons of iron Marcus: That right boy, we are in desperate need of iron so go and fetch some, this way we can get production of more gear for the station and the ships. With the permission granted I lift off, it¡¯s much easier today with the fixed up ship, everything responds much easier. After aiming for the exit I press down and accelerate which I might add was scary when it suddenly sped up fast forcing me to brake. After experimenting a bit more I lightly tap the pedal and the ship slowly goes forward until we exit. As we exit the computer automatically sets its coordinates to the asteroid though I still make sure it¡¯s correct. After confirming the location, an image of what was scanned appeared though I lowered it and aimed for the asteroid field. Noah: Get ready Basil, I¡¯m going to test out the strength of the engines. I push the pedal farther down and the ship accelerates fast. At half the max speed the ship is reaching a whopping 600 m/h, maintaining this speed we reached the asteroid field in less than 2 minutes where I slowed down as we started going through the field. While we passed it Basil was enjoying himself with the lasers by target training on the smaller rocks that were floating around. We reached the large asteroid after five minutes of slow travel. ¡°Detected BR545 Scanning Probes. Downloading scans¡± Noah: Oh yeah, I forgot to call them back¡­ at least I have the whole thing scanned now. As I watch the image, it grew from the spot I landed before until it covered the whole rock then part of it was cut and it showed inside. By now it was at 50% and as the image got more detailed towards the center of the rock, the number rose fast until it reached 100% and at the center it showed a large perfect sphere made of pure iron highly condensed. ¡°Incoming call from Kelha II station¡± Marcus: Hey kid, this is Marcus, we were watching your ship as you arrived and the scan info transferred over as well, good job finding an A class asteroid Noah: What¡¯s that? Marcus: A class asteroids are ones that have a core, you need to continuously mine until you reach the center to get the core, they are purest form of any material and are used for higher grade equipment. Also the readings say that the scanning probes discovered many faults and cracks in the structure of the rock, take advantage of it and you can get tons of ore quickly. After he said that the image of the rock shows various dots and a very large one catches my attention since I was near it. When I look at the real rock I see a small spot where it was supposed to be. Noah: Ok sir, thanks for the info, I¡¯ll be getting to work now. With that, I close the channel and move towards that dot using the map since it showed it more clearly. At 5 meters high I stop the ship and put it parallel to the rock. Noah: Computer, how long are the mining drills arms? Computer: 4 meters in total length. Noah: Then pull us until there are 2 meters before landing and lower landing gears. The gears lower with my command and then I see the ship lowering until we stopped at 2 meters from landing, I then activate the mining drills which makes the AI say it¡¯s dangerous to do it without landing but I insist anyway and go down. In the control room for the drill I sit below the ship and can clearly see a large dot on the rock right below us. I take control of the drills and after extending the drill to 3 meters in size I aim well and punch the drill right into the center of the dot. After pushing it half a meter down, large amounts of cracks begin to spread out from the spot I punctured and the hooks broke loose. ¡°Warning! Hooks unattached, deactivating mining drill. Autopilot engaged, moving away from asteroid.¡± The computer signaled the emergency; before I could say anything the hooks retracted and so did the drills and then the small jets below the ship sprang to life pushing the ship away. It was then that I saw what was happening. The cracks were spreading all over and large chunks of rock were starting to break off the asteroid. A few seconds later the ships lasers began bombarding the rocks and turning them into dust. Noah: Well, Basil sure is enjoying himself. ¡°Incoming call from crew at Kelha II station.¡± After a bit I could hear Marcus¡¯s voice. Marcus: Hey Noah, are you alright? We picked up a signal from your ship that says you had an emergency, what happened? Noah: Don¡¯t worry Marcus, I used the scanning probes to find the sweet spot on the rock and, well, the entire crust of the rock is starting to come off, Basil is enjoying himself shooting the rocks that are getting close. I could hear them breath let out a sigh of relief. Marcus: Well, as long as nothing serious happened it¡¯s fine. From what you said there is a lot of debris, right? Don¡¯t mind it and go in any clear zone to mine there while you let the rock fall apart on its own and your gunner fire away. Noah: What about the computer? It¡¯s stuck on autopilot and I¡¯m in the mining unit, I can¡¯t reach the controls. Marcus: One sec kid, I¡¯ll have a tech fix that. After a bit I heard the computer talk. ¡°Autopilot override, activate quick scan¡­ location for landing found, autopilot activate, prepare for landing.¡± Soon the ship turned and headed for the center of the debris that had already been spread or blasted then it landed easily touching down without trouble. I could still hear gunshots from the lasers from up above. ¡°Mining Drill Activated.¡± As it said that the drills lowered and I had control again, so I started my work. The area had lots of weak spots so digging the area was relatively easy and I filled the cargo in under 30 minutes and was back at the station in another 5. As I land in the drop zone I could see Marcus among the droids coming to unload. This time he came inside since I was going to leave again after unloading. Marcus: Well kid, you keep surprising us, to find the sweet spot on an asteroid so large is quite something especially for a novice like yourself. Noah: Heh heh, well actually, I just forgot the scanning probes on the asteroid so with the extra time they found the sweet spot. Marcus: Even so, the area on the map was huge and to find the exact spot is still impressive. Noah: I guess¡­ I think it¡¯s time to leave, I still need 2 more trips before I reach my quota. Marcus: Good luck. He leaves with the last droid taking the last remaining ores, after closing the hatch I lift off and go again. The rest of the day was uneventful for me at least, Basil just kept firing away doing target practice, he told me he got Laser Weapon Mastery thanks to that as well as Precision Shot from shooting small rocks far away. Because we had lots of time we continued much past our quota and totaled 80 tons before stopping. As I land my crew is already waiting at the docking zone. Basil and I leave the ship in high spirits. James: What¡¯s got you boys so happy? I pull out the packet of cash I earned today. Noah: Iron¡¯s current price is 110 for 1 ton, so 4400 cash even when they were paying only half. I then pull out 1000 and hand it to Ernest. Noah: I think this should be enough for any repairs, the rest bring back to the rooms and we will split it up between us. They all looked happy and headed to work, while Basil and I went to get some food. They spent 400 in repairs to the engine and refilling the fuel. After eating we head back to the room to find the others arriving at the same time. Noah: You guys work fast. Adam: There wasn¡¯t much to do, just a few things on the engine and refilling the fuel, we still have 600 which leaves still 4000 remaining. Noah: Hm then that means for seven people we divide it in 571 for each. Morgan: It would be like that, but we aren¡¯t taking more than 100 credits for the work we did. You keep the rest, since it will make buying your ship all that faster and it will get us off this place much quicker. Ernest: That is still hard, a dingy doesn¡¯t have a warp drive, unless you want to travel months to reach a planet we got to wait for them to be built or some larger fleet to pass through here to take us. We all give a deep sigh, seems that we will be stuck here for some time until many things get up and running and any capable flyers appear. Ernest: Have you heard kid? Seems you¡¯re one of the favorites of the company, you keep bringing large amounts of iron and it has begun to improve the quality of stuff. Also, here, this is from Marcus, it¡¯s a special device that helps with purchasing upgrades. I put the watch like device on and press the screen and then a hologram screen appears. On it there¡¯s info about the wearer including perianal stats, how much money you earned and on the side there is were other categories like ship equipment, ship condition, station prices. First I go inside my room, followed by my crew, before continuing by pressing ship upgrades.
Current available equipment
Basic Laser10
Armor Plate20
XD Compressor10
Ketar Quick Scanner10
Noah: Oh, they have new equipment¡­ what¡¯s a compressor and why a scanner when there are probes? Ernest: Not surprised you don¡¯t know, they came out today with the increase in iron. A compressor is a device that can increase storage space on a ship and the scanner is used for scanning ships while drones are used for asteroid scanning. Noah: Oh I see¡­ 2000 for both of them. Should we buy and install them it would get work done much faster with more storage and it¡¯s safer with a scanner. Adam: Don¡¯t forget, Noah, by buying these all available slot for equipment are closed, the mining drill occupies one of them. Noah: I know but it¡¯s not like we will stay with a ship like that forever. Basil: Kid¡¯s right, that thing can increase the cargo by 15% that gives us an extra 1.2 tons to gather, not much but even so we can get our quota done faster and be get more extra cash. Ernest: One solid argument after another, all in favor of getting both. Everyone lifts there hand. Basil: It¡¯s decided then, order them kid. Like decided I click on the screen to purchase both then a screen appears Time until finished 12:00:00 Ernest: Well, it¡¯s done. I think we should get some shut eye, we will be working hard later, cya Noah. They all left after that and I stay sitting on the sofa looking at the screen, I close the ship options and open my own and pull up my stats
Name:NoahFaction:Liberation
Bounty:0Fame:100
Health:420Stamina:40/40
Strength:45Vitality:42
Dexterity:30Agility:38
Intelligence:13Charisma:13
Luck:[/tds] [td2]10
Skills
Ship MaintenanceBasic1
Weapon MaintenanceBasic1
Ship RepairBasic1
Weapon RepairBasic1
Scrap Ship CreationBasic1
Scrap Weapon CreationBasic1
MiningBasic3
Drill MasteryBasic2
Small Craft PilotBasic2
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.(A.N.: 1 Vit = 10 HP, no MP, stamina is a stat that will lower slowly when doing physical labor) As I look at the stats I smile, knowing that only few people actually did the tutorial says that I¡¯m one of the stronger players¡­wonder if martial arts were implemented as well into this game like other ones. I move the sofa back and take of the jacket from my suit and begin doing exercise from the martial arts I knew. After an hour of back breaking exercises I get what I want.
Martial Arts MasteryBasic9
Through repeated work on proper forms of martial arts you have begun mastering the basics. Due to prior knowledge skill ranks up to basic 9.
Unarmed Fighting MasteryBasic1
Thanks to the knowledge of fighting with your body you can now cause more damage while fighting unarmed. Increase damage by 5% when unarmed.
You have gained the stat Concentration. Through rigorous focused training you have learned to concentrate while better on the task at hand.
Noah: So this game is like any other VR game, if you have skills in the real life you can use them here just like any other, good to know, might need it later on¡­ I should train myself more when I have free time but for now this is good, I should get some rest and log off to see the forums. After laying doing I do just that. Outside of my capsule I look at the time and see it is midnight already, since the game moves at 1:4 it¡¯s six hours for one game day. Looking around I see that dad¡¯s capsule is empty already and I could hear and smell some food being made upstairs, he probably guessed I was getting ready to get out so I go upstairs and find him making food. Now you¡¯re wondering where my mom is, she is¡­ divorced from my father, she couldn¡¯t take his addiction to VR games so well and they split up, later on she returned and apologized after trying it out but they didn¡¯t return together, that was one of the reasons dad had me start martial arts to keep me active and away from computers and stuff until I was old enough for VR games. Noah: Hey dad, how was your day? Dad: Oh son, I didn¡¯t see you, did you just get out now? Noah: Yep. I had a really good two days in-game. Dad: When I got back from my first drop I heard that you hit the sweet spot on an asteroid and removed almost all of its crust. Noah: Heh, I just forgot to retrieve my scan drones and they found the cracks and stuff, though I think the mining skill did help out as well, I can see weak spots as small dots. Dad: Oh, you have the skill to that, good! It¡¯s really useful and with that skill it becomes really easy to mine. Noah: So how much did you bring in? Dad: I stopped at 32t you? Noah: 40t, since I don¡¯t have to get rid of rocks I have more time. He sighs deeply as he ponders his predicament. Dad: Everyone gets lucky sometimes. Noah: Why not leave the probes to scan for a day? You can get great results from it. Dad: You got lucky with that. If you hadn¡¯t they might have irritated you with some speech about the ownership not being yours or something. Noah: I see now, not that I care, tomorrow I¡¯m going to work until I cash in more than 5000 credits to buy the ship, then I can leave the probes and I¡¯ll receive much more money. Dad: The game is kind of complicated though, 98% of the players are complaining that they can¡¯t figure out how to fly their ships. When he said that, I got annoyed and went to the computer. Dad: You look annoyed, what are you going to do?? Noah: Going to post the instructions. It¡¯s getting boring and even though I might make less money I will have more fun with more competition, though they will be weaker than me since they didn¡¯t do the tutorial. Did you know that you can gain stats from training normally and even skills like in older games like Unarmed Fighting Mastery, I tried it out and I got them? Dad: Yeah I know. I tried it out on the first day¡­ giving them the instructions will definitely make the bosses richer, that for sure. Noah: I hope there will be some event that will take me out of the station, maybe a fleet passing through will take us or a raid from pirates. Dad: I don¡¯t think so yet, too few flyers and none of them are armed. As we talked I wrote down in details how to pilot a Dingy on one of the most active gamer forums. A few minutes after I posted I refreshed and saw the number rise by a few and then double digits and so on. Noah: We should get to work soon, no use sitting around while other players are starting up. We ate some food and did our other necessities before returning to the game. I woke up and it was still early but when I left I found the place swarming and I could hear ships leaving. As I walked around Ernest came up to me. Ernest: You heard? Kid someone posted info on how to pilot a ship, as quickly as it was posted it spread like wildfire and now more than half the ships are up in the air and out in space.
Time until equipment is installed: 5:16.
Noah: Then call Basil. There are only 5 minutes before the ship is ready to fly, we are going to mine today until I own that ship. He gives me a salute like a soldier with a serious face and runs off while I run towards the hangar. I reach it quickly and find half the ships gone and the other half turned on but unable to get into the air. At my ship there were a few droids working on it and when I got near one came over and scanned me. Droid: *beep beep* Greetings sir, only 3 minutes until your new equipment is installed. Is there anything you need? Noah: What¡¯s my quota for today? His eyes flash for a bit while he looks through the system. Droid: *beep beep* 27t of iron for today¡¯s quota. Price for iron today i 125 due to the increase in pilots, it may raise during the day. Noah: Thanks. I¡¯ll wait for the improvements to finish. As I finish talking with the droid my crew appears. Basil: Now this is what I¡¯m talking about. This is what a space station should look like, hundreds of ships entering and leaving while they load up cargo. This will definitely bring some bandits to shoot at Noah: Or other miners. I flashed a smile toward the man and he flash a grin back. After waiting for the droids to finish we do the entire procedure and are able to get out after a 10 minute wait since the area was filled with too many newbies. Noah: Buckle up Basil or you will get hurt. I¡¯m taking this full throttle. Basil: I am already captain, get this baby flying cause I wanna see some speed. At the request I slam down the pedal and in response the engine fire off at full power pushing us into the 1000 m/h and leaving all the newbies behind. We reached the field in a record breaking 30 seconds and thanks to Basil¡¯s precision shooting we could ricochet rocks out of the way. As we neared my rock I saw what had become of it now that the dust cleared off mostly. More than half of the crust had fallen off and was revealing a large amount of red rock which was the iron. I could see the spot I mined from yesterday and landed next to that area and begin mining. Over the next 6 hours we saw more people flying around the asteroid field though no one landed on my rock because the policy of the company is ¡°you start your work and you finish it yourself, no one can interfere.¡± With that saying the rocks are registered to the person that scans it which is why I don¡¯t worry about others landing on it. Today, instead of stopping at double the amount, I continued until I was running low on gas and then finally stopped after 12 hours of mining. My total cargo pulled in 220.8t, since they pay only half the cargo it was 110.4 which at 125 credits for each 1t equaled a grand total of 13800 credits. Heh heh, hard work really does pay off and using others to increase demand can also be considered a form of getting more out of your work. I cash in the 5000 credit directly to Marcus, though I wasn¡¯t the only one, next to me are two others pilots, my dad and Jessica. Seems they took the opportunity to get richer as well as they worked for similar amounts of time and got just a bit less than me. Marcus: Incredible, the top three miners in our company can come and buy their ships at the same time¡­ by any chance did any of you cause the increase of pilots to increase the iron demand? Noah: What makes you say that? We just took the opportunity that someone made for us. Jessica: We would be idiots not to. Dad: The kids said it all sir. Marcus: Well, I¡¯m not complaining. We finally have more than half the fleet in the air and we are getting not only iron in now but also other materials. He takes the three packets of credits and then goes to his desk and pulls out a large pile of what look to be ownership papers. After looking for a few minutes he pulls out three sheets and hands us one each. Marcus: Congratulations, the ships are yours now, also as owners of your own ship you can still mine in the fields but the tax is 5% of the income of the day. Noah: Of the day, that seems ok. Jessica: What about our crews? Marcus: They are in the same situation as you, they are your crews and you need to pay for their things, the quarters you can continue using while you¡¯re here. Noah: Good enough for me, also the pay is full now, right? Marcus: Yep. Your work, your full pay, though because of how much you guys brought in the price has dropped a lot. Noah: Well I¡¯m happy with this¡­ so when will newer ships go up for sale? Marcus: We can''t produce new ships yet since we need a lot of different kinds of metals. Jessica: Speaking about that, what are all the metal types? We only found iron in large rocks. Without replying Marcus pulls up a screen with many different types of ores showing on it.
Ores
*Iron$64
*Cesogen$150
*Doxtrite$130
*Gold$205
Sodil$232
*Perrius$140
Hypanium$200
Pyresium$240
Orichalzine$340
Titanium$400
Noah: What is this and what¡¯s with the ridicule prices? Marcus: These are the prices we are buying the ores mined from the field. The ones with stars are what we know lays around here. Oh, here, have your crews download this into your ships¡¯ computers. It will improve your Quick Scan allowing it to identify the class of asteroid but the material you need to discover with probes. Dad: Oh this is nice it should make finding core easier. Noah: I''m guessing this is all. Marcus: Yep, hope you good luck on your travels. When we left him Jessica goes on her own while we go on a different route. Dad: That missy will make for some good competition; she is definably smart and took advantage of the chaos you made on the net. Noah: I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she had crewmates who work outside looking through the net for her. Dad: Speaking of crewmates, those big fellas you hang out with seem cheerful. Noah: They''re cool and easy to get along with. Dad: That¡¯s good to hear, hope you can have fun on your travels, I''m off to party with my crew, cya son. He runs off down the corridor while I continue walking. I go to the cafeteria and am amazed with what I find. My whole crew is stuffing their faces with beer along with some guys I don¡¯t know. Basil: Ah captain, you¡¯re here! Come over, I want to introduce you to some old friends, they want to join up in the crew and they are great shots. I walk over and sit next to Adam who seems to be the only one not drinking. Noah: Umm, will they be fine like this, how much have they drank? Adam: I would say around 500 credits worth of beer. I don¡¯t drink so and I don¡¯t care much. Basil: Don¡¯t be so cold Adam, we¡¯re with friends. Oh captain, these two here are some old recruits I trained, this guy to the left is Private Earl and the one on the right is Private Felix. Felix: Nice to meet you. You¡¯re quite young to be a captain, did you win a bet or something with the commander? Basil: Hahaha no, the boy was just smart enough to do the tutorials and learned to drive the ships. Earl: Oh we heard about that, though I didn¡¯t care much for it, as long as I¡¯m at the helm of a gun I don¡¯t care. Noah: Hmm, if we need more pilots if I ever buy a new ship then I can teach you guys, but anyway, welcome to the team.
Felix and Earl have joined your crew.
Felix: Thanks captain, also I will hold the pleasure of being pilot #2, I was trained with the rifle by Basil but then I got accepted into the U.S air force I¡¯m quite confident in my flying ability. Earl: Ya so confident that you even choose the mechanic skills because of the weapon creation skills. Noah: Oh I choose that as well, if you guys don¡¯t mind can you train me a bit to use those skills? I haven¡¯t had time to do so. Felix: Well it will make scrap weapons from trash and junk but I guess we don¡¯t have better choices. Adam: I¡¯m interested in the scrap ship building; if we can make a basic small craft as a fighter we can have support units to protect the miners. ??? : My my, what a creative crew, I can see at least half of you have some military background. We looked towards the owner of the voice and find Mores Cane standing behind me. Noah: Ah hello Mr. Cane, is there something you need? Mores: No need for too many formalities, I prefer Mr. Mores since it¡¯s less formal and yes I do have a request. We have recently picked up some strange signals coming from deep in the asteroid field surrounding Kelha II, it has begun to worry us and I would like for you and your crew to check it out.
Mission: The Anomaly
Your boss Mores Cane has asked you and your crew to investigate an ominous signal they have been receiving from deeper in the asteroid field around Kelha II. You are to discover and if possible bring back whatever this anomaly is. Difficulty: ??? Reward: ??? This quest cannot be rejected.
When everyone sees the mission they instantly sober up. A real mission is said to be incredibly difficult to come by in The Nebula, Virtual Works made it like this so that players don¡¯t try and abuse the friendliness of NPC just to get them since they are very random events. Noah: Is this just for my crew or are there others? Mores: Yes, your father and that young girl, I think is her name was Jessica, will also do their own investigation in different areas we received the signals from. Noah: If it¡¯s like that then it¡¯s fine with us.
Mission accepted.
Noah: Um sir, about what we were talking about before, the scrap ships and all, is there a place we can get junk parts to do this? Mores: Yes there is, since many ships were destroyed during the tests and many were also completely remade we have made a junkyard for the parts that are still useable for anyone brave enough. Ernest: Sir, this request does it need to be done immediately or can we take our time? I feel that, like captain said, we might need to get stronger and have some support before heading out. Mores: This can be done at your leisure but I still hope to get this done quickly, those signals worry us. He then bows and leaves the cafeteria which had gone silent after he came in. Noah: Guys, call Marcus, we need to get started on two fighter ships and get them ready, no time to lose. They finish their last bits of beer and food and with a call to Marcus we head to the junkyard.
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Volume 1 Chapter 3 The Fighter (pr and edited) After rushing to finish our food we walked out and headed to the junkyard. It was at the far end of the station on the outer area of the station. While we walked i took a chance to check out, in detail, the scrap ship construction skill.
Scrap Ship Construction
The overseeing skill that allows a person to plan and construct their own ships, starting from the Design Phase through the entire manufacturing process and final testing sequence. You can only make scrap versions of Tier 1 ships. You may get better results if you work with more experienced builders.
Scrap ShipTier1
Scrap Ships are the absolute bottom of the rung in ship construction techniques. Using leftover, run-down, broken, or downright faulty material to somehow piece together a working ship. Only the most desperate (or crazy) person would actually try to -fly- in such a ship! Small cockpit-type crafts can be produced. Small cockpit-type crafts have only a single small weapon slot available and no equipment slots. Small cockpit-type crafts do not have any internal storage space. Small cockpit-type crafts can only have a small engine and a basic five directional booster system, forward, left, right, up and down. Small cockpit-type crafts have limited range and life support. They cannot exist in space without a resupply base or mobile platform. Larger spacecraft types can be unlocked at higher levels. With better materials and higher skill levels, proper ships can be constructed. With proper skills and materials you can change a scrap ship into a proper ship.
Small Cockpit Craft Parts List
Sealed small cockpit. Small ship frame. Small engine. Small basic five directional boosters. Small power system (power plant included). Small fuel storage tank. Small life support system (8 hours atmosphere/water). Metal plating (frame support and armoring).
Dingy ShipTier2
The next level of Ship Construction Skill. This allows the professional design and construction of small to medium sized Dingy-class ships. A Dingy can be used in all sorts of roles, such as mining, combat, or merchant ships. A Medium sized Dingy can also be used as a mother ships or platforms for smaller ships. All factories made Dingys are medium sized. Unknown. Unknown. You do not have the skill level required to view more information about this skill.
Scrap Fighter ShipTier1
One of the most basic ships possible to build. They are 1/5 the size of a factory made Dingy and construction is done by hand using all manner of leftover and scraped parts. These ships are only large enough to hold the basic life support systems a small fuel tank, the pilot cockpit, a pair of basic weapons, a small engine and basic power system. These ships cannot survive on their own and need at least a basic support system on another larger ship to be used in space for a period of time. Unknown. Unknown. You do not have the skill level required to view more information about this skill.
Noah: Wow! The game sure gives a lot of info for the skills¡­ thought it sucks; we need to build a support system on the Dingy because the fighters have smaller fuel tanks and weaker support systems. Ernest: Adam and I will do that, we will check with the droids to see if they know how to build one. They both run back the way we came from while the rest of us continued on. When we reached the junkyard our mouths dropped. All around were large hills of junk plating and even destroyed Dingy ships. As we stared at the place, an old fat man appeared in front of us. ??? : So yer here, heard from the boss you guys gonna make yourself some junkers huh, name¡¯s Gunner. He quickly pulled two pistols out. Gunner: Like the name says I''m a good shot. He puts them both away after saying that, getting his point across. Gunner: You guys can use dock 2 to make yer ships, don¡¯t forget to bring your main ship over here, you will need the parts here to make upgrades. Noah: Thanks for the help. Guys you can start, I¡¯ll get the ship over here. They all nodded and headed for the clean platform with the large 2 drawn on it. I leave the junkyard and run toward the hangar where my ship was when I suddenly got a call from Ernest. Ernest: Hey captain, we got what we needed and then some from the droid. Besides the basic support unit blueprints we also got the schematics for a basic fighter ship with info on all the systems we need. Noah: It will probably increase the quality of the current scrap fighter ship we have the skill to make, send what you found to everyone, I''ll be at the hangar soon; we need to take the ship to the junkyard to build the life support unit. Ernest: Alright, we will wait here and send our findings to the rest of you. The channel cuts off and in a few seconds a small download bar appears and starts to rise while I run. As I reach the hangar the download finishes and the blueprints for the fighter ship appears along with some pop ups.
You have learned to make a basic fighter ship. As this is a ship of the same rank you currently possess but in finer detail it has replaced the old model.
Noah: Oh cool, we don¡¯t need the older model anymore, that¡¯s convenient. I walk over and find Ernest and Adam sitting near the hatch which was open. Ernest: Ah finally, I thought I would fall asleep! Adam: You almost were, anyway it must have been pretty far from here. Noah: I didn¡¯t find it too far, but that¡¯s me. So, let¡¯s get this to the junkyard. Ernest: Right, oh do you know where to go to get there? I paused for a moment and shook my head. He then pushed me near the corner of the hangar and pointed at a platform near the back. Ernest: Land on that platform and it will take us to the junkyard. Noah: Shall we go then. We quickly enter the ship and fly over and land on the platform. After we land it drops down and moves us into the interior of the station. It took about a minute before we reached a large door that opened up to the junkyard. It wasn¡¯t much trouble to find out platform after that. Near the corner the guys were waiting with lots of tools ready and a pile of iron beams that are used for the frame of the ship. James: You¡¯re finally back, we already took the liberty of collecting the frame¡¯s iron beams. Noah: Did you guys get the blueprints from Ernest? Basil: Yep we got them it. I must say it¡¯s a beauty, check it out. He presses a button on his watch devices and the hologram of a fighter ship appears. It was 1/3 of the size of the Dingy unlike the original which was 1/5 and it looked like an U.S. Stealth Fighter. Noah: That¡¯s an impressive looking ship, but isn¡¯t it bigger than the info said? Basil: That was the original one we had, that was a real junker for sure. Ernest: So the extra size will go into what exactly? Morgan: The extra space will let us put in a larger fuel tank and slightly better life support system so we will be able to last longer in a fight. Basil: We think it would give us at least 12 hours¡¯ worth of time before we need to connect again, though the fuel is a different story. Noah: Then let¡¯s start getting this done¡­ Basil can I talk with you? Basil: Sure, what¡¯s up? I walk a bit away before I start. Noah: Tell me, did you find any old lasers? Basil: Yeah, there¡¯s a large pile of them over in that direction. He points to near the door I came through. Basil: What do you plan on doing? Noah: Arm us with proper guns or rifles and knives. Basil: ¡­huh¡­ how will spaceship lasers make us weapons? Noah: Those who choose the mechanic skill set have scrap weapon construction as well, if I can get the parts and maybe some blueprints we can make some laser pistols and rifles. He gave me a grin after hearing my plan. Basil: You want me to help. I nodded. Noah: You¡¯re an ex-commander in the army, you should know by heart how to build guns. Basil: Smart kid¡­ let¡¯s go, we can start right away. He turned to the others before shouting. Basil: Hey guys, I¡¯m going to help the captain with something, you guys work on the ship. They waved after hearing us and we left. We quickly make our way to the lasers but I frown when I see them. Each laser is as large as me, which I find strange considering what I see in the ship, which looks half my size but I guess that being the barrel it would make sense if the whole thing was larger. Noah: I¡¯m starting to wonder how we will build anything if all the parts are this big. ??? : That¡¯s easy, you boys need to go pick up the junkyards power suits. We look up to find Gunner looking down at us from a floating cart filled with parts and around his body is a weird suit. Basil: Power suit like the one you¡¯re using now? Gunner: Yep¡­ also, what are you guys doing here, you haven¡¯t even starts your ship and you¡¯re messing with the guns already? Noah: I want to make some handguns, rifles and hand-to-hand weapons in case we ever need them. He suddenly perks up and lands the cart near use. Gunner: Ya want to make weapons huh¡­ heh heh heh, come with me kids I''ll teach ya the finer points to making them. For the next three hours he taught us how to scavenge for parts and continuously make better and better weapons. Basil developed the scrap weapon construction skill and after a while we both ranked it up to weapon construction (basic 1). At the end of it all we had made 10 junk knives 10 junk swords 20 pistols, 5 rifles and 4 snipers, each, gunner kept them all as payment for the teaching but gave each of us a large tool box full of tools need for making the guns. Basil: Well those were some productive few hours. He said this rubbing his shoulders which were hurting from carrying around large junk parts. It still hurts even with the power suit since they only amplifies the user¡¯s strength by 10, so as someone at level 1 that doesn¡¯t do physical exercise in the game he had a hard time. I wasn¡¯t in as bad a shape as he was, having higher stats thanks to training during the tutorial helped me As we approach the others we see that they are also wearing power suits, that explains were gunner was while we gathered junk. Ernest: Hey guys, where you been? Noah: With Gunner, we were going to make some scrap weapons when he found us, he then taught us for three hours straight about how to scavenge parts and build the weapons, we even ranked scrap weapon construction to regular weapon construction and even got scavenger skill. All seven of them had eyes that were shining when they heard we were making weapons. Felix: So you guys made guns right? Basil: Yeah, but gunner took it as payment for teaching us, we are going to take a break and then go back to make guns for ourselves and then take suggestions for your guns. Ernest: That doesn¡¯t matter, as long as we get some on hand it¡¯s fine. As I watched them talking I felt intimidated looking at my crew. I was certain that they all had some history in the army so I tried to change the subject and looked at the nearly finished frame. Noah: Wow, you guys worked quick¡­ wait isn¡¯t that iron almost new? Adam: Good eye captain, we found a Dingy that was in great condition, it was only trashed because the engine had blown up so we removed the newest looking plating and trashed the rest, then took the ship apart. Basil: AlI in 3 hours. Ernest: It¡¯s thanks to the disassembly skill we got from removing parts, it made it easier and gave a boost to our dexterity, which helped a lot with smaller stuff. James: We are looking for systems now, like engine and stuff, but most are broken or destroyed. Would you two look for it while we finish up? I shrugged and jumped down into the dumps and headed to one of the further Dingys while Basil went his own way. I looked through each Dingy but like the rest it was usually the engine that got them to this place, at least until I reached the back end. To my surprise I found lots with engines intact so I entered one to see if it started up. After several tries, mostly because of no fuel, I found one that turned on, it was comparable to the original Dingy we had tested with so I flew it back. I loved the faces my crew had when they saw the thing flying over and me shouting "I found our engines and everything." Once they finished the construction of the frame they began disassembling the new ship I brought and increased the piles they had already made with extra parts. While they took the ship apart, Basil and I took our time making guns and knives. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Two hours later the ship was picked to the bone and we return with 18 laser pistols, 9 rifles and 18 knives. They were all giddy to try them out. I had Basil teach me how to shoot the rifle, pistol and even dual wield pistols. The ship at this point had the cockpit built; it was just like my main ship since we didn¡¯t have any other kind to use. A single engine at the back but I also spotted the boosters for turning the ship, the fuel tank, we were installing the life support and a pair of lasers and beginning to pass the wiring through the craft. This took 1 hour and was mostly done by the techs while the rest of us got cracking on the support unit for my ship. It was essentially another better life support system, which took up space in the cargo reducing us back to only carrying 8t, and a large fuel tank for the fighter to refuel. After the weapons were on, we started on the plates¡­ or tried to. Ernest: None of these plates fit properly, either too big or small. Noah: Can¡¯t we cut them into shape, like welding? Jonas: We don¡¯t have the tools, we asked Gunner but he doesn¡¯t want to let us use his. They all sit down looking defeated after coming so far. As we sat down something came to mind. Noah: This may seem stupid but what about using lasers to cut the metal? There was a silence as no one replied but when they looked my way they were smiling. Ernest: Guess we have a Star Wars fan here. Adam: Noah we had thought of it, Basil actually tried to make a laser sword but couldn¡¯t get a constant laser going only a shot like a gun. Noah: Then keep firing the laser at a single spot and it will cut through right? There was another pause and Ernest even face palmed himself and quickly ran over and fired at the plate from a foot away. It took four shots for it to cross the thick plate at close range. Ernest: Get shooting guys, we have armor to cut, make sure to draw the cut before doing it, we don¡¯t want to screw up. It was a frenzy of shooting, it got so bad that Gunner came over and began to shout. Gunner: What the hell is with all the gunfire, is there a war here? Noah: Umm¡­ well we don¡¯t have anything to cut the armor plates with, so we are using laser guns to cut through them. He looks around and sees the ship being welded with a weak shot from a laser pistol and had a face that showed how awestruck he was. He then started laugh¡­ hard. So hard, that he was holding his sides while rolling on the ground. Gunner: Hahahahaha, you guys, you¡¯re the best. I haven¡¯t seen such interesting people in a long time. One of you come with me, I¡¯ll let you use the welding tools just because you gave me a good laugh. Ernest went along and after a few minutes returned with a cart holding the tools. With the proper tools we soared through the work, each plate was cut precisely and those that we cut shooting we removed to place better ones. This part took us one hour until it was finally finished. It took a total of 6 hours to get the ship done¡­ don¡¯t ask me how it was done so quickly, it just was, probably some game system help went into it to speed things along. After attaching the final plate we just sat back a bit looking at the finished ship. Noah: Umm is it just me or is the ship far from a scrap ship? As if on cue a various windows appear.
You and your crew have built an exceptional Basic Fighter Ship.
Basic Fighter Ship
A low tier fighter ship mounted with a pair of lasers. Even though junk was used for its parts, thanks to the experienced builders in your crew the ship is just slightly below average in performance when compared with factory made fighters.
Durability:2000/2000Top Speed (m/h):600
Fuel Tank (gallon):200 (1 hour of fuel)Life Support:12 hours
The skill Scrap Ship Construction of your entire crew has ranked up to Ship Construction.
Ship Construction
The overseeing skill that allows a person to plan and construct their own ships, starting from the Design Phase through the entire manufacturing process and final testing sequence. You can make Tier 1 ships up to factory standards. You may get better results if you work with more experienced builders.
You are the first crew of players to construct a fighter. +100 fame
Warning!
Please remember to properly register your new ship with your superiors or this ship will be considered a pirate ship and shot on sight as it holds no registration code.
Felix: Damn that got us a lot of stuff, I can¡¯t wait to fly this puppy! Earl: Yeah, but we still need to learn to do that, so for now¡­ Captain get this beauty to the landing pad that brought you here with the Dingy. Noah: Wait, you want me to drive and then come back for the Dingy? Ernest: Don¡¯t worry kid, give me a minute¡¯s head start then leave with the fighter and I will bring you back for the other one. I nod. We then fill the fuel tank of the fighter and Dingy before he gets onto the floating cart and rushes off towards the door. After counting to 60 I get in the fighter and start up the ship. Its startup was clean like the Dingy¡¯s and didn¡¯t vibrate much. Since the controls were the same as the dingy it was easy. With a slight pull on the handles the boosters underneath the fighter spring to life and lift the ship into the air. I could hear the cheering of my crew as the ship rises up. I then push the left handle down which makes the boosters on the left wing tilt the ship, I stop when the ship was at a 70 degree angle before pulling both handles back. Thanks to the angle the lower boosters turn the ship until I let go after the ship faced the door. After quickly straightening up I lightly touch the pedal, even with a small touch it had good acceleration and covered the space from platform 2 to the hangar zone in a bit over a minute. As I land I see Ernest arriving. Ernest: That was some mighty fine flying, I must say, and the looks from below look nice as well, a good paint job on it and it will be perfect. Noah: I¡¯m happy we got this close to factory standards¡­ you guys are really good mechanics even with ships you¡¯ve never seen you can make them so well. Ernest: Hehe well we took up jobs that matched what we did when we were younger and what we do now really. Noah: We should go get the others before they start getting bored and start practicing with their guns. He laughed at my comment as I got onto the cart. Even though I was kidding when I said that as we neared the platform we saw them actually practicing with their guns. I just stared at them slack jawed while Ernest falls back holding his gut seeing them do just like I said. As I get down they had already packed up and were getting what things that belonged to us into the ship. It took a few minutes to get all the tools we gained or made here into the storage and to get everyone seated. The flight back was just as uneventful as the first but the others didn¡¯t let it dampen their moods since it was their first time in a flying ship so they were eccentric about being in the air. As soon as I land the screen shows a single button saying ¡°inner station¡±. I press the button and the junkyards doors open up and the dock we were on went inside pulling us and the fighter with us until we were finally out. Noah: Felix, come here I need to show you the basics to start and fly the ship. After getting out of the ship he comes out with me and I give him a quick crash course on the ins and outs of piloting the ship. It takes a bit before he gets it and when he does he goes ahead of us and flies to the original docks, I follow behind. As we land we spot Marcus and Mr. Canes waiting there. Marcus: Well well, now this is quite a beauty for a scrap ship built from junk. Mores: Like I told you Marcus, I had my doubts that a scrap ship would come out from trained military men like the ones in this crew. Ernest: Hmm, you can tell who trained in the army sir? Mores: Boy, I¡¯ve lived much longer than you can imagine, I can see right through someone just with a look, I can tell you were probably the head mechanic during the time you served in the army. Ernest had a slightly shocked expression but nods to confirm that he was as Mr. Canes had said. Mores: Anyway, that¡¯s beside the point. I¡¯m here to check up on you kids and to direct the droids as they switch out the drones from your ships with a new model that just came in from the capital worlds. As he said that the droids appear with a small white orb half the size of the current one I had and all brand new. Mores: These little ones are as efficient as 3 of the current model in your ship so it will help with the scanning and it will make mining quicker, the same could be said for scanning the anomaly. When you do you boys plan on going to find it? Noah: I was thinking about leaving tomorrow, it will give us enough time to prepare and make sure both ships are in top condition, also I need to register the fighter, is that done with you? Marcus: Yes, I can do that for you. He walks up to me and with a small scan from his watch my info appears and then he scans the fighter.
You have registered the a Basic Fighter Ship under your name. During the next few hours a registration number will be assigned to this ship and the droids will give it an examination to see if there are any problems.
Marcus: Alright, have fun now. They both leave us and head their own way while giving out orders the to the droids that are moving all over the place between the many new looking Dingys that other players have claimed already. My crew and I head our own ways, before I left I suggest for them to train their body so that they can fight physically if something ever happens and then I leave to do some exercise and then sleep. I had a strange dream this night, I found myself in the depth of space just floating there, around me are large but sparse asteroids and in front of me sat a large ship, I mean huge, four or five times larger than my Dingy. It looked like an U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier but it was heavily beat up with many large dents on its plating and it was painted red and to my utter disgust I saw corpses¡­ human corpses. They were held by blade chains wrapped around the neck, they were covered in cuts completely bloodied up and with many deep cuts that went to the bone or that showed the organs inside the body, all frozen in the vacuum of space. If I could I would have vomited but I didn¡¯t because after seeing those bodies an image of a beast appeared and I startled myself up. Though I thought I would wake up in my room inside the Kelha II station I didn¡¯t, I was in my capsule drenched in sweat all over my body. It was night already, as I get up I see dad in his capsule. I was breathing heavily from the nightmare that I had seen in the game. I take many deep breaths to calm myself, like always a nightmare is something that seems to stick into your mind and you almost never forget what you saw in them unlike a normal dream. Noah: The security systems must have woken me up and ejected me when I got too agitated by the dream, I¡¯m happy they did that. I stood up, head to the bathroom and take a long bath letting the water wash over me, it¡¯s quite calming. Afterwards I ate a good midnight snack and rested a bit before going back into the game. Noah: I hope that was just a dream and not a premonition. *** Sry but the fighting will be for next chapter, hope you will like it as I¡¯ve already given hints of what to expect ;D If you have more ideas about space related stuff please tell me, I don¡¯t watch too many space related stuff so it will help a lot.
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Volume 1 Chapter 4 The Derelict Carrier
Due to your terrible nightmare you have been struck by the fear. -50% movement -50% reaction High anxiety will make you see things for the duration of the effect. 2 hours duration
I logged into a strange and annoying message. My body was having trouble reacting and moving and like when I got up from my capsule I was drenched in sweat. I slowly got up and took a shower to clean myself but the trembling wasn¡¯t stopping anytime soon and the system seems to like reminding me of that thing that rushed me in the dream. After drying myself and getting dressed I headed to the cafeteria and grab a plate full and sat down at the normal table I my crew normally sat. I was there alone from only a few minutes before the others came in they were discussing a few things about the Dingy¡¯s life support unit that would hook onto the fighter while they headed to get some food for themselves and then came over. Basil: hey captain¡­heh you look pale did something happen. Noah: it¡¯s nothing just a nightmare but I caused a fear statues on me so its left me shaken. Earl: what was the dream about? I give then the details while we were eating and while listening they just sat there quietly listening. When I finished I noticed a few with worried faces. Noah: is something wrong now you guys are starting to look pale. Adam: ah you don¡¯t know do you. Noah: know what? Adam: um in other older games like Second Life there was talk that when some players are on quests against some kind of evil being or other things and they sleep in game they sometimes get premonition of the location of the quest and see either the boss or a monster in the area. Noah: ¡­so you guys think it was that? Ernest: err¡­we would like for it to be false that¡¯s for sure. Morgan: ya even us with a fighter now can¡¯t hope to take down a ship the size of an air craft carrier. Noah: well it was just a dream let¡¯s not worry about it¡­on another note; I¡¯m going to see with Marcus if he can upload the anomalies signal onto the computer so we can leave after I get over this status effect. Basil: I we talked to him about it, for some reason he said that the whole crew must go even the mechanics and techs. Jonas: think it¡¯s a plan for something or do you think they know what that anomaly is already. James: I don¡¯t think so, if they knew they would have sent their own men to get it instead of us. Noah: James has a point, let¡¯s get this finished and then prepare to set off, get the life support on the Dingy ready as well. All: yes sir. We finished off the food and we split up they headed to get ready while I went to find Marcus. I encounter him near the tower of our hanger he was talking to some employees when he noticed me. Marcus: hey Noah is there something you need. Noah: yes my crew and I are going to head off to search for that anomaly I was hoping you could upload the location or at least the general location for it on the computer for my ships. Marcus: that can be done, oh yesterday while we were replacing the drones the Mr. Cane orders space armor to be put into your ship, it¡¯s like a space suit and power armor put together. Noah: why would we need that?! Marcus: well he is kind of worried about the anomaly we have been scanning it for quite a while now and our techs thinks it¡¯s something like a distress signal but it¡¯s different from the common signal used so it might be used for traps so we are adding the suits for your crew to be able to survive in space if the need arises. Noah: I see, thanks for worrying, I should be going we need to get ready. Marcus: I¡¯ll send the orders to the droids at the hanger they should be working by the time you get there. I give him a small bow to show my thanks then head to the hanger. When I arrive, I find the place packed with the crews from the other players getting ready to fly. Like usual my ships are near the edge of the far side of the hanger my small crew was already there and a few droids were walking. One was scanning the Dingy so that one must be uploading the location while the others were around the fighter. When I look I say yellow, black and white being sprayed. Most of the fighter had been painted to match the color scheme of the Dingy¡¯s and in big white letters like on the Dingy was a registration code BR546. When I arrive there I spot my crew dressed in what I suppose was the space suits. It was very different from the junkyards power suits which was like a large bracer you would see on deficient people. This one had a similar structure but it had actual armor plates that protected and sealed the body from the outside, its colored black around the body. (Just think this in black. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b4/ab/96/b4ab96269fe8c4c8a3aa93b411a65754.jpg) Noah: those must be the space suits that Marcus mentioned. Ernest: oh hey captain there is one inside for you, it¡¯s a basic power suit made for space travel just as a precaution from open hulls and air leaks. Noah: oh cool ill just put it, there is about an hour and before the fear debuff ends so get everything ready. I go inside and find single suit remaining since all the rest were taken. Curious I check the stats of the suits¡­
Basic Space power suit A basic suit given to space faring crews, these suits are given out when possible danger is present for a mission. Defense 10 Has a low level life support system within to protect from the cold and gives breathable air to the user when in the vacuum of space (1 hour for system, requires an air tank if you wish to expand the time in space). Increases strength and agility by a third the original stat (This will be returned at the end of the mission when you dock back in the station)
Noah: it increases by a third so it is weaker than the junkyard ones, let¡¯s get this on quick. To equip the suit was something similar to the iron man armor Mark V, the suit case armor; the suit is pretty much compact and when I attach it to my torso the rest closes around my body air tight. Even in games like this a rip-off like this is so easily spotted but I got to say it feels awesome to feel like iron man. I hope to make my own power suit someday, or at least find an old one and make it new again heh heh. Armor on and feeling awesome in it I go help out the others get ready just waiting for this fucking debuff to end, I definitely don¡¯t want to go into space with this it will make my already anxious mind go into overdrive and I don¡¯t want that since it will be driving. For the next hour we checked and rechecked both ships and even did a few repairs and improvements to the Life Support unit on the Dingy. As the timer reached 10 minutes I have everyone get in while Felix hops into the Figher. Noah: alright guys we are going to check this anomaly out, I have no idea why we need the whole crew but be on your guards if we find a large ship and need to board remember use your head before doing something crazy. They all nod and get in. After a quick call to the tower to get permission both ships go airborne leave the station. A few kilometers out of the station I stop the ship and have it extend the link for the life support unit. It shoots out for about 2 meters and then stops all that¡¯s left was Felix attaching it which he does on the first try after 5 minutes. The link was made a like a large claw like those from old crane games you find in arcades. The hooks were 2 cm think and 3 wide and 7 cm long on the final joint which attached to the ship, there were four claws that attached to the front of the ship. To be cautions that the claw doesn¡¯t pull the ship apart we had a gear that pulls the last joint of the claw inside the beak of the fighter. All the systems attach at the base of the claw were pipes were placed and at the tip of the fighters nose so once it was completely attached it would attach perfectly into the proper pipe. Once attached I pull up the mission info and data I have from the stations investigation.
Investigation info Kelha II station has investigated this and three other anomalies that lay within the asteroid fields. Though without sending any ships out they believe it is some kind of ship sending out either a distress signal or a signal to attract prey into a trap. All ships investigating are to be on high alert for pirate or alien activity.
After reading the investigation info that was given, which held pretty much nothing we didn¡¯t already here, the AI pulls up a map of the surrounds and a red triangle appears, which is us, and then three blue circles appear in the middle of the asteroid field. I touch the center one which then turns from blue to orange which meant it was now targeted as my destination. Noah: alright guys buckle up we have our destination, Basil, Felix be ready for anything. Basil: I always ready. Felix: ya same here. With that I accelerate towards the location. To get to the fields didn¡¯t even take a minute but the ride into the fields was slow progress, with so many small rocks near the edge and larger rocks preventing us from speeding up we went slowly past all the smaller rocks. After 5 minutes we passed most of the rubble and reached the large asteroids which were more spread out and easier to ride through at faster speeds. This area went on for 10 minutes until we neared the signals. Noah: alright guys we are supposed to be nearing the signal all hands ready for any sign of danger or some kind of wreckage. No one replied but I continued on slowly I had the computer send out scans to the surrounding and alert me if it picks up anything besides asteroids. After half an hour the computers gave off a reply. ¡°Scans have located derelict ship to the 2 o clock position from your current position, distance 4000 km¡± Earl: so there was something let¡¯s get going. Noah: hey Felix I¡¯m going to release you it¡¯s just a precaution but it¡¯s better than getting killed for not doing so Felix: fire away captain I¡¯m ready. Noah: computer release life support unit hook. ¡°Releasing hook¡­hook released, retracting hook¡± After hearing the computer I hear the hook return to its place on the Dingy and after a few seconds I see the Fighter fly overhead. Felix: lead the way so we can get this over with. I give him the thumbs up and accelerate towards the location. After 3 minutes it came into view, just like in my nightmare. Ernest: hey isn¡¯t this like the dream you had. Noah: ya¡­but let not get in over our heads this isn¡¯t a fantasy game Basil: ya he is right there are aliens but monsters come on. Noah: lets get started then. Computer release drones to scan the ship I want a full scan of all systems corridors and structure, also check for life signs if any are found scan it and show it to us. I hear the side doors open and soon 20 or 30 drones leave and go scan the ship. It took less the five minutes for the hull to be scanned. Then it began on the interior it this one took much longer around 15 minutes. The ship was split into five floors. The first one was the hanger and a cargo hold at the back with, as the scans show, capacity for around 64t. The second floor takes up only the pace of the cargo hold since it¡¯s above it and the rest make up the upper area of the hanger for taller ships. The third floor had things like the engine room and other facilities. Fourth floor was living quarters and arms storage and the final floor was the control room and other important rooms.
You have discovered and mapped a derelict carrier ship of an unknown faction. If you clear all enemy life forms within you will be allowed to lay claim on the ship without any gain to infamy towards the faction the ship originated from. +100 fame
¡°scans show six life signs in the control room, main engine off line reserve engine on, all other life on the ship is dead¡± Noah: seems we won¡¯t need to deal with too many creatures, computer show us what the people look like. What appeared almost made me vomit. To this a person would be an insult to any normal person. The creature that appeared was a human but it was grotesque so much that it made a zombie from old movies look cute. The body all over looked mutilated; the hands had many metal shards on it that acted like claws, in its mouth had metal as well making fangs. It also wore a suit similar to ours for some reason but that was put at the back of our minds since it didn¡¯t seem to matter much. Adam: WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE THINGS!!!! Earl: urg fuck man I don¡¯t feel well Ernest: hold it together man are you that weak to something like this. Noah: I don¡¯t blame him Ernest this thing is something that can make even the strongest men vomit, Basil: even so what are these things? Adam: I think ive seen something like this, any of you heard of the tv show serenity Ernest: I know it, so your talking about Reavers? Felix: what are Reavers? Adam: they are humans that had gone mad in space, the crew becomes cannibalistic and sadistic, they prefer to capture their prey and torture them while they eat him. Noah: lets get back on track we will already have nightmare so don¡¯t make it worst. Now wer are going in there, the scans are done and it seems that they are surviving off the reserve engine¡­ the main engine was turned off manually so if we turn it off they will die off. Felix: you think it will work they¡¯re wearing space suits they might be able to survive Noah: if they survive we will leave them in pieces after we find them. Basil: heh heh I like the sound of that. Noah: lets move in once we are there Jonas, James, Adam, Earl and Felix will head to the engine room and turn the reserve engine off, also try and override the doors commands and open the door this way the vacuum will suck them out and they will suffocate. The rest will be with me as we search the ship for any stragglers that might have had a suit on and the ship didn¡¯t pick up the signals. No one argued and with that we flew into the hangers. The place was packed with dead Reavers all over the place. Frozen blood was all over the floors and the Reavers were in pieces that looked like it was cut up, the guts were also frozen and all over the place. After landing near the exit Felix follows behind. After I land I leave the ship in a standby mode until we open the hatch, this will keep gravity and life support online until the hatch open. As I go to the back the others already have the helmet down and were attaching the air tanks that were provided to us. Ernest helped me put mine on. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Noah: alright guys remember the plan, my group will go the control room it I plan on bringing this back with us so if possible see if there are any major system damage, if there isn¡¯t anything important then leave it as is. With that we open the hatch which makes the remaining systems shut off and the ship depressurize and turn off. Outside Felix was already ready; we all head up since there was only one way. Moving into the corridors was hard because it was very dark but after a bit the suits activated dropped a visor on the helm which improved our vision. As we get to the second floor we see that it is like a tower to manage the ships coming in and out. On the third floor we split up and my group goes one way while the other goes the other way. The corridors were also full of dead Reavers, as we passed we searched through them to see if there was anything important but nothing but cheap change and cabin keys were on them. It helped us make sure the rooms were empty but for the most part the ship was empty. It took maybe a half hour for us to search the third and fourth floor. We found a cafeteria, the storage which to basils joy was full of guns, and many cabins. As we enter the fifth floor Jonas calls. Jonas: hey we are at the engine room, man this thing is huge compared to our ships, we did a check of the engine there are a few minor damage probably from some impacts but nothing major. Noah: and what about the control rooms door. Jonas: I¡¯m just about done hacking into it from a working terminal here. It should be done¡­now. As soon as he says it we feel the vacuum pull us back which meant the air from the control room was being pulled. After a minute it stopped. Noah: thanks Jonas, guys lets go, be on alert we don¡¯t know if they can survive or not without air so be ready. We all moved out, the corridors weren¡¯t so complicated since there were only three rooms here. When we reached the corridor that headed to the control room we were surprised to find floating Reavers that were still alive, mainly because two of them six had helmets on so they had air. They were flailing their arms trying to balance themselves. When they saw us they tried to growl or something. Then to our utter surprise they grabbed the walls or kicked the something and flew towards us. Though Ernest and I had dropped our guard seeing the funny scene before Basil was on the alert and shot the first one right in the head. The head blew up in a mess of blood, brains and bones which flew all over. The other one died by everyone¡¯s hand he left him like Swiss cheese. As he turned into a lifeless corpse he still come towards us until basil gave him a nice kick which sent him flying back Basil: bastards are smart for crazy beasts. Suddenly we felt a large vibration like a foot step. We all were on alert and I opened the map to see if I could see what it was. There was nothing in any floors except the engine room where the others were. The vibrations continued, it was coming from the corridor we came from, from behind us. We moved the middle of the corridor and waited. What appeared left us in shock. Standing at around 2 meters tall a large creature with no space suit at all while holding a blade of sharpen scrap metal. Noah: what is that thin?! Ernest: it¡¯s not appearing on our scans, is it living Morgan: maybe it¡¯s inorganic Noah: a rock monster then, is that possible Ernest: it¡¯s a game everything is possible especially when the game maker created an entire galaxy who knows how many creatures exist. As we talked the creature took notice of us. It took a simple look around and grabbed a grove in the wall and using it he threw himself at his using his blade as a shield. He surprised us but we started bombarding him with lasers. It took no more than a second for enough shots to penetrate the blade and damage him. His life appeared above his head showing 5000 with his name and level which was a simple, ??? (???). The lasers didn¡¯t do much damage only 40-70. As he got closer I got desperate to keep them from catching us in a group so I jumped forward in front. He saw me and stopped and did a horizontal swing. I kicked off the floor and jump which cause the blade to pass harmlessly below me. I quickly pulled out my other pistol and shot him in the face. You have caused a Critical shot -240 hp With as single shot he got dazed and covered his face. He uncovered it and looked at me with rage in his eyes I bombarded his face with shots from both pistols. I was able to hit him four more times before he covered it again and swung his blade vertically at me which I dodged by kicking the wall but it was a close call this time. He stepped back a bit and before he could swing again Basil jumped forward and with his rifle he shot a round of ten shots at his face dropping his health below half. In a rage now he kick Basil away and claws at me but it didn¡¯t do as much damage as it would have if gravity was normal. As we flew back Ernest and Morgan jumped up and started doing the same as we did. They dodged skillfully and dropped the monsters life to a quarter of its life before he caught them like he did with me and Basil. As the two of them fly back Basil, Morgan and I jump in their place and work to finished him off and after ten more minutes he finally stops moving.
You have killed an unknown creature; bringing him back will give you large amount of fame for discovering a new alien race Level up 5x
You have gained a new skill Zero Gravity combat Threw the skillful use of the lack of gravity you have developed an effective method to fighting in a zero gravity area. +10% damage when fighting in close combat in a zero gravity +5% damage when fighting at long range in zero gravity
You have cleared the ship of all enemy life forms, you can now lay claim to the ship. To lay claim you must return with the ship to the nearest station and register the ship or call them and do it over the coms.
Mission: The Anomaly complete You have discovered what the Anomaly is and found a derelict ship at the location. Being a ship inhabited by Reavers and you killing such a dangerous creature you might gain the favor of the faction in which this ship once belonged to. Reward: speak with your boss.
Noah: *sigh* that was close Adam: hey what¡¯s going on over there? Basil: we killed a fucking inorganic alien that gave us 5 fucking levels that¡¯s what¡¯s up here. Felix: what really, fuck I missed all the action Noah: enough playing around, you guys start up the main engine and all the systems the ship is clean we are taking it home. Jonas: hehe we get to keep this, sweet guys let get this baby up and running. They stopped talking and engrossed themselves in their work. Noah: now with them doing that lets check to see if there is any damage to the control room. When we entered we were surprised to find the room in perfect state not a single console or holoprojector was broken or out of place. Ernest: well this is amazing¡­not a single button out of place. Earl: those brutes must have a complicated society they form. Ernest: ya in serenity it says they were capable enough to drive a ship but they used capturing techniques instead of just simply destroying the enemies. James: were just about ready here, we have also set the shields at the hangers to activate when the power returns so there won¡¯t be any air leak from there. Noah: alright start it up. On my order they pull the switch and even in the control room we could feel the engines come to life. Soon the light started up and then the monitors all came online. Jonas: alright this is great this thing is purring like a kitten the power generators are also in good condition and have started up as well. Life support and gravity should come back online in a few minutes. As they worked to get the things online, us in the control room were also working from there to activate lights inside the ship and scanners and many other systems. That includes sending a signal for communication to the station. We received the call after a few minutes. Noah: hello this is BR545 we have found the anomaly. ??? : BR545 the channel signal is different than usual what was it that was found. Noah: first call Mr Cane and Marcus they will like to hear this. ??? : Yes they would. The channel goes silent for a bit, during this time the life support comes back online and so does the gravity system which pulls us down and began pressurizing the ship. Marcus: hey Noah this is Marcus, what was the anomaly you guys found. Noah: a derelict carrier ship, I would like to put up a claim for it. Marcus: and the previous crew? Noah: I don¡¯t know if they are called this but do Reavers ring any bells. Marcus: Reavers¡­not that I¡¯ve heard anyway what are they? Ernest: crazed cannibal humans that went made after staying in space to long? Mores: So some survived¡­ Noah: Mr Cane you know something about them? Mores: yes I remember that name you used, I think it was a good fifth sol system earth years ago. All the factions were being attacked by these so called Reavers. They were crazed men that cared not for anything but torturing poor victims they captured. It reached such a level of danger that the three waring factions called a treaty and with there combined army did a genocide against the Reavers in all know areas the factions would go and destroy any ships that were sited, even to this day the only thing the three factions agree on is that Reavers or a pleage and no matter what is going on should a ship appear call for armed forces to come and dispose of them any of the factions will do it willingly just to get rid of pests like this. They were thought to have been extinct from the genocide but I guess not, we will need to inform the capital about this. Noah: and about the ship? Mores: oh yes we will begin registering it also we will extend an external docks for you. From our readings that ship is around 7 or 8 times bigger than a Dingy so it can¡¯t pass through the gates. Noah: thank you once we have all the ships systems up and running we will return to the station. Mores: we will wait you¡¯re arrival and I presume you would like it remodeled. Noah: the costs are?? Mores: hmmm a bit over 50,000 credits but interior cleaning we can do free of charge. Noah: I¡¯ll wait it out; the ship is only a little banged up but no real damage. Mores: ok then I¡¯ll see you soon then. With that the channel cut. I look around and go and sit in the chair at the center of the room. Noah: ahh damn even though there were barely any enemies it was still exhausting especially that last creature¡­speaking of it has anyone gone and checked it out. Everyone shook their heads. Noah: ok ill check it most likely will have to hand it over to some scientists to study it better but a basic identification should help a bit. I walk out and laying there on the ground was the body of the creature. I got close and examined the body.
Unknown inorganic creature This being comes from unknown origins, from closer inspection it is apparent that the body is made from mineral rocks found within the asteroid fields. The body contains large amounts of ore materials but it is currently unknown how this creature came into being. For more information you will need to study the body or give to experienced specializes to study once it is done this information shall be spread thought the Liberation area.
When I was done reading I walked back into the control room Ernest: well anything good about it. Noah: ya it seems that he is a being made from rocks and minerals commonly found in asteroids. I cant get much info out of them until a scientist studies the body and since we have none it better to get this ship up and running. James: that¡¯s good to hear captain because the final two systems have just gone up, and guess what they are come on guess. Felix: stop playing around you idiot and tell them *slap*. James: damn what was that for? Felix: being stupid that what now tell them. James: fine¡­the last systems are a shield generator, not like the one blocking the hanger that one I a special one that lets ships through but air stays in this one is a protection shield for large ship. The other system is the, oh so elusive Warp Drive. Yes people we have one now, though its working its only for short distances, very short its damaged and at best it can only help jump out of this asteroid field, it will take a few days or weeks to find the parts to repair this to go to other planets but it should get us out of here. Noah: if it can get us out that¡¯s fine, how are the boasters and engines? Adam: they are working at about 60%, the minor damages James told you about though nothing major it¡¯s still lowering the performance but luckily there isn¡¯t any damage to the life support or any other system. Noah: good enough, alright guys let¡¯s get back to the station, we don¡¯t know if there are more of those things out there and I don¡¯t want to find out, charge the warp drive and get us out of the field. After a few minutes and some computing we heard the computer of the carrier. ¡°Warp Drive charging, jump will place us 500km away from the Kelha II station, Warp Drive Charged, initiating jump¡± As she said that the area around the ship began blurring like a field around the ship was forming. ¡°Warp Drive activating¡± The last thing we saw of the area were a few large rocks flowing past us.
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**** sry it took so long any feedback or ideas would be wonderful to help me think up my own stuff, im not a sci-fi guy, i havent even watched starwars so for those that are it would be a great help if you can tell me about some interesting races/space ships/alien creatures so that i can make my story better Idea/Suggestion thread i took Ptolemy''s idea he posted and wanted to put this thread up just so you guys can post any ideas you might thing would be cool to add Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. i hope to see what would come up it would help me even if i don''t use it it will still help out since it will get me thinking Volume 1 Chapter 5 Manning the Ship The jump was a quick blur one moment we were turning and facing the station the next it felt like we were passing a thin tunnel and then we slowed down again just outside the asteroid field. Noah: wow that was a¡­interesting experience. Ernest: ya urg¡­interesting. Basil: hahaha hey Ernest, you still haven¡¯t gotten over your motion sickness? Ernest: shut it Basil urg, I can¡¯t hand sudden accelerations Noah: alright you two let¡¯s get serious we need to pilot this huge ship with only a 9 man crew come on we need to find the dock. I look around the captain¡¯s panel. It was totally different from the small ships we have been driving. This one was much more complex since it was starting to be a group effort to drive it. The handles were 2 one for each hand. After a bit of experimenting I found that the left hand handle was for going forward and back and up and down. The right hand handle was for tilting the both sides and lifting or lowering the nose this one was even more complex because there were two buttons on the handle which allowed me to choose whether the front or back boasters activate. An example would be that I can tilt the handle to the right to turn but pressing the lower button will make the back boaster fire off so it makes for more precise maneuvering the large ship. Noah: this is Noah from Dingy BR545 we are approaching the station we can¡¯t really spot the docks Mr. Cane mentioned. ??? : Hello¡­um how did you get here so quickly you were at least half an hours ride inside the asteroid field. Noah: the carrier had a warp drive though its damaged it is capable of short jumps. ??? : Oh I see, I would suggest not doing that again, a damaged warp drive can cause massive damage to the surroundings. Noah: dully noted so where is this dock Mr. Cane mentioned. ??? : right it will take about 10 minutes for it to extend from the station¡­there I have started the process you should see some plates of the stations opening up and extending out right. When he said that we looked towards the station and like he said there were two panels opening up on the side. Even from the small bit it was open we could see something extending outward. Noah: ya we have visual we are still a fair distance away we will take it slow since we don¡¯t want to damage the ship to much we are also still getting used to it. ??? : understood. With that the channel closed. Noah: alright guys let¡¯s get going no use sitting around here. I push the pedal and we start moving forward. We kept the progress slow at about 100 m/h so that we wouldn¡¯t arrive too early to dock. As for the dock, what extended after the plates opened started out with four long metal beams. After that smaller plates began covering the area making a cylindrical dock after which a shield like ours activated and we couldn¡¯t see what else was going on. When we finally reached the station we saw what happened inside. About a third of the way down, they had extended a floor like the hangers inside the station. At the half way point there was also a cat walk which looked like it would extend out to reach the top of the ship and there were claw hooks which will probably hold the ship. At the end there was an area that was just level with the hanger entrance and there were droids waiting. For newbie ship riders of this type it was hard to get the ship in. it took 4 tries before we got the ship in and two more times I needed to fix the ship or the hooks wouldn¡¯t be in the right spot or the hanger wouldn¡¯t attach in the correct place to allow the droids inside. Once we were certain we were in the correct spot I lowered the ship as gently as possible until it touched down, note this ship doesn¡¯t need landing gear it has a flat bottom so just landing on it is good enough. Noah: damn I¡¯m sweating buckets after doing that little exercise with this ship. Morgan: I think you did fine for your first time beats crashing into the station. Noah: please don¡¯t say that Morgan. Basil: alright since we are down I¡¯m going to check out that armory I want to try some of those babies out. He left almost drooling running towards the armory we found. Ernest: *sigh* he never changes that gun nut Noah: at least it¡¯s a good thing he is on our side though. Jonas: I agree with Noah if that gun nut was an enemy I would have craped myself that man is an impeccable shot, only a mad man would try to outshoot him. Earl: I was wondering how many people are needed to man this ship. Everyone looked at me when he asked. Noah: why is everyone looking at me, we just got the ship and I haven¡¯t looked at its stats yet. Earl: please do that now while we have some privacy. I reluctantly follow their orders and open my hologram interface and click on the ships icon which shows the Dingy, Fighter and the new carrier. I click on the Carrier and then on ¡°show Status¡±
Derelict Carrier ship. A ship found in the possession of the accursed Reavers, it was freed from them when the small remaining crew of Reavers were killed off by the new owner. The ships origins are unknown for the most part until scans can be cross referenced with all known ships from the three factions. Durability 15,000/45,000 Shields 5,000 Turret spots open 5 Turret spots occupied 0 Weapon slots 0 Engine max speed 850 Warp Drive installed (damaged) Hanger space holds 6 Dingy ships or 18 fighters. Min crew to man ship 60 Max crew to man ship 100 Cargo Hold space for 64t (in ores)
Morgan: *whistles* damn that is some impressive stats for a beat up ship, 5 turrets and 64t for cargo hold. Ernest: looks like we will need to do some heavy recruiting to man this ship. James: how are we going to organize so many people? Noah: ¡­all of you were army guys right. Jonas: yes we were and proud of it. Noah: then why not use army or navy ranking system, I¡¯ll remain the top rank since I was the first captain, and then we can divide the duties between Mechanic, Soldier and Technician Ernest: seems like an easy enough way to split it. Noah: the current crew can be made the head of their sectors. This way we have the more experienced working and ordering the recruits. Those that show the most promise they will rise up fast then while the others train more. Basil: I¡¯m wondering about something, I noticed that our physical prowess sucks when we fought that thing what do we do about that. Noah: I told you guys go train some martial arts inside the game, it will increase your physical stats if will help with close quarter combat. I want my crew to be like an army, this way we won¡¯t have to worry about many dying if we are ever boarded. Adam: a solid plan, and if we increase our numbers we won¡¯t have to rely on droids repairing our ships and we will do it ourselves. Noah: i wouldn¡¯t say completely stop using them, i hope i can buy some droids to work on the carrier to help out since they are already programmed with higher levels in skill, it could work in our favor to teach our crew. Just as we start talking we hear footsteps and a droid appears. Droid: *beep beep* Miner Noah, Mr. Cane wishes to see you. Noah: ok I''ll be right there, you guys go around the ship and remove the space suits from the Reavers, though i don¡¯t know how others will feel about using some dead guys armor we can us the suits to make power suit. My crew either nods or gives me a thumbs up before i leave with the droid. Noah: droid make sure to pass the message, all gear on the dead crew on this ship belongs to me, and not one is to be taken out of the ship but placed in the cargo hold. Droid: *beep beep* protocol prevents us from removing dead from a ship unless authorized but we will move the dead into the hanger so we can examine the ship and register it. Noah: I¡¯m fine with that. We walked in silence past hundreds of droids that were look through the rooms and scanning the ship interior. I was also impressed with the interior since i only saw it with the lights off. Though the ship was dirty from blood caused by the Reavers it was still impressive. The corridors were at least 3 meters wide and 3 high. The lights were on the edges along the whole corridor and the natural color was a pure white. After a few minutes of walking we exit into the hanger. There was a lot of droids moving around. More than half of them were removing the space suits from the Reavers and piling the bodies into a large dump truck. The space suits were being taken into the cargo, like I had asked, in the floating carts that droids normally use for taking ores into the station at the drop zone. In the middle of the hanger Mr. Cane and Marcus were standing with Marcus shouting orders to the droids. The droid i was following walked up to them. Droid: *beep beep* i have done as asked and brought you miner Noah. Mores: good you may go. Without saying anything the droid walked off to help the others. Mores: i must say Noah, you are one lucky man. Noah: i don¡¯t think so; you sent Jessica and my father to investigate other anomalies. Mores: that¡¯s the thing my boy they are anomalies we detected differences in each of them. Marcus: i think you might be luckier than the others the usefulness of a carrier with so much cargo space is immense, especially for a mining station like ours. Just as he finished a group of droids came out pulling the stone creature we found. Mores: hmm?? What is that creature? Noah: we found and killed that thing inside the ship when we boarded i checked it out and it said the body is made out of mineral rocks similar to the asteroid. Both of them showed a surprised then anxious face. Marcus: so something like they were born from the asteroids. Noah: maybe or they came from somewhere and are eating the rocks but i have no proof. You have scientists here right take the body to them and have them study it. Mores: I''ll have it done immediately; I¡¯m worried this could escalate into something bigger. With a quick order the droids dumped the body into a cart and left towards the station. Mores: now onto more pressing matters. He pressed a few buttons on his watch and an image of my carrier appeared, then with a few more the ship vanished leaving only the engine room which expanded. The room was large with the main engine taking up a third of the room at the back. To the left near the middle of the room was the reserve engine which was much smaller and on the right i would presume was the warp drive. Mores: from your own scans and that of the droids we found that your warp drive is damaged, though most are minor problems there is one that happened just after you jumped close to the station. He pressed another button and on the warp drive a large cable that ran over the top from the warp drive into the main engine lit up. Mores: this cable you see that lit up is called a reactor cord. It¡¯s the most important part for jumping because it is the only cable capable of transferring the energy from the warp drive into the engine for the jump. After you jumped out of the asteroid field the cable burst due to old age. Noah: let me guess because it¡¯s such an important part it isn¡¯t made here at your station. Mores: precisely, it¡¯s made with much rarer metals then what we find here and to purchase it would cost well over 40,000, that¡¯s how important it is. Noah: what is the cost for a warp drive? Marcus: the worst type which has the shortest distance cost over 60,000. Noah: so the cable is pretty much the engine. Mores: yes anyone can build the engine but not everyone can buy the cable. I sighed when i heard this, i know it would take monstrous amount of work to collect that much money and i still needed to repair the carrier. Suddenly a droid comes running up to us. Droid: *beep beep* sir we have an emergency, more than half the miners currently out mining have reported that a strange rock monster appearing from within the asteroids and attacking their ships. All three of us had shocked faces; the others looked my way briefly before turning back. Mores: what do these creatures look like? From the droids chest appeared a small holo projector which lit up. The image that appeared showed the same creature my crew killed. Mores: tell all miners to retreat back to the station. Droid: *beep beep* yes sir. The droid ran off again. While they were talking an idea had come to mind and unfortunately i couldn¡¯t hold back the grin because Marcus saw it. Marcus: what''s with the grin? Noah: oh was i smiling it¡¯s nothing just an idea. Marcus: yea anyway we need to talk about your reward from the mission. Mores: yes that is true...you know i think it¡¯s best to let Noah decide himself if it¡¯s too much we will say so. Noah: really...then can you spare some droids to my crew so that they can unload the Dingys when we mine. They had a somewhat surprised expression on their face but it soon turned to a smile each. Mores: well you read my mind, after hearing what you found i had already planned to give you some basic worker droids, they don¡¯t have too many advanced programs but they are good enough for unload ores. He began pressing some buttons for a few minutes until a notification appeared for me.
Mission: Anomaly complete Your reward for completing the mission is 20 basic old model worker droids.
Basic worker droid This droid is the back bone for any mining or industrial worker. This specific type is an old model that isn¡¯t produced any more. They are simple robots that can do most manual labors such as. Unload cargo or assist in repairs (at very basic levels). They are built to have high strength and can unload heavy ores by hand if needed. Durability 900 Owner Noah Basic scanner
Noah: wow 20 droids! Mores: they are older models but they work just as well as the new ones we did some repairs and upgraded with the hard and soft ware that the current model has but the body itself is old. Noah: it¡¯s more than i deserve really but it will help tons. Marcus: i guess that is all we needed to do here besides cleaning this place up...oh right the power suit must be returned as well, could you call your crew. Noah: sure also how do we get out of them. Marcus: i have the controls. I give a call to everyone and after some time they start appearing all wearing a big smile on their faces. Noah: what¡¯s making all of you so happy? Ernest: we were searching around the ship and you would never believe it we found some Manufacturing workshops. Basil: one of them just behind the armory we found it¡¯s pretty empty but there was enough machines to call it a basic level workshop. Mores: ah so this one has it. Noah: you knew? Mores: carriers aren¡¯t war ships but transport and merchant ships so it¡¯s not so uncommon to find one with a workshop. Marcus: alright we are busy so let¡¯s get to work. Marcus seemed somewhat impatient. He had opened up an interface and then pressed a button. On cue the power suits began opening up and retuning to its package form. Basil: we have got to learn how to make that. Marcus: you''ll get there someday, just some advice, recruit those scientists they aren¡¯t the best flyers but they have a creative mind. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.Earl: you mean those guys that are from our hanger. Marcus: yep those exactly. Mores: well we should be going, don¡¯t forget no warping, a liberation battle ship and merchant ship are going to be coming here next month i placed an order for them to bring a few so i can have spares and you can buy from me. Noah: thanks for the help. With that they headed off while the droids finished cleaning up the corpses and washed the ground of the frozen blood. Ernest: so now what? Noah: let¡¯s go expand our crew and work force. They all nodded and we headed to the hangers searching for the scientists first. To our luck one of them was at their Dingy. As we approached he noticed us and turned to greet us. ??? : Hello Noah: hi I¡¯m Noah. ??? : Yes i know the captain of the large carrier ship that came, I''m Boris what do need from us. Noah: i was hoping to talk with your whole crew. Boris: hm well most of them are at work but Mr. Kinter the head is online. Noah: really can you call him. Boris: sure. He went quiet for a bit while he PMed his boss. After some time an elderly man came over. Kinter: are this the gentlemen who want to talk. Boris: yes sir. Kinter: Wilson Kinter, what is it you need then. Noah: we would like for your crew to become the science team of my crew. Kinter: and who said we would join. Noah: Marcus said your crew was having trouble driving the ship and mining and that you preferred to study then mine. Kinter: that is true so? Noah: well like i said i want you to join, my crew is good at mining and we can fund your studies in return you help us with your research. Kinter: hmm it will benefit us both greatly for sure; i heard you¡¯re the owner of the carrier correct. Noah: yes. Kinter: tell me are there any large empty rooms large enough to be converted into a lab for us. Adam: yes there is, there are two rooms, one is already occupied by a manufacturing workshop but the other is empty. Kinter: then i see no real reason why not to reject. Noah: one more thing i was hoping you could give us your crews Dingy so we can mine. Kinter: this thing, yes you can have this rust bucket i wouldn¡¯t even be using this trash can if i didn¡¯t have to. He opened a screen and with a few clicks he passed ownership to me. I gave a look to Felix and a nod which he returned then headed into the ship. Soon it turned on and flew out of the hanger. Kinter: with that done i need to call my men so we can move our things into the room you mentioned oh and we have 20 scientists. Noah: don¡¯t worry, you just need to research, manning the ship will be with other players. He walked off with Boris right behind him. Ernest: that went well. Noah: very, now we just need the rest of the man power which i bet we can find at the quarters. We headed back to the workers housing area were we first got rooms to stay. Inside everyone looked...tired. it was there was a shadow over everyone¡¯s face. Noah: what the...what¡¯s going on here. When i said spoke a few people looked our way to see who it was. I walked over to a nearby guy that looked a few years older than me. Noah: hey what¡¯s going on here? ??? : Like you care. Noah: wha...hey I''m asking because i want to know. ??? : Right as if miner trashes like you would care about flunkies like us. Suddenly basil appeared from behind me and grabbed the brat by the shirt and lifted him of the ground. Basil: alright brat we will ask one more time before i pull out my pistol and shoot you right in between the eyes. Fear was visible on the kids face after having someone like Basil threaten him. Brat: ok fine I''ll tell you just let me go. He let go of his shirt and the brat fell on his feet. Brat: gez old man got no patience. Basil quickly drew the gun and pointed at the kids head Basil: talk. Brat: ok ok, it¡¯s how we are treated; those who didn¡¯t get into a crew are pretty much treated like slaves because we don¡¯t have any work that helps us develop our skills. Noah: wow we didn¡¯t know...well we can fix that. We just recovered a derelict carrier ship the max number of people needed to man the ship is 100. As soon as i said that as loud as i could it was like the lights in the place grew brighter. Everyone looked over with sparkling eyes in anticipation. Ernest: now we know there are 100 residents for each housing area so let¡¯s get this moving. They wasted no time getting up excited. Noah: for now we are dividing the crew into three divisions, Mechanics, Technician, and Soldiers. Just so you know we are taking a military approach to our crew and you will pass through training for physical improvements. Ernest: Now, all that want to be Mechanics come up the rest move back. A little over 30 maybe 35 came up. Noah: move to the side there. Next are techs. Around 20 came now they were put on the other side. The last was the soldiers where were the remaining 36 were assigned. You¡¯re wondering 36 well don¡¯t forget my crew is from this housing area we make up the remaining 9. Noah: ok Basil take the soldier to the junkyard and teach them scavenging and gun making get gunner to help if you can. Ernest and Adam take the rest and make 6 new fighters we will need them for what i have planned. Oh and take them to a droid and register everyone as my crew that is important. With quick orders the area was quickly emptied. There was absolutely no one left here except me. When I leave the room I bump into my dad. Dad: hey son, I saw your recruits, your crew told me what you were going to do, hahaha that¡¯s my boy. I¡¯m impressed and even jealous you got a carrier from your mission. Noah: what about you dad you got a mission just like mine I know you found something unique. Dad: ¡­I did find a ship much better than the Dingy that for sure. Noah: what is it? Dad: a Derelict Gunship. My mouth drops, gunships have some of the best offense in from all the small/medium craft ships. Noah: that¡¯s awesome you¡¯re probably the strongest player now with a gun ship. Dad: nope imp not, I should actually correct myself; I found the husk of a derelict gunship as in only the frame and armor plating of a gunship. The thing was striped clean by scavengers by the time we arrived, not even an engine was left. I look at him with a bit of pity. I really was lucky, to find a working carrier with a warp drive is a massive find but if he fixed his ship up he would definitely be strong enough to destroy me and my crew. ??? : you think that is something to make such a pitiful face for really. We both look back and see Jessica fuming in anger as she came towards us. Noah: did something happen. Jessica: when I went to my anomaly spot I was hit with a trap from pirates. I got some damage on my only ship but I destroyed five ships and crippled a Dingy and 7 fighter ships and brought those bastards back with him by hooking them up. They have at least 50% damage and the engines are shot because my crew crippled them. She put her hand on her forehead. Noah: isn¡¯t that a good thing Jessica: it would be if my crew had mechanics and techs to fix them We just stare at her blankly when she said that. Jessica: what? Why are you staring at me with those blank faces? Dad: umm¡­well we saw you with a huge crew so¡­well it¡¯s hard to believe you have no mechanics and techs. Noah: ya I though the same thing. Jessica: says the old man that got to his anomaly too late to get an intact ship and his son that goes around with an army unit of old men¡­wait your crew has experienced mechanics and techs right. Noah: well my first group ya I just recruited new members to man the carrier. He eyes start shining and the anger she displayer before was gone. Jessica: then let¡¯s join forces; I have lots of broken ships and you the man power to repair them. I frowned when she asked that, by what she asked wasn¡¯t to join my crew but this games version of a guild a Union, the leaders would split profit evenly with however many leaders there were and then pay their own crews with their shares. Noah: um¡­for me a Union wouldn¡¯t be that good. Jessica: why not you need fighter¡¯s right. Dad: well miss his crew just went from 9 members to 120. Her eyes bulged when she heard the number Jessica: why so many people?! Noah: 20 of them are scientist that I recruited to research tech and other things for my crew, the rest is the ones that will man the ship. as you can see in a union we split the money we get evenly with our crew 50-50 for me that would suck since I would get less to pay my men for their work and the repairs to my ships. Jessica: I see¡­I guess there is no helping then. Noah: if you want to take the ships to the junkyard and ask my men to repair them for you your welcome to, it would help them get experience for their skills. She brighten up after hearing me and ran off waving while yelling ¡°Thanks I¡¯ll go ask¡±. Both my dad and I started laughing Dad: women whether young or old you can never understand their emotional storm they live through. Noah: please don¡¯t tell me I want to stay ignorant of it for a while longer. We both laughed a lot after that. Dad: ah that was good¡­anyway can I do the same with my gun ship. I want to at least see if I can get it up and running. Noah: it won¡¯t back the original systems you know just what we can get from the scraps in the junkyard Dad: if it¡¯s enough to get the ship flying that is fine. I¡¯m pretty sure the ship will end up a scrap ship though. He gives a heavy sigh before leaving. I message my officers (original crew) and tell them who was coming. The mechanics and techs were happy to get things to work repair skills on. Basil and Felix were also happy to get some gun happy chicks coming over as well. I walked slowly while looking at the crew page, it had quickly grown and I was finding it hard to manage now. That was when I noticed a few new options, they were labeled ¡°Organization Type¡± and ¡°Rank Names¡±. In the first option it had many kinds of types of ways to organize them like a business, empire, organization but I went and choose Navy. Next it automatically went to the ¡°Rank Names¡± option. There were several boxes and when I clicked on the first a keyboard appeared and it said ¡°crew captain rank name¡± at the top. I Type in Captain for now, as any rank above would be things like admiral or fleet admiral and I don¡¯t have a large fleet so I don¡¯t deserve that rank¡­yet. Next was for second in command which was, obviously, Commander, followed by Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Junior Grade, Ensign and Recruit in that order from highest to lowest. (I know I used upper levels of the navy ranking system but I don¡¯t want too many types like in real life this is find at least for now, I might change after the he forms a large fleet) I then placed Ernest as Commander being the most level headed and wise, Jonas and Basil as Lieutenant Commander, and last was Morgan, Earl, Felix, Adam and James as Lieutenant. All the rest were placed as recruits and Lieutenant Junior grade was for the most promising recruits and Ensign for the rest. By the time I finished doing this I had arrived at the junkyard just as I press the confirm button and a window appears showing the update.
You have created a ranking chart for your crew; this chart will determine pay wages and will block or allow different privileges within the crew such as managing the crew rankings or pay.
Just like me everyone inside that was my crew seemed to stop which was probably caused by the message appearing. Then everyone began moving and I guessed they were checking out the rankings. After a bit I started hearing comments about how this really was turning out to be like an army or navy. I head over to the platforms that had lots of ships. I also saw on platform 3 a large ship. The main body was sleek and oval, it was a bit bigger than a Dingy and twice as long, from my spot I could see at least 2 turret spots and a few weapon openings that had nothing inside, I guess that was the gunship dad had found. As for the Jessica¡¯s Fighters they were on platform 1 there were seven plus her Dingy was there as well being repaired by my guys. The seven fighters were smaller then my crew¡¯s fighter so it must be the default model for a scrap ship. More than half the crew was inside the junk searching with Basil and Gunner directing them how to find stuff. I then moved to platform 2 were my fighters were being built. There was currently 3 frames built and 3 more in the process and only 1 of the frames was being worked on and obviously Ernest, Jonas, James, Morgan and Adam were there working and teaching the recruits. As I approach Gunner suddenly appears after jumping from his floating cart. Gunner: heh heh I head you got yourself a nice large ship kid, congrats, you sure are making my day bringing so many people to get this junk moving on. Noah: well it¡¯s the best place to find free junk. Gunner: hehehe true so what are you going to do with so many fighters. Noah: the fighters are a start I will have them get one of the Dingys and fix it and them to mine faster. I don¡¯t know if you heard but it seems rock monsters are starting to appear from the asteroids. He thinks a bit and after looking at the fighters he flashes me a grin and starts talking in a low voice. Gunner: going to become the ¡°Great Protector¡± of the weaker miners are you. Noah: heh I hope I can scam them a bit, I think if I can get them to agree on paying 5% of their daily income for protection from the monsters while they mine I think it will work out just fine. His grin gets wider as he hears my scheme; I could see he was enjoying the show. Noah: anyway can I ask do you have any schematics that I can use to turn normal space suits into space power suits; I think I will need to have some soldiers stay outside on the ship to guard against anything that jumps on the ship. Gunner: hmm power suits no, but if you want them to go outside them how will they stay on the ship. Noah: true i was thinking a wire but as we move they would be thrown back. Suddenly an image appears. It was of some bulky metal boots. Gunner: these are magnet boots, they suck to use in normal gravity since they stick well on metal, though in your case it would work as weights for your armies training, this can keep them on the top of the ship. He pressed a button and on my watch appeared a downloading bar which filled quickly. Gunner: have fun torturing your soldiers hehehehe. Noah: ¡°that guys seems too happy about this¡±
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*** Next chapter they go back into space to mine and fight (and "help" some newbies). Thanks for the ideas/suggestions quite creative stuff, anything new you think of please put it up even if it sounds crazy. The wages will be put next chapter so don''t worry about it Volume 1 Chapter 6 The Plan in Motion After looking at the Magnet boot schematics I found that they were much simpler to make and use then what they look like. To explain how the boots work I need to talk about the space suit first. Both normal and power suits come with an internal battery and life support system in them. The battery with just the basic life support system can last for up to 6 hours before the battery dies. The suit itself is built to have various ¡°attachments¡± one is the boots. Now the boot, though I call it a boot its more sandal like. You wear the space suit and over the feet tie the metal straps around and behind the feet then plug the cables of the boots into the suit. This creates an electric magnet from the 2cm think metal soles of the boot. Not only are they easy to use they are easier to build especially when you have access to a junkyard filled with ship plating that is the perfect size. By the time I had already reached the junkyard my crew had already removed people who didn¡¯t have talent for any of the areas, so I took them for myself and had them work with me making the 100+ pairs of magnet boots. There were 10 people and half were girls who have never seen the inside of a car so I wasn¡¯t too surprised that they didn¡¯t get into the tech, mechanic or soldier divisions. I already knew that not everyone would be up for the task, which was obvious to say the least. Though they sucked at construction of weapons and ships they did seem to have a good handle for clothing and surprisingly for this area they were swiftly out pacing me. Noah: wow you guys are good. Boy 1: thanks we played lots as craftsmen in other games so we have a good handle on our hands and the skill to make this. Girl 1: in one of the older games I was even open to getting both tailor and blacksmith to make custom metal and leather armor that had so much style to them it was fun. Girl 2: you guys are lucky¡­I didn¡¯t have that much luck I ended up a cook and alchemist in most games I played. Her name was Jin, she was Japanese descent black hair and black eyes and even though this is an 18+ game her physical look gave the impression of a small 12 years old. she was very shy and timidly lowered her head looking at her progress, she was much shyer then the others and the slowest with her crafting. Noah: well I¡¯m happy to hear that we have a cook with us, since we will need someone to prepare the food in grand scale for 120 people. When I said that she looked up with a blushing face but her eyes were sparkling. Girl 3: I can help out I was a jack of all trades so I know a bit of everything but food was one of my forte cause obviously you win a guy through his stomach HAHAHA!!! We all laughed when she said that, her name was Aiko, she is a red head top boy with topaz eyes and seemed to be a great mood maker. We worked for over 3 hours making the boots until we finished up all 100 pairs, during this time 5 more recruits joined up from the soldier division. The group had become great friends and I learned a lot about their past gaming experiences in some games and simulators they had played. Most of the more talented craftsmen were able to get the skill scrap armor making. (Remember most fantasy games are 18+ games, simulators were made for younger and yes everything that involved making something starts with scrap until you get good at it just like when blacksmiths start they make crude weapon, here its scrap) The group had a lot of production job players ranging from blacksmiths, tailors, fishermen and farmers even. The ones like fishermen and farmers I asked to help the cooks because they had experience with food items while the rest I planned to send them to that workshop inside the ship I¡¯m interested in seeing what comes out of there. By the time the boots were done, the Dingy and 4 out of 7 of Jessica¡¯s fighters were repaired and 2 of my 6 fighters were completely built. As for dads gunship it was¡­progressing. The thing was large to say the least but that didn¡¯t matter since it wasn¡¯t that much bigger than a Dingy just longer. The problem is that we don¡¯t know what goes were and we don¡¯t know the required systems needed to get it working. Ernest and Adam were working on it personally and had to take apart 4 Dingy engines and made the new engine, the same for the life support, power generator, fuel tank and plating. But the problem was still there the ship had many advanced programs and they didn¡¯t know them, the same for the station droids they didn¡¯t have schematics for this type of ship and they weren¡¯t allowed to give us a gunships schematics of a different type. The ship could get airborne but the potential it once had could amount now to at best twice as strong as a Dingy at best, which is a poor performance since a gunship should be able to take down carrier like mine with fighter swarming it without a problem since they also come equipped with shield generators. After a while they gave up and just loaded the ship with what they knew and added laser to top it off and have it at least functioning. With the mostly taken care of I lead the production recruits to the carrier and into the cargo hold. In there we find a large pile of space suits that were on the Reavers. Aiko: so this is it, this is a BIG cargo hold but these suits are we supposed to use them. Noah: I was hoping to have them fixed up before handing them out. They all pick up a suit and examine it stats as well as its physical state, I also do that as well to see what we have to work with.
Old space suit This old space suit was found on a derelict Reaver ship it has been ripped in several spots and can¡¯t function as a space suit until repaired. Durability 20/45 Defense 0 Life support (undamaged) Battery (40%)
Aiko: these suits suck and they are so bland with no flair. Jin: we need to repair them¡­so um while we do that lets remodel the design. Aiko: great idea, boss show us that workshop you mentioned and go buy us some materials for repairs and dyes to paint them better, how do you want them, OH!!! Let¡¯s got with star trek style with the different division having a different color and and¡­ She continued on for a few minutes before she noticed how eccentric she had gotten Aiko: *cough cough* sorry about that, as a tailor I was a bit¡­eccentric Noah: I noticed but I guess that¡¯s a good thing since it will make for interesting designs. I don¡¯t mind the idea about the star trek thing either I think it is the best way to distinguish who is who but for higher ranks comes better design. Aiko: I accept your challenge boss. She returned to her eccentric nature and was talking to herself on what to do. I lead everyone to the workshop and went they saw it they rushed in to check out the area. There were five large work benches and near the back there were large part production machines for basic parts. As I looked around I saw a few people pull out lots of scrap parts onto the tables and using the tools began working. After a bit they had a small pistol. These guys were from the soldier division and they were cheerful since they could make the gun but it seems that only with proper tools they could do it so it wouldn¡¯t help in emergency situations which are what I need them ready for. (Such as crashes they need to make their own weapons to fight the wildlife on planets) I see Aiko messing with some of tools herself and I see in her hand a space suit. I could see she was patching the holes but with what I didn¡¯t know and since she was so focused I didn¡¯t find out seeing as she is one of the more experienced designers we have. With all of them so focused, I left the room and headed to the new lab. In there I found the scientist team already hard at work. What was surprising was what they were working on. at the back of the room a new glass wall had been made, don¡¯t ask me how but it looked new. Inside were Wilson Kinter and a few other older scientists and few young ones hunched over the body of the rock creature my crew killed. I just watched for a little bit and just rested my back on the wall near the door. Though I didn¡¯t make a sound Kinter still spotted me and signaled to the others to continue working and then came over to me. Kinter: greetings captain is there something you need here? Noah: I just came to see what the lab was like, how did you get your hands on the rock creature my crew killed. Kinter: well Mr. Cane came to us and handed him over and asked us to study it, it¡¯s even a D rank mission since he wants as much information in this thing as possible the more we learn the better but this body is badly beaten up all over if we had one more intact we could study it better. Noah: well we aren¡¯t going to leave port for a few days since we need to get fighter and Dingy ships ready but those creatures were reported appearing all over the place in the asteroid fields. Kinter: do you think you¡¯re finding this creature has any connections Noah: probably just as much of a chance as there is for the pirates Jessica fought come and raids the station. So did you find anything important yet? Kinter: here is the current log of our findings they are quite intriguing creatures.
Research team Research log 1 Rock Creatures They are as the tentative name suggests, they are completely made from asteroid rocks found in space. What I find more intriguing is that these creatures contain not only rock but a trace amount of mineral ore within its body. We believe this is so their body becomes stronger the more they hold which might be a reason they have begun attacking the miners who are destroying their food sources. While we are still studying it we know for certain that the more they gain of mineral ore in their body the more powerful they will become
Noah: they will get stronger Kinter: I don¡¯t want to frighten you but we think this might not even be an adult of this creature or¡­there may be other variants of these rock creatures. Noah: I see¡­well for now continue studying what you can, once we go out we will try to gather as many of them as we can get. He nods then goes back to work and I leave the lab and head to the armory. Inside I find a large number of military grade weaponry, laser rifles fitted with scopes, sniper rifles also with even stronger scopes, numerous pistols of different types and to my surprise and joy a single power suit, though it¡¯s similar to gunners which is just looks like bracers used to hold disabled people. I curiously examine it and after a bit I scan it numerous times
Due to scanning a piece of armor numerous times you have acquired enough structural data to make blueprints to construct this model of power suit. The model can also be changed by adding other armor over it and adjusting it to make a new kind of armor.
Old Battle Suit An old military battle power suit, this model was once known throughout the frontier for its exceptional performance but now this suit has fallen into disrepair and can¡¯t be used anymore except as a display item.
Noah: a very useful display item, I guess it would need a few changes since I scanned a suit that was in disrepair but that can wait. I look over the blueprints excited and don¡¯t notice the PMs from my crews until Ernest shouts. Ernest: FOR CRISTS SAKE AWNESER ALREADY!!!! Noah: what¡­sorry about that I was just distracted. Morgan: what could distract you for so long and so deeply that you didn¡¯t hear the pms? Noah: I was able to get a blueprint for power suit from that old junker inside the armory Basil: how did you do that? I tried but after 3 scans I gave up. Noah: I kept scanning it until I got it, I was just making some modifications, or I guess repairs, to the blueprints since it¡¯s a blueprint of a suit in disrepair. Ernest: well that¡¯s fine and all but let¡¯s get down to business, we have two Dingy and 4 new fighters ready from our side and all of the girls ships are done as well, with this number of fighters and 4 Dingy¡¯s we should be able to start mining Noah: 4 Dingy¡¯s? Does Jessica want to mine with us? Ernest: she said something along the lines of wanting to use your carrier as a base or mother ship for the fighters so that she wouldn''t need to make a support system on her Dingy¡¯s she said she would pay but it has to be below 10% daily pay. Noah: tell her 5% and she can use it, also go get the other Dingy and take the Life support out of it so that we get that space back and get all the ships into the hanger. Also get Felix to teach some recruits to fly the ship and do some target practice before coming we will need good shooters to protect the miners. Ernest: alright we¡¯ll get on it. The chat was cut and I was left in silence. Noah: ¡°things sure have gotten more hectic¡± I went to the hanger and waited a bit. It was half an hour before the ships started arriving. The first to appear were the Dingys all four came at the same time and with me directing them from the tower on the second floor they landed near the back. About 5 minutes after 11 new fighters appeared, 4 were mine I could tell since they were the larger stealth fighter model while the others were smaller and looked more like jet fighters. In another 10 minutes, about half my crew appeared and started going inside and take their places that the Ernest, Adam and Felix were assigning. Adam and about 3 techs and 2 mechanics came with me to the control room to assist with the controls. The last things to arrive were the 20 droids that were now mine; I saw them from the monitors in the control room. The began a lengthy check list in the control room as one system at a time was started with the engine and power systems being first, then followed hanger shield, life support, gravity, interior lights and so on. While we were getting ready I saw the players I had given some magnet boots to go on the cat walk next to the ship and hop on to the top and spread out. There were about 15 up there the other 20 were inside as guards. With everything checked I got permission to leave and with a gentle pull backwards on the right handle, the carrier took off. Letting off on the thrusters caused the ship to counter the momentum going up and just float there. Then pulling back the left handle the ship began going backwards as it left the safety of the dock and into space. Once the ship was completely outside of the station we activated the ships shields then started to turn the ship towards the asteroids fields and went. To reach the asteroids only took about a minute at 75% of the speed which was around 600 m/h. As we arrive I slow down to 10% (85 m/h) and start to push my way into the field. Adam: are we going inside with the carrier? Noah: this will create a corridor into the deeper parts of the asteroid field and will make for faster escapes as well. Adam: oh I didn¡¯t think of this but be careful with the shields the rocks for now as small but the bigger ones might cause damage. We slowly push on but unlike he said the shield simply pushes the rocks to the side. When we start to spot the larger rocks which register as B class I pull the ship to a halt and with the ships mic I call out to those at the hangers. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Noah: all flyers we have reached the destination, just a reminder the area has gotten dangerous so be on your guard, each ship is to have one pilot and someone manning their guns to cover as well as 2 fighters each 3 fighters are to stay on the ship to work in shifts between the fighters, we have repaired enough space suits for all personnel going into space. As I say that part droids come out with a cart full of repair space suits Noah: these are not power suits just normal space suits that will protect you while you are in space this is a precaution in case of air leaks. The current cargo is of 64t plus each Dingys cargo we will return to unload once all cargo is full please refrain from mining far away asteroids and I would recommend mining the same rock as your fellow miners to have the fighters close by to provide backup. As I finished the crews began to buzz with activity in the hangers as all those going out went to pick up the suits and the rest go the ships ready. Soon the Dingys took flight and behind them 9 fighters fly out. On the control room monitors images from the 2 Dingy and 5 fighter ships that belong to me are showing a front view while the Dingy has a front and below deck view. It doesn¡¯t take long for them to choose a B class rock and with all four ships releasing the drones they scan the rock in less than 10 minutes. The mineral was Doxtrite, which is a greyish blue color in its brute form. We watch as they choose to land about 20 meters away from each other and begin mining. The fighters are all spread and aimed at the rock face as well as the other rocks behind them. Their caution saved their life as other nearby asteroids start braking at the surface just as the miners break the surface of the asteroid and reveal the ore inside. More than 20 rock creatures appear from smaller rocks that I would rate as D or E class and launch themselves at the large rock hoping to crash into one of the open holes of the asteroid. Unfortunately they never reach because they each receive a blast of laser which makes them veer of course and crash into the asteroid painfully out of control. Two of the creatures die on impact and just slam into the asteroid then float back out limp, while most of the rest are critically injured missing arms or legs. As they get each get up from their crash landing they are welcomed by laser shots from the nearest mining ship. The order was given to aim for the head to end this with minimal damage since the scientists wanted to study them. Obviously Mr. Kinter was in the control room watching the action and seeing their habits with his own eyes. It doesn¡¯t take long for the mining ship shooters to finish the job which leaves the area in silence. Everyone was on guard waiting to see if anything was out their waiting to ambush them. When nothing pops out after a few minutes I send the order to gather the bodies. Felix stops mining and goes around picking them up and once he grabs all he returns to the carrier. The hanger was already filled with scientists and the worker droids ready to unload. As soon as the Dingy Landed the cargo hatch opened and the droids invaded the cargo pulling out all the ores the followed by the bodies all of which were taken to the cargo. The scientists followed after them as the Felix left the carrier and headed out again. I call up the monitor in the cargo and see the scientist shifting through the bodies. After a few minutes of looking Mr. Kinter grabs the speaker and activates it in the cargo and starts shouting out orders. Kinter: grab the fifth from the top he is the most intact specimen. The team looks up and working together they pull the others off it and find the one Mr. Kinter mentioned. It was one that last its leg from the knee down and died on impact so his body didn¡¯t have many holes in it. They have the droids transport it to the lab and Mr. Kinter leaves with a somewhat satisfied look. Adam: wonder how mineral rich those are? Noah: they came out of D and E class rocks it might be low the amount and I defiantly don¡¯t want them to get access to a class B asteroid. We need to be careful we never know what these things will become if they do get it. After that no other attacks happened and we quickly filled up the cargo leaving half of the B class rock remaining. I had half of the fighters remain there to guard remains so that the creatures don¡¯t get at it. With all ships equipped with compressors, except the carrier, the total amount of ores we gained in one run was 100.8t. I believe this was the first Doxtrite asteroid mined we will get to see the ores at the highest price of 130 credits a ton but since half the load was Jessica¡¯s since two dingy are hers I only get 6554 for a full load. The second load was a just fit barely fitting but we got it and so we got a full 13104 credits from that. It took 5 minutes to return to the station and 15 minutes to unload the ores. Those droids are some powerful guys they lift 100kg boulders with their hands. After we cleaned up the Doxtrite we continued mining other B class. We cleared up around 10 B class rocks and each one would always be attacked by the rock creatures when we began mining. We mined through 2 Cesogen $150, 2 Doxtrite $130, 3 Perrius $140, 4 Iron $64. They all have around the same amount of ore in them so we earned a hefty sum today and returned to the base after hours of mining. Once we finished unloading the final cargo we cashed in. the total sum of all the ores amounted to 249178 credits. Half was mine the other half was Jessica¡¯s but 5% from her share came to me because of the protection which amounted to 12459.35. it was a hell of a lot of money but the obvious consequences happened and this price only lasted today as the price for each of them dropped to a third of their original price. Now then just for the record the pay for the crew is for the work they do. 75% of the income stays with me because I own the ships and I need repairs, while the rest was used to pay everyone. When I told everyone this no one complained and some even though I needed to stay with more. Anyways I had built a chart for the pay ranges and everyone agreed on.
Ranked pay (Daily) Captain (me) 75% Commander $1200 Lieutenant Commander $1100 Lieutenant $1000 Lieutenant Junior Grade $600 Ensign $400 Recruit $250
Though the recruit pay was low it you could call it a temporary position for some. My lieutenants have already spotting the more talented, the moderate ranked that need training to match the talented and the ones that need intensive training to get them to rise. All in all a wonderful day with the generous amount of cash we got though that amount would only come with hard work from now on since the prices are lower now. Anyway the objective I aimed for was to show that base how effective our defense is and how well we could protect our ships. So when we returned and finished for the day we had tons of miners waiting. They all asked the same thing, ¡°How can we hire you to protect us?!¡± I could only grin as I explained that we will start protection when we have enough fighters in a few days and the price is 5% of the daily cash they get. They all had happy faces when they head 5%, like I said 5% doesn¡¯t seem like much but if you get 10 miners who mine the same amount and collect around 20,000 that is 1000 each so that is an easy 10000 per day with the work from others not to mention the ores my crew mines. Though I wasn¡¯t stupid enough to let them be the judge of the amount they got, I called a worker of the station and asked to have a contract written to which those who had protection during their mining trips would automatically be marked with a devise and 5% would be automatically counted and deposited for me when I collect my money. With that and over 20 signatures we had the thing signed and me and my lieutenants were grinning from ear to ear. I had quick orders for them they had to finish the remaining ships and make an additional 7 which will fill the carrier with the carrier with enough to supply the needed many power for the contract. Obviously the contract also stated how they should mine in groups for the protection to be at its most effective. Now the final piece of work of the day, which is equally as important as the contract. 40,000 credits paid to the station to completely refit and repair any structural damage on the carrier as with an additional 2000 going into a XD Compressor to increase cargo space, estimated time to finish 3 days. Ah how good it will be to remove that blood stained scrap metal on the outside of the carrier and put a new plate of armor with a fresh coat of pain. The next three days were not as eventful but went relatively quick. The new fighters and Dingy were complete finishing our small fleet. With them the three Dingy I owned along with 8 of the 15 of the fighters would go out and mine and the fighters took shifts so as not to risk the pilot¡¯s life we would switch the fighters every 2 hours. No other miners besides me and Jessica were able to leave the station because we couldn''t protect everyone without the carrier to refuel the fighters and provide support for repairs and such that might happen. The attacks were all in the same fashion and ended with few of them actually surviving to reach the surface of the asteroids alive. As such we didn¡¯t need to worry much but the lack of the carriers presence sucked because we needed to return to the station a lot like we did before. That all changed after the three days were up and in front of me I was walking around at my newly refurbished carrier. It didn¡¯t have a single dent in it; most minor damage to the structure as well as the engine had also been taken care of. The ship now sported a white and black paint job, black on the lower half and white on the uppers. The plates on the inside were also changed for new ones and were painted pure white like it was supposed to be and now it felt like a new ship. We were all happy to have the ship in better condition because flying on it how it was made if feel more like a ghost ship then a proper one. The moment we announced that we were going to mine every crew scrambled to get ready. My crew was already prepared and we left soon after we announced it. About 2 minutes later when we were entering the asteroid field a swarm of Dingy¡¯s left the station and headed at high speeds towards us and slowed down after they were near. There were around 30-50 ships and I was sure that more than half of them thought they would take advantage of the protection but they didn¡¯t know about the trackers that would alert us were the miners under the contract was. We moved deep into the asteroid field until we reached the A class asteroids. The area was sparse of rocks and only had the large asteroids which were at least twice as big as the carrier. We sent the signal for the miners to mine within one of the large asteroids and sent out our own which began the mining. Soon the rock as surrounded by small busy miners. But to our surprise nothing attacked which meant that the small rocks might have something to do with them. We just watched the mining and it obviously was getting boring since most of the action came from the attacks. As we waited I noticed Adam and a few other control room techs with worried faces working away at the monitors and computers. Noah: hey Adam what¡¯s with the worried face and the intense typing? Adam: well¡­we are receiving an SOS signal but we can¡¯t get the frequency right. Noah: put it only loud speaker for the control room He does so and static starts to sound in the room. Every so often a voice could momentarily be heard. ??? : h¡­o K¡­a ¡­d he... c¡­ h..r u. Noah: can¡¯t you clear that up. Adam: no it¡¯s the best we can do. Noah: how¡¯s about tracing that call then? Adam: we tried but the message is too scattered because of the asteroids. Noah: can¡¯t we raise the output on the scanners to find it? Adam: let me try. He types on the keyboard rapidly while we continue hearing the SOS call. Suddenly it clears up a bit and we can hear enough of the voice to understand him. ??? : he..o can .ny..e here us, we .re on K.lha II from th. .and.ng c.ew, we ..qu.st .xt..cti.n Noah: ¡­did I hear right, he is ON Kelha II as in the planet ??? : you didn¡¯t hear wrong captain. I look back and find Ernest and Mr. Kinter behind me. Kinter: what do you make of this? Noah: it smells fishy, like a trap. Ernest: I get the same feeling¡­I think we should check with the station from what I could piece together I hear landing crew so they must have tried to land and populate the planet. Noah: Adam open up a channel to Kelha II Station He works quickly and soon a monitor appears with the image of one of the attendants of the tower. ??? : hello Miner Noah, what is it that you need. Noah: we just received a weak SOS signal coming from the planet Kelha II request extraction from a landing crew, care to explain, if I remember correctly from scans on of the planet I found in my ship the planet is uninhabited and uninhabitable unless its terraformed why is there an SOS signal coming from it. The man was visibly shaken and he was sweating a lot. I can tell he mutes the chat and begins talking and soon after Mr. Cane appears. Mores: Noah!!! What¡¯s this about an SOS from the planet?! Noah: you heard right Mr. Cane the message was pretty broken up but at one point it cleared up as it repeated itself and we could piece the message together, Adam do a playback of the message. He does as ordered and plays it again in the channel connected to the station. From the screen I could see many NPC gather around the screen listening and they were all shaken when they were able to decipher the message. Mr. Cane even had to sit down from the shock, I could tell this was leading to something big and we were right at its front door. Mores: my god, we thought they died. Noah: who sir? Mores: the first landing group we sent to Kelha II, I¡¯m sure you can tell it¡¯s a desert planet with a very thin atmosphere so very little organic life can live there. The crew was sent to make this place a mining planet because its rich in precious metals just like the asteroid field up here in space but something happened just as the first freighter ship was lifting off, after that we lost all connections so we though they were dead. I know this might be too much to ask of your crew but can you go down to the planet and search for them we will send you the coordinates of the landing zone.
Mission: SOS rescue You have discovered an SOS message coming from the desert planet Kelha II. After relaying it to your boss you discovers that a crew was sent down to industrialize the planet for mining goods but something happened. Your boss has asked you to look into it and rescue any survivor you might encounter. Difficult A Time Limit: unknown Reward: ???
Noah: ¡±should have guessed it was something like this¡±
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Volume 1 Chapter 7 Mission Preperations
Mission SOS rescue You have discovered an SOS message coming from the desert planet Kelha II. After relaying it to your boss you discovers that a crew was sent down to industrialize the planet for mining goods but something happened. Your boss has asked you to look into it and rescue any survivor you might encounter. Difficult A Time Limit: unknown Reward: ???
(mission = quest, it sounds much better for a sci-fi game) Noah: ¡±might have guessed it was something like this¡± I stare at the mission intensely as I read it. The difficulty was already the indicator that something extreme was going to happen. It is widely known that B and A rank quest have large scale effects. In older fantasy games a B rank mission can effect a region depending on the quest and an A rank is said to affect the whole continent while the most famous the S rank had a worldwide effect. But in The Nebula its unknown because the scale of the galaxy. As I look at it I notice the control room group talking away at the comms. Noah: something wrong? Adam: yes, the whole crew is in an uproar, more than half of them are in a panic when they saw the quest and want to reject the quest. Mores: WHAT DID YOU SAY!!! Noah: im sorry but how many people are against it. Adam looks through at the monitor a bit then turns back. Adam: the numbers are 20 soldiers, 8 techs and 15 mechanics. No scientists or manufacturing crew members care about the quest so they are calm. That means 43 of our 120 members are panicking. Noah: why are they even panicking I haven¡¯t even accepted the mission. Adam: they are saying that its beyond them they will never finish it¡­damn it the fighters and our miners are returning to the ship and landing and are refusing to continue while we consider doing this mission. Noah: damn it, all of you call the other miners and tell them we ran into a problem and they should return to the station because we can¡¯t protect them that well now. They get busy calling the other pilots; soon we see dozens of dingy fly back towards the station. Noah: *breaths deeply* great Mr. Cane we will talk about this mission when we return to the station were we can talk in private and calmly and get more details. Mores: yes I think you are having to much trouble with that unfaithful crew of yours, if you dismiss them I can see if some spare station personal would like to join your crew, your quite famous among the crew. Noah: ill think about it, thanks for the offer. The channel closes and I slump down on my seat Noah: damn of all the times to get cold feet they had to choose now. Ernest: don¡¯t blame them this is the first A rank quest in the game. Wilson: I understand what Noah is saying, as the first quest you would usually be excited to do it being the first will get you tons of fame. Adam: I think they are just cowards; they don¡¯t want the responsibility if they fail to fall on their backs Everyone in the room nods to his statement. I open the monitor showing the hanger and there was all my ships packed in with a few fighters on top of each other from lack of space, bastards those are my ships. I just sigh deeply as I see those idiots shout in anger for getting them in something like this. I don¡¯t even say anything as I pull the ship out of the asteroid field and dock at the station. Noah: I really don¡¯t want to go down and talk with them they are just a pain in the ass, I¡¯m sure that they will continue doing this while we are still in a simple carrier. Ernest: just fire them then we don¡¯t need people like them, we can find plenty NPC who are much better than them. Noah: I like that idea, NPC work better and I bet that the station hands are much more experienced than us players. Well let¡¯s get to it. We walk down to the hanger and into the crowd who starts yelling when we arrive. We ignore them as they yell and after a long 10 minutes I get angry and pull the laser pistol and shoot up which quites everyone. Noah: good now that I have your attention I¡¯ll say this once, everyone that was just annoyed from us discovering an A rank mission is fired so get off my ship after you drop the space suits and guns and all the tools you gained while working under me into the cargo hold. They were all flabbergasted at what they heard, soon they regained their senses and began to remove all the things that belong to me and were only in their basic cloths they had when they arrived and they all left the ship with angry expressions. Noah: ¡±great though there are still 77 members left, -20 from scientist and another 20 for the manufacturing team leaves 37 members to man the ship. The crew had 29 soldiers, 14 techs and 28 mechanics after the manufacturing team was formed. Now I will have 9 soldiers, 6 techs and 13 mechanics all this not counting my original crew damn this sucks¡± I sit down on the ground against the wall as I stare at the tools and cloths on the floor of the now empty hanger. Noah: this is going to be a pain in the ass. I hung my head down dejected at the sight of my crew. ??? : Now is that how you should be acting, you did the right thing you know. I look up and find Mr. Cane with Marcus behind him. Marcus: I have a list of at least 40 station hands that want to go out in space instead of staying here. I give him a weak smile after hear a bit of good news; at least I might still have enough people to man the ship. Noah: ill look at it later I think its best us talk about this mission first. Mores: yes I think that would work better. We walked back to the top floor and turned into a room just before the control room. This room was similar to a conference room. A large table in the middle with about a dozen chairs all around, my original crew was all hear and the nine of us sat the same as our two guests. Mores: well I¡¯m glad at least the some of your crew remained. Noah: I¡¯m even more so sir, at least now I know who is loyal at least. Mores: well then about this mission, we did a search of what little information we could gather before the transmission was cut, it was mainly geographic scans as well as the coordinates of the landing zone. Marcus: we found that the asteroid field around the planet blocks signals from leaving because of its high metal content the same for the planet. Earl: it¡¯s been bugging me but how big is this planet, it doesn¡¯t seem that large but I noticed that even when we enter the asteroid field the size doesn¡¯t change much. They both gave wary smiles before looking though some info on the interface and then transmitted it to the holo projector at the center of the table. An image of old earth appeared then it shrank to about a third of the size it showed and moved to the side and next to it Kelha II appeared. It was about 1/3 time bigger then earth. Mores: like you see 1/3 times bigger than earth but it¡¯s a mineral rich planet with a mass of double of earths the same goes for gravity. Marcus: not to mention that he planet has a super thin atmosphere even less then mars back in the sol system. Ernest: that is small then¡­didn¡¯t the idea of terraforming the planet come to mind. Mores: no only mining it, we can easily make an atmosphere inside the compounds used for mining so we didn¡¯t have to worry¡­at least that was the plan. Marcus: we don¡¯t know the details but we think the freighters that were leaving the planet with a large cargo of ores were destroyed by something. Noah: can we see the landing zone as well the underground compound that was made. The nod and begin working. Soon earth vanishes and only Kelha II remains, then the image moves very close to the planet until the image of a compound appeared then in another second the ground around it vanished showing a complex network of tunnels under it. Basil: hey I¡¯m curious what ore is this and also this very black one at the edge here. Mores: this in an iron vain and that black rock is densely packed bedrock. Morgan: isn¡¯t bedrock found below all the dirt? Marcus: we were confused as well about this when we discovered this we think it might have been placed there by something to contain the mass of the mineral inside from escaping. Noah: did you say the planet was uninhabited? Mores: we never said that we said it had a small atmosphere. We all became wide eyed when we heard this. Marcus: we never found proof that there isn¡¯t life on this planet but we always consider that because of what happened. Noah: ¡­cant it be considered now then? Mores: you mean the rock creatures right. I nod. Mores: when you brought that in it was like a new puzzle piece had fallen into place and we could fit half of the messed up ones. Noah: so you had the same idea of it then. Mores: yes, it would make sense as well since they are rock they don¡¯t require an atmosphere to survive evident by the fact that we are finding them in space. Marcus: back on the topic, this here is the only land base we have, if the rock creatures exist here and are under the planet then they might have attacked the ship as it lifted off. Noah: so what do you want us to do then? Mores: we want you to go down there and see if there are any survivors. If there are help them get the base working if it¡¯s not already. Jonas: what if the rock creatures attack. They just smiled warily and stayed quiet but we knew what that meant.
Mission SOS rescue You have discovered an SOS message coming from the desert planet Kelha II. After relaying it to your boss you discovers that a crew was sent down to industrialize the planet for mining goods but something happened. Your boss has asked you to look into it and rescue any survivor you might encounter. Difficult A Objective: find any survivors or confirm that they are all dead. Get the base working. Time Limit: unknown Reward: ???
Noah: fine we will do this but you can guess right this isn¡¯t something that can be done without a LOT of preparations.
Mission Accepted
Mores: we will help with what we can. Noah: first let¡¯s see that list of station personnel. He uploaded the list to our computers. It was a pretty impressive list actually; it puts my crew to shame really. Manufacturing specialist, ship constructor, weapons constructor, engine mechanic, biologist, botanist, mechanic developer, technicians, guards, ect¡­ We sat wide eyed at the impressive list of prospective recruits, the current pay we had with the players wouldn¡¯t cut it with them I bet. Mores and Marcus were smiling as they see our expressions. We look and then suddenly Basil begins laughing Basil: hey look at the end of the list look who wants to join. We scrolls down and the last picture with the name next to it showed a familiar cubby man. Yep Gunners mug shot was there at the last one on the list. Almost half of my crew started laughing seeing his picture there, it could easily tell that we was getting aboard, I also want him on I could probably depend on him more with a gun then most of the crew who are still getting used to the space guns. Not to mention the man must know how to build the power suits since he is always wearing them. I look at this info which shows race and skills he allowed to be displayed.
Name: Gunner Rex Race: Drune Rex Skills: Gun Mastery (for all sizes) (Advanced 9) Weapon Construction (Advanced 7 Ship construction (Advanced 3) Scavenging (Master 2) Hardware programmer (Advance 4 Software Programmer (Advance 4 Hacker (Advance 2) Gun mastery (Master Max) Power Suit construction (Master Max) Power Suit Programmer (Master Max)
(hehe sry Viken, I wasn¡¯t planning on it but then I though he is always with power suit and super smart and good with tools so the race was to perfect) We laughed only until we saw the skills he showed then an abrupt silence came over everyone as we looked at his abilities. We already guessed he was a very skilled man but we never would have imagined it was to this extent. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Felix: um sirs¡­by any chance have you seen the skills of the men that want to join us. Mores: most of them, there were a few that I didn¡¯t bother seeing like the man from the junkyard. I quickly gave a sharp glare at everyone to shut them up. They all knew exactly what I was planning. Noah: so how do we choose who joins. Mores: I¡¯m sure there is an option to recruit at the top right hand corner. We looked and we found the box so I click it and the screens gets wider and has two boxes now with the left one having all the applicants while the right one being empty and in between them were two small boxes that had arrows pointed to either left or right. I quickly found Gunner and tossed him into the recruiting box then we took a good hour looking through the others. They were all pretty good almost all of them had skills above intermediate. At the end of it all using the category we had before we gained 12 soldiers 10 techs, 10 mechanics, 2 biologist, 3 botanists, 2 tech developers and 1 Gunner Rex. With a crew of 61 we have enough now to man the ship while the number of researchers increased by 8. Mores: so everyone was taken well i not surprised they are all useful for the ship. Noah: yes very much so¡­I was hoping you guys had blue prints for a power suit that could help us walk normally on the planet. Mores: we had already prepared them for you but it¡¯s no battle suit mind you it a miner suit that is used for high gravity planets like ours. The blue prints are soon uploaded in our systems like he said they increase our strength by around 4 times to allow us the strength to hold ourselves up in higher gravity but the mobility is half the normal suit. I didn¡¯t get discouraged because with the new researchers we now have some experienced personal that work on technology research. Marcus: is there anything else needed for you need. Noah: no I think its fine now, we just need construction materials to make the power suits. Mores: those will be brought over the techs that you hires should have some knowledge of making power suits and they can¡¯t teach your manufacturing team how to do the same. Marcus: I guess that¡¯s it then I hope you guys can get to the planet quickly we are worried about what happened and I hope you could get some of the systems up and running. Noah: don¡¯t worry we will try and see if we can do that. Mores: well with everything done we wish you luck; your new crew will be coming soon. With the talk done we followed them down to the hanger and watched them leave. After they left we just sighed from the tiring events that happened. Noah: I really hope NPC are easier to work with. Ernest: a few of them we are acquaintances with so you don¡¯t need to worry they are good people and much better than the cowards that you fired. As soon as he said that the new member¡¯s began appearing with bags which probably contained their own tools and cloths. Gunner had the large cargo which he brought on a cart along with several bots that looked to be for made for heavy lifting. Gunner: what the hell happened here what¡¯s with these fighters piled up on each other? Noah: that¡¯s the work of the cowards that were fired an hour ago, we were given a mission to go down to the landing zone on Kelha II because we received a SOS from there. This sent got them talking a lot things like, ¡°what they are alive¡± ¡°I can¡¯t wait to go my brother was one that went down¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe we will be the team that rescues them¡± Ernest: well we don¡¯t have to worry about them ditching us on the way like the players. Noah: ya¡­ok everyone the rooms are mostly empty, once you find one you like and then get to your work spots. They all salute and head out; I stop Gunner as he passes by. Noah: hey Gunner can you lead teach the manufacturing team how to make power suits we will need them, we got some blue prints from Mores that will help us. I send the plans to him; he stares at the screen then frowns. Gunner: junk like this will help down there but they suck for any other uses if you want I can teach them and even you boys how to build some good stuff. We were hoping you would say that oh and hard and software programming would also be helpful of you could teach that to them as well as the techs. He just salutes and heads off. As the area cleared my dad and Jessica appeared from the station Noah: hey what are you guys doing here? Dad: we heard your crew has some opening spots and wanted to have our crews join up. Jessica: ya my crew sufferers without mechanics and no in my crew wants to learn. We start laughing at Jessica, she starts blushing as we laugh and then joins in. Noah: ya that would help, you crew is fighters right Jessica what¡¯s your dad I never saw any of them? Dad: well mine are a few mechanics and techs they were excited to hear about the mission you got and wanted to join up. Jessica: My crew just wants to be fighters and you seem to be around a lot of action so they wanted to join up. Noah: I¡¯m fine with that but I ask that you don¡¯t act like my ex crewmates. Dad/Jessica: no problem. Noah: then get them up here then and working I hired NPC that are experienced so you can learn a lot from them. They left quickly into the ship I¡¯m sure they also called there crews. The next few days went by quickly, of my 22 fighters, now Jessica¡¯s counts as mine as well the same with the Gunship, we had to buy a station hanger inside the station to hold extra ships which stored 13 of the fighters. No what took off well was the science and manufacturing teams. The NPC crew members brought with them a LOT of experienced and they drilled it into the players. Gunner taught manufacturing team how to make power suits that didn¡¯t had the same power as the blueprints we gained but it helped with movements in high gravity so we could move normally even on Kelha II. On the other hand the other tech developers took over the lab and with at least have the scientists he drilled knowledge pertaining the inner workings of laser weaponry into them and as such they are now working on researching on how to make turrets for the carrier as well as researching how to increase the output to the guns we have making them better. The techs that took up the post in the engine room drilled all their knowledge into the players of the inner workings of the normal engine and warp drives which promptly opened the door to increasing the abilities of the crew to repair the actual engine and also they learned how to make better engines which helped them build a totally new engine for the gunship. During this time we would change shifts to mine so that we didn¡¯t run out of money, and continued the mining plan of protecting the miners. With the funds we continued research and training for 1 month until I found we were ready and we had enough power suits for the whole crew including the manufacturing and research group. At the end of the month, the research group had been able to develop a two barrel turret that worked for the carrier and a smaller version for the gunship both of which was manned by fighters. The carrier had 6 turret entries, 1 on top 1 under and 2 on each side of the ship near the front and back. The gunship on the other hand had 2 turret spots near the back on the top side while the other was below the ship. The gun ship was also outfitted with a new engine thanks to the engine room mechanics. After the month long of training and technology improvement I thought we were ready to venture down. I had gathered my crew and announced that we would go down and that provisions and repair materials were to be made and stored. I also went out of my way to purchase improved machinery for the lab and manufacturing workshop until it was considered an intermediate ranked workshop. The improvements also allowed us to process the ores into simple plate metal which raised the prices and income and it got to a point that we purchased the ores from the miners out in the field and processed it there. During the final week as we got ready we did the same thing and filled 75% of the cargo hold with metal ingots and sheets so that we can later process its further into parts needed for repairs of the base on the planet. The weeklong preparation also herald an end to our money making plan because we warned the miners we would be going down to the planet to do a mission so during that time many crews began building ships fighters. my ex crew also developed a support ship that was made with an extra-large fuel tank and improved life support system to do the work of supplying the fighters. They built a new crew centered on ship building though they couldn¡¯t get the help of the NPC because they abandon my crew just because of a mission. Soon we weren¡¯t as needed as before because there were a substantial number of ships now. Noah: too bad we can¡¯t make more money of these guys for protection anymore but I think we might get much more out of doing this quest. Gunner: hahaha that¡¯s what you¡¯re worried about even as the current most productive miner that is all your worrying about is a riot. Noah: heh anyway are you finally done with all the power suits you said you were trying to develop a new one for battle right. Gunner: heh here is yours captain, I talked with that miss from the manufacturing team she was really eccentric about making the armor plating and went all out using metal to make it. He then handed me a power suit like his own it looked similar to the metal bracers from any power suit but I could see on the side the old space suits as well as armor pieces that were all separate from the suit. Out of curiosity I scanned the suit to check its stats.
High Gravity Power Suit A new model of power suit developed by an unknown research group. This suit was made to be used on planets with gravity levels twice that of old earth. This suit was made to increase the strength of the user by 6 times while keeping or improving the speed of the user to at least twice the original amount. This suit was made to work with space suits for use in the vacuum of space; it is equipped with magnet boots as well as a battery that last 12 hours without charging when used just with life support and the boots. Strength 6x Agility 2x Dexterity 2x
Noah: wow that¡¯s impressive improvements for it. Gunner: even with my expertise it¡¯s still hard to develop a suit to handle G2 gravity without sacrificing speed. Noah: everyone has one of these right? Gunner: yep every last one of them, now get the space suit on I had the girly put a new layer fabric so it should be much more comfortable then we can add the armor plating you will need these to survive. I put the space suit and like he said it was quite comfortable it attached at certain spots to provide the battery power to the suits support. Next was the armor, I had to put the arms and legs first as it was all tight fit and was made to keep air inside. The armor was quite bulky but it was directly connected with the power suit which prevented the armor from getting in the way of our movements as much as it would have. (http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140703204611/crossoverrp/images/4/4b/ARS_Mass_Production.jpg) After putting the armor on he handed me a cool looking helmet which I put on. I sealed onto my head air tight after I put it on to protect me from the elements and after plugging in the interface I normally saw through my watch appeared on the screen then shrank to the side. There were a few more things like how much was remaining battery and the condition of my body, seems it can ready my vitals but that probably corresponds with the damage received though the armor. As I look around there are many people armored up like me. I take the helmet off since we don¡¯t need it. Noah: alright lets go then we have a base to find and people to rescue.
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*** hey ive been needing bit of help i cant deside a name for the rock creatures, though Golems have come to mind since that is very Fantasy i was thinking Ore men because of the minerals they have in their body, if you have ideas please post Volume 1 Chapter 8 Asteroid Battle Field We progressed into the asteroid field slowly as we dug our way through while the ships shields pushed the asteroids out of the way. We had left about an hour ago from the station and are currently going through the 3 layers inside the asteroid field. From the information we got from Mr. Cane it seems there are 7 layers which, from scans, show that they have different materials, much rarer materials then what is found in the first layers we mined from. And like any dungeon from a fantasy game the place was full of enemies. Every five minutes we are attacked from all sides by the rock creatures. We were able to ward them off because we of the turrets and improved engines and weapons to the fighters and Gunship. After entering the third layer we had the unexpected surprise to be assaulted by monsters about twice the size of the first ones. It was also much more difficult to kill because the body was also much harder and unless the lasers were aimed at thinner limbs it didn¡¯t cause enough damage. We brought the body in for examinations and it resulted in discovering that these larger creatures had a denser amount of minerals in them. Another discovery was that they had very tiny cores; it was the size of a small low caliber pistol bullet used in the past. We identified it as a core because Gunner recognized it, it was a pure iron core as pure as it gets just like any A rank asteroid. After closer analyses we also discovered these monsters originated from D and C class rocks which explained some of the reason why they were stronger. At this point we also began smelting the bodies because there were a lot of materials we could get from them. With three empty Dingy we stored most of the processed iron in them. Progress was really slow even with us going at the fastest safe speed we could and the monsters only slowed us even more in our advance. We were told by Marcus that if there was no asteroid field we could get to the planet¡¯s surface at our full speed in around 12 hours but with the layers in front of us it would take at least 2 days if nothing goes wrong. Even knowing that the monsters were getting stronger the crew didn¡¯t get discouraged on the contrary they got motivated. It also helped that we had some good cooks like Jin and some NPC that could cook up some good food that kept the moral up. After 5 more attacks we finally broke through the third layer into the space between the third and fourth were you could find an A rank asteroids, this area is always void of monsters. We took the chance to check our fighters and the gunship just to be safe. With three Dingy, we only had room to land 9 fighters so the other 13 fighters would fly around and every hour 4 of the stealth model would switch and the smaller raider model also switched. (Default ships 1/5 the size of dingy) After switching the fighters for freshly fueled ones we entered into the fourth layer. It took around 4 minutes before the first attack commenced more than half the attackers were C rank rock monsters. (I will name them after the ship lands) This attack was the first one we struggled and I was immensely grateful that we waited so long to get ready and make the turrets. With 6 turrets occupied as well as 13 fighters attack plus a few extra men on the outside hull of the ship to provide further support it was like an endless attack with what we think was at least 60 rock creatures. It was obvious that this area was impossible to mine in as the monsters would destroy anything is to poorly guarded. Even though we say that after we collect the bodies and extract the cores inside them, which I might add has started to make quite a nice pile; we process the ores out and trash the rocks remains that were left. The next two attacks followed the same pattern and with around the same number of enemies. On the fourth attack though there was a difference. All the monsters were C rank and we spotted a new type. It was shape strangely like a fish and had one of the small rock creatures riding it. What was strange was that this thing was flying around the battle field without bumping into any rocks to push it along. Soon more appeared and the fighters were forced to give chase and we even had to release the remaining 9 fighters to help fight because the number rose to over 100 with around 20 of these flyers. Adam: this is getting really hectic Wilson: those flying ones, they are interesting, I wonder how they propel themselves. Maybe they are the reason that the rock creatures can get up into space. Noah: Mr. Kinter please stop analyzing them while we fight it¡¯s hard enough having to give out orders during this stressful moments like this while someone is non-caring whether we live or die. Wilson: sorry captain, I will leave for the hanger to examine the flyers once they are brought in. He leaves and we resume the annoying chase as more and more of the large rock creatures propel themselves at the shield chipping away at the shields defense. Noah: Adam can reroute more power to the shields? Adam: where would we get the power?! Noah: if we stop the ship we can take more power from the engines and increase output to the shields. Adam: let¡¯s try it. Ernest: please don¡¯t try anything stupid Noah, we need to survive to get to the planet and not die up in space. Noah: yes I know Ernest there is no need to worry. I pull the ship to a halt while the control room crew was working away at the controls, soon I could see the shields outside the ship get brighter as more power was sent to them and the durability rose and replenished the shield. With the increase in power we were able to stop their advance in and repair some of the damage caused to them as well as begin repelling. Soon the fighters were able to hit a few of the flyers. At his point we still hadn¡¯t ordered the gun ship to go in yet. As the situation started to tilt in our favor we kept it that way and left the gunship for really difficult situations so we wouldn¡¯t waste unneeded power. After a long 30 minutes that felt like hours we finally killed the last rock creature and harvested the bodies. The most intact flyer body was separated and given to the scientists to study. What they discovered was that the bodies were just as densely packed in metal as the large human shaped ones but these were a different metal. Using the core we discovered that it was a mix of Iron, Cesogen and trace amounts of nickel. The iron and nickel made the core similar to a planets core and the Cesogen caused an effect in the core which gave the metal in the body magnetic property¡¯s which seemed to be controllable as well to be either repel or attract which it probably used for pull itself near it and slingshot itself to fly through space. It was really interesting so I had that 20 core processed to see the proportion inside them. It came out as 4/10 Iron, 1/10 Nickel, 5/10 Cesogen. Learning the proper mixture the scientists were eccentric about it and began researching uses for the magnet mixture as well how to utilize it to repel and attract. After the attack we had to do some repairs as some fighters took a bit of damage though not that much it was better to be safe than sorry. With 9 ships in being repaired we called my dad it the gunship and told him to be ready for the next attack and that him and his crew on board would join in to cover the lack of fighters for such a large force. Soon enough a new wave came after we traveled about 5 km into the fourth layer. This layer seemed bigger than the others which were around 10 km, as of now we had already passed that mark so we can only assume it was getting bigger. The addition of the Gunship caused a totally effect on the fight. Before it was hard but this time with the extra turrets on the craft which was moving to different spots and chasing the flyers we finished with less damage and at a quicker speed. Had we had torpedoes or missiles we might have done this even quicker. We allowed the gunship to continue fighting and only refueled it after we exited the fourth layer sending out 2 Dingys to make room for it to land. Repair droids that Gunner had the crew make quickly came out with worker droids carrying large armor plating replaced damaged pieces which were taken and recycled into sheets ready to be processed over again into something else. We stayed in the clearing after the fourth layer and called the pilot¡¯s in. those that couldn¡¯t fit the ships in the hanger landed on top of the ship which was currently stationary and got out there and walked inside using the magnet boots. We let everyone eat and then set up shifts to watch the ship while most of the crew got some sleep. It wasn¡¯t that tedious since we had lots of people though those that had to stay up and watch didn¡¯t like it but they would be given leave of work to sleep it out. After a peaceful 10 hours to allow everyone to rest up. We prepared to head into the fifth layer of the asteroid field. I was currently in the hanger helping prepare the ships that came and left every few minutes as they were refueled and some refitted to repair damage. Ernest and Adam were repairing side boosters of the Gunship which was currently docked. As we finished up the gunship lifts off and the Dingy return and lands but stays on standby if need. I walk up over to were Adam and Ernest just as Basil also arrives. Noah: hey guy¡¯s things sure have gotten busy. Basil: HA busy is an understatement anyway its getting really exciting fighting those rock creatures. Ernest: speaking of those devils what are we going to call them, we can¡¯t keep calling them rock creatures. Noah: I haven¡¯t really had time to think of it with all the preparation we have been doing during the month. Basil: what about Ore Men, I also thought of Golems but that is to fantasy I think though it fits since they are made of rock. Noah: *sigh* I guess golems are fine but do we use it for all types like that flying thing? Adam: why not consider them all a race and then sub species. Like human, giant and shark. Ernest: it¡¯s simple enough if there are any survivors that named it anything better then we will use that. The crew members near us hearing the naming also seemed to agree on the name which seemed appropriate. After finishing up all the repairs I head back to the control room with Adam and Ernest heads to the engine room. Noah: well let¡¯s get on with it level 5 here we come. I sit down and start the main engine and do the check if all systems are properly running before setting off. In the fifth level we had all our force out and ready in all fighters, Dingy and the gunship all loaded and ready to fire. The first attack came after 10 km in the field. It was made up of 100+ giant golems and 25 riders. I ordered the fighters to chase the riders first while the Dingy and gunship were ordered to assist the carrier ward off the giants that were attacking the shield. A long hour long war in space happened with quite a bit of damage to our side. 6 fighters and 2 Dingy took some heavy damage to the point here they need to return to the carrier for serious repairs. The fighters were given quick repairs but 2 of them had engine damage and it kept them out of the battle but not the fighters themselves who ran out onto the hull of the ship with rifles and began firing away. The other ships took much less damage but the raiders were getting to be a pain. After the intense fight we dragged the most damaged ships in first and began heavy repairs and kicked all mechanics and techs into high gear. Repairs took a whopping 2 hours even with 25 repair bots that were built for preparation for this and all the mechanics led by Gunner who was the best among the crew. We were all on high alert during the repairs all the while we were constantly repairing damage to the ships. The most damaged ships had an engine or damaged and had to be pushed into the carrier. The least damaged ship was the gunship which only took a few hits to the side but that just dented the plate. When we had most of the fighters repaired we set off again leaving the remaining ships to repair in the hanger. We met the second attack 10km away and it was around 3 km way from the safety zone this attack was even more intense because they were more coordinated and they were working together now. The raiders would exit first and begin circling the carrier and when giants popped out they would grab the tail of the flyers. After building up speed they would send the hulking golems to smash into the shields this kind of attack did devastating damage to the shields to the point we had to reinforce the shields with more power. Lucky this attack had a major fault which was that the golems flew head first into the shields which left them vulnerable to attacks which also caused more since their weak point was the head. This attack we came out with less damage because many of the giants died out as the head was smashed to bits. As we entered the safe zone we began repairs and had the crew do shifts to rest both fights had drained them a lot because of the duration. If only this asteroid field didn¡¯t encase the whole planet we would have just gone over it. With this brake we are taking now it will make two days we have been out in space. If there weren¡¯t any Golems in the way we would have been landing already. I¡¯m glad the players ran away, if I had to rely on them I would have died already in the fourth layer. After a 10 hour brake we set off again as we enter we are already on extra high alert with the Dingys and Gunship and every one of my fighters flying around the carrier. As we push our way through the tension in the control room was extremely thick. The recent destructive attack has raised the tension to unprecedented levels throughout the whole crew. As we reach the 25 km mark into the sixth layer I see 2 B rank asteroids shutter. Noah: SHIT!! B RANKS NOW!!!! Adam sounds the alarm for combat we are getting high level creatures. As I say that the alarm sound through the coms and the interior of the ship and from the monitor I could see everyone get up and get to work. The carrier was pulled to a stop and the shields were reinforced with extra power to withstand the monstrous B ranks. As we watch the smaller ships scurry around getting ready but my eyes were on the B rank asteroid that was shaking and cracking like an egg about to hatch. As soon as the longest crack connected with a few others chunks of rock broke off as more. Suddenly both explored in a torrent of dust and rocks. As the dust spread we finally saw what they looked like. The word titan works just perfectly for them. At 10 meters tall 7 wide they were monstrous sized human shaped titans. They looked towards the ship and reached out to grab some rocks then chucked it at our ship. The response was instant all the ships blasted the rocks to smithereens and began the attack on the titans. Several ships fly towards the head including the Gunship which rained down blasts over and over. The titans flailed their arms trying to catch the little flies attacking them but were to slow thanks to their size. Though one of them did get lucky and hit the wing of a fighter sending it spinning out of control for a few seconds and destroying the wing. The pilot quickly maneuvered away from them and back to the carrier. The mechanics instantly got to work rebuilding the arm. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. At this point I really was wishing we had invested some time into making missiles and torpedoes to attack to the gunship but we don¡¯t have the tech for large projectiles like that. Though gunner, being the gun nut he was, didn''t disappointing us, he had his own personal rocket launcher which he was currently abusing while shooting for the Golems head. Really that man, if it involves weapons he will take the project by himself if he had to. Though unfortunately the ammo quickly ran out but he kept one for later to use as a model. Though the damage was done, the various shots all over opened weak points which were constantly shot at and made large cracks appear on the titans. The fight lasted a bit over an hour before gunner bombarded them then another half hour to kill them. As they slumped down everyone let out a cheer to commemorate the victory. By far this was the most intense creature yet and I feared for our lives if something had taken A class.
Your crew has defeated the twin mini-bosses in the Kelha II asteroid field
Some people began crying as they tried to image the boss creature. After the win we had the science team go examine it while the Dingys got repaired and began mining (butchering) the bodies. One of the titans had lots of iron while the other was a mix of iron and Perrius. They also had large cores were the heart was about the size of a soccer ball these were extracted and moved into the safety of my cargo hold. After 2 hours of mining there was nothing left of the bodies and the damaged ships were all repaired though there were a few that had more extensive damage and were being rebuilt. After we reached the safety of the safe zone between the sixth and seventh layer I stopped the ship and called my original crew, gunner and Mr. Kinter. Noah: alright guys I¡¯ve called up all because of the message we got after killing the titans. Gunner: I saw that to¡­mini bosses I can¡¯t believe something like that Noah: exactly that is way I called you here, we need missiles or rockets or some other form of attack besides lasers. They are too weak if gunner didn¡¯t have his rocket launcher we might have taken heavy damage and dead crew members. Ernest: what do you propose then? Noah: gunner you saved one missile to use as a model right. He nods Noah: good, have that scanned until we make a blue print after that use that and develop large scale missiles or you can make more smaller missiles and build rocket launchers to be sent out from the carrier your choice but we need those to continue. Mr. Kinter I want you and the manufacturing team to work together to get this done as quick as possible. Wilson: consider it done. I then look at the others Noah: you guys basil Felix and Earl continue guard duty the others gather as many mechanics and techs as possible and help out leave enough to man the control room and a few in the hanger. They all salute and leave. I just sit there thinking through the stress of this situation. Noah: ¡±I wonder how long it will take to develop a new ship missile or make small scale ones¡±
You have started a research project within your crew target research, Missile development Time estimated 3 days (72:00:00)
I just stare at the window that appeared then sigh a deeply Noah: ¡±three days, it probably is that little bit of time because we are going to use a working missile as a model, I¡¯m sure it would take much longer if we made it from scratch¡± For the next three days we had as many crew members work on the missiles. Unfortunately we couldn¡¯t make ship missiles but rockets were possible we were able to increase the power of the rocket Gunner saved to about twice its power. When we finished we started producing launchers and rockets. 10 launchers were made with 120+ rockets. When we finally got them finished about a week had passed luckily nothing attacked in this area so we were undisturbed while we got ready. It was now the moment of truth. Back inside the control room we set off with all ships ready for action. The seventh layer was 100 km long and we passed it without any attacks. As we exit out into open space that separated the planet from the asteroids we saw a single A class asteroid floating in front of us. Noah: all men prepare for combat I repeat prepare for combat. As if on cue the lights all over the ships start to flash and the ships spread out. At the same moment the asteroid started shacking like the B ranks. Cracks appeared all over it like an egg cracking. The ships were waiting around the carrier and inside the soldiers that would fire the launchers were getting ready with the missiles lined up in racks behind them and an assistant ready to arm the weapon for the shooter. As the asteroid continued shaking, cracks spread but only at the top was it braking into tiny shards as it distorted from the Golems impacts trying to get out. With a final hit the creature appeared. Springing out of the rock and twisting its long body was a giant worm like creature. It opened its mouth showing the multitude of razor sharp fangs that it had to shred the ships apart.
You have encountered the boss class Golem Rock Worm
Mission: Worm Extermination You have discovered one of the causes that have been blocking advancements into the planet Kelha II. Difficulty B Objective: kill the Rock Worm Failure: your crew is killed Reward: permanent access to the planet Kelha II and the Golems will retreat back onto the planet.
Noah: this is good at least we only need to kill one of these. ¡°Men ATTACK this creature is the only one and once we kill it we will be able to have these Golems retreat they won¡¯t plague the asteroid fields anymore. As I order all the fighters spring forward at full speed they split into four directions, two taking the flank while the other two took either blow or above it. (all this is in prospective of the carrier) At reacted by swinging its body at the group going to the right but it didn¡¯t hit since they spread out. They commence the attack the same goes for the carrier¡¯s turrets. I also kept the carrier out of range of the worm for obvious reasons. I then turn on the coms to the hanger. Noah: rocket launchers, aim for the inside of the head but also aim for the rock where the body is anchored it is holding its body there so we need to get rid of it. A few seconds later 10 rockets flew out five flew up towards the head while another five went low and arched towards the rock. As if knowing our intention the worm got in the way of the lower rockets and blocked it with its body. Normally you would curse it but the power of these rockets are at least three times that of the lasers and with five rockets hitting near each other the stacked damaged a large area on the body, this was followed up with the other five rockets as they also hit the body, targeting systems you gotta love em. Noah: the thing is protecting the rock, pilots aim for the rocks while rocket launchers distract the worm. And just like that we started dominating the boss. It was defiantly a good thing to make the rockets the lasers barely even hurt it but the rockets cause tremendous damage. Luckily the thing recognized what would do more damaged so we kept him occupied while the fighters chipped away at the 1 meter of rock. We kept the firing of the rockets down to a minimum to maximize their use normally only 1 every 2 minutes. As such after 2 hours the crust of the asteroid finally broke still with a little over 60 rockets left. What appeared under was a new shell but thankfully because of the lost in mass the large body loses its balance a lot if it thrashes around to roughly and leaves many openings. Just as I was going to order an all-out attack the main body began to crumble. Noah: All ships retreat that boss is up to something. The ships complied and when they returned the fighters began to land and refuel and some were given repairs. As we watched the body keeps crumbling until it finally falls to pieces and makes a large cloud of dust that is going in all directions. As the cloud cleared we saw the creature. About half the size of the original and a red color which signaled iron ore in its body. Noah: that looks much more dangerous. Adam: how so? Noah: the body is slimmer for the size it has so it¡¯s probably much faster now and there will probably be less chance to damage it. We also don¡¯t know if it¡¯s stuck at that size like the larger version. Adam: your orders then. Noah: Gunner ready 10 rockets shoot the asteroid it¡¯s on from different sides I want to see how fast that thing is now. Gunner: sure thing captain. BOYS GET READY!!! After a few seconds 10 rockets were shot aimed towards different side but all were arching to hit the asteroid. The Worm noticed all the shots and wrapped its body around its foothold which caused its body heavy damage as the all the rockets hit it all over its body causing a series of cracks to appear even on its iron ore body. Ernest: I¡¯m so glad we made those rockets they work like a charm, should we blast the thing with all we have. Noah: I don¡¯t know something seems off, it¡¯s defending the rock with its body I wonder if there is something special about it. Adam: want me to quick scan? Noah: those are weak and barely give details unless you do a large number of them, if you want then you can do so but drones would work better. It a shame that thing is protecting it. Wilson: has it occurred to anyone that the asteroids could hold eggs of the Golems. Ernest: it would explain the protective nature of the boss. I turn the coms again in the hanger as well as for the ships. Noah: all ships prepare for the second round; all ships should advance after the rocket launcher attack. Gunner fire half of the remaining rockets to all directions at the rock the worm will take all the hits so use that tactic after that it¡¯s back to 1 rocket every 2 minutes. Wilson: not a bad strategy using its own protective nature against it. Noah: ya if it ignores the rockets it will destroy the rocks if it defends it will hurt itself one way or another it will eventually lose. The preparations took about 10 minutes as the ships were refueling the boss didn¡¯t have the range to reach us and since no asteroids were around for any possible chance that it was like the flyers it couldn¡¯t reach us without leaving the asteroid. As soon as the final ship left the hanger the 10 launcher sent out the first volley followed by the second and third. As the last five were shot the fighters and gunship sped in. It saw the rockets heading its way and like the first time it defended all the shots. I can easily say that the damage was really great its entire back was braking under the damage and it was moving really slowly because much of its body was breaking apart. It didn¡¯t help that the ships were bombarding its exposed inner with laser. Seems the inside really is a weak point just like you would see in many sci-fi movies that involved worms. The second round didn¡¯t last long as the body soon began collapsing as the joints holding the body finally broke into pieces. As the final piece broke off the large worm finally died. We waited for confirmation of the end of the quest but it didn¡¯t come so I ordered the ships to return quick since something was wrong. In the hanger I could see a commotion as the fighters landed and the pilots got out. Noah: maybe its what¡¯s inside that asteroid that is keeping us from completing the quest. Adam send orders to the Dingys pilots to approach and release all the drones we have to scan the interior of that asteroid. He does just that and soon they leave towards the asteroid and about half way they stop and release the drones that fly over and begin quickly scanning. The image of the scan appeared on all the ships in my fleet. It took second to scan the surface and then they began on the interior up to around 50% it was normal after that we saw many rocks inside as well as the remaining body of the worm and its core. Wilson: so there are eggs in there its best destroy them. Noah: agreed. Gunner, fire all remaining rockets at the asteroids the thing holds eggs from the boss. Without replying the remaining shots were fired and soon the asteroids was bombarded with rockets and broke apart releasing the eggs and the remains of the worm¡¯s body. The fighters went over and blasted the eggs into pieces then the Dingys began mining all the rocks in the surrounding to extract the core from the worm
Mission: Worm Extermination complete You have killed the creature that has kept the expansion to the planet¡¯s surface as well as its offspring. Reward: permanent access to the surface of planet Kelha II, Golems will retreat from the asteroid field without the protection of the boss.
The whole crew was celebrating including us in the control room for the success. i guess in this game B rank quest cause planet wide effects I still wonder if A rank has a solar system effect or sector effect anyway we will find out after we succeed. After mining the body of the worm we did a full repair of all the ships and finally started the 12 hour decent to the location of the landing.
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Volume 1 Chapter 9 Base Takeover After the event of the battle in space the moral of the crew was at its all-time high and many were parting in the cafeteria in the ship. Before our decent to the planet the ships all docked and even on top of the carrier they were fixed into so that all the pilots could have some party time all together and then rest. At the moment it has been over 9 hours since we have been descending towards the planet and we had the ship on auto pilot aimed towards the base on the planet. I was currently in the captain¡¯s chair watching the planet get slowly closer. As I watch I hear the door slide open and my merry crew of Basil and Ernest come in. Basil: HAHAHA now that was fun HAHA you should have joined Noah. Noah: I don¡¯t like being in to noisy of a crowd I kind of hate really loud noises. Basil: that¡¯s a shame. Ernest: really you need to relax your still young have some fun. Noah: your talking like some old geezer that could die at any moment. Ernest: we never know when we will die only god. Noah: ¡­I can¡¯t argue against that. Ernest: good¡­this here is for you captain, that nice cook girl Jin asked us to bring it to you since you didn¡¯t come down. What he held was a very good looking plate wrapped in plastic so it didn¡¯t spill. I quickly devoured the food, we have been eating rations during the time we passed though the layers so we don¡¯t waste much but truthfully real cooked food was the best. Noah: AH!! This is good stuff I have to thank her the next time I see her. Both Basil and Ernest laughed at my reaction but they understood who I felt. They didn¡¯t know that she gained cooking skill with helped a lot to when cooking with the ingredients they have as well as conserving a lot to last longer. After eating I left the control room after asking for them to wake me when there were about a half hour before reaching the location then I went to my room for a well-deserved rest. The two and a half hours of sleep felt like god sent even though it was very little it helped relieve some of the stress I was building up. As I walk back into the control room I find the team here already working. Outside I see we are already close to the planet and very far away I can slightly see something that doesn¡¯t look like desert and rocks. Adam: hey Noah had a good sleep. Noah: it was great. Mind telling me what that dot in the distance is. He activated the monitor and the image appeared and slowly it started advancing until its limits. With a smiling face he looked at me. And the monitor was a large factory like base. Adam: we will soon be in com range so it¡¯s good you¡¯re here to talk directly. Noah: how much longer? Adam: maybe 10 minutes, the magnetic field and rich mineral deposit on this planet interfere with radio wave which is why we had trouble picking up the signal. To tell the truth it was a miracle we got the signal at all. Noah: ok I¡¯ll take manual controls from now on get you get calling and put it on the monitor. I sit down and shut the auto pilot while taking control. It was a bit hard because now the gravity of the planet interfered with the ship. As we got into range Adam sent the signal to the base. After a few minutes we got a response. ??? : h-h-he-hello Noah: hello my name is Noah I¡¯m the captain of a carrier ship that was sent by the Mr. Cane from Kelha II station. ??? : thank *hic* god rescue came GUYS SOMEONE CAME FOR US. We were all surprised by the sudden outburst. Adam: um I¡¯m starting to get worried when we tell them we can to get the base up and running. Noah: ya I think we should land with a Dingy just in case. ??? : so when will you be here to take us out. Noah: we were asked to see the situation of the base and get it up and running to contact the station in space. So what¡¯s your name? are you the leader there? ??? : you¡­came to¡­fix the base¡­ There was a silence in the room. It sent chills down our spine hearing him talk like that. They must have gone crazy after the base was cut off from space. ??? : he¡­hehehe¡­you can¡­to fix this place¡­for those greedy hounds¡­that left us here¡­if that¡¯s it then¡­we will take you ship and get out ourselves. The come went dead as they cut the coms. Noah: ¡­Adam Adam: sir? Noah: get the men ready for land battle we will take the base by force if needed.
Mission: Planet side The old crew that landed on planet Kelha II has most likely gone crazy and wants to leave the planet. Learning that you want to restore the base instead of rescuing them you must capture the base by force if necessary. Difficulty C Objective: capture or kill the old crew as well as secure the whole base without them taking your ship and get the base power and coms working. Failure: your crew dies and they get your ship. Reward: the base once its repaired
Adam: I guess the quest already called them. I nod Noah: attention all crew, the current crew of the base has become hostile because we didn¡¯t come to rescue them as such we are to capture or kill them as well as secure the base as quickly as possible. Focus on capture unless necessary. Gunner prepare those battle droids you were so fixated on making have them set to leave the ship as soon as we land and push any invaders back. As soon as the message was sent the relaxed atmosphere in the ship turned into one ready for battle. Everyone placed their helmets one and began getting ready for action. All fighters reported the armory and picked up a rifle and two pistols. And gunner¡­he was happily activating the droids he pestered me to fund to build. There were 40 combat droids 40 worker and 40 repair bots in total in the ship. he insisted we make more bots for work to get done quicker. When we were about 5 minutes to the station we saw that there was a large wall and landing pad for ships three times our size which was probably meant for large scale freighter ships. On the ground the scanners picked up human movement and when we saw there were many poorly armed men with guns that looked like they would blow up in their faces at the first shot. When we were preparing to land we could see them behind the walls around 100 dirty men with the poorly built weapons. We had set the shields to block anyone that doesn¡¯t leave from the inside from coming in though this didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t impossible to enter especially if they blow a whole into the side of the ship. When we were five meters from touch down I set the ship to hover there and gave the command to drop down and secure the landing zone but only use suppression shots(they are like Tasers meant to temporally paralyze they guys) then left for the armory. Noah: ¡±no way am I going to miss this action¡± Adam you in charge I¡¯m going to join the fight and will be leading the fighters. Adam: got it. I ran through the corridors and soon found the armory, with my helmet on I did a quick scan of the area and found the rack with the guns I wanted. One of the last remaining snipers, a rifle and two pistols. The sniper will be essential and its one of the weapons that not many people trained with so only me, who trained with Basil, or some real life sniper can use them. After doing a quick check of their condition I left the armory after locking it up, don¡¯t want anyone that can get in getting good weapons now do we. A quick run and I exit into the hanger. All the fighters were there but from the sound of shooting outside the droids were already outside. As I walk up I see the chubby suit which holds Gunner inside and had over. Noah: so Gunner how¡¯s the situation outside. Gunner: better then I though, the high grade armor I equipped the combat droids with works like a charm against laser weapons. Noah: how high grade? Gunner: after we started getting more materials and also discovering the mix for that magnet stuff from the flyers up in space I studied that stuff and found its some really strong stuff in its processed form the result makes really good armor. Noah: good to hear so how many men are left. Gunner: from the readings on the droids there are about 100 men as of now around 30 have been knocked unconscious thanks to your orders not to kill. Noah: shouldn¡¯t be long before we secure this area. Once it¡¯s done have any captured men brought inside and questioned about what happened when the base was cut off. Also since they are wearing power suits its possible they have access codes needed to enter the base, hack into the suits and see if there are, also see if they have a map in their suits they probably have one since they might need it to get around. Gunner: sure thing. After that there was only idle chat while the bots captured as many men as possible. As soon as the number dropped below 30 they retreated. At that point I sent a call to Adam to land the ship which he did and we unloaded. Noah: Gunner, have 30 bots stay and guard the ship as well as have any snipers up on top of the ship on the lookout. After a bit the unconscious men were brought into the carrier and I followed. After a few slaps to the face we woke one of them. ??? : ow that hur¡­AHH!! He almost jumped out of his skin when he saw our battle suits, none of us took the helmet off the give a more intimidating look to it. Trying to act like a the bad cop from movies I go over and grab him by the hair Noah: I¡¯ll say this once you answer our questions and you will get out alive got it He nods franticly which I find a bit funny. I could also hear some of my crew giggling through their coms. ??? : hehe nice bad guy act, this is make I nice show. ??? : careful not to make the guy piss his space suit, we can use that. I almost laughed out loud after the last one. Back to the interrogation I make him sit up. Noah: now tell us what happened to the base when its connection was cut. Prisoner: you mean the freighter incident¡­those fucking rock¡­things jumped out of the ground and dragged it down. They were giant worms and other things it was something out of a nightmare. Noah: ¡±so they did originate from here¡±, what¡¯s the situation of the base, the conditions of the equipment mostly. Prisoner: we had to take many machines apart to keep life support up and running we are almost out of workable materials as well. Noah: can¡¯t you mine and make stuff. Prisoners: this place was made to mine the planet not process it that was supposed to be the stations job. Noah: that good enough, take him and the rest and put them in an empty room until we find some place to put them in the base. They were all dragged away and I left the hanger and headed outside. Noah: anything new happen? Gunner: there are fighters in to spots, we released some droids to scan the base from above here is the map. I see a download bar in my helmet then a large map appears with a blue circle at our position. There are also some yellow and red circles all around. Gunner: the red circles are enemies yellow your men, and blue you and your ships. Noah: do they only have scrap weapons? Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.Gunner: mostly, this was a mining base so there wasn¡¯t much to begin with there is some that got standard class weapons but¡­ He pulls out one of those guns, it was rusty and in need of remodeling since no kind of maintenance would work on it in this state. Noah: I see, I¡¯m surprised it¡¯s still working Gunner: imagine how I feel. I then leave him to order around the men and droids and head for one of the battles. I first jump onto one of the nearest buildings and scout the area and finally find the two battles. They are fighting about the same number on each side, about 40, and can¡¯t seem to get past them. I pull out the sniper and set it to suppressing and aim at the right group. The scope is really amazing it brings it really close up so I use it to look around. As I look I spot a certain man it seems he is just watching and every few seconds he points a direction, he might be a leader or something. Taking aim I aim for the chest and hold my breath before shooting. I miss my target but not by much it hits his leg instead of the chest and makes him collapse all the same twitching from the shock. With this single person out of the picture their side loses its head and goes into chaos which my crew capitalizes on and takes down many of them in one go. I then walk over to the other side of the building and aim at the other group. It takes a few minutes but I finally spot the leader here as well and snipe him. The battle went the same way as the other.
You have gained new skills.
Laser Gun mastery (basic 1) Through the use of all forms of laser weapons in all range you have begun to master them. +5% accuracy with all medium and long range weapons +5% damage to all guns
Skill Snipe (basic 1) With a precise aim you can hit a faraway target with more ease +10% to accuracy when using a sniper +5% to accuracy when using a pistol or rifle
Wow it¡¯s been a long time since I got anything related to skills¡­oh right I¡¯ve been commanding the ship so I¡¯ve just been doing that. Hmm wonder how my weapon construction skill is, I did do some of that while helping research and construction. I call them up
Weapon Construction skill (basic 5) You are capable of taking many basic components and make a functioning weapon even though it may be basic in nature. +10% when making a weapon
Weapon Research(passive) You have learned the techniques to developing your own models of weapons that can surpass factory standers. Increases research speed Increases chance of discovering/inventing something new to improve weapons.
Noah: ¡±wow my weapon making skill went up nicely and I even got a research skill¡± As I pondered on my skills the com to my helmet turned on ??? : hello sir we have found several doors that are locked by access codes how should we proceed. Noah: leave them be, for now capture all the personal they may have the codes in their suits we will have our techs look at them later as well as Gunner. ??? : yes sir. With that the coms go silent I look around and spot the team of the right. It seems they are the ones that called as I see a few messing with some doors while others tie up the base personnel. I watch them cautiously to make sure nothing is on the roofs when I saw one of our drones floating over us. I got an idea and with my suits systems I accessed my ships systems and took control of that drone and had it scan the inside of the rooms the men were searching. The inside had some machines I could figure out the function of. After seeing the drone soon they were using them to scan for possible ambushes and to map the insides of the base. As they advance I pull out the rifle and join them as well Basil was in this group which meant the other group was either led by Felix or Earl. Joining up we took out a few more groups before we couldn¡¯t find any more people outside even with the drones. I then called Gunner for some status update of the ship. Noah: hey gunner you there? Gunner: sure thing boss what¡¯s up? Noah: did you find any access codes on those guys we caught? Gunner: nope after I checked everyone one of them I went out myself to see the panels and it seems to be eye scan access, we can only get in if we force one of them to do it. Noah: ¡­you have my permission I want everything out here categorized, use the worker droids to help inventory it all. Gunner: yes sir. The channel closes as we reach a cave entrance with a large bulkhead hatch down in front. Soon the other group appeared here as well. We looked at the hatch wondering what¡¯s inside is to figure it out I had the drone scan. Inside were a couple dozens of men near the door trembling in space suits. Noah: seems that there are miners remaining only inside, can anyone hatch the bulkheads controls. On cue our reliable junkyard hand appeared. Gunner: you called for a hacker boss. Noah: heh you got here fast. Gunner: I gave the orders to the droids and the a few mechanics that remained behind to¡­¡±persuade¡± a few men to help us. They are going around now unlocking the doors while the workers are categorizing all the stuff. Now let¡¯s crack this puppy. He comply strides up to the scanner and attaches a cable from his helmet to the panel and begins fiddling with it with little care for anything else. Soon we feel the vibrations on our feet as the doors come to life and starts opening up. Inside, just as the scans say there are miners dressed in space suits cowering on the ground. My men point their guns and every one of them raises their hands to show they surrender. I walk up and create link my com with all of them. Noah: alright now are there any more people inside?! One man near the front looks at me. ??? : no most of us came up to try and take the ship to escape us in here didn¡¯t want to fight or could from injuries. Noah: Gunner, send all the drones to scan the cave I want a map of the inside. Gunner: on it boss. Soon enough the drones all converged here and speed at high speeds inside scanning the place. The miners were taken to the ship as well we all returned as the drones scanned the place. Back at the ship there were many prisoners that were awake and making a ruckus and some very frustrated crew mates ready to zap them again. Noah: what¡¯s the problem?! I called out and in moments the frustrated soldiers calmed down Soldiers: nothing sir these guys were just being a pain in the ass crying about wanting to get off the planet. Noah: we will get you guys off the planet faster if you helped us complete our objectives the Mr. Cane gave us. ??? : what do you need then?!! He asked desperately Noah: we need to fix this place up get communication back up with the station in space and update our situation if you can help us fix the coms it will help if not we will do things as fast as we can. I could see how reluctant he was so I just shrugged it off and went inside. After getting the helmet off and took a good breath of fresh air not from a space suit I went over to the counsel that the workers were using to upload the inventory they checked. There was many things like part, both electronic and spare parts from other machines and equipment. One interesting thing was the miner droids that were found in a few warehouses. As I looked through I found things like atmosphere processors and air tanks as. These are going to be useful, I don¡¯t know if they are working or how much power is needed. From the looks of this place we need to fix the power generator first there may be enough to charge the suits but who knows how much power it takes for them to power this whole complex. As I am thinking Ernest appears behind me. Ernest: hey Noah, I see your checking inventory find anything useful. Noah: yep there is quite a lot of spare parts for equipment though they may have to be remade due to rust but it think we can get this place working, what I¡¯m worried about is the power generator there doesn¡¯t seem to be power in this place. Ernest: well that¡¯s easy to answer it came with the recent update from the drones look at your map underground. I open it up and look at the complex underground. I look through each room until I find what looks like a power plant wires are all over the place. Noah: the generator is broken Ernest: more like overloaded, it had a safety mechanism that shut it down but these guys never went to fix it and lived off the reserve. I face palmed myself, it felt like the time we took the derelict carrier. Such a simple solution but they are too lazy to fix it. Noah: any people down there. Ernest: nope those miners you found told the truth they were the last ones. Noah: then send a group of mechanics and techs to get that generator working also take repair bots and some combat droids just in case. He nods and leaves ship and begins building the team. Noah: ¡±damn this is going to take much longer then I thought, but I guess it¡¯s better than an easy win¡± I call up the mission log to check the requirements
Mission: Planet side The old crew that landed on planet Kelha II has most likely gone crazy and wants to leave the planet. Learning that you want to restore the base instead of rescuing them you must capture the base by force if necessary. Difficulty C Objective: capture or kill the old crew as well as secure the whole base without them taking your ship and get the base power and coms working. Failure: your crew dies and they get your ship. Reward: the base once its repaired
Noah: ¡±like I though we need this place working to finish this quest, most likely that is what is need to get the original crew on our side¡±
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Volume 2 Rebuilding Chapter 1 Power, Shield and Life There were complaints that Gunner and some crew had lost their personality only becoming "yes sir" characters well i fixed that problem (was already planning to make the reconstruction arc a place to focus not only on Noah. Also this is the first chapter of the reconstruction arc and most chapters will be shorter than the first volume since there is less to speak of since I will focus on a few systems repairs per chapter as the base gets back up on its feet and begins growing when more workers and players come down. I am hoping for feedback (both good and bad) to help me make my work better any comments like that would help Also Wingsolution the first of my Bday presents XD happy birthday *** Gunner POV After we took the base and returned with the last of the captives i proceeded to have some fun cracking those suits of theirs open. It was fun checking out the coding of some old model power suits, my race having a weak bone structure needs them to simply walk like a normal person, so it was interesting to say the least. As i was checking one of the suits that fella Ernest came over. Ernest: hey Gunner we got some work can you help? Gunner: depends on the work. Ernest: we found the central generator of the base, it was in the cave complex, Noah asked us to go fix it up. Gunner: what''s the problem with ''em? Ernest: they overloaded and these guys never repaired the damage. Hearing that pissed me off. An overload is an easy repair since it usually only some old wires that burst. Even with my helmet on when i looked at the prisoners they shrank in fear as if they could feel my anger. Gunner: fine, get a team together so we can go get it done, also send someone to the life support machines to check its conditions and to pull any remaining air back into the tanks and fix any leaks that might have and have them filled up with the remaining tanks that were found. ??? : Um sir if i may. I look at the prisoners an indicator shows who connected to the chat. Gunner: what do you want brat. ??? : Um i just want to say that the base has a dome shield i was wondering if you wanted to know that. My eyes lit up hearing that as my anger was swept away. Why was i so excited, Dome shields are special large scale city wide shield used on planets with little to no atmosphere. They are one of the important equipment needed on a planet like this. I quickly lift the guy who said that and put him on his feet with his arms still tied up. (Dome shields look something like these¡­ http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/stargate/images/0/03/Atlantis_shield.JPG/revision/20080501144804) Gunner: your taking me to the generator now, Ernest get your team working i won¡¯t go this shield is more important to get working. Ernest: sure thing. He goes off and i call 5 workers bot, 10 repair bot and 5 human guards and 5 combat droids. Gunner: the rest of you make a prison out of one of the warehouses and get the remaining prisoners in there i don¡¯t want any of them inside the carrier unless they are being questioned. Soon there was heavy movement in the base as a few warehouses were emptied and some prisoners were placed inside. Gunner taking the helpful man and a team of bots headed inside the cave compound. It didn¡¯t take long to find the generator. The room it was in as circular around 15 meter radius and 10 meters high with the generator at the center of the room and control panels and consoles all around the room. Repair Bot: *beep beep* high energy zone detected, necessary shutdown of all generator functions Gunner "so power is running through here, must be why few systems are barely working with the reserve power generator" permission granted, also search the panels controls for all information involved in working the shields including output and energy consumption. The robots moved around the corner of the room so as to avoid drawing the electricity from the shields and headed to the panels. I headed to one myself because I wanted to personally see the coding on this thing and maybe even improve the shields coding. I plug in a cable from my helmet into the panel, it obviously asks for passwords and scans but as any good hacker who doesn¡¯t have one you break in. so side stepping the password, which triggers the security system I go leisurely redirecting it while rewriting the codes at inhuman speed. (A.N. Though he isn¡¯t human anyway) Soon enough I rewrote the passwords and security codes to allow anyone and any droid belonging to Noah¡¯s group to access all systems in the base. The password and scans appear again and I put the new password and it scans my iris. After gaining access into the system I begin going over the codes. It was a corrupted mess, so I looked it over a bit and began remaking the codes for it. Halfway through my work the generator goes off and the lights get brighter and many other machines get energy and start up. Gunner: ¡±damn it must draw one hell of an energy charge to keep it running no wonder so few lights were working.¡± Repair Droid: *beep beep* orders completed all information is being downloaded to your suits main frame. After he said that many screens begin popping up. Energy consumption, shield size and the most important structure data. The last one was really important as it was a detailed manual of the shields construction detailing the wiring and all. Gunner: ready structure data and repair the shield generator to working conditions. They begin working instantly and I turn back and continue making the new coding but now I take a break to read the info it has some basic codes that are essential to the shield. After going through them all I continue on the long task ahead. Ernest POV *a bit after Gunner went to look at the shields* I had made a small team with some mechanics and techs as well as getting Basil with a few bots as guards and we processed to the engine room. The corridors had many lights but many were poorly lit so we went slowly as we walked we used the maps not to get lost and to see where we were going. After about 30 minutes of walking we were getting near the engine room since we could hear it when the lights started getting stronger. Basil: what the¡­did something happen to increase the power?! Ernest: ¡­maybe it¡¯s Gunner he said something about a shield generator and dome shields but I didn¡¯t get it. Basil: ¡­you serious¡­you don¡¯t know what a dome shield is? Ernest: nope why? Basil: ever watch a sci-fi movie where there are cities with huge shields over it? Ernest: yes and¡­oh I get it. The generators was supposed to be overloaded but I think it might have been drawing power from the reserve engine still. Basil: that must have been a hell of a large amount of power to leave the base almost in the dark. Ernest: that¡¯s why we need the main engine. As we finish talking we walk into the room. It was a large cave chamber 15 meters high and 4 times larger than the engine room on the carrier. The main engine was 3 times larger and took up a bit over half the room and it had many catwalks going into its interior. On the right side was a smaller engine the size of the carrier¡¯s engine and it was working full blast. Ernest: alright guys to secure our power here on the planet we need the main engine working, its essentially that this gets working or we will be living in the suits for as long as we take to fix this engine. As I finished my short motivation speech we had the worker bots drop the large boxes on their back. Inside were a large number of spare parts for repairs and one had tools for welding and cutting. There were 6 workers each with their own box, 3 were spare parts, 2 were tools and 1 was a box filled with batteries we would need to replace inside the engine. As soon as everything was unpacked the repairs began immediately. The engine was in good condition besides many burnt wires, there wasn¡¯t many structural damage and just wiring and a few data chips were brunt from the overload. This was something that would take quite a few hours to handle and we even had to send someone back up to find a power core big enough for the engine because the one here was toast. Jonas POV *few minutes after Ernest had left to the engine room* I sighed to myself as I walk through the cave complex in the dark with only a few repair bots carrier spare parts and the air tanks. Ernest had asked me to go to the life support and begin repairs and to fill the tank up with air and be ready for the engines to get back up. Though I felt a bit lazy at the time after he made it an order I couldn¡¯t really deny that¡­old pain in the ass even in the military he was like this if we didn¡¯t comply with this requests. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Anyway I found the room relatively quick it was near the cave entrance. It was an 8 meter high room circular with a 10 meter radius. The room had 4 air tanks and various types of filters that would convert tainted air into breathable one and pressurize the area. I had heard that the place had a dome shield which will hold the air but I¡¯m worried that this amount of air won¡¯t be enough¡­not my problem if we need more I guess getting some from the smaller ships. Adam: alright unpack the boxes and let¡¯s do a check of the systems also close all escape valves of the life support so the air won¡¯t leak out. Primary objective is to search for broken pipes where air might leak from and repair it. All the bots complied and began the search. I went to the main console and turn it on with my suits battery since it wasn¡¯t turning on. I did a system check and found no irregularities in them but a few repair droids found leak zones and began repairing by welding them shut. While they closed it I made sure to shut any and all exits for all the tanks and good thing I do because as they finish slowly closing which consumes a lot of my battery the power starts up again and the lights get bright and all the machines including the life support starts up. I look around surprised but if figured it might be one of the guys that are in the cave repairing some kind of system so I turn my attention back to my own repairs. Gunner POV After 2 long hours of constant coding I finally finished the new codes for the shield engine. Comparing the usual readings from the records that I found in the control panel the new code should have just as much power with at least 5% reduction in power consumption and let me tell you 5% might not seem much but this thing pulls in enough power to power the base two times over. Finally done I find a chair and sit down while stretching, the man I brought with me was still there guarded by the bots. Gunner: so why did you decide to tell us about this I nod towards the generator. Prisoner: well I thought that you might have more use for it then us, most of the qualified personnel died a few years ago after going crazy, the rest of us resisted after seeing them like that and kept each other company. Gunner: hmm didn¡¯t you guys try to learn about the tech down here. Prisoner: a few did but we were miners to begin with at best we knew some basic level of mining gear repairs and mining. The smarter men died out first because they couldn¡¯t handle the stress. Gunner: ¡­ I just stare at the man. He doesn¡¯t seem to be lying since lying about something like this would be hard especially in the situation they were in. Ernest: hey Gunner you there are you busy? Gunner: I already finished on my part; I had the repair bots do a check of the generator and repair anything that was wrong while I had to remake the coding of the shields, how was it for you? Ernest: a big pain in the ass that¡¯s how it was, every last fucking wire was burnt along with the power core. The thing was already heavy as is on this planet we also had to fit it into a tiny space like this. Gunner: who did you send to check the life support? Erenst: Jonas let me call him. I waited as he searched for him then soon I could hear the receiver on his end connect. Jonas: yo guys whats up? Gunner: cut the chit chat brat, how was the life support Jonas: damn so harsh you send me here with just some robots to a leaking life support and still insult me it hurts man. He fakes the crying. Ernest: quit your bitching and just get on with it I¡¯m tired and I want this to reach my bed already so we need these systems working so, GET ON WITH IT!!! His yell makes me jump in my seat and I couldn¡¯t imagine what the brat on the other side of the line felt like. Jonas: hahahaha I love it when you react like this! Ernest: GET ON WITH IT OR ILL STRANGLE YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS WHEN I FIND YOU!!! Jonas: he¡­heh ok, on my side there was several leaks from the pipes between the filtration tanks and air tanks His voice got smaller as he talked which showed how serious Ernest is. Ernest: and how were the repairs?! Jonas: they were either replaced or welded shut tightly we ran tests with some of the remaining air in the tanks before filling them with the spare air tanks we found in the ware houses. Jonas: good, now to connect to everyone quickly¡­ok *cough cough* attention everyone the main power generator will be turning on once on all electric functions to the base will be returned. Begining in 1 minute the power will go out momentarily as the reserve engine is shut down and the main goes online. The chat closes after that disconnecting everyone. Like he said at exactly the count of 60 all lights started up again getting stronger as the engine started all its functions. Gunner: hey Ernest how long before the engine is going strong enough for the shields to go online. I don¡¯t want to start it up with the power to weak. Ernest: both you and Jonas should wait about 30 minutes we changed all the batteries inside the engine so it has to charge a bit there are around 30 batteries and 10 of them are small craft batteries. Normal batteries have around 10-15 energy cells these have around 50-60 it will take a while. Gunner: got it¡­you heard that brat no turning the life support on before the shield is completely deployed and that is when I say it. Jonas: yes sir He says that in a mechanical tone like some robot. As the batteries charge up more and more the base ¡°wakes up¡± as more power starts flowing. Noah POV After hearing Ernest¡¯s announcement I smiled and was watching as the power returned. I was asking some questions to some old miners. They seemed shocked at how quickly we fixing the base but I knew this was just a start but power is the basic of any survival. As the power returned to the streets of the base, the lights turned on and the ones that were on got stronger and lit the base up. Prisoner: amazing¡­the power is back. He started crying, he probably though it was impossible but I don¡¯t blame him none of them are specialists and most of those who were died a long time ago. I guess I was right again about how to get them to help, must have been hard to live on this planet without much power. A quick call and I found out that the shield generator was sucking up a lot of power from the reserve power generator and if it was turned off after the overload of the main generator they would have had energy to spare. As power returned some small robots activated as well and started charging, they were maintenance droids and as they got changed enough they got up and began cleaning and repairing the streets of the base, my guess is to return it to its former look which must have been a clean iron roads but now was rusty and broken. At least it will be cleaner now but who cares. About 40 minutes later we all received a call from Gunner Gunner: alright folk¡¯s the power generators batteries are charged enough here goes the shields. A few second after the channel cuts off we feel some vibrations and all around the town far into the desert of the planet as well as at the center of town some pillars appear. From the center pillar a light started radiating from the tip and then it shot a beam of light up. As it reached its peak its spread out and gave the illusion of an aurora boreal from earths North Pole. They spread out until they landed just in front of all the other pillars around the base finally closing the base out from the rest of the desert tundra. Gunner: alright people let me just say this shield is like the carrier shields it will block what we place as enemies and it will always keep air inside it, it goes underground as well and not just around the surface so no worries about leaking from down there. Jonas: NOW PEOPLE LETS GET SOME ATMOSPHERE IN HERE!!! As Jonas yells like it¡¯s some party call the vents around town begin releasing large amounts of breathable air increasing the pressure in the dome. A small meter appears in my helmet which measures the air pressure and seems if the atmosphere is suitable for breathing. It keeps rising from 10, then 20% and so on. Once it reaches 80% I see my crew outside pull the helmet off and breath in their first breaths in the base they now call home. I turn back to the prisoner Noah: still want to return to space when you have a chance down here now. He shakes his head while crying.
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Volume 2 Chapter 2 Tanks and Radio Just a note for those who might wonder, i will be working with different characters depending on events. Ex: while mining Julius POV might happen, if fighting breaks out Basil, Felix, Jessica, Eral and Noah¡¯s dad might appear that is just to keep those who might complain. I am hoping for feedback (both good and bad) to help me make my work better any comments like that would help And here Wingsolution is the second part of your Bday presents *** After the base was back to working conditions we gathered the bases original workers. Noah: alright now as you see we repaired have started repairing the base. You wanted to leave because it was hell and most things were broken now, with life support and protection what do you say about helping now. There was lots of talking among themselves then one of the older men sat up. Prisoner: we will work but you should know we are miners not fighters or techs; the best we can offer is mining the iron for you and doing our own repair to mining gear. Noah: that is enough we don¡¯t expect you to do more than that after hearing what happened here. We would like to ask a few of you to work with our Botanist and Biologists to make farms on the outer edges of the base. They nod and I look at my men and nod for them to release the workers. After a few minutes they are all released and they take their helmets off for what may be the first time in years. Simply taking it off seems to give them new life. They all take deep breathes of the fresh air in the base. The man who talked for the rest was an old man messy long grey hair from not being able to cut it all these years. He walks over and puts his hand out. Worker: names Julius Black, I¡¯m one of the foremen that used to manage the mining operations. Noah: I¡¯m Noah, like you might have guessed I¡¯m the captain of this crew. Julius: and the new owner of this base.
You have been given command over the first Base on Kelha II Owning this base will contribute greatly to the accomplishment of your mission
I just smiled at him and at the message. Noah: I want you to continue as foremen, the men trust you more than me so it¡¯s better that way. Julius: right so do we get working already? Noah: no first its late already, two we need to eat and third we need production in food first. Julius: to bad there is little water on this planet. Noah: isn¡¯t there ground water? Julius: we looked but in this area there is little of that and those rock monsters out in the desert keep us from searching. I nod slowly as I realize the real problem we are now facing. Getting the base running was just the start of our worries, getting the radio probably just as hard since the planet and asteroid field interfere but water is even harder to get with us getting attacked we can even go search. Noah: we can worry about this later, we still need to get radio contact with the station, the Golems as we the rock monsters, we pushed them out of the asteroid field so now they have access as well, we can have them send mined ice from the asteroid field. He smiles weakly and nods just the same to my words. For the next few hours we enjoy some food, though this will be the last big meal until we can get food growing or supplies coming so rationing will be happening from tomorrow on. After the meal I had everyone get sleep because it would get hard starting tomorrow. In the morning i gathered everyone and told them about the rationing of food. My crew kind of expected it and so did the workers. Noah: ok first order of business the botanist are to get to work making sprouts it will ensure a better survival rate for some plants in unfamiliar soil like this. We got some seeds from the station so search through them and find fruit plants and trees that use little water. Before planting make some greenhouses first and start cultivating the plants to gain more seeds so we don¡¯t end up squandering what few seeds we have. Now Gunner and Ernest I¡¯m sure you noticed but I''ll say it anyway this place doesn¡¯t have a processor for metals nor any equipment to make things out of it, besides the workshop in carrier, we need more machines to process the ores since we aren¡¯t going to send it into space. Ernest: what do you want us to do? Noah: scan the smelter and make blue prints of it then find an empty chamber in the cave complex and build a few. Leave manufacturing to the workshop for now later on, we can build proper workshops off ship. Any more questions...none good let¡¯s get to work, miners Julius is foremen i want you to start by repairing any and all mining equipment, i saw mining tanks that were taken apart get mechanic and tech support and get those running.
Thanks to your charisma your crew has gain more respect for you and will work with high moral for a while. +3 Leadership and charisma
Due to your careful planning on what actions to take to begin rebuilding you have gained greater respect from the workers and they will work harder. +3 intelligence +3 wisdom
Noah: "wow it¡¯s been so long since i got stat bonus i guess planning so much worked out well" When i finished the crew and workers all spread out and began making groups. I saw the scientists head off with worker droids towards the desert inside the shield. Miners grouped up with mechanics and techs and headed into warehouses with some repair and worker bots and all the remaining soldiers and combat droids grouped in small squads and began patrolling the base. All in all they were following orders at a good pace. The next week was met with lots of construction. First, four greenhouses 6 meter tall and 6 m2 each were made in old style with metal pipes for structure and a transparent plastic over it to make the area warmer for the planets, as well as a small lab for the biologist to study the plants themselves for other uses besides food. For the miners we found five mining tanks, like those from those platform mining games. They had a large drill on the front and a circular body with track tires like tanks made for 1 person. Unfortunately they had many parts missing but we were able to fix one of them. They carried a really detailed mining log of were mining had been planned. (What I tried to model after, http://ahkong.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/motherload-01.jpg though it only has front drill and isn¡¯t like the one in the game with the drill underneath it or the propeller to lift it (lol)) Even with that single mining tank working it was a marvel of technology because it caved through the ore filled walls at high speeds that put hand drills to shame. With the increase in building material we started using the already processed metal we had to build new smelters. We got two built near the entrance of the cave it processed tons of metal and not even the byproduct rock mush was wasted as we used that excess to temporarily replace the rusted iron roads. It helped increase our speed a bit where the broken metal getting in the way but it was temporary since it won¡¯t handle heavy machinery like the mining tanks. Besides building machines we took down many rusted buildings and rebuilt new buildings with steel made from the smelters and recycled that rusted metal for newly processed ones and sent them off the repair more. Now with everything starting up i took the chance at the end of the long week. i headed to the building that held the radio tower. It was three floors tall before the tower raised above it. Adam and Morgan were here with me to check the wiring. Going inside we found the place trashed. Equipment was rusted or damage from some impact. Adam: did those guys break the radio! Look at this place it trashed...at least the main controls are working but it will take some time to remake the controls. Morgan: Gunner won¡¯t be able to help here we need to be creative. Noah: i think for now we can use the helmet and suit as the monitors and main frame let¡¯s get working. We equipped our helmets and each one took a different control panel and hooked up. Having brought spare computer parts we replacing broken parts that appear on the screen like "repair memory chip" or "replace motherboard #XX". We were lucky we had many parts that made up the computers here. After an hours work the covering over the controls had been striped clean off so we could work and it looked now like some scrap heap instead of a control room. As i was replacing the final motherboard the controls finally come back online. Radio: SHHHHHH. Noah: its working! Great now how does this thing work. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.We started looking through codes full and data stored in the controls. I soon found a file detailing how to work the tower. I skimmed through it and got a basic understanding but I will need to go back for more detail. In simple man¡¯s terms you turn the tower antenna towards the direction the signal will be and send it out. I say simple but that¡¯s only for the explanation it took almost 20 minutes for us to find the control network using the helmets to turn the antenna. Adam: so were should we turn the antenna? Noah: well let¡¯s send out the signal as is and see if something doesn¡¯t happen. Morgan: what if we catch the attention of something else besides the station? Noah: ¡­ Adam: I¡¯m sending the signal. Morgan: hey he didn¡¯t answer! Before he could say more a contact signal was sent upwards. The radio was still in its static state with no obvious change until we got a message.
Radio signal has met interference from the planets and asteroids magnetic nature. You must send the signal through a thinner zone of asteroids to attempt the connection.
Morgan: ¡­so what now? Noah: you got your answer there Morgan. Hello carrier control room is there anyone there. ??? : yes sir what do you need? Noah: I want you to find the entrance point we used to come through the asteroid field I want as close to exact coordinates of where it is now. ??? : That will take time sir it has been a few days and might be out of our current view but I will try. The com went quiet with only a few beeps sounding which meant she was searching. ??? : I found it sir im sending the coordinates to you now, these have a 75% chance to be the correct coordinates or its in that general zone but exact up to 100% I can¡¯t make sure of it. Noah: thanks this is enough just knowing the general area helps. The chat closes as I begin imputing the coordinates of the opened whole we made into the asteroid field. As soon as I press to turn the sound of the antenna turning becomes audible. It turns for about a minute before we hear the ¡°clink¡± sound when it stopped. Noah: alright it should be around the area we appeared on let¡¯s hope they get this. Adam: let¡¯s send them a proper message instead of a signal that can be easily disrupted. Noah: ok then¡­¡±this is Noah on Kelha II planet base calling Station¡± With the message sent we just wait. Kelha II Station Tower Overview (3rd POV) In the station tower their wasn¡¯t much going on, a week or so ago the rock monsters suddenly vanished from the asteroid fields so things grew really calm and was getting boring as no one called the tower for help or reinforcements. Though the base had gone through a startling growth spurt after the Liberation Merchant ship and Warship escort appeared. They not only brought goods to sell it brought people that were interested in the station that was placed in between the frontier and the much more civilized areas. Their interest came in the form of terraforming planets for industry or habitation of the populous. Back in the tower the work hands were just bored sitting in their seats only getting a few calls to direct them to the correct hanger drop area. That was at least until a red alert message came in. the top brass of the tower took the call. Tower head: hello what¡¯s the emergency? Noah: ¡­.is Noa. .n Ke.ha .. pla..et ba.. cal..ng sta..on (this is Noah on Kelha II planet base calling Station) The head slightly paled when he finally deciphered the message. Tower Head: CALL THE BOSS NOAH REACHED THE PLANET AND HAS MADE CONTACT!!! This was far beyond what they imagined from the red alert it was by far the biggest news they have had since the anomaly signals appeared. After a bit Mr. Cane, Marcus and Samuel Davis, the Commander of the Liberation Escort Warship Blutopfer, came into the tower. (Yes ppl the name came from our favorite Shieldbro¡¯s deadliest skill) Mores: what¡¯s all this ruckus about, I was in a meeting with Commander Davis and suddenly someone calls for an emergence. Tower Head: sorry sir we just got a message from Noah from the radio tower on Kelha II. Mores eyes go wide as does Marcus but Samuel who doesn¡¯t know the situation behind the event isn¡¯t fazed. Samuel: what so special about receiving a message from the base? Marcus: the asteroid field interferes with any message passing through it¡­I myself am wondering who the message got through. Mores: I think I know, Noah dug his carrier into the asteroid field and made a tunnel through the asteroids one which the miners have made sure to keep open by blasting any rocks getting in the way. Samuel: if that¡¯s true them he is impressive to have found the tunnel after landing. Mores: hand me the com and turn the speaker on for all to hear but no one talk. Everyone got really quiet while the channel signal was sent. After a few minutes the comms turned into a quiet static which meant it connected. Mores: Noah can you hear me? Noah: a l..tle it¡¯s q..te br.ke. up. (A little it''s quite broken up.) Mores: from our side to its hard to understand so how is the situation down there? Noah: th. bas. is in s.me d..re.air bu. we g.t the. pow.r an. Ba.e sh..ld. ba.k on a.d hav. sta..ed .ryi.g to p.od.ce foo. do.n .ere in gr.enhou..s. (The base is in some disrepair but we got the power and shields back on and have started trying to produce food down here in greenhouses) Mores: ¡­ok got it, do you need something down there? Noah: ¡­fo.d, s.ed, l.ts of m.ch.nes f.r pr.duct.on, th. li.t go.s on bu. firs. we n.ed to ge. this co.nec.ion to wor. be.te.. We ar. se.ding t.e si.nal thr.ugh the .un.el we d.g wit. my c.rri.r bu. we .ave no wa. to im.rov. th. si.nal f.om dow. .ere s.nce w. do.¡¯t kn.w if we w.ll be a.ta.ked li.e th. fre.gh.er th.t tr.ed to l.un.h fr.m h.re. (...food, seeds, lots of machines for production. The ist goes on but first we need to get this connection to work better. We are sending the signal through the tunnel we dug with my carrier but we dont know if we will be attacked like the friegter that tried to launch from here) Mores: we will get something done up here for now try to stay alive down there we will get on it right away. When he finished the signal was cut and the room went silent. Mores stood up straight while and looked back. Mores: Marcus what are the normal options for improving a signal? Marcus: well there are only two ways really get a better system and add a better antenna to capture the signals or build and launch satellites to focus the signal through the interference. When he heard the second option his eyes momentarily shined. Samuel: sir you are planning to make satellites correct? Mores: you have a good eye, yes I am. Samuel: if can you tell me about the asteroid field I heard it has some strange structure to it like it was placed that way. Mores: right the field has 7 layers and in between there is an open area with only A rank asteroids. A few weeks back the asteroid fields were infested with alien made from rocks but they vanished recently we don¡¯t know how it would affect them but I want to place a few satellites within these open zones channel the signal through the asteroid fields. Samuel: I see it is a unique formation¡­my ship holds advanced workshops if you can provide the metal and funds for just the manual labor I can make 8 satellites for you and place it along the tunnel this Noah created. Mores: Marcus can you take the commander and work out a contract I will pay from my own pocket if needed but we need them. Marcus: yes sir. Please sir this way we can talk about the details back in the conference room. Samuel nods and then leaves with Marcus. Mores: this boy always makes such large events happen¡­heh he defiantly accomplished his mission to the best results. Noah POV
Mission SOS rescue Complete You have accomplished as requested and have saved the base and its inhabitants from death to their own lack of knowledge to keep the systems running. Reward is dealt with the boss
Mission: Planet side Complete You have stopped the crew from mentally self-destroying themselves in their desperate attempt to escape the planet. Reward: the base once it¡¯s repaired.
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Volume 2 Chapter 3 Contact Heh Really short brake to get inspired for more XD hope you like it even though it¡¯s just more development and reconstruction. It will be pretty planeside development and terraforming the planet until plant life starts taking root and an atmosphere begins developing. (mainly until the base can take care of itself) *** Conference room (3rd person) Currently Samuel and Marcus were discussing the contract. They were looking through all the models available that could be made quickly but still are efficient and long lasting. After several models one was finally chosen. It was a slightly older model that worked wonders in areas of interference it was also the only model quick to build model that had the strongest radio and the best antenna so it was a given. It model name is known as MIST (Magnetic Interference Signal Tracker) (I¡¯ll be truthful with you I was just thinking of any random name when I decided to just that the first letters of the four words XD who know it would get a good name like this) The satellite main body was perfectly oval shaped and supposed to be white in color, there are several antenna around the body for close range signaling, these can be closed and stored inside the main body for replacing and repairs, but at both ends of the oval satellite were one large antenna on each end that are permanently extended. These are for longer range signals such as space station to planet contacting or with larger satellite it could be between each solar system. Marcus: so can I count on your men to build the satellites. Samuel: yes I will have my men start soon, as you agreed we will start once we have materials and once the advanced pay is deposited. Marcus: it was a pleasure doing business with you commander. Samuel: pleasure is mine now¡­please tell me about this miner Mores is so intent on helping. Marcus: oh that young man, heh that boy I the first miner that was able to take off to mine, as well as the first one to build a fighter to defend his ship. I must say this he is a good captain and his crew is original crew is quite skilled. When there was that surge of anomalies around the most of the stations he was given orders to check one of them and camp upon a derelict Reaver ship with six of them still alive and what we believe is a rock creature that originated from Kelha II. Samuel: Hmm¡­ I though Kelha II was a desert planet with no life. Marcus: we though so as well but after an incident with the planet base we have down there we began thinking otherwise and this man¡¯s discovery proved it. The two men continued talking about Noah for a bit before Samuel left back to his ship to have his crew prepare the workshop for production. Noah POV Down on the planet inside the radio station Morgan, Adam and I were celebrating that we could get our message through.
Mission Base Survival You have been able to get into contact with Kelha II¡¯s Space station. They are now preparing to make satellites to improve the signal between the planet and station. Your job is to get the base ready for their arrival. Difficulty D Objective: you must build the buildings below and get them running -build Basic level Shipyard -Build basic level equipment workshop -build basic level power suit workshop -designate a zone for junk yard -Make a Basic level droid and drone factory -scout the up 30 km in all directions around the base -Locate suitable areas for new bases to be erected, for either agriculture or mineral extraction -research Dome shields so that you can build more around new bases Reward: ???
Noah: this one seems a bit simpler Adam: Nope it¡¯s not, it¡¯s just that the rank means the effect it will have is only around the base or planet Noah: oh that sucks¡­anyway let¡¯s get on with the simplest, you guys start on the droid and drone factory that will need the workshop machines so we will need one a few off ship. I will go to the ship and send a few drones to scout the land outside for the last option. We split up and I headed to the carrier. At the carrier there were already a few higher up crew mates there, obviously Gunner for one, Ernest and a few techs and soldiers. Gunner: we saw the new mission what do you want us to do now. Noah: well we need to start building, first set up a place for junk, then around that area where metal junk is placed build a new refinery to recycle the metal which will go into two new Part making workshops before going to the assembly line at the equipment and power suit workshops. As for the shipyard, that will also be put near the junkyard since we will need spare parts most of the time. Try and make the junkyard near the landing platform were the carrier is it will be easier to transport the ships at a smaller distance. Giving out my orders they all started to talk and discuss who builds what and how to set up with a large map of the area. Before I moved to far out I got a new idea. Noah: hey the shipyard I got a better idea. Fix up a few of this mining tanks and make it under ground, this will add an extra layer of protection for the future if someone attacks and then make an open hatch with a shield like from the carrier to close and open. A few liked the idea and started up the talk again with increased vigor. I finally headed into my original Dingy and sat in the pilot¡¯s seat. Noah: alright now I¡¯m sure the AI in the ships can help with this. I put the head set on which allows us to talk over the radio or to the AI. Noah: computer I need manual control of a drone as well as visual from the front of the drone. ¡°Drone Manual controls active, Drone Camera deploying, Visual image now transmitting¡± I grab the handles which were now controlling the drone as the windows turned into screens and showed what the drone was seeing. From my POV I was over the carrier. Turning the drone I am it towards the shield and hitting the pedal the drone flew off outside. In the near vacuum of Kelha II there wasn¡¯t much to see. Just a cold desert that has never known what vegetation was. I flew near the surface and had the AI activate the scanner. My objective was to find really fertile land as well as ground water which wasn¡¯t present in our current location and we only have what we brought. As I scan the drone suddenly picked up seismic activity before the image turned into static. Noah: Computer what happened?! ¡°Drone signal has been lost, possibilities of it being destroyed 85%, Possibility of simply losing contact 0%¡± Noah: give me control of a different Drone. The images suddenly came back and I was flying over the base again. I fly out as fast as the drone could take it in 2x gravity and soon find the drone. Around it dozens of Golems were crowding around it and destroying it. When I got near the looked up and started to move around and before I knew it they threw tons of tiny versions of the fish like golems that were used by raiders. By stomping on the pedal I was able to dodge the creatures but they used there magnetic abilities to draw themselves towards the drone. I had it go as fast as possible and it finally returned into the bases shield which let it through while blocking the Golems which crashed into the dome. I was breathing heavily from the fright. Noah: ¡±this is REALLY bad, we can¡¯t do anything with those things around destroying the drones while we scan¡­we need better drones¡­or different kinds of drones¡± After thinking about his I left the ship and found Gunner and the guys still talking. Noah: guys we are changing plans, first we need a Junkyard then a workshop for parts and last we will make the droid and drone factory as well as a research lab for technology development and focus on making new types of drones as well as better drones. They all looked my way after I suddenly appeared and changed the plans. Ernest: what¡¯s with the sudden change? Noah: I used the manual control of the drones and went scouting and found that the planet is the home of the Golems and if we are to slow they will attack us. I think this was what destroyed the freighter so I for us to safely scout we need more drones we can control easily. Namely Shield and weapon specialized drones as well as drones with better and quicker scanners so they don¡¯t need to stay in one spot while scanning. Gunner: that¡¯s a tall order boss, we need to develop three kinds of drones as well as a few workshops. Noah: exactly and that is why for a few days we will have to build a lot of worker and construction droids to help out this way we can speed the process and make do many projects at once. This is very important, for proper agriculture we need to scout for good land as well as ground water that we are in desperate need of for basic needs. I think we have at best two weeks of water if it¡¯s rationed well. This caught most of them by surprised, they knew we didn¡¯t have unlimited water but they didn¡¯t know that exact amount and hearing it was so little time set them to work immediately, gunner grabbed a few worker droids and headed to a clean around about half a km away from the landing zone with the bots carrying a lot of long junk poles that that were then set up right around the area making a 40x40 area that was designated the junkyard. He gave orders to the maintenance droids that were originally from the base to drop all scrap metal in here. Ernest and the other techs and mechanics split up and with the help of the worker bots started building a parts workshop with machines and tools to make basic parts. The other was the droid and drone factory which had machines found for assembly lines as well as the tools for that as well. The last group that split up went with a few researchers and techs that prefer the research fields and transformed a large empty ware house into a research lab for droids. They were the quickest to set up which was only 2 days since it was mostly clean up and preparing some machines like the workshop and assembly as well as computers and large scanners for very detailed scans. They started their work by scanning both the carriers¡¯ shields and the done shield of the base hundreds of times until they got sufficient data on both they also did lots of scans on the lasers of the dingy. Their objective was to make 2 different drones. The first is a shield drone that generated a large enough shield to protect other drones. The other is Laser drone this one is meant for combat. I also asked for a third kind of research which was for a better kind of engine and propulsion system to improve the maneuverability of the drones. The research team had become swamped with work and had to ask for help from the other teams around the base to increase the research. Space POV (3rd POV) In space it was just as hectic. With the need for many metals an official mission had been given to the miners to mine many tons of various materials that were in the fields. In the escort warship Blutopfer it was just as hectic as the station. As they received tons of refined metal sheets they began to work on the MIST satellites, the ship¡¯s crew which was a proportion of 30% player and 70% NPC had been tipped towards the player¡¯s side because the station had sent many mechanic and technician players to learn advanced constructions like this. The effects of the missions that Noah completed caused great effects for those around the base and made many opportunities to gain experience and money. After 2 days they had completed the first satellite which was made at lightning speed because of the need for them being urgent. Almost 90% of the crew was helping out while the rest took care of the other necessary systems of the ship. By now the structure to the second satellite was nearly done thanks to the collective work of the worker droids and mechanics work. The first satellite was going through its final tests and having its system coded by the techs who were all over it to get it done. In the real world the forums were in an uproar over the intense activities on Kelha II (just an advanced apology I couldn¡¯t think of any names for people so I used a few of you user¡¯s names without permission sry again) Overlord Mea: hey have you heard of the stuff happening around Kelha II Riou666: yep I¡¯m currently here, the top miner Noah was sent on a mission to the planet surface and it caused a mission for us up here after he succeeded. Mad Jester: what is the mission!!!!! Those of us who are not there want to know?! GreyDragon: we need to build satellites to improve the signal between the station and planet. 8 of them in under 2 weeks for some reason. Riou666: I think it¡¯s because the planet is a desert one so they will need water soon as well as food they only have what they took in Noah¡¯s carrier. Mad Jester: HOW THE HELL DOES HE HAVE A CARRIER!!!! The conversations continued in many different forums but all of them were all over the place wanting to know about it. Since no one could go out into deep space since they had neither a hyper drive nor warp drive they couldn¡¯t go anywhere. (hyper drive = high speeds to cover many km over time, warp drive = jumps a great distance in short amount of time) As the players around the station continued supplying what little info they had acquired from the NPC on the station they give to the public but that was all they could do without any strong connection to the players themselves. By the end of the first week much was done both in space and on the planet. In space, 4 satellites were completed and were now floating around the warship, they need to complete the last 4 faster so they were now making the other 4 in space since there was MUCH more space outside ship. On the planet the junkyard was already done and had accumulated quite a bit of broken parts that were recycled to get extra metal if the mining couldn¡¯t get enough. We had repaired one of the tanks but it didn¡¯t have a drill attached so instead we converted that one into a mining truck and made and attacked 2 containers behind it that carried a lot of ores there was also 2 other tanks that had drills that came back online and had begun digging out the shipyard area under the base near an area that had no construction on top. Moving on we were able to complete the refinery, parts workshop and droid and drone factory and for now it was focusing on worker droid to increase building speed. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. The research team had grown thanks to the increase in worker droids all they needed was someone to lead them so with many open hands most of my crew were helping with building and research while the miners were left to mine with the help of the bots. The research had gone well, Gunner led the research on the laser droids and had been able to develop a laser gun like the ship lasers but at half size and about 2/3 the original power. The shield research was led by James, Jonas and Adam since it was a technical and mechanical puzzle. They were able to reduce the size of the shield generator to about the size of a motor cycle, which I might add is very small compared to the original dome shield generator which was about 15 meters high and had a diameter of about 7 meters. The small generator had the strength to make a dome shield around the drone that was about 8 meters in diameter and though it was large it was also difficult to build but I didn¡¯t mind. Laser drones were much easier to build but the easiest was the new scanner drones; the new scanners were developed by Mr. Kinter and a part of his group using the golem cores to make the tech. I don¡¯t know the specifics of how it¡¯s done but I think the core can amplify the strength of the scanner so it was a bit simple to upgrade the scanners. The biggest upgrade that still hasn¡¯t been able to accomplish was improving the propulsion. The biggest problem is that they need to pretty much make a new engine for the drones. i have been helping this group since I was interested in having my mechanic skills improve and I knew how hard it was, the current engines we have in most ships are normal hydrogen fuel propulsion engine. It¡¯s a somewhat weak engine for a fighters and drones but it¡¯s the best a midway frontier space station could get. One of the ideas I had thought of was an Ion pulse engine which uses battery power to make the pulse. It would cut down on fuel use and might make it faster. We have been studying about Ionization that is used in higher grade ships near the capitals that have ion pulse engines. It¡¯s much harder than it looks to make a small pulse engine because it use for large or luxurious ships so to make small one is harder. Even without the better engine we start producing the new droids, the shield ones we make about 5 in 2 days of the second week while making 10 scanner drones and 20 laser drones. The orders were basic the scanner drones were to stay within the shield drones dome and will scan after they get near the ground. The laser drone will at all times defend the scanner and shield drones and if needed will leave the dome to distract them while making openings for others to attack. With that finally all set it was the 3 day of the second week and we were already rationing water and even with the green house having started to grow it would be impossible to grow fast enough before we run out. So in a somewhat desperate move we sent out the drones. With some men using many of the ships to take control of all the drones we set off into the desert. I took control of a shield drone and had everyone that was control a drone in an open chat in the ship. We moved at 10 meters above the ground to allow the scanners to do their job and started scanning around the base first. We saw some obvious effects, it seems they don¡¯t come near here for some reason but we were glad at least. The ground around the base, at least outside the large mineral pocket, had some fertility that could grow vegetation on it. When we reached about 5 km away from the base we were attacked. 10 human golems attacked but were intercepted by the laser drones. the lasers didn¡¯t have as much power as the ship ones but I was much stronger than a normal rifle laser and with a few shots the golems tumbled back down and crumbled into dust as they smashed into the ground. (A.N. laser pistol = 1/20 ship laser, laser rifle = 1/15 ship laser, Sniper = 1/12 ship laser) We lowered towards the ground and soon we were over then and after our shields covered them we had a special function to the shield drones activate. Soon an extendable are came out and reached for the bodies and broke then up. After a few minutes the tiny cores inside them appeared and they took it into an inner storage. We then continued on and scanning, every kilometer they attacked and were repelled, it was mostly human golems which didn¡¯t have much resistance to the lasers since they were smaller. After reaching about 4 hours of searching and reaching 30 km away from the base he finally found what we wanted. 700m underground was an underground river that was flowing rabidly inside the planet under intense pressure. Around it was about 2 meters of ice as well which is probably from the cold temperatures of this planet. We stayed about half an hour with the shield drones spread out to give max coverage to allow the scanners to get the best readings. The river was 30 meters in diameter and flowed through a think tunnel underground covered in ice. Besides the river the ground, which is also moistened a bit instead of dead dry like most of the desert, had better fertility them any other area we have scanned so we knew this was where we needed to start. It would take a lot of shield drones and land transport to send between our base to that new area to start producing anything and even longer to make a proper dome shield to keep golems out, the shield drones can act like a dome shield but they can only reach so far underground and have only so much strength against their attacks that could be hidden underground. We mark that area on the map and have the drones return for us to get ready for this. Space POV The four days of the second week they started working on was even worst the first. They had to build the 4 remaining satellites in space they finished all four by the fourth day but that was with 90% of both the station and the warships man power working overtime to get the large constructions done at one time. With all the satellites finished the mechanics and techs that worked on it were all in bed sleeping from the overnight shifts they had but the commander still had to hand it over to the responsible workers that would take and place then correctly in place. A few remaining techs that had been told to rest the day before were ready as were the 40 different miners with fighter ships from the station. The techs were taken inside the satellite through had a small docking bay, which was simply a long tube that extended out. After they were in, the dingy pilots all hooked the 8 satellites and towed them with 8 on each one. The first one was placed some distance from the entrance of the tunnel so it wouldn¡¯t block passage. That one was easy but it got a bit harder after that. It was hard to guide the other satellites through the asteroid field but thankfully they were only about 1/3 the size of the carrier so they all fit even with the huge antennas. (A.N. Satellites meant for solar system communication in my story can be as nearly 3 times as big as Kelha II which is to say around 200 meters long and about 100 wide and it worked just like a station between solar systems if someone doesn¡¯t use a warp drive to jump.) The next 3 were easy to place as well since all they needed was to take it and put it in a general position and let the techs inside use the propulsion of the satellite to turn it properly. At the fourth layer they started to get attacked but it was tiny groups of 6-9 and came every 5 km. The 4th and 5th layers were the same. The 6th and 7th were larger groups that were also taken care of they were about 15-20 in a group but only human golems. The 7th had the raiders but that was all, most of the larger ones were pushed back onto the planet and it didn¡¯t have many more left and all the satellites were finally placed and were correctly placed after a long day of hulling these things. Once they were finally in place the techs were picked up and taken back and a quick message to the station had them send their own techs to work the stations. 2 hours after leaving all satellites were working and Mores Marcus and Commander Samuel were there in the stations tower to receive the message. A signal was sent to the planet. After about half an hour it was received and a clear channel was made with the receiver. Mores: hello this is Kelha II station Mores cane speaking is this on the planet base. Noah: good to hear from you and loud and clear sir. There was a sudden shout of accomplishment as the message came in loud and clear through the radio. Mores: how is it down there Noah. Noah: truthfully it could be better, we are in need of water and food but we have made some advancements, we located land and water on the planet but its inside the desert about 30 km north east of the base and out there Golems live sir. Oh us down here have taken to calling them that since it reminds us of the fantasy creature with that name. Mores: I see¡­besides the basic needs anything else needed down there. Noah: if you had a dome shield that would be great but if you don¡¯t we will make one but for now just food water and personal to work down here, we are kind of short on hands and have even started to make droids to make that up but they can only take basic orders. Mores: I¡¯ll get the basics down there Noah: oh make sure to tell them that for now it¡¯s a one way trip, it¡¯s too dangerous to leave the planet unless you have a very fast ship. Golems jump out at you even at high altitudes if you try leaving the planet or leave the base for that matter. More: that is a problem but I will get some to work, specifically what types of personnel Noah: I need people who know about engines we are trying to make ion pulse engines down here to make ships capable of speeding past the golems before they can attack us. Mores: that¡­is a tall order. Samuel: sir if they need information about ion engine my crew may help, we have used ion engines before when we were still in a smaller class warship it made up for the large size. Mores: is there a blue print or something. Samuel: no ion pulse engines done have blue prints because when one knows the principles to making it they can make it at any size or shape which makes blue prints obsolete. What we have are instructions how the ion pulse is done. Noah: you have something like that, is there something you want in return! Samuel: well the it is B class secret that only commander rank or high were only allowed to know how to make. Everyone kind of looked down after hearing that Noah: is there something you might want in return, we got from these creatures we got tons of mineral cores, there were two large ones. This got everyone¡¯s attention, a core is said to be hunted down by many because of their uses in powerful technology and to get a large even more so. It is also a perfect bargaining token for high level tech secrets that were wanted by many and known by few and it has defiantly caught the commanders attention. Samuel: how big exactly is it? Noah: ¡­ There was silence from the radio for a few minutes before my voice appeared. Noah: ok I needed to have it checked in comparison let¡¯s see they put it next to a Dingy they said it was about 1/3 of the height and 1/5 the length Everyone¡¯s mouth hit the floordroped. Why? Because they were just slightly smaller the A class cores these cores were at the level where it could be traded for a single B ranked tech because it was almost 1/3 times larger than a normal core that was about the size of a human. Samuel: i-I will have to talk with my superiors about the exchange but i has to be both, if they accept I will hand over all the knowledge we know about it. He said that quickly and ran out without a second though which surprised a few people since the man was known for his calm domineer but in front of such a trade he couldn¡¯t deny it. Mores moved up and took the mic again Mores: you know that is more valuable than the info you want right. Noah: I kind of thought so but value comes with necessity and this ball of metal has less value to us then the engine that could get us off this rock and working in space again. Marcus: haha I have to agree with him sir Mores: yes so do I, we will have a crew ready and taking down as many much food as possible they will be going in Dingys which might be fast enough to leave the planet unlike the carrier. Noah: good idea, send a lot with lots of food and water which are in need. Marcus: don¡¯t worry we will get it down right away but it will take about 1 day or two since a some Golems are still in the asteroid field but I¡¯m sure it¡¯s nothing like what you faced. Noah: we will be waiting. The connection cuts off and everything starts getting hectic again in the station as many Dingys are loaded with either food or water. When all was done 10 Dingy had water and 10 had ration food and 2 had some personnel that would work down on the planet. The crews were paid for the trip and would get a bonus after coming back. they were accompanied by their fighters to protect them as they flew towards the planet being the first after Noah to head all the way
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*** Hey guys I got some ideas on what to do but the chapters will come out slower now, mostly only on the weekends when I have more time to write I think maybe 2 chapters a week from now on RL is getting busy so I won¡¯t be able to write so much except for weekends next chapter i will try to add some fighting with the drones against large enemies all feedback is well accepted both good and bad Volume 2 Chapter 4 Provisions and Water Sry for the long wait, RL has kept me busy and havent felt motivated so much in the last few weeks hope you like this *** The wait for the food and water was long but it wasn¡¯t unproductive. We gained the knowledge for the ion pulse engines we needed and began designing the new drone engines. This was quick, only about 4 hours of designing and redesigning until we came up with the new model for the three types of drones we have. The laser drone became sleek and oval shaped unlike before which was a spherical. There were several exits for the exhausts around the body. The scanner drone was still a sphere but slightly bigger to accommodate the slightly larger framework of the new engine. And the shield drone also became more oval like but it was faced down the oval shape instead of straightforward like the laser drone, we did it like this to give it the impression of a shield while the laser looks more like a fighter. Thankfully the engine was also light weight compared to the old engine we had before. It cut the weight by 1\3 which helped a lot to increase the speed on this planet. We made three prototypes one for each type of drone we had and tested them in manual control. Let¡¯s just say the speed and maneuverability of the new drones is beyond what we expected. They easily outran the tiny fliers. If we practice enough we could fly circles around them. The engine also increased power to the other systems a bit. Being the source of power, it increased slightly the strength of the shield and scanners. The lasers had an increased fire rate only bit no power boost. The results were so great that we dismantled all our current drones and made new ones with the new engine. After two days we were also reaching the end of our food and water supply but thankfully the transport came. We saw that far away, first it was the readings of laser fire and then we saw them speeding towards us at top speed while Golems followed close behind. We quickly sent help which was about 10 laser drones. They quickly reached the cargo ships and began firing back. The enemy forces were about 50 tiny fliers and 15 human golems. They were all trying to destroy the ships but as soon as the drones arrived they were pushed back. The 30+ fighter escorts finally had the few seconds of distraction to turn around and begin a counter attack against the Golems. They began to fire at the humans Golems on the ground but they miss a few as they go underground to hide. I connect my comm to everyone participating. Noah: all of you gain altitude to about 20 m that is out of the Golems jump range the small flying ones let us take care of it. They received the order with thanks and ascended above the limit of the golems. We then controlled the drones to come in basic V formation split in two groups of five. We then drove the drones into the small herd of fliers while blasting away taking out nearly half of them before we pass them. Half of the remaining flies¡¯ mu group killed came after us. With a quick U turn upside down we attacked again taking out the flies heading towards us and then processed to finish the remaining ones. The other group led by Basil was also finishing up. ??? : thanks a lot for the support, those are some useful drones for sure. Noah: yes we know but let¡¯s talk at the base this isn¡¯t the place to do it. ??? : Right we will be right there. We helped escort them to the base. There were 10 loaded with food 10 with water and 2 with workers. The food and water was quickly unloaded and sent to the carrier and a bit of water to the greenhouse. In the group of workers were many kinds of workers like mechanics and techs who were taught about ion engines and so called terraformers. It is a special variation to a biologist and botanist in that they work on bringing life to any planet that has potential. Us finding ground water was pretty much all that is needed for a terraformer to be sent. He said that it is mandatory for all large fleet ships to have a few because when a new planet is encounter and has potential then one or two are required to go down and help bring life to the planet. The methods are often quite extreme. For cold planets with almost no atmosphere you need to take it to the extreme and cause a few volcanic eruptions to make a primitive atmosphere from the CO2 and other toxic gasses. Then the planet itself will heat up and ground water will start melting and seep up and any ice above ground will melt making oceans. The process is long as it takes quite a few years at least a good 10-20 years of heavy investment to get a basic atmosphere that can hold breathing air for above ground life. Marine life will just need a small push after the oceans appear since algae and sea plants will be imported from planets like earth or other planets depending on the benefits of the plant and then plankton and after some larger fish. I¡¯m sure you though 10 years is too little of time for a planet to be reshaped. Well you¡¯re wrong at least in the game you are, here there is technology to help speed that up as well as techniques that are taught to terraformers to manipulate the planets natural disasters to your favor. Now besides them, there were also the radio tower technicians, two of them. We had messaged to the station that the radio tower got wrecked and we were using our armors helmets to use the consoles. These guys were quick to get to work after landing. They requested some worker droids to assist and soon rushed off to the tower. We didn''t mind and let them go but after a few hours getting everyone to their place i got curious to see how it was and i went there. What i saw made my jaw drop. Instead of repairing the radio tower they are giving it an overhaul. Two of the consoles had been remade completely and had three hologram screen over it, the other one as well. At the moment they were remaking the main console. Their concentration was admirable. The improvements left most of the radio tower looking like a workshop with all the tools and parts on the ground but if you take that out it looks impressive. Not wanting them to screw up i leave for the research lab were the mechanics from the liberation ship at the station was teaching proper use of the ion engine tech. We may have the knowledge but we still need to learn to properly use it. I got there when they were beginning they had brought and stripped a fighter ship clean. Being the captain i also had to learn this so i jumped right in. Five hours later and an aching head from the difficult task to make a medium size engine and we were done and put the fighter back together. It was a big headache to learn this but the benefits it gave were worth it.
Ship construction leveled to basic 8
With the raise in skill I''m getting better at all this mechanic stuff. After learning from the pro¡¯s we headed to the cargo ships and began repairing them. They had taken lots of damage and were in some desperate need of repairs and have been putting it off to get things in order but not with everything in its place we took up the work. We began with the fighters that were in more disrepair because they fought directly with the Golems. There were holes from where the little bastards hit and dig through so we started first by removing all the hull plating and checking the interior of the ship. We had a few combat droids ready with rifles incase there was something hiding side. Unfortunately there was a few in both wings they were eating up the main structure of the of the fighter which only made me hold my forehead. the damage was extensive thanks to the time they were given to chow down. the wings looked like they would fall off with just a bit of pushing so with a few rifle shots we cleaned the bugs out and began taking the structure apart and rebuilding it. We worked on 3 at a time, most of them only had these bastards in the wings. seems they were aiming to take out the engines as they left the planet, little fucks. well this work took a rough estimate of about a day and a half to complete all the fighters and 2 days to finish the 22 Dingys. during this time a second cargo came but this one wasn''t attacked because we warned them of the dangers and how to evade it. we now had about 2 months worth of water and food and an over crowded landing port. at least we finished the repairs about a day after the second group arrived so all of them decided to head back together. it was the third day after we finished the repairs and the landing area was a buzz of activity as everything was being prepared for them to leave more than 50 Dingys and 100 fighters were around taking off and getting ready. The fighters were all flying around the base within the 5km safe zone as the Dingys stabilized in the air. they all faced up a bit and began speeding up until they were at half their max speed. all of them had been checked and repaired so they could get the max potential out of them. as all of them got about 2 km up into the air they began speeding up. we all watched them but we began feeling a kind of forbidding feeling. we didn''t know why but soon it became stronger the ground began to vibrate like an earthquake...or something moving around. I paled when i thought that. I was currently in the radio tower looking up at where the group of ships were. Noah: hey get your asses moving something is coming after you. ??? : we don''t see anything and the scans aren''t picking up anything. suddenly the ground outside the base burst open. like a volcano erupting the explosion of the ground was monstrously loud but what was louder was the rush of wind as a monstrous sized creature climbed into the air. Its width was at least half of the base itself and i couldn''t see the end of it as it climbed higher. ??? : WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!!! Noah: PUNCH IT GUYS OR YOUR DEAD!!! i could easily see that they were accelerating at much higher speeds than normal and was sure they had rerouted power to the engine to play faster. as we watched the creature climb towards the cargo team the sound it gave off was like a massive train passing right next to you. A storm of dust was happening as the thing kept climbing with no end in sight at least that is what i thought. As it reached what i believe was around 50 km it slowed down and stopped before it started pulling itself back into the earth. Noah: hello!!! can you hear me!! hello. i call out but it was quiet for a while. ??? : w-w-we a-are fine...somehow. We escaped but almost destroyed our engines doing it. Noah: *sigh* thats a relief...you need to have Mr. Mores teach everyone how to make the new engines there is no way the conventional engine will survive in this planet especially when escaping the planet. ??? : how will you guys get out with that carrier? Noah: i asked Mr. Mores to order a Warp Drive cable he should have it. With it we can warp out of here and into space without worry. ??? : well...good lucky trying to find someone to come back down here. Noah: ¡­none of you want to come back do you? ??? : Nope that last one everyone said together. a new headache was all it gave me. guess depending on players really isnt a good think. damn cowards this is just like when we needed to come to the planet they chicken out when the first sign of danger appears until the problem is resolved. Well at least i don''t need them for another 2 months and by then i might already have a farm or something for food and water production but i''m worried about how we will set things up in the fertile land with something so huge lurking around. I''m amazed it hasn''t eaten us already. well with them gone the area has become emptier and now we could get to work starting with the terraformers. they seem to want to go to the land where we found good land. seems they want to set up a dome shield and make a kind nature preserve as a start along with farms to make our food. besides them there were mechanics who were getting some equipment ready. they told me it was a type of scanner much more powerful than the drone ones. This will scan the dirt and give a process reading of the soil content as well as give a detailed layout of the subterranean layers how the ground is formed since there are different kinds of dirt with different compositions. We load all this up and two Dingy, one for the crew and one for the gear. From the carrier the fighter team was getting ready with the drones and were already circling the Dingy as wel left. The Shield Drone activated as we left the main shield and headed to the site. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. It took about an hour to reach the site with the constant assault from the golems. such annoying bastards they only give up when dead. anyway before we land we move the shields into the ground and push back every underground golem. After landing it became really quick outside, they didn''t want to try their luck with the huge monster we saw earlier so they speed up the work and begin studying the soil and underground, mainly the underground river. i just stayed in my Dingy as they worked. they are all NPC and specialists at that so when talking about their specialty they can get really complicated with the explanation unless you ask for a very brief explanation. And i mean VERY brief they can be as eccentric as Gunner towards guns sometimes and they don''t stop after they begin. even after landing the Golems didn''t give up and were constantly attacking but the laser drones were quite capable and the skill of us pilots were getting better and we even gained a new skills
New skill learn Drone Pilot Drone Pilot By manually piloting various models of drones you have gained an understanding of their workings and how to control the small robots.
It took about an hour for them to quickly gather all their info but they couldn''t go over it because of the danger. we quickly packed and got in the ships before leaving towards the base. back at the base they took all their gear into a large warehouse. i was curious as to why and entered. what i found was a lab with many consoles and a large holo projector table in the center. near the back was all the gear we had just used it was being set up with some extra cables connected to the consoles. the room itself looked brand new but outside it looked like any old warehouse showing how well disguised they had made it. they had changed out all the metal walls and floors for new plate and it was all painted white like a normal lab. on the holo projector there was a large cone shape displayed. as i looked at it i realised this was the results of the scans. in the center of the land mass i could see a large blue area which i guess was the water. above there was various layers of dirt ranging in color of black, brown and red. in between all these were dozens of pockets of air that if you grab a pen you could connect all of them into a complex tunnel system. this must be the result of the Golems digging underground. there was also a scan of the area outside the fertile area the place was riddled with complete tunnels. Noah: hey Conner why is there complete tunnels outside the area we scanned. Conneor is one of the terraformers that came to down. he is a short man only 160cm with messy brown hair and a friendly personality that gets eccentric when he talks about terraforming. Conneor: we don''t know but we believe its because of the water. Noah: they have fear of water?! Conneor: we don''t know for sure but its possible since they are made of dirt and rocks the water could cause their bodies to break apart. the instant he says it out loud there was a long silence after as everyone looked at him. Noah: good work ill be going to do something VERY important. Conner: yes sir. i ran out of the room towards the science lab. inside Mr. Kinter was their looking through his files. Noah: Wilson i need to check something. he looked startled as i called him by his first name. Wilson: and that would be what exactly? Noah: i want to check how the bodies of the golems reacts to water. He doesn''t seem to understand what i am planning and just shrugs and points to the back door. Wilson: the remains of the Golems he have are in the back. the faucet and bucket are over in that closet He points me to a small door. I grab the bucket and fill it with water then run into the room with the bodies. i pull one of the bodies to the floor and level ground since they were piled up then grab the bucket and tip some water over it. Mr Kinter had followed me curious as to what i was planning. as the water fell on the body it was sucked in like a sponge and became a large clump before falling off the body in a mess of mud. the inside that remained showed pore filled rocks and lots of dust that kept falling off as it had some water in them. Wilson: w-what happened? Noah: the body absorbed the water and fell apart...so Conner was right the Golem do fear water. Wilson: a fatal weakness like this and its the only thing we have so little of on this planet. Noah: to kill of all of them we need to unfreeze the water. in other words we need to terraform this planet and bring life to it. tell me how is the shield done research? Wilson: we haven''t begun yet. Noah: then start, the faster we can make them the faster we can gain large amounts of water from the underground river and start producing food and preparing the area for humans. Wilson: but there is something i''m curious about, if they fear water why do they evade the base which doesn''t have any. Noah: ¡­ Wilson: ¡­ We both quickly go back to Conner in his lab. he was already looking through the mountain of info on the screens. Noah: Conner we need you to scan the 5 km around the base and see if you can find water around here. the Golem''s body falls apart when it comes in contact to water so they fear it by instinct. Conner: thats all good and all but I''m busy. Noah: if we find water we can start terraforming sooner you know. he snaps his eyes away from the screen and towards me before i even finish the sentence. Conner: tell me what do you know about terraforming. Noah: not much but i know that water is the first thing that is looked for in any planet that is being terraformed. Conner: correct that is why we take your own scans into consideration you didn''t find water around the base but you did at the Site Alpha and we will concentrate our work there. Noah: I''ve been wondering but there must be a reason the miners choose this place for their work besides the mineral here. they need water as well no one is stupid enough to not look into it. Conner: unfortunately we cannot go into something with only assumptions. if you want work done around here scan the ground very well and find water if you do we will start work here as well. with that he closes this conversation. damn for the only time his personality isn''t kind to be when he works, i don''t have any luck at all. Wilson: mind if i scan your own scanner. its is of higher quality than our own if we can make some better scanners we can get this job done. Conner: feel free to scan but just that it''s really important. i leave them tired from all this work. Damn its getting hard to do this now that so many pro¡¯s are gathering from other ships that aren''t my own. most of my workers and crew listen well enough but i can''t do the same for someone elses crew. he is right though our scans showed this area didn''t have water...unless that monsters hole. it vanished back inside after it appeared from the scans i wouldn''t be wrong to say that the river was carved out by that one of those things accidentally finding an underground reservoir. if thats true then i should have some scanners go inside. i race across the base into my carrier and then seat myself in a ship. i activate the manual controls of a shield drone and activate autopilot for 4 scanners and 10 laser drone and have them all leave the base. the giant hole the creature made is at exactly 5km away. it looks like an abyss swallowing everything with the shields active i move into the hole. the scanners already start scanning and mapping the tunnel out. the scans appear as a separate screen next to me. the readings are normal for the area. As i move further there still hasn''t been a single attack. The hole is already reaching as deep as the lowest levels of the mine shaft under the base. It was about half a kilometer that we picked up a new reading on the scanner. trace amounts of water started to appear near the lower right side of the tunnel. I stop my drone and have the scanners do a detailed scan of the area. It goes smoothly until it hits the bedrock wall between the base and the outside. The whole area was moist but no large body of water. The moist dirt might be the answer though there is still water though very little. I continue down doing a general scan most of the tunnel now has water registered around. it was nearly an hour after i started that i finally picked up something larger. A detailed scan shows that a hollowed out chamber was found underground to the right about 20 meters off from the tunnel. Unfortunately we didn''t have anything to dig with so i just told the laser drones to fire the lasers. They had really good penetration in this packed dirt but it didn''t do me any good though I did have them fire away for a good 10 minutes before giving up.The scans also don''t seem to pick up what is there but it is one kind of material. for now it was good enough to know there was something there. After giving up on diggin it with the lasers i did one more scan before giving up and started to rise up towards the surface. at least i planned to until i heard a crack sound from the wall. i turned the drone to look at the source. it was the wall i shot at, it was started to form very deep cracks and with the lights the drone had i could see the trickle of water coming out. I instantly paled as i saw the cracks grow and the water flow increased. i quickly aimed the drone upward and floored the thrusters. the impulse from the ion pulse from so many drones caused the wall to collapse and through it a torrent of pressurized water shot out and up and down the tunnel. the drones were at max speed but the water gained ground like it was hungry to get the drones and it did get them. the shields didn''t stop the water since they were set to stop the Golems so it washed the drones up and pushed them up and crashing into the wall even though the autopilot was working at its max to fix its trajectory. As if to make matters worse after about a minute the current became even stronger signalling that the tunnel was filled at the lower end of the tunnel and it pushed the drones even faster. Luckily the shield drone i was using got spared. the system quickly understood that the situation had become dire and made the shields push the drone to the middle of the current while the shields themselves fit to the size of the tunnel to keep the drone stable. As the water neared the surface i could feel the vibrations in my seat so is set the drone autopilot to return to the landing zone and got out. Everyone was outside looking towards the hole and soon with a huge gushing sound a monster geyser erupted for a moment before settling down. in the place of the hole was a large lake that quickly froze over making a lid for the water. Everyone was stunned as they walked up to the frozen lake. Conner and Mr. Kinter were at the front. i encountered them gawing at the lake. i connected my coms to theirs Noah: guess i was right this time Conner. He turned to look at me then looked between the lake and me then smiled and walked towards the base leaving one message before the connection cut. Conner: You''re right this time Noah...this time.
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Volume 2 Chapter 5 Back to Space After the initial shock from the waters eruptions i called out the team of techs and told them to design a water pump facility and link it to the bases pipes system and then send a pipe deep into the lake. With our water problem solved the biologists and botanists didn''t have to worry about going all out with farming and quickly began increasing the size of the greenhouses. They took down the 4 greenhouses we had and in the now open area they had they made a greenhouse with walls at 9 meter high and a 300 m2 circular area in the space. The roof was a transparent and hard plastic that would hold heat in, it was in a dome shape that attached to the top of the walls, the total high at the center was around 20 m. The scientists built an air conditioning system so it didn''t get too hot, thankfully there was more then enough water to use for cooling now. The new greenhouse, around the size of a small warehouse, took about a week to make because of the dome roof since we don''t have much of the stuff down here but this is a temporary solution to the problem of food and a calming area to relax with vegetation. What we really need was an area covered with a dome shield that would be converted into a kind of park though leaning more towards forest. Now to reach that point i head over to the terraformers which were with all the scientists and behind them a group of techs. I could hear him talking with them about preparing a large amount of plants of all kinds and an estimated time of around 2 months would be enough to set up the shield. I walk over the the techs group. Noah: so whats he planning? Tech leader: we have done extensive scanning of the dome shields entire structure quite a few times and have learned from the workers of their ship a bit more about the shields. at the moment he asked us to join him because he said we needed to design something for him. Noah: he didn''t say what? Tech Leader: no sir. I nod and wait for him. He talks for another few minutes before dismissing the scientists and comes over. Conon: ah Captain Noah, you''re here as well. i was just about to ask them to help me and i heard you have some expertise in ship and drone construction. Noah: yes i helped design the new types of drones we have before and after we gained the Ion pulse engine. Conon: fantastic i need your help in making a new drone. Noah: exactly what kind? Conon: follow me everyone. He leads us into his lab and inside is one of the broken drill tanks. Conon: i want this thing converted into a drilling drone controllable from the base like you do with your drones. Its important that we begin digging out the tunnels at Site Alpha to accommodate the new dome Shield that is being made. Noah: i heard you say something about 2 months right to the science team? Conon: that was a request to grow plants and trees from a few planets we normally specialize in when we terraform. 2 months is the minimum since we don''t know how long it will take to set up the dome shield and secure the area and begin planting the area and producing food. Noah: are they just random plants? Conon: there are a few plants people normally call weeds but those plants are food and homes for bugs on their planets the rest are fruit trees and ones use for wood and such. Noah: i see...well shall we get to work guys. We already had the blueprints to the tanks so we used the display of Connons lab to pull that one up alongside the current model of the shield drone, which was the largest drone we have. The other drones didn''t take so long to make because they were much simpler having only thrusters, the engine and what was their main function. This one was different, we needed to take a drill tank and convert a 1 ton hunk of metal into a flying drone capable of manual control like normal drones. First thing it needed was a strong engine. Since all ion engines were unique because of their size we needed to make a new one for this. Then came the structure itself. The drone is about a third the original tanks size because there is no need for a drone to have a seat inside it or a life support system. It did, on the other hand, need an cooling system for the drill bit as well as it needed to have spare drills for when one breaks. This kept the size form getting smaller because there was need to make space for them. In the end the structure was made oval shaped like the fighter, laying horizontal, it continued to have tank tracks but it moved mostly with the engine. The drill came from the front only, none below it. Besides this one we made two another drone which was like a floating dump truck with a claw crane that would be used to remove rocks that the drill drone cut out and dump it outside where it will be transported somewhere and dumped. Mineral poor rock like those don''t have much use for us or the golems, they are in fertile land so the quantity is varies so there is no one type of mineral that dominates the region. To plan out and make the blueprints it took a week and a half to have both done because they would be large drones unlike the small ones we have been making. The drill drone was twice times the size of the shield drone which was about 180cm tall so it towered over us even after we decreased its size by a lot. The other drone was made at the same size because it would need to fit the hole the drill would make. To make one of these drones takes about an 3 hour. Just so you know a scanner drone takes about 20 minutes to make the structure and another 20 to add the engine, scanner and systems they need and another 10 minutes for the planting. So it was a pain so we split up in groups of 7 to make 5 of the drills and then for the dump truck drone it takes about 4 and a half hours because we needed to make the crane on the box as well as attach the backs since it wasn''t a single part drone. It had the front part like a truck which held the engine then behind that was the crane followed by a single box in the back which has a hatch underneath that would let out the rocks and dirt. another thing that was a pain in the ass to make was the drill. A normal drill tank has a drill the size of the tank itself so it doesn''t dig a hole too small for it. But for a drone it would cause too much much aerodynamic problems as well as throwing the center of gravity of the drone towards the front. So our solution was a bit strange. The drill was made so it can store itself inside the drone when not in use. The way this is done is that the main tip that makes first contact with the rock is attached directly to a metal shaft that normally holds the hole drill. The rest of the body is stored in pieces inside and when needed the front of the drone opens up and releases and builds the parts into the drill. this also helps with repairing the drill because there are more parts you can break one area but not need to replace the who drill. This helped a lot now since it would keep a balanced center of gravity. Unfortunately because of so much mass, these drones are slower than the others. Even with the ion engine they both can go at best at ? the speed of the shield drone but we knew it would be like that considering the size of the thing. anyway we continued working for 2 whole days on these and ended up 15 drills and 10 dump drones. Conon said this was more then enough but we could continue to make more to replace the larger tanks in the mines. The next endeavor was making the controls. We converted three entire warehouses into a control center for all the drones. Using the ships was starting to become a hassle so having proper controls would be better. It also made for a great place to train personnel how to pilot a ship since we make all the controls the same as the ships we have. Its also safer and cheaper since we can build some small drones to train them with to get used to the control then put them in a ship later on. The thought of making remote controlled fighters did cross my mind while making this it would make the only casualty be the time wasted making the ships. When we finished the warehouses looked like a room full of capsules like the one that are used to get in game though still different. The controls were made just like the pilots seat of a fighter. The windows we changed with screens that would project what was coming from the cameras on the drones they piloted. besides that change everything was the same except the base which was made the how thing look like an F1 race car with no wheels. In total there were over 100 in all three control centers which would be used to control the drones from here. Up till now we don''t know the exact range that we can manually control the drones but it is far since we can reach Site Alpha easily and continue on. At the end of all this construction of drones and their controls the result showed in my skills
You have learned a new skill Equipment Research You have studied and learn from trial and error the ins and outs of equipment used for work and daily use. Research speed for equipment is increased by 5%
Equipment Construction By studying about a large number of equipment of different functions you have learnt to build them quicker. Increase in speed when creating a piece of equipment by 5%
Ship Construction has leveled up to intermediate 1 Ship Planner has leveled up to basic 8 Weapon Research has leveled up to basic 7 Weapon Planning has leveled up to basic 5
With all the controls done, i put a mining crew as well as some protectors to take the drones to the site and begin digging out the tunnels. im sure that place will become like a dungeon in a fantasy game if left unchecked so we need to set up watch as we dig so we don''t get overrun. With that set we begin the next two very important projects that are one of the most critical. Building the Dome Shield generator as well as an power generator that can handle the power draw of the shield as well as many important equipment in the soon to be built agriculture dome. there was a lot of trouble thinking of a model because we don''t have any more power cores capable of powering the generators. The team was at a bottleneck for a while. we dismissed them to think on their own accord. i headed outside in the chilly air of the dome. Even inside the dome the temperatures get only as high as 25 oC with no wind since the atmosphere outside doesn''t have enough to cause any wind. I was at the edge of the shield watching the construction of the water pump facility that was being made. Currently the builders were extending the pipes from the base into the area where the water will be held and a return pipe that will be sent to a treatment center that was also being built next to it. As i watch the question of how they would keep the water from freezing came to mind but after i asked i was told that the pipes going into the lake would have a few layer of insulation to delay the freezing from happening and also it would be placed underground for further protection. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. As i thought of what i had learned it suddenly struck me being punched in the gut. Why not use the water to power the new base. We could make a few water turbines like that in dams used for blocking water and then the water used to power the base would go into the plantations and such. Also releasing a bit on the outer edges of the base would keep the golems away due to the watery dirt. It was a well thought out plan so i headed back to the lab were a few people were talking looking over the plans of the generator we have powering our base here. The discussion was what to do for power, of course. i listened from the door as Mr. Kinter, Conon, Ernest, Adam, Morgan, James and Jonas talked about different stuff that could make a strong generator. Ideas like nuclear power, making an ion generator, and wind power (lol) were all suggested but the most obvious was never called so after they slumped down i walked up. Noah: hey no ideas? James: Nope¡­none at all...that work on this planet at least. Noah: how about water power? Everyone: ¡­ They just looked at me then at each other. it looked like they were about to facepalm themselves for not thinking of the obvious solution especially since Site Alpha was being made because of the water there. Adam quickly typed something up and an image of a huge room with 3 huge turbines appeared. The room was completely metal around 2000 m2 with 3 turbines placed in the room. Those were one of the most complicated looking turbines of seen. I''ve seen pictures of the turbines in Brazil those require 1 huge room for each almost and once they had to repair a small cracked piece in them took a year to dismantle and rebuilding the turbine just because of that piece. these were about half the size of one of those but looked a lot more advanced so it might make up the difference thanks to the advanced technology. Noah: how far is the water from the surface? Conner goes to his console for a bit and returns after a few seconds. Conner: around 600-800 meters. Noah: if we build the room displayed here about...100 meters above the river it should work out well the rest of the space above and to the sides can be used to expand and make things like water tanks for breeding freshwater animals the same for seawater. Conner: can these turbines handle the power needs for the entire base? Adam: these rank at around¡­ 20th place on the scale for utility but the power it generates is enough for a small base to power all their needs and still have spare energy. Just so you know the generator we have here the model currently ranks at 23 and can also hand our needs but it has a higher chance for breakdowns or something so its a good thing to make this. Ernest: how long does it take to make this thing? Adam: ...i dont know...the parts need to be made or imported Conner: ¡­ Noah: ...how common is this used and are there schematics for it? Adam begins punching the keys in front of him and the image in front of us vanishes and shows the entire construction of the turbine from inside and out. It was clear to see that it would take years to properly make this. we all frowned seeing how the thing was made. Conner: its probably faster to heat the planet then build that thing. Noah: how exactly are you planning to heat the planet? Conner: well using your drones i was planning to scan the planet and figure out the makeup of the planets tectonic plates and find if there are any dormant or possibly active volcanoes and set them off. ¡°...¡± Noah: volcanos? Conner: yep, its a common technique terraformers use to heat a planet up and make a primitive atmosphere. Once water fills the planet we release a few variety of algae which begin photosynthesis and makes oxygen. after a bet of time has passed we being to introduce plankton throughout the worlds seas. with them in the water they can survive by eating each other or the alge. noah: won''t they start growing? Conner: yep, when terraformed for a large faction they usually give us a time period to make the planet habitable to a certain degree but this planet isn''t warranted that need so we can do a slower process and have the plankton grow and make new native inhabitants for this planet. James: how long exactly is this slow process. Conner: around 20 or so years. Its fast like that because before releasing the plankton we breed them in large tanks and during this time we dump a special chemical inside the tank which promotes mutations in the DNA and speeds up the evolutionary process. This chemical lasts for around 10 generations on the planktons life which is around 1 year so every year we need to go with a unique ship that is built with a large tank to locations were plankton reside and suck them into the ships inside we put the chemical and leave them for some time and finally release them again. Within 5 years crustaceans and a few fish should begin appearing at that point we will do the same with those creatures until we get to land creatures. Noah: isn''t that playing god? Conner: that discussion has been talked about hundreds of years ago. Yes and No, yes because we shape the planet in god''s place but no because the chemical randomly mutates the creatures we have no say in it and leave it to nature to decide what appears. Noah: can monsters appear from this? Conner: possibly, maybe a new sentient species who knows. There far too few chances that allow us to do the slow process so there aren''t that many new species that appear unless someone is careless. i sat back looking directly at Conner. I couldn''t feel any lies coming from him considering how he is towards his profession but knowing it would take so long just irked me. that best option to speed this up would be selling the ores we mine up in space. he problem is that no one up there was will to bring the Warp drive cable for us which left us with only one option. Noah: *sigh* ok here is what we, i want all of our ships except the carrier completely remade with the ion pulse engine, i need to head up into space and pick up the warp drive cable and make a contract to sell the ore we mine down here with Mr. Cane this way we can ensure that we begin getting money and then be can begin buying and building this type of power generator. Adam: why do we need the warp drive cable. Noah: because there is no way in hell that the carrier can outrun that beheth we saw we need to warp out of here before it jumps out so we need that cable. everyone understand what i was aiming for and nods. Noah: next i want to begin the mining of the tunnels at Site Alpha. for the time being make a large number of shield drones and use them as the shields for the site while we build the turbines. Conner i want you to concentrate on finding volcanoes or whatever and start the terraforming as fast as possible, we can do that slow what you want but we need to at least heat the planet enough for water to appear if we can it would be smart to ever heat a bit to have storms begin with rain it will become impossible for the golems to come out without dieing. Finished giving out orders everyone split up. i went with the mechanics and we all begin taking apart our ships and rebuilding them with the new engine and a few better systems to work better. The Dingys were the first to be taking apart since i needed it urgently. the first to get ripped apart was my original one. the plates were stripped off and we had to remove pretty much everything from the ship so we could build the new engine since they were near the middle of the ship and spread out everywhere. Time it took 2 days, 1 to strip it clean, a quarter to plan the new engine, a quarter to make the new engine parts and half a day to build the ship again. it took longer to build the ship up again because the engine was different so a few parts didn''t fit with the new engine. Once the ship was built I took it for test flights and adjustments that were needed to cut down power cost and overheating. the testing took another day but finally the Dingy was done and using it as a model everyone started working on the others. This also included the Gunship that had been left neglected. Dad who had been helping with the drone operations was happy to see his ship finally getting a much needed face lift. Besides the Dingy there were 5 fighters that were remade after the Dingy was done so it would be escorts. there were still Golems in space even though i was told by radio that a new batch of miners(players) had come and instead of actually mining they began hunting these golems and harvesting their bodies for the ores. it seems that even in space there will always be hunters though this game doesn''t work with levels like normal fantasy games. Want to get stronger or smarter train thats it. Most of my fighters are put through military training to increase their strength a bit because the power suits improve the strength using the users own strength though this game is to real since gaining stats outside of the tutorial room seems to be very hard. Anyway after the all the fighters were ready we started getting ready each pilot had been given a 3 day worth of water and ration. The Dingy had been equipped with a very large fueling and support system for all the fighters. The ones coming with me were Basil in the dingy with me plus a few NPC fighters who wanted to fly a bit they had experience from flying the drones with the same controls so they picked it up relatively quickly. i also left Ernest and Gunner in charge of everything, i trusted both of them the most in the crew since both were the most experienced of all the NPC and players there and both had very high charisma, note the stat but real charisma that showed in their everyday lives as they commanded others like it was natural and no one argued much. Everything set we finally set off. As we leave the safety of the shields we all floor the pedal and point up towards the sky while watching the rear monitor. As we reach 100 meters the behemoth appears so we reroute power to the engine and burst forward in a single large pulse leaving the creature behind.
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Volume 2 Chapter 6 The Conqueror After escaping from the behemoth with surprising result of the ion engine we were well on our way out of the planet. The lack of an atmospheres made it easy for us to leave the planet without having to deal with much resistance. Once we were a great deal up i activated the navigation system. A screen showing a blue ball which was the planet and my 6 ships as small red triangles. I then ordered for the ships AI to search for the satellite which is stationed right at the entrance of the tunnel we made with the carrier. A few seconds after the ship began a widespread scan it picked up the location and pinpointed it. It was a bit far from the us maybe an hours flight so not to waste time and fuel we punch it and fly towards the location. I''ll just say this real quick but flying a ship in space and flying a ship near a planet are two completely different things. For one you don''t worry about just the 360 turning and stuff. You think about a grid on a blueprint you have an x and y axis. That is also used for ships near the planet because there is natural gravity the ship is usually parallel to the planet. In space you need to include a third axis to the picture and makes it incredibly much harder to fly. For us, who became used to the gravity of the planet, it was hard to get used to the zero G of space again and we had to relearn how to handle it. One of the fighter pilots lost control, seems i wasn''t the only one to lost my space touch. He continued spinning for a bit before he started to counter the inertia slowly straightening the ship. It took 3 hours for us to regain our sense of direction in the vacuum of space and another 3 to finally reach the satellite because we flew at half the speed we had intended. (he wanted to go at full speed.) As we neared the satellite i saw something very interesting. First it was my first time seeing the huge satellite that connected the planet to space. Two giant antenna at each end connected by a long oval body that had many smaller antenna pointed at random directions. What was interesting was what was attached to it. Holding onto the slowly rotating satellite was a large metal circle. It was about 100 meters away from the satellites body. At the end was a large circular body that looked around 15 meters wide and also circular. As we approached a contact signal came from the strange structure. Noah: hello this is BR545 ??? : hello you must be Noah this is docking bay command center. Noah: by docking bay it would be that circular structure around the satellite? ??? : exactly this was built after we began mining the deeper layers. The fourth satellite and eighth which is this one have a docking bay to purchase the ores and golem bodies collected. Noah: why golem bodies? ???: thats because the golem that remained in the layers from 4th to 7th all have large amounts of minerals in their bodies which compare them to the ores mined. Some miners are even making their living by hunting the nearly unlimited number of golem in these deeper layers. Basil: seems hunting monsters for money from fantasy games has followed us into the sci-fi as well. Noah: i know what you mean. Permission to dock our ships and refuel. ???: permission granted dock 7 will be extending a larger platform to land all your ships. As the connection cut the AI pinpointed the dock. I saw a large hangar door open up and inside was the dock with a big 7 on it. We landed after a bit, we were still having a bit of trouble with the control of the ship but from trial and error my skill in small ship piloting grew really well reached level 7 quickly as we relearned how to travel in space while controlling the ship. The fuel was more for the power generator then the engine since it ionizes the particles within the engine and thrusters to create thrust. Once full we quickly left this time truly at full speed. The tunnel we made was monitored by simple drones that would it asteroids to keep the path clear of obstacles. I was surprised to see so much activity in this area of the asteroid fields. No a single mining operations but a lot of gunfire. Seems it wasn''t a lie that Golems were hunted down like rabbits in a fantasy game. To be fair i had paid little attention to space after i landed since i was technically cut off originally so until now i was in the dark about how it was up here. Thank to the tunnel we made great time in travel. Its like a clean paved road so we could travel at high speeds unlike you would normally be able to do in an asteroid field. We reached the station in a record time of half a day. Seems the area around the tunnel had been cleaned out of golems so none attacked it. After getting permission we were landing when i saw a group of men approach towards us. In it was Mr. Cane, Marcus and two other men that looked to hold high authority. As i turned off the ship as did my fighter crew the group approached and we left the ship removing the helmets to our power suits. Noah: hello Mr. Cane and Marcus how are things Mores: fantastic since you cleared some of that asteroid field up, the miners have been mining in quite a unique method these days with those monsters out there. Noah: i noticed coming here. ???: *cough cough* Mores: ah yes his man here is commander of the escort warship Blutopfer, Commander Samuel Davis, and the man behind him is the Liberation freighter trade ship Captain Glen Walls. The captain held an air of a refined man of power and wisdom in the art of space combat. On the other hand Captain Walls was different, he was a plump terran that gave off the air of a nobleman but still something that says he wasn''t born into nobility, he held himself with pride when he was called showing he likes being called by his title which he most likely fought hard to earn. i give a small bow to the two men. Noah: its a pleasure to meet you both, i would like to thank you Commander for the trade of technology for those cores. Samuel: its nothing, it seems more important to you then to us, i''ve been staying here watching the progress of the base, im impressed at how creative you and your crew are to keep thinking up new ways to use your limited amount of technology. Glen: yes i am just as curious about that especially those drones you have, drones up to this point have only been used for scanning operations for miners but the way you use them is quite interesting. I¡¯m sure if you had a powerful AI in that station you wouldn''t even have to control them. Noah: yes but technology such as that is currently beyond us both because of materials and funds in general which is one of the things i wish to take with you about sir. can we got somewhere we can''t talk and um...there is the matter of¡­ Mores: your reward for saving the base and the men, yes i already prepared quite a few things. Marcus bring the Warp Drive cable and load it aboard Noah''s Dingy it should fit even with the support system also bring me the wright of ownership for the base as well as the one for the planet itself. Marcus: wait sir you''re giving him it all?! Mores: of course. he has proven he can lead and survive even with little for himself and also he is the main head of the base currently as well as you already know someone who is research a large amount of technology that can improve production. I was slack jawed and so was my crew that came along. I couldn''t really believe I was going to be given total control of a whole planet and one so mineral rich as this its like hitting a jackpot over and over again, though there was the golem problem but that will soon be resolved. Come to think of it i did complete quite a few high level quests from the start so a planet as a prize may be understandable. Noah: wait...don''t i already own the base? i became owner after i saved the miners there from themselves Mores: you became the owner in word i hold the wright of ownership of both and now they are yours, you earned the base after you saved the workers there, the cable you deserve it by freeing the asteroid field from the golems and last the planet itself you gained by fulfilling my original request by going down there and getting the base running and contact us in space.
You have gained the complete ownership of the base on Kelha II please give it a name. You may now access the bases Leader interface of the base and command all work from there. This option can always be accessed from your wrist-comp''s interface and your power suits HUB. A new option named ¡°City Management¡± and ¡°Planet Management¡± has been added and you can direct work and purchase upgrades from long distance
You have gained the complete ownership of the planet Kelha II. Owning a planet it hard work but is the start of an empire if you wish. The planet is currently under the power of the liberation but as a freelance miner (player) you are not obliged to follow their orders since its under private ownership.
You are the first player to gain control of a planet. Fame +2000
For being the first to conquer a planet by using any method you have gained a title ¡°First Conqueror¡± +20 leadership +10 charisma
You have gained a new skill Conquerors Aura(passive) Because you are a man that can conqueror planets you give off the feeling of someone powerful who can command men with powerful resolve through battle against nature, your own kind and even the vastness of space itself. Makes NPC look at you with respect for your accomplishments or in fear for your crimes. +10 charisma
Because of your rise in fame and your great accomplishment the Kelha Solar system has drawn the attention of all the players for have the first player own a planet. Beware besides being miners there are already pirate clans that might also be interested in your land. It is advised to build defensive buildings around your planet
I was completely awestruck, first because i gained an entire planet, second because i was first to do so, my thoughts were that someone might have already done so, and third because of the warning. So now i need to worry about other players now. I could only stare at the screens. While i worry about my problem, throughout the galaxy of The Nebula everyone was getting the same message.
The first player has risen and earned the right to command a planet of his own. The first step to step on the planet after years and the first to command it with an iron fist he has taken the step of an emperor of the stars. With great charisma he has started on his path. Those who fight against the planet itself are the only that can earn their ruler-ship. Only war can follow those thirsty for power but only those who are smart can truly rule.
This message appeared for all players whether they were poor, rich, a fighter or a mechanic they were lazing around or fighting a war it didn''t matter at the same moment the news of the first player own planet had traveled the galaxy and lit the flames of greed of many power hungry guild and the curiosity of other less aggressive guilds that hide in the shadows of today''s society. As the message vanish wars that were going on completely stopped. The prospect of obtaining a personal planet had never crossed the mind many players. This was the start of what was to be known as the Age of Chaos throughout the galaxy where only the most powerful will rein and the great powers will fall at the hands of their own men for fame. Noah POV I could only sigh as the ownership forms were passed. after that we headed to the conference room and we had a large talk about a contract i wanted to make. My plan was the convert the carrier into a freighter and with the warp drive running we could jump to the station without worrying about the giant worms. This way we could start making large profit and start mass improvements to the base like purchasing more materials for drones and weapons as well as defensive weaponry that i think i would now need. i also need more men on the planet, specifically NPC who i could trust more than players since i was sure there would be power hungry idiots here already. The contract was quite easy to make. considering the size of the current cargo hold which could hold 64 tons of cargo if the ship was converted and the hanger was turned into part of the cargo it could easily turn into around 150+ tons of cargo the size of the cargo was half as high as the hanger and only ? as long so thinking of the size it could carry a tremendous amount of cargo if set up correctly a single cargo of iron could set the factories of the station to work for at least a week easily. If i had my men make tons of Drill drones we could mine out a lot more then the current 4 mining tanks we have digging to supply the base. As i thought of ideas for production to increase i laughed a bit at how much we have been depending on the drones. I learned from the captains that drones are a poorly developed technology that is only used for scanning or repairing ships. So currently i have the monopoly for drone technology. If i learned about more technology than i could easily begin a very successful mining company with the drones or arms dealer with the shield and laser drone. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. The contract also stated that the station would produce important parts they need for the water turbines i needed for a part of the cargo as pay. Once they were built the pay would turn to normal credits. After finally concluding the contract I began talking with the trading ship captain. It seems he was highly interested in my drone technology saying that it was a gold mine that was still growing. He wanted to make a contract with me to allow a personal team of researchers go down and develop the tech and improve on the designs we had made, we would improve our machines and he would have access to the tech. This contract was a lot harder to make than the one with Mr. Mores. But in the end i agreed but only if the tech was schematics were kept secret and any drones that he developed himself would also be shared. This was signed by Mr. Mores and Commander Davis as well since they would have access. this contract also involved all the men working under them. Why did i take such precaution to hide my drones? Easy they make life much easier and are take my men out of danger in combat and dangerous mining operations where the tunnels could collapse at any moment. There had always been worry about safety of workers so it wasn''t unusual that a merchant with a good eye for tech would notice this gold mine. To my surprise there was even a technology to block scanning the drones so that others couldn''t scan and take the tech for themselves. I only smirked discovering this. it seemed to be a type of secret tech of high level tech or new tech that wants to be privatized. At the end of all this i made two very favorable contracts and was thoroughly exhausted so Mr. mores lent me and my crew some rooms. Getting out of my capsule i stiffly left and climbed upstairs. I''ve become almost a recluse since i started playing but i at least stop for necessities and its currently 8 in the morning so the sun was shining already as i climbed the stairs i hear dad talking on the phone with someone excitedly. Dad: oh right...yes...definitely i will take him there for it...yes no problem¡­ don''t worry. He hangs up after that. i was looking at him while tilting my head at his big grin. Dad: get ready son for your big debut on TV Noah: eh¡­ Dad: whats with that face come on. Malcolm called me just now, he personally called me and asked if you could be an a special talk show with him and a few promising players. This also would have them showing a few scenes from your video feed but he knows discretion since he was a player himself during his time. Noah: w-wait wait, what''s going on why the hell do i need to go on TV Dad: easy because an old friend wants one of the top players with him while he suffers through the tortures of having to face the crowd with that annoying fake business smile he always makes. I just stood their with my mouth open as dad passed me and headed into the kitchen and began making coffee. Dad: by the way we are going to meet him after breakfast. He wants to get to know you a bit and he wants to see me as well been too long since we talked and he has been watching us since we started. Noah: why watching us specifically? Dad: you were the first person on Kelha to fly but you were the 5th in the galaxy all five of you are the leading players but you''re the only one that has advanced at the fastest speed. I think its thanks to all the research you''re doing with the drones that has led to our speed in developing the base but who knows. Anyway get over here and start eating we can''t keep my old friend waiting he is sending a car to pick us up. I reluctantly moved to the table and began eating a basic sandwich. As we ate we heard a car stop at the door and soon after someone knocked on the door. Dad got up with a smile and walked to the door. I tilted myself in my chair to see who it was. The man at the door could best be compared to an old butler you would see in an old Japanese anime. He was well built for his age with a grey mustache and already white hair. His demeanor was that of a refined gentleman that held himself like a noble. Dad: Oh Wilson how are you its been years. Wilson: ah Noland its has been years Dad: please come in we were just eating before we got ready to go meet Malcolm. Wilson: Master Malcolm has been in a very good mood ever since you both went down to the planet. You know you, your son and that miss Jessica are the only ones that grouped up after they gained their anomalies this might also be another reason why you two advanced so fast. Dad: please come in we are just going to get ready. NOAH GO TAKE A BATH YOU STINK FROM BEING INSIDE THE CAPSULE SO LONG. Noah: don''t yell something like that dad. I''m going anyway i need to use the bathroom. I sighed deeply and walked upstairs before getting ready. A long bath that i hadn''t had in a while and all other necessities and i was finally ready. Seeing myself in the mirror I was a bit shocked when i noticed my hair had grown so long, it was down to my shoulders already. I spent about 13-16 hours every day in game and only stop to eat sleep and do a some exercise, though i didn''t need to since one function of the capsules was to stimulate the muscles. Now i had shoulder length brown hair which seemed to make my blue eyes shine a bit more then normal. Dressed in a newish pair of jeans and a simple green shirt that i use for visits. The car that Wilson arrived in is a Jaguar XF, quite an old model but the luxury behind it is told class. We both enter, me in the back while dad and Wilson in the front with Wilson driving, obviously. The interior is just as luxurious as the outside. White leather with the corners in black leather. In the back there is a tray board that can be lifted up and even a TV in the back for each person. It screamed rich in every sense. The ride took around an hour, the play we were going was outside of our London where we live. Traveling around outside of town wasn''t something that we did often. because virtual reality became so popular, after travel agencies got their hands on that tech they began making marvels of places for traveling so we never really left our town and saw the real world country side. Nearing the end of the trip we could see a huge mansion off the side of the road. Wilson turned towards that road and stopped at a huge 4 meter high steel bar gate which had armed guards at the front. If i compared it to the white house in the States then i would say that this place was much more heavily guarded. To say that the men here were elite was an understatement. After a bit they checked all our ID¡¯s and history as well as under the care with some dogs before finally letting us through. Getting out of the car after reaching the house, i couldn''t help but scowl at the size. A full five floors and the house was at least 80 meters long and 40 meters wide. From what i know about large houses this one is much larger than the white house about a few good meters. All around there are workers either cutting bushes or cleaning. most of the women are dressed as maids like in anime while the men are in tux which are probably butlers, which are pretty much the same thing as maids but just men. We enter from the front and are asked to wait a bit. Dad: hmm he sure has changed quite a few pieces but i can still see he loves the old wood art. Noah: ...you''re not at least a bit surprised about the size Dad: I''ve been here plenty of times when i was your age when i played with Malcolm, never cared about his money which was one of the things he liked about me. Wilson: Noland, Master Malcolm is here. When we looked at the butler there was a refined man in his late forties with black and grey hair and an above average build, probably from training some form of martial arts or something. Dad: hahaha Malcolm you old fart you''ve grown old dad goes up and bear hugs the most influential man in the world like he was his brother. Malcolm: i...see you...haven''t changed...please let me breath. Dad: haha sorry there Dad let him go and began laughing. Malcolm: even after all these years you still do stupid stuff like that Dad: come on what fun would it be if i became like you, we need to balance things out. Noah: pff i was barely holding my laugh in. I had seen Malcolm Brim on TV hundreds of times like watching some superhero and also heard many stories about him from dad about his achievement when he was making his class. All of that inspired me while i waited for my shot after i turned 18. Now my great hero was here being pushed around by my dad like some classmate in school i could barely hold back. Malcolm: so this is your son, he really looks like you but he definitely has his mothers eyes. i always did like that shade of navy blue. Dad: haha great men think alike i guess. He comes up and sticks his hand out which i shake. Malcolm: ever since i planned to release this game i searched up your address to watch both of you, I''m quite impressed at your resourcefulness, that and how you can manage to get this old man to work for you as well as my daughter. Noah: he...your daughter...who? He smirks menacingly and turns his head towards the large staircase after letting my hand go. Malcolm: sweetie please come down already. ???: b-but he w-will treat me differently. A familiar voice came down from the stairs though nobody appeared from them. A sense of dread was slowly starting to pressure me after seeing him smile like that and hearing that voice. Malcolm: come down now or i won''t let you play! ???: urg...fine. But if he start acting differently after this i wont forgive you. Coming down the stairs was a young woman with long black hair and piercing black eyes. She was a few centimeters shorter around 170 and was dressed in a knee long black dress. As she looked at us she fidgeted a bit, as i looked a bit i could feel i had met here somewhere. Malcolm: sweetie introduce yourself and that includes your character name she blushed but looked with an angry glare at her father as he said that. ???: I''m Sophia Brim nice to meet you, I''m...Jessica in The Nebula. My mouth dropped when she said that. I could also connect the dots as i felt i looked at her. she only changed the color of her hair but it made a huge difference. Malcolm and dad both started laughing after seeing my reaction. Noah: what''s so funny and why aren''t you shocked dad?! Dad: your reaction is priceless and i already knew she was his daughter so there wasn''t much to hide. I was glaring daggers at dad when he said that the same way Sophia was doing at her own father. Malcolm: you know they are almost perfect for each other, the feeling of their glares are almost alike to Dad: haha i cant agree more. We both of us turned deep red hearing that and Sophia quickly ran off while i just stood there. Malcolm: i guess i said too much. Noah: you think. i retorted without even thinking of who i was talking to because i was embarrassed. Malcolm: i guess this is good enough for laughs today. let get to business. I''m sure your father has told you about why i brought you here. Noah: ya you want to take me to an interview so that you don''t suffer by yourself. he sent a quick look towards dad who was grinning. Malcolm: i guess you father can still translate my words just as good as he did before. Anyway yes i need you to come there will also be 4 other people with us. Pretty much the top five players currently playing, this is to let you release some info to speed things up in the game. Noah: ...why? Malcolm: *sigh* unfortunately most of the players are dull idiots and are only following in the shadow of others so a few who are smart and learn the tech of a higher ranked person before going there own way can take things a long way but you do a lot more you create your own tech. Noah: but who says i want to release info. Malcolm: you don''t need to at least not much. Noah: ...when is it? Malcolm: tomorrow. I just sat looking at him. Noah: what would you have done if i didn''t accept it Malcolm: i would have the AI delete your account. Noah: *sigh* I''m sure you cant do that, the AI works independently and will only delete someone if someone breaks a law or does something atrocious in game. Malcolm: its called a master key which i inherited for my father. i just let my head hang hearing him. I experienced this once from dad, guess now i know the source of his threatening ability. Noah: whatever, so what do i need to talk about. Malcolm: don''t know the host will ask but at least i know you will come, the show will be in London tomorrow and Wilson will go pick you up in the morning it will be after noon when the show starts so get ready. He grins like its his victory and starts talking with dad leaving me out. i just sigh and on the corner of my eye i see Sophia glaring at her father and looking over at me while hiding. Noah: ¡±and here i idolized the guy *sigh* guess its true, you can never judge a book by his cover¡±
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-------------------------- Hey everyone here is the next chapter hope you like it and feed back is well appreciated. As you guys can see i started asking for donations, things are in the red for me and my family so i was hoping for support, prices rise but salaries don''t so things aren''t really good around here. Hope for the support of you guys and hope you like my chapters. Volume 2 Chapter 7 Top Five Interview Getting home with a killer headache after meeting my ¡°Idol¡± i quickly jumped into my capsule but just briefly to give out orders. I quickly called my men on the planet and had them start upgrading the software of the laser and shield drones so they can be easily controlled by a single person. I also ordered them to start making patrols around the base. Because of the message release its now a known fact that players can own planets. Up to now there hasn''t been any talk of it so its very possible Dark Gamers haven''t done it or the message still might have appeared. Put simply, i probably just cause all the power hungry players in the milky way galaxy to wake up. Another thing the happened, though this was while i was offline, was that Captain Walls sent a team of robotic researchers and software programmers down to the planet so my orders to upgrade will go faster after they arrive. Once all things were taken care up i logged off and got some genuine rest which i have put off for far too long playing for such long periods of time. Dropping into bed was the same as hitting a switch and the lights went out, i dropped into bed around 6 pm and when i woke up it was around 7:30 am. Dad was shaking me awake. Dad: get ready son you''re going on TV, get ready because we need to be there by noon. Noah: ...its not like its far...also isn''t Wilson already here to pick us up. Wilson: you have good intuition Noah. Noah: dad only gets this excited when someone he gets so see someone he is friendly with. Wilson, though a pro butler, still had a sense of humor since he smiled at my reply. Wilson: yes i guess that is true since you see his other side while there is no one around. You should get ready soon. Noah: sure. I swung my sleep heavy body off my bed and dragged myself to the bathroom and jumped into the shower. Its so good to let warm water wash off the fatigue you have when you wake up. Getting out of the shower i could see the clothes my dad had prepared for me. A green button up socal shirt with a pair of jeans had been placed on top of the toilet waiting for me. Dressed and ready i head downstairs and find both men talking about their younger days when they played Second Life. Besides dad, Wilson was also a rare individual player that Malcolm entrusted with the secrets of puppet making. Of the hundreds of thousands of players that became puppeteers only about 10 became true Magus Puppeteers who need how to make their own puppets, there are many more NPC that know it though. The secrets were hidden really well and to keep the players and guilds from researching captured puppets they set up self destruct spells inside the puppets to blow the core up. As i walk in they stop talking and look my way. Noah: i''m ready to go to the torture show. Dad: heh, just make sure you dont say that on the show. A small grin appeared on my face as we left the house and got in the car. The drive was much quicker since it was inside the city, only about 20 minutes. The TV station was a huge compound near the edge of the city. There were various buildings for different programs. After getting permission to enter we went to the one that had the big letters VR TV on the front. Noah: we are going to be on VR TV Wilson: yes, its the biggest show on virtual reality. Master doesn''t like to work small, if he does an interview he does one and be done with it so he doesn''t work with small broadcasters, though gamers can get a lot of money off those by selling their video feed to them. Noah: i think dad makes a lot of many like that selling training guild videos. Dad: yep, a very profitable business. As we talk about the TV station Wilson parks in a reserved spot near the door and we finally exit. I stretch a bit before following the two inside. We were given guest passes after we entered and Wilson led us through many corridors until we stopped at a door far inside the station. Inside was Malcolm drinking a cup of coffee while reading today''s paper, there were 4 other people who were sitting quietly. There was a heavy tension in the room so i guessed something must have happened here before we arrived. As we enter Malcolm looks up and with a real smile he puts down the cup and paper. Malcolm: ah you''re finally here, i was getting worried. Noah: no need to, i doubt Wilson would allow me to be. He nods a few times. Malcolm: very true, even when i late he doesn''t give me mercy and I''m suppose to be the boss in the relationship Wilson: sir my job is to manage your house, your time and your safety. I can do the first and last without you but since i also manage your time i also need to manage you so you don''t get lazy. Words of a true butler. Most of them just kiss their bosses asses but the head butler and maid are people who have enough authority to make their own bosses work properly. While we were talking the four other people were just staring with their mouths gaping open. My best guess was that they tried to talk with him but were completely cut off. There were 2 boy and 2 girls. one boy had dark brown shaggy hair, he was about 175, no very muscular and wore glasses. The other was a dark blond with a prince look somewhat longish hair, looks like he worked out since he had some muscle but it wasn''t at the level of martial artist like myself, both boys wore jeans and a social shirt you would use to go to visit or job interview. The first girl had waist length red hair, pale skin and lots of freckles, she was about 170 cm and was wearing a full length light green dress. The other had black hair, waist length, she had equally black eyes, had pale skin and work a knee length black skirt and dark blue shirt. They stared at us with complex expressions trying to understand the difference. Dad noticed their expressions and turned towards them. Dad: so your the other players that Malcolm considers to be in the current top five. red head: yes but their are only four Noah: im number 5 Malcolm: no noah your number 1. The eyes of the four instantly fixed themselves on me hearing that. I sighed and held my massaged my forehead to relieve the raising headache. Before the talk could continue some women walked in with a large cart with many kinds of food. Everyone in the room had eyes glued on them since everyone got here so early no one seemed to have eaten anything except Wilson and Malcolm. Everyone attached to plates taking their own along with a cup of coke. The cart was quickly cleared of all traces of food while all five players plus my dad sat down with satisfied looks. Noah: man its been a long time since i had quality food. Dad: what about my cooking? Noah: ...i say around 2nd rate cant compare to moms ever. my words shot out like an arrow piercing him which made him gloom but made a grin appear on my face. Noah: ¡±Ah revenge for forcing me into this show and embarrassing me in front of Sophia yesterday, is so sweet¡± So when do we go on the show. Malcolm: around noon. i look at the clock which showed 10:10 am. Brown hair boy: what do we do until then. Malcolm: follow me. Malcolm led all of us out of the room and into the next room to the left of the room we were in. Inside were some computers Malcolm: each computer has been updated with all the video feed you have ever since you started playing, you will be asked questions by the audience and the host himself. you will also be allowed to show video feed from your capsules so i would suggest making important parts, especially you Noah. I nod and we all go to a computer, they had names on it so once we sat in our appropriate seat we began to work. i for one separated any event that would be considered unique like my first encounter with the golem and reavers, hitting the sweet spot of the asteroid, gaining the mission to go down to the planet, fighting the mini bosses as well as the main boss in space and then the capture of the base. I finished up with the mega worm jumping out of the ground going after the players and then the geyser shooting out by that time it was 11:50 pm but we continued until we were called by a staff member. We were led to the side of the stage where Malcolm was already waiting. The show was already running for a while and the man was showing a video of some space battle between NPC that had been seen by a player. It was like a scene out of a star wars movie. Several gigantic war ships blasting each other trying to destroy the shields around them while hundreds of thousands small fighters ship fight a war around the mega sized ships. Before we could see anymore the footage went black and the host said that the player had been shot and they escaped after that. He then went on to say that at the current moment no a single player has faced death yet and the method that is used for reviving a player is still unknown, but it is speculated that cloning is used but since no one has died the penalties are also unknown. Host: Now people we are going to what you have all been waiting for. Allow me to present you the vice president of Virtual Works, Malcolm Brim. Malcolm: *sigh* here we go, wish me lucky. He said that quietly towards me and dad and puts on his buisness smile before walking out. Dad: that man has faced this stage so many times that he is almost a regular here, he knows about half the staff that has worked here more than 10 years. Noah: you''re the same dad, until The Nebula you also did a lot of this stuff. Dad: not like him though. On stage the crowd were clapping at the arrival of an idol to many kids who have heard stories of him. The older crowd also looked at him with respect. Host: its good to see you again after these 2 and a half weeks since the release of The Nebula (i re read the whole story to check this out so yes its this time in game it has passed 2 months and 2 weeks) Malcolm: its great to be here and along with the five players that the company considers the top five at the moment. Host: thats i cant wait to see them as well and what they have done in the universe. On that note please help me welcome our top five; Noah Collins, Phillip Huffen, Matthew Cross, Julie White and Elizabeth Johns. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. As the names were called we each came out, Phillip was the brown haired guy while Matthew was the blond, Julie was the redhead and Elizabeth was the black hair girl. Host: so these are the current top, I can definitely tell, each of you seem to have some level of real world charisma that can be felt. He looks down at the papers in front of him and reads a bit. Host: ok then lets begin with Julie, well first your in game name and which planet you''re near. Julie: My game name is Violet and i am in the station around the planet Undine. Host: from the name it seems like a water filled planet. She nods Julie: its covered in around 90% of ice and frozen solid, its the fourth planet of the solar system. I¡¯m currently setting up a base on the small area near the equator where there is no ice. Host: do you have plan to terraform it? Julie: maybe, though i¡¯m having trouble working the hard grounds and setting up a base there my first priority is to establish a livable area. Host: besides the cold is there any other dangers. Julie: none the planet is deserted and frozen. Host: i see well then on to Matthew. The blonde sits up a little straighter hearing his name. Host: like with her, name and planet? Matthew: names Ray Cross, planet I was on I left already. Host: how so? Matthew: I was given a mission to find an anomaly and encountered an old Cargo ship, after mining a bit me and my crew was able to convert it into a combat worth ship and the warp drive helped us get out of that place. Host: so where are you aiming for? Matthew: i''m in the terran federation so I want to head for the capital, the planet I started on is halfway to the frontier so im slowly heading that way to join the federation army. Host: oh the subject of anomaly what did you find Julie, I heard most of the first flyers in the many stations within the three great factions got a mission to find one. Julie: I found a gunship, it still had its engine but the rest was stripped clean. I look towards dad who i could see at the corner of my eye and see him sulking a bit. Noah: ¡±poor guy someone got the same thing but in better condition, must be karma at work¡± Host: ok then, Elizabeth, your turn. Elizabeth: my name is my own and i would like to keep my location to myself. The host just shrugs it off. Host: have you already go to the planet surface. Elizabeth: my planet is a desert planet, for now i haven''t gone because there is nothing that guarantees there is anything valuable nor has there been any hints that there is a base down there. Host: so your just mining? What was your anomaly? Elizabeth: i am just mining because i found a more advanced mining ship with a laser drill instead of the regular drill ships. Both me and Julie prick up when we hear that piece of valuable info. Noah: ¡±so laser drills are real then, not a bad pay for coming here¡± Elizabeth: im currently trying to organize a mining company with the other crews under me. Host: so your going for the miner enterprise route? Elizabeth: yes. Host: interesting, there are few that go to such lengths, most would quit at the first change. Ok Phillip your turn. Phillip: yes sir, my name is Void Ghoul, I left the planet already when a merchant ship appeared at my station and my anomaly was a freighter, the merchant ship is currently stationed around Kelha II and has stayed their for a while because of the activities going on down on the planet . Host: do you have much information about what is going on. Phillip: no, though everyone in the ship was told to sign a contract to keep us from talking about some tech that was being researched. Host: do you know what it is? He nods Phillip: But I won''t say. The host nods a few times and finally turns towards me. Host: alright your last Noah. Noah: i used my own name and i''m currently in Kelha II station. As soon as i say that, Phillip looks towards me intensely Noah: i haven''t met Phillip but i am the cause for the delayed departure of the merchant ship. Host: and the tech? Noah: sorry i made a contract with them so they wouldn''t talk so neither will I. I made sure the cut the questions by the root. Host: ok then lets see same questions as before, what is your anomaly? Noah: i encountered a derelict carrier ship. Another wave of murmurs started as i talked. Host: and the situation on the planet? Noah: The planet is a desert planet and the base was already established when i got there but was in critical state but has been repaired since the planet has very little oxygen but thankfully there is underground water so I have begun terraforming the planet. Host: any kind of special technology besides the one mentioned before with the contract. Noah: yes we use Dome shields to make an isolated atmosphere for the base. This finished the package and many people started asking questions and yelling to be heard. Soon more security were called to stand between the crowd and the stage. Host: *sigh* wow we really have this kind of reaction. He said in a small voice away from the mic just loud enough for us at the front to hear. Host: You sure lucked out when you reached got there with so much technology. Noah: ya lucked out but the balance for all the tech isn''t so lucky. The host looked confused before Malcolm pulled out the pen drive I used to store my videos. Malcolm: here we have separated video feed for each person to show their experiences so show them what you mean Noah. We plugged the pen drive into the computer and soon the screen appeared. I choose the video where I first encountered the golem. My crew and I were already cautious after we felt the vibrations coming from the corridor. As the video ran the crowd stared at it intensely. Soon the bulky body of the human golem appeared and everyone stared wide eyed towards them. The video stops and turns to the images of the space fights as my crew pushes into the asteroid field. Soon large hoards appear and die and then the new types appear. Jumping ahead appeared the mini (?) bosses and finally the main boss though we took care of them in relative ease thanks to my caution and preparation. The entire crowd sat there slack jawed as they watched. Host: ...i-i can see now why the papers say you are considered the first place player. Noah: thats not all there is, there is one more piece of footage that needs to be seen its when a ship tries to leave the planet surface. This video was from 1st POV, i was looking up at the Dingy and fighters that left towards space when the ground started shaking and soon the mega worm shot out towards them. Much larger than the first one as it continued to stretch up until it finally stopped and fell back down causing a huge earthquake before digging its way back underground after getting out of its daze. There was not a single sound coming from anyone, only Malcolm and dad were the only ones that weren''t surprised at the fact of such a huge monstrosity appearing. Noah: as you can see, for all the tech I get I have to live in a planet with a creature of that size. It doesn''t attack when you go down near the planet but it will attack when you try leaving. You might think i''m giving too much info but i''m showing this to discourage some power hungry idiots that think they can take me down there, this will keep most newbies away for the time being since only my crew currently has the only tech to leave alive without having a heart attack every time. Just looking at the faces of the crowd already told me that at least 90% of them never want to come near the planet until the golem are all dead. Host: um...one last question. do they have a weakness. I grin Noah: water, they are dirt and rocks, so water makes them fall apart. With that I sealed the deal, a desert planet with no water on the surface will only have the most adventurous or the most stupid coming. Im sure the miners on Kelha II station will soon go down as well, now having info on what lives there they can prepare. I''m sure there will be those who will come down. After that the video feed from the others were also shown until the end of the show. The current time 3 pm the show ranked the highest also has a monstrous chunk of time when ever something like this happens. As Wilson drives us home i was grinning as i lean back. Dad: you seem happy, didnt you release too much info about the planet? Noah: nope, all i showed them was that a powerful creature lived on a planet were his weakness is sparse. I did not show them any tech or any of that so we still have the element of surprise if someone tries to attack for the ownership of the planet and the golems will also weed out the weaklings and damage the strong so our enemies are a natural defence system. But dad when we log in i really need those drones upgraded and new ones built we need to be a force to be reckon with. Oh and have Gunner set up shop to stock up on rockets for the rocket launchers we can use those as ground support. The best part about living with a crew mate is that you can relay messages really quickly. Getting home we wash up, eat and jump into the capsules finally returning to our favorite place, Virtual Reality.
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Volume 2 Chapter 8 Leaders Determination Phillip Huffen POV I''ve been on the on the Liberation''s Trade ship for a little over a weeks in real world time more or less. Even with all the jumping it¡¯s always fun to meet other people. Even though i like it I¡¯m still looking for a place that could help me grow and leave this giant ship to start my own space adventure. It¡¯s been a few weeks since we have stayed around Kelha II i thought it was weird especially when we were commissioned to build those satellites. Some people say someone was on a super hard mission and the commission''s which also happen to be a mission with a strict time limit was connected to that. We had no way to know but even so thanks to my freighter i found during the anomaly missions i was always ahead of others because i could stock things in bulk. That was probably the only reason i was called by Virtual Works as one of the top five players. I would say i held the position of richest since i specialized in trading though i had cold feet when fighting happened. In most games i play i normally go with merchant it¡¯s both safe and one of the most dangerous jobs to have. Though if you have an escort you don''t need to worry but as a newbie i didn''t have the money or connections to get an escort. I¡¯m glad at least my freighter had a warp drive which was working perfectly but what''s the use when i would get attacked so easily since there wasn''t a single weapons slot in the, though the shields were really tough. During the interview today one of the other top five was also in the area. He showed everyone really powerful creatures that no one thought would exist in space since this wasn¡¯t a fantasy game but we were proven wrong. Besides that a day before the interview we were also made to sign a contract before being asked to research different drone models and that we weren''t allowed to talk about it even if we left the crew, the contract would continue and if you broke it the penalty is that you lease everything. No one on the crew was stupid enough to go against a merchant of the liberation. So everyone just closed their mouths and headed to work. For me though i wanted to meet with Noah, this place looked like a gold mine in my eyes, and not just because of the drone tech but the planet itself is said to be mineral rich. If i could form a partnership with Noah then we both would grow immensely. He needed money for terraforming and make the planet grow while i needed it to grow my own influence. So i simply told my superior that i was going to the station and left. Noah POV I was walking around after logging in. I had my wrist-comp interface open and was looking through the shop info. A lot of new stuff had become available like new compressors, a new drill system with better cooling system, better armor and so on. I also found a new category of things to buy, Ships. There were two types of purchase, one the actual ship which close a good 200k+ credits or the blue prints ranging around 50-500k credits. Though the blueprints say how to build it that is only for the skeleton of the ship, you need to find the proper systems, which are stated on the blueprints, before building the ship. Currently I was sitting in the hangar looking through the list of purchasable items, having already chosen to buy single new scanner drone which was already loaded, and the blueprints for a new ship scanner which i planned to put on the drill drones and Dingys so they can scan just like scanner drones. As I looked at the interface when a young man approached, skinny with shaggy brown hair and wearing glasses and dressed in what i could tell was merchant garbs. When i looked closes i felt i had seen him before. Void: good day Noah. Noah: ...do i know you? Void: eh?! ah well i was at the interview with you, I¡¯m Phillip but its Void here. Noah: oh right, i didn''t recognize you since you''re dressed differently. Need anything. Void: Yes. i want to make a contract with you to transport and sell the goods made on the planet. I looked skeptical at him. I had reason to, my ¡°crew¡± abandon at the starting line before we went down so i was cautious. Noah: you do know what down there. Void: of course but i have a working warp drive in my freighter so I can jump out of the planet as i please. Noah: you also do know i have a contract made with the station here so there isn''t much negotiating. Void: and what of the other 2 stations in the Kelha System. Noah: eh?! That¡¯s new, i hadn''t heard there were more stations around, though i never did ask, truthfully i didn''t even know how big the Kelha system was. He has been on a Liberation ship for a while so having the maps for the area shouldn''t be a problem for him. Noah: wouldn''t they be mining the same materials as i am. Void: yes but you also produce things that they don''t have, specifically the drones I have signed the contract to keep my mouth shut about Noah: then it¡¯s good to continue with your mouth shut, I¡¯m not going to sell drones anytime soon, I¡¯m developing them for now but I only let those who sign my contract with me in front of them. besides if one new type is captured then the type can be replicated so i am keeping them on the planet until someone is smart enough to see how useful they are. Void: ...i head your ships can escape from the monster that jumps out to stop you right? Noah: that is tech i got from your captain, Ion pulse engine. I could see the guy was getting depressed as we talked. Noah: what do you plan as a profession in the game? Void: Merchant. Instantly i was interested. Now that i think about it he said he had a freighter. Interested now i stood up and faced him seriously. Noah: i remember you said you have a freighter right? Void: ya it was the anomaly i found. He started to look less sad. Noah: let me see it then. If it¡¯s big enough and ill contact you to carry the amount of mineral the contract I have with Mr. Cane until the request is done after that we can talk about further negotiations how does that sound. Void: i guess its fine, I¡¯ll have to leave my the trade ship but i guess it could get better after that. Noah: just don''t start whining if things get dangerous, you already know the dangers of this planet so we won''t take crying. Void: of course. After that he took me to the extended docks were his freighter had been placed. It was as big as my carrier but the difference was that he only had cargo space and no weapons at all. Noah: ¡±to send him to other planets I¡¯ll need to send someone with the carrier as an escort, I¡¯ll probably need to upgrade the weapons of our ships as well.¡± The ship was in perfect condition which meant he must have repaired it already. looking inside the cargo space was bigger than the hangar and cargo of the carrier combined but there was still room extra floors for the other important systems and utilities. Noah: damn this is the same size as my carrier...what is the cargo weight limit for this ship. Void: umm let me see i haven''t checked since I never completely filled it up. Void opens his wrist comp and looks around until he finds his ship info. Void: here it is...200 tons. my eyes were bulging out. I had estimated that the cargo ship when converted into a freighter would carry around 150 but man. Noah: is that with a compressor He nodded, which made me calm down a bit Void: the normal cargo is 150 but i bought a high grade compressor that increases space by 33% that gives around 50 extra tons i can fit here. at this point i was grinning. Noah: ¡±he has such a high grade compressor then that means he is good at being a merchant but from his demeanor he is shy and with little confidence, heh this could work well for me¡±. Ok I¡¯ll contact you, i get a fixed pay for what i send so how does 20% of the cargo income sound. Hey opens the interface again and begins doing some calculations at a monstrously fast pace. Void: 40% Noah: 25% Void: 39% Noah: 26% Void: ...35% Noah: 30% Void: deal That done he makes a contract with the requested sums which i triple check before signing, don''t want him adding something like i pass ownership of my planet to him. All said and done we have him open the cargo and we put all our ships inside like a hanger. Void: ships aren''t safe in here you know Noah: only if you don''t have a gravity generator and since you do don¡¯t complain and make this thing jump already. Voids crew was already hard at work getting things ready. The ship was already aimed towards the planet and from my seat in the control room i could see the warp drive charge rising. Noah: ¡±slow charge, would have to charge inside the dome shield to make sure it¡¯s not attacked before leaving¡± As the charge completes he finally activates the thrusters at max speed and we suddenly feel the feeling being sucked into a tunnel. The shields around the ship become a visible blue and become just like a funnel until finally space bends around us and we find ourselves past the seven asteroid layers and floating over Kelha II. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. I go to one of the computers and punch in the coordinates and it appears on the main monitor and with orders the ship gains speed. I open a chat with the base and worn them of our arrival and that there should be room for the freighter that is as big as the carrier. After that it was pretty uneventful, since the planet doesn''t have much atmosphere there isn''t even a need for a special angle or something for entry into the planet. Noah: *whistle* don¡¯t get closer than 20 meters above the ground until you''re within 5 km of the base most of the planet is home to golems and but they can''t attack at this height. Some don''t seem to like that i was ordering them around but they still took my advice since i already knew the habits of the planet. Once we go near the base the crew began to marvel at it. Dome shields have always been rare and to see one is even more so but what really got to them was the lake. The frozen lake was about ? the size of the shield. I¡¯m sure until now they hadn''t though the monster was that big but it was pretty clear to them its size was immense as was the new hole some distance away from where me and my crew escaped. Inside the base the landing area had been cleared of other ships and only the carrier stayed there but there was still room for another ship of its size which was the freighter. Once landed things got busy and quickly. I had already told everyone to prepare all the raw and processed ore that would go up to the station. We removed the ships and let the droids load the ship before calling over Jessica and Earl. Jessica: yes. Earl: you call boss. Noah: i need you two to lead a squad of a few Dingy and a squad of 30 fighters into space and stay near the station waiting for the freighter. It will jump near but I¡¯m worried about any players ambushing them. Earl: oh it boss. Earl runs off but Jessica stays looking at me. Noah: hmm something wrong? Jessica: are you pushing me far away because of my father? Noah: why would i do that, my dad is probably as famous as yours if you mention his name from Second life, all true Magus Puppeteer are. Jessica: and...you don''t care...I¡¯m the granddaughter of the CEO Her voice was getting quiet as she talked. Noah: ¡±she must have had people change quickly after learning about it, must be hard living like that.¡± I don¡¯t care about money, at least not in the real world. I will take after my father who is a gamer and live off the game. Jessica: so you don''t really care if I am a Brim. Noah: tell me what is the surname you have here. Jessica: Wright. My full name is Jessica Wright Noah: then while you''re here you are Jessica Wright not Sophia Brim so cheer up and have fun, it¡¯s a game where you aren''t a princess you''re the fighter captain of my crew. She blushes a bit but smiles widely before running off. Noah: ¡±i hope this doesn''t lead me to future trouble with her father, now then with the escort determined i need...drone upgrades¡± I run off towards the drone research rooms. Inside it¡¯s not like the normal research, first off there are many people I don''t know most likely from the trade ship. They are all working feverously typing up new codes. Morgan and Adam are among them and have their neighbor check on theirs most probably asking to check to see if its right. I call Adam who seems less busy. Noah: I want to know how are the software upgrades to them. Adam: quick they had really basic commands so we have to make new codes all together so the guys that came earlier were happy being able to program them from scratch. Noah: good now where are Earnest, Jones, James and Gunner? Adam: i saw Gunner in his workshop building rockets the others I don¡¯t know. Noah: thanks oh and make sure to copy those codes and send a copy of each with the proper name for each model. I ran off and put my helmet on and began calling out to the three missing men. Though they didn''t answer I picked up their location which was the scrap yard which, thankfully, i was near. I got over there and after a bit of looking i found them dismantling some old drones. Noah: hey guys i need your help. they flinch as i catch them off guard. Ernest: urg...what ya need Noah? Noah: I having the techs upgrade the software of the drones but i think we need stronger laser weapons, these fall a bit short compared to a normal laser that is put on ships. Jonas: ya but they are smaller so can¡¯t handle such a large battery. Noah: ¡­ *smack* James: idiot he is telling us to make a stronger weapon so that means a new stronger laser drone. Noah: i also purchased a new scanner drone, take that to Wilson and have him make some blueprints and an ion engine model for it as well as add a tiny core to increase performance of it. Jonas: I¡¯ll do that you guys start with the other stuff all be there soon. Ernest: what are you going to do Noah. Noah: *sigh* i still need to check on Conner and see how his planetary scanning is going, if we find a volcano around here then we can start terraforming, if not it will just take longer. James: don''t forget to relax a bit, if you want sit in a drill drone and dig a bit it makes for a really good stress reliever. Ernest: oh speaking of digging, some miners have started digging out the shipyard underground as well as a lift to bring them up but¡­ Noah: let me guess no room? Ernest: yep just as you say no room. Noah: tell then to use the 5 km around the base, if needed we can make dig a small underwater river branching from the main lake and create a barrier from the Golems. Anything else? Jonas: hmm, oh i know they discovered something interesting about the shield drones. It seems they can be used as relays like those around the base they can also combine their shields together to increase durability. After a few group up a hexagon design begins appearing like a plate armor the damage is also greatly reduced when it¡¯s in this state. We tried it with the dome shield and it seems if we use Shield drones near them and combine the shields they increase the performance of the dome shield. Noah: good to know during a siege. Anyway get to work i still have a stressful day ahead of me. As the three go off i can only sit down a bit. Not an hour that i arrive and I¡¯m already tired, wonder if most captains are like this. Well i should get going now. Conner next need to know about his scans. To relax a bit i took a floating cart towards his lab. Inside was really hectic more so than usual. Noah: what''s going on? Conner: we just struck gold or should i say lava, we found a volcano about 1000 km away from here. The lava pool under it is immense so the explosion might even reach here given enough time. To make things better this lava pool seems to also connect with several other volcanoes around it so by making it erupt it will cause a chain reaction and release enough gas into the air to make a thick enough atmosphere that will heat the planet up. Noah: good to hear at how long before that happens. Conner: we will soon be sending a squad of drill drones escorted by many shield and laser drones we need to dig deep enough to set a bomb and weaken the soil to awaken the dormant volcano then just let nature take its course though we might continue detonating bombs inside it until it blows. Noah: get on it then things might get more chaotic soon so we need to cause trouble for anyone that might appear. He stops in his tracks and looks my way for the first time. Conner: you seem stressed. Noah: is it that obvious. Conner: what''s going on. Noah: I¡¯m the first miner that appeared to work on the station that has gained complete ownership of an entire planet and that achievement was sent all around the galaxy to every last person just like me now it¡¯s only a matter of time before chaos starts appearing all over. Conner: the three factions can take care of small fries like that. Noah: heh right, if something fails they group up into larger groups and attack until they win that is only the start of it. Conner: our planet might be harder to take, i doubt the Golem would die off so easily even if water begins melting and covering the planet, I¡¯m certain they will evolve as well who knows they may become sentient over time anyway you should rest a bit from you looks you need it urgently. He personally guides me to the carrier and drops me off in the captains room. A full day like this might only be the start but i will get used to it or i will die trying. That was the last thought that crossed my mind before i fell asleep.
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Volume 2 Chapter 9 Everything starts with a Bang Hey guys last chapter of Volume 2 Hope you like the double release and my book __________________________________________ *Ding*
You have gained a new skill. Leaders Determination (beginner 1)(passive) Because of your determination to successfully lead your men, you will now have more ease with managing all men under you Your presence now eases your men when serious problem are happening You can now perceive smaller details in reports or in live action that other people would miss. +20 Leadership +10 Charisma
When I woke up, I found this skill floating in front of me. When I tried to remember what I did to get this I remembered what I thought yesterday. Noah: ¡±No way, just simply wanting it gets a result like this.¡± I stood up and left my room in the carrier and went into the bridge. The team I left here for management purposes was in chaos. Some were yelling about the danger we were facing and how to resolve it who to call and put troops where. It was complete chaos and it took what little patience I had left so I went to sit in the captains seat. Dropping onto the seat was like a wakeup call. A few people looked my way and relief spread on their face. Tech 1: sir the base is in chaos; a few hours ago a group of miners came and began attacking the shield. When we messaged them they started saying that everyone should surrender but we had already blocked them with the shields. That was when the battles started. Noah: did you return fire. Tech 1: as of now we are only sending a few laser drones to fire back and keep them at bay but more of them keep appearing. There are readings that say what arrived here is only about 30% of their forces the rest was destroyed by the golems when they got too close to the ground. Noah: what about Jessica, Earl and the freighter what''s their situation. Tech 2: Captain Wright is already back she arrived a few moments before the attack commenced she warned us after she overheard the people in the station planning the attack. The freighter is currently in space and we have told them to remain there since there is little risk of them attacking since they would risk being attacked by the other guards. Noah: good now how many laser drones have had software upgrades. Tech 1: the upgrades for both laser and shield drones were finished about 4 hours ago and were implemented to all drones of that kind. Copies of the codes were sent to you sir and should be on your wrist-comp sir. Noah: good now have all the drones mobile the drones, pilots are to only use shield drones and command a squad of 5 laser drones each. Shield drones are to link their shields to the dome shield to reinforce it. Pass the orders now. Giving the final orders everyone visible relaxes and the previous chaos was gone and now work started to flow much more calmly. Reports of the research, production, current troops, current enemy troops and where they were all passed to me to decide what to do. The research report was as said before, the drones were upgraded so under the supervision of the trade ship tech researchers they began new projects, it also mentions that the lasers had been upgraded as well, seems they are just a little better than a regular fighters lasers now. The production report showed me that the current number of drones I had which was 500 laser drones and 100 shield drones. We have 100 control seats in the base so our full strength will be sent out soon. Current troops were about 80 fighters which were trained for miners how didn¡¯t have much work to do so the rest would be piloted by either mechanics or techs who knew how to fly. The enemy troop report showed me that there were 50 Dingy and about 150 fighters all the model we have so they probably got it from a droid in the station or they were my old crewmates, probably the latter. Most were spread out but the bulk was near the north east area of the base but I had a hunch that it was just a facade so I ordered the shield drones to spread out evenly. Enemy troops 3rd POV Outside the base, only about 5% of the current forces were attacking while the rest was waiting. They just kept blasting the dome shields with what they had and had taking already 20% of the shields strength. The person leading the attack was one of the ex-crewmates that were too afraid to come to the planet when Noah had gotten the mission. Rebel leader: HAHA I knew it was a smart idea to wait now the idiot has the whole planet and we can take it with much more ease then taking it from that old Cane bastard. His right hand man was also an ex crewmate but a tech and had great strategy making skills that, in other games, had won wars. Vice leader: that is true sir but he hasn''t done anything against us so he could be waiting for something. Rebel leader: I wouldn''t be surprised if he was asleep when we got here and is still sleeping. Vice: that does seem possible if someone over works it will take a lot to wake them up. Just then as they were talking a message came in from the front lines. Fighter: sir we have a problem Leader: what those little drones are too hard for you. Fighter: no sir, the shields they suddenly got stronger after a strange hexagon pattern appeared on them. Leader: what! He pulled up a visual of what the fighter was seeing and saw the shields. It now looked more like a giant light blue turtle shell. Fighter: our lasers are barely doing any damage now and the shields have begun to repair themselves. The same instant he said that over 500 small flying bodies come from inside the shields and fire lasers at them. The fighter that was talking with the leader was able to dodge the initial ambush. Looking through the monitor the rebel leader paled when he saw the drones. It was common to use them for scanning but what he just saw was an all-out laser assault these were not comparable to those other drones either the laser of these were also much stronger. (thank you Mechanics for the upgrades) The ambush took down half of the forces. Rebel Leader: this sucks so this is what he was hiding. Vice: it¡¯s a good thing we only sent a small part of our forces to attack or everyone might have been hit. Rebel leader: grr everyone prepare for battle we are going in to destroy them all. They were all in the air about 10 km away from the base about 40 m up away from the golems assault which took 70% of their forces. Rebel Leader: ¡±everything on this fucking planet is messed up, first those monsters attack out of no wear and then this guy¡¯s army seriously how can he control so many drones who always have simple software commands. There is no way that all five hundred are being manually controlled. He was right. The new software also included something for the control seats in the base. when in control 6 screens appeared 1 for the shield drone which had been put on standby and 5 for laser drones so currently 100 men were controlling 5 drones each in perfect sync. The new software also gave them options for coordinated attacks by implementing formations like the V formation or other such attacks. It took then 1 minute to cover the 10 km but by that time all their ships had been destroyed thank to the concentrated attack on them which blocked all escape routes when they tried to dodge the lasers. When they entered the 5 km safe zone all the drones swarmed them from all sides and began an assault on them as did the rebel forces. Unfortunately for the rebels, because of the size of the drones and the new engine the planets gravity had little hold on them unlike the bulky ships they had with old engines. Even so they were still about to take out a few drones but that didn''t compare to the damage the drones did to them. In the collision of the two armies the drones last about 70 of their numbers but the rebels lost 50 fighters and 20 Dingy at the same time as well as critically damage many other ships all around the front of the force. Stolen story; please report. Just by the collision it showed how underpowered they were and who the clear victor was. so with that in mind hiding in the back of the chaos the leader turned tail and ran while giving orders as if he was still there. It wasn¡¯t until he reached 1 km up into the air that he realized how screwed he was. Without them noticing the drone had pushed all the rebels on top of the second hole the giant worm had made when trying to get Noah when he went up into space now as the ground began shaking Noah only grinned as he gave the final order to winning the battle. Noah: order all drones full retreat but to keep all enemies on top of the hole if you need to sacrifice some drones do it. With that 1 drone was left for each enemy ship as the rest retreated and the end of the battle was decided when giant worm blasted out of the hole eating the whole group as well as quickly reaching the leader and swallowing him as well. Noah POV The control room was in an uproar as they celebrated. They had been worried about the attack which was taking so much from them but they still did not attack because of orders from gunner who was had been controlling the few drones. None of them could think of how to fight back but it had been decided so quickly after Noah arrived. Noah: ¡±I guess this was thanks to that new skill, I remembered clearly that shield drones increased the power of the dome shield when linked and thanks to the upgrades to weapons and software which had been quickly made by making a larger laser drone they put almost full force into making a large number of them.¡± It was truly a group effort that this battle didn''t end badly. Sitting with a smile Noah just watched as everyone celebrated. On the monitor there was an image of the three control center and the pilot were also celebrating and planning some festival. Noah: ¡±maybe I should spoil them just this once¡± I get in contact with the radio tower and have them send my signal up into space. My target was Void who was in his ship waiting for the results. A little bit later the signal connected. Void: yes who is it? Noah: it¡¯s me Noah, we won the battle happening. Void: great I¡¯ll get there soon. Noah: hey can you do me a favor, one which I will pay back in money later. Void: what? Noah: I need a lot of food; the guys down here want to party and well it will shorten our food supply when they party. Void: haha I get it ill buy some food to bring down see you soon. Noah: see ya ¡±that solves that problem but now I¡¯m sure there is one firework Conner has been dying to pop and so do I¡± I leave the carrier and head for his lab. The lab was also celebrating the victory but not as intensely more of an excited gossip. Conner was at the back working when he noticed me. Conner: what brings you here Noah? Noah: came to see how the preparations for erupting that chain of volcanoes are coming along. Conner: great we sent the drill drones there and they have dug about 30 to 100 meters into the mountain it¡¯s in and bombs have been placed in but Istill need another week to set up enough around the main one plus a few on the smaller ones to make sure all of them burst. Noah: good I was hoping to have some fireworks going off during the festival one that will change this surface of the planet. Conner: you''re an interesting men Noah, if you can lend me some miners and make some more drill drones then the work will speed up. Noah: choose who you want and say it was on my orders but at least let them party a bit after Void gets here. He nods and sends a few people out before going to work again. The rest of the day was busy but not like after I returned from space. We needed to remake the drones we lost sacrificing to the worm and to make new drill drones for Conner and we took the liberty to make some for the base itself. When they were done we sent them off to the volcano to start working and we just did other stuff to waste time. The next day, Conner came to me saying that the preparations were done so I called a celebration for our victory. Soon food was prepared made from many different cultures of different planets. It lasted into the afternoon when I met up with Conner. Noah: so are they ready? Conner: yep the holo project has been placed on the stage and there are some simple drones we made just for viewing this dangerous spectacle. We will pop this as a the mark of our success, of your success captain. He holds a cup up as he says that out loud the others cheer as the screen appears showing the image of a large mountain chain. Conner works a bit on his computer which had been brought out just for the occasion. Conner: now then Noah as the captain you can do the honor of pressing the detonator. It was a simple black box with a big red button like those you see for self-destruct buttons. Noah: I just wanted to say that as a Captain it''s an honor to work with all of you and continue working with all of you. With that I slam the button. On the screen around the top of many of the mountains especially the largest one large clouds of dust appeared. After a few moments of silence, smoke started to appear as well as the sound of rumbling. From the image we could see a small bit of lava start to appear and then suddenly the top vanishes. *BOOM* With an unimaginable amount of force more than ? of the mountain top was obliterated with the shockwave and then the eruption itself. The shockwave soon hit the drone that was filming and tossed it spinning in the opposite directing for a few moments and when it fixes itself we saw what could only be seen in movies of the apocalypse. Over the volcano a slowly rising black cloud of dirt, dust and ash continued rising. Every few moments you could see electric discharges which meant the lighting must be falling over the volcano. With another rumbling and explosion large amount of lava began going out and as well as flying out. Huge balls of molten rock flew long distances before crashing on the ground making a burning crater where it landed. We could only watch in awe as the volcano continuously spewed out one of nature¡¯s most frighten forces. Sometime later more eruptions happened. A chain reaction had begun with the other volcanoes which began letting its rage out into the planet. In all humanity''s life there are few times you could watch this in awe because it would always affect the area around it negatively it was seen as a disaster but now it was something of wonder to watch nature work in all its fury without hurting anyone. It was something only possible here in the game and I was sure that the future to come held much more in store for us.
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[/b] Side Story The Death system and The Age of Chaos Rebel Leader POV I was escaping while i left the others to keep the drones busy. As i was laughing at them while i left them behind i saw on the monitor the drones were pulling back so i smiled and slowed down to seem what would happen but when i turned the ship around to see with my own eyes i saw a massive behemoth coming at me with its mouth open and the millions of razor sharp fangs ready to shred me to pieces. It had already swallowed all of the others when it came out of the hole we didn''t notice we were flying over and now it i was also in it as it closed its mouth. As the lights faded when it closes it mouth the ship turned it slights off only for me to see the body dropping and then i heard crashing and scraping metal. After a heavy crash from outside my ship was trashed and was being clawed at by the fangs and being pushed back towards the back. The fangs could only scratch the ship plating at best, if it wasn¡¯t for the bumps on them they wouldn''t be able to get much hold on it but now i can already see why destination. In front of me some 20 meters away was a huge pool of toxic liquid i could see several hulls of ships and there were some drones floating around probably still operating. My ship was already out of commission and i didn''t have a power suit needed for the planet atmosphere that guy my ex captain Noah had some suits and i think he even found someone in the station that could build them but he is with him now so all i can do is wait for death. this sucks I¡¯m going to be one of the first to die in this game. I''m in the liquid now my ship quickly flooded with that stuff thanks to some holes opened up by the fangs before the pain is excruciating but at least it¡¯s a fast activating acid which i guess was made for dissolving metal. After some moments of pain it finally dulls and i die.
You have died. A clone has been generated.
I open my eyes to find myself in a large cylindrical tube filled with water and many wires and tubes attached to me. They water begins to drain while the wires let go of me. The last to let go was an air pipe attached around my mouth and nose to provide air. When all the water was empty i was on the floor barely able to stand, my body felt weak. Not like when you have the flu but i feel weak compared to normal. I could barely move i was probably as weak as a baby. I could at best turn my head from side to side with my own strength and pull and push my arms but besides that i couldn''t lift anything.
Penalties of Rebirth In death you are reborn as a clone that looks just as you did before death but you have died so you have left behind everything you had on. One problem with clones is that they are born at fast speeds so they can be born moments after death but the problem is your muscles are as weak as that of a baby. For the next 96 hour, 24 hours in real life, you will be accompanied by a nurse that will train you to regain the strength you had in your previous life before your teleported back to your station of origin or the last station you were at. Strength, Agility, Dexterity and Stamina have all been set to 1
I turned ghostly white as I saw that message. Up to now I have never even thought of raising stats because it didn''t matter much in a sci-fi game but seeing this I saw that it would suck to so much not having high stats. With higher stats i can get up faster its 96 hours to return to 10 strength, agility and dexterity if it was higher the recovery would be the same but i would be able to walk at a quicker time. At this point i was on the verge of tears when the nurse came and picked me up. I was light since I didn''t have much muscle and she simple put me on a wheelchair and took me and placed me in a hospital room and began slow movements for me urging me to start. 3rd POV all over In space within the territory of the Terran Federation a medium cargo ship that was armed like a fighter was flying in hyper drive through space. Its captain Ray Cross was sitting in his seat laughing like crazy as he watched a video on the internet. (Which is connected through the capsule) His second in command was there near him curious about what was going on. Vice: hey Ray what¡¯s making you laugh so much? Ray: look at this Yurin, it some newbies attacked Noah¡¯s base on their starter planet they got destroyed and now look at the penalty. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Yurin a beautiful woman with waist long dark blue hair with black eyes came over and finally watched the video with intrigued eyes as the video passed the players all died and from the view of the leader who had stopped to look back he saw that behemoth worm approaching and swallowing him. Then the video jumped to after he woke up and the message appeared. As soon as she read the penalty she began flabbergasted. Yurin: T-this is mad. Ray: hahaha I know, those bastards at Virtual Works made one fucked up penalty for death. We lose everything unlike other games. Yurin: this isn¡¯t a joke Ray. Ray: I know but all we need to do is grew in power and this place is where we can safely bid our time while doing so. He says this just as the ship leaves the hyper drive. In front of them orbiting around Earth, a now desert planet polluted and filled with radiation, one of the greatest ships in the galaxy, the Federation. It was never given a name because it became the symbol of the federation itself so earning it the name. It was a Massive super cruiser even among them it was about ? the size of the moon and held a population of nearly 3 billion people. It was one of the 3 safest places of the galaxy the others being the capital of the other factions. Ray: let¡¯s go boys we have some conquering to do so this will be all ours and no one in the federation or the others will ever be able to stop us. The small cargo ship soon sped up towards the super cruiser and vanished into the crowd as it entered. In another part of the galaxy a woman with abyssal black eyes blacker than the void of space itself was seeing the same video Matthew was but there was no laughter in her eyes. All they say were the drones attacking the newbies as they destroyed them. Elizabeth: ¡±this planet that monster it is the same as Noah from the interview...so those drones must be his. So that was the technology he developed i can see why he wanted to keep it secret if anyone was smart they would notice them but I¡¯m sure the countless newbies would only care to see this outrageous penalty.¡± Elizabeth was currently in her mining ship which was stationed some distance above the planet she had a base in. She opened her wrist-comp and looked at the new leader interface which showed the base and planet management for her new planets she had just gained. As she looked them over she her cold eyes began to burn with determination. Elizabeth: ¡±i will not be left behind by this brat. Starting with this frozen rock i will make the Dominion and then the entire galaxy mine and soon i shall crush all that i consider an obstacle, especially you Noah Collins¡± Elizabeth walks back into the pilot seat before activating a sequence of commands and soon on the planet a large series of explosions happen volcanoes begin erupting and shooting out lava and smoke all over the cold desert planet. The terraforming of the first Dominion planet was also the start of the rise of a new empress how would yield to no one. On the station above a frozen planet, a young girl was just finishing seeing the video with the death penalty. Her interest was more on the planet itself. Violet: ¡±So this is Kelha II, i asked the station hands were it was and was surprised to know it was here in Liberation space. He will be a tough foe to beat on my rise to be a true conqueror but i won''t discourage, if i need to i can wait for him to leave or terraform that planet and kill of those monsters then I can take that planet which seems to be a good place to start a headquarters. This planet I¡¯m on is too difficult to terraform unless a terraformer appears i have no way of knowing how to go about it. She looks up out the window of the station towards the white planet covered in ice with only a small stretch of un frozen land near the equator where its warm enough to keep the ice from forming. She just sighed at her lack of luck she hadn''t thought it would be so hard to live on this planet and was with thoughts of getting off as soon as she can and find a more suitable place. The idea of joining the Liberation army like the other boy wanted to do with the federation. Smiling she began thinking of how to travel to her new destination. Not only were the other three top players making their moves every player with the guts to fearlessly face this death penalty were making their moves which pulled the curtains on the true Age of Space Chaos. Importent character and notes Sry not a chapter just needed to organize the info this is for you all to see any characters of any importance what so ever and this page is subject to change. real life = in game time 1:4 (i changed it from 1:5 to 1:4 because its easier to calculate the time i have changed everything in the story as well so np now) amount of time that passed until end of volume 2: 2 weeks and a half in real life = 2 months and 2 weeks Volume 3 begins at 3 months real life = 1 year in game Uncategorized ppl Noah Collins(Blank): MC , first player to get into the air in the Kelha II station, started with mechanic skill set and learned to fly in tutorial. Noland Collins (Blank): Noahs father and an old gamer that played second life with the famous Magus puppeteer. he is divorced from his wife and noah mother because of gaming and has since retired from pro gaming but still makes enough money by training players ingame with what is know about the game. General Marcus Snocon: general in charge of group 1, easy to get along with and takes responsibility to his boss as seriously as any hard working employee. Mores Cane: the owner of the asteroid field that the MC started mining and is the boss of all mining operations in the area. Gunner: a Drune Rex that has worked in the junkyard of Kelha II station. He is an Master gunmen in all type of weapons and a gun nut as we brought a rocket launcher onto the ship when he joined. He is also an expert in ship weapon and power suit development and construction as he was able to build a suit capable of increase strength without sacrificing speed. Crew Mechanic Ernest: an elder mechanic, both in game and real life, is very outgoing and easy to talk and get along with, was the head mechanic when he served in the army during his time. Jonas: elder with black and white hair and is the tallest of the crew. James: looks to be Irish descent with light orange hair and pale white skin Technicians Morgan: has a look of a model with slick black hair and seems to have knowledge of real technical operations. Adam: Shortest of the group, with shoulder length blonde hair Fighter Basil: an African-American ex-army commander that has a powerful looking physical body that show his experience in the army, also a great shot with many large guns. Felix: Air force pilot, has experience with rifle guns and is a trainee of Basil Earl: trainee of Basil in the army has experience with large weapons and guns. Sophia Brim (Jessica): Daughter of Malcolm Brim, she was shy to show herself to Noah for fear that he will treat her differently because he knows of her lineage. First to fly in her group, is very beautiful with platinum blonde hair and sky blue eyes and seems to be patient enough to do the tutorial to gain knowledge of the game. Currently one of the captains of the fighters and has authority of them and their training. Scientist Wilson Kinter: called Mr. Kinter by the MC is the head scientist from the player crew that was one of the first to take flight. He is an observant man and even in dire situations he will have a calm and calculative prospective of the situation. Conner: a terraformer that was on the escort warship Blutopfer, he has now moved to Kelha II to terraform it. Miner Julius: an old foreman in the base found on Kelha II has experience in commanding and planning mining operations and has some experience with repairing mining equipment. During the first year he had an accident and lost both legs and an arm and was giving a power suit with a cybernetic arm and legs. Top players: Julie White (Violet): One of the top players. she has red hair pale skin and lots of freckles in real life and in the game as she did not change her look. she is on a frozen planet and has a hard time digging the hard rock. She found a gunship for her anomaly. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.Matthew Cross (Ray Cross): left his planet for the terra federation capital to join the army he found a cargo ship which was converted into something combat worth Elizabeth Johns: location unknown, the planet is a desert planet and is said to have no base on the planet. Her anomaly is an advanced tier mining ship with a laser drill Phillip Huffen (Void Ghoul): Currently on the merchant ship around Kelha II. His anomaly was a freighter ship and he has taken an interest in Noah. Liberation high rankers Samuel Davis: commander of the Escort Warship Blutopfer. He is a refined soldier that can control all his men with only his charisma. He holds an aura of nobility and is very respected. Glen Walls: A fat merchant and captain of a liberation super sized freighter. though he isn''t like Samuel he also has an air of nobility but one that shows his skill in the art of the trade. Current tech: Ion Pulse engine Drone tech: 300 laser, 100 shield, ??? Dome, ??? Security drone, ??? scanner, 20 drill, 20 dump truck. Dome Shield Mining tech: Mining tank, Drill droid Droid Tech : battle droid, worker droid, Security droid (light and heavy units) Current ship number 6 Dingy (2 Noahs, 1 Mr. Kinter, 1 Dad (Noland), 2 Jessica) 12 Stealth model fighters (Noah) 7 Default model fighters (Jessica) 1 Gunship (Dad (Noland)) 1 Carrier (Noah) 1 Freighter (Void) Other races Golems: race of stone creatures in various shapes these creatures are non sentient and the only intelligent golem is the queen which controls the whole population. They work with a hive mind like ants and bees and only the queen is capable of creating the cores needed to birth golems. They vary in shape and size depending on the quantity of mineral present and location they were born. (ex. placing a core in a rich area will create a giant, place in poor dirt it will make fish) Kronan: a mutated version of Golems, originated when flying fish cores were soaked in Conners Mutation agent and returned to the queen to be remade into human golems. They are much stronger then regular golems and are capable of surviving in rain and water thanks to their compact rock skin which golems lack. They are non aggressive unless attacked and hate golems for attacking them when they were starting to grow. Unlike golems every Kronan is capable of creating cores that will grow into golem simply by ingesting enough mineral to form the core. currently growing and can show further abilities not yet known. Ore Fish: the result of flying fish golems being soaked in the water where the mutation agent was dumped. They began as small sized fish that survives and grows by eating minerals in the ground underwater. After the Kronan began farming and cultivating coral which gave them a larger food source they grew to a size similar to a bluefin tuna (2 meters long) Noah Stats at the end volume 2 Name: Noah Faction: Liberation Bounty: 0 Fame: 2100 Health: 470 Stamina: 40/40 Strength: 53 Vitality: 47 Dexterity: 60 Agility: 45 Intelligence: 52 Wisdom: 32 Charisma: 43 Leadership: 53 Luck: 10 (Wisdom is the stat that alters thought process and the speed you can think) Skills Ship Maintenance Basic 6 Weapon Maintenance Basic 8 Ship Repair Basic 5 Weapon Repair Basic 5 Ship Creation Basic 9 Weapon Creation Basic 7 Mining Basic 5 Drill Mastery Basic 4 Small Craft Pilot Basic 8 Droid Pilot Basic Basic 8 Research Basic Basic 7 Weapon Research Basic 5 Equipment Research Basic 6 Laser Weapon Mastery Basic 5 Leaders Determination Basic 1 Conquerors Aura Basic 1 Snipe Basic 2 (A.N.: 1 Vit = 10 HP, no MP, stamina is a stat that will lower slowly when doing physical labor) I will be starting volume 3 soon and will begin releasing in the next few days Volume 3 Chapter 1 Long Year Its been 3 months since The Nebula has been released or 1 year in game. In that time most players have gained fame and infamy and have left their starting stations hoping to find their adventure, this made for a lot of chaos in space so a common term used today is the Age of Chaos. For me, I''ve only gone as far as the next planets off after my starter location in the Kelha solar system. Strangely enough a lot of the people in the liberation territory has been coming to this system. I heard from NPC that the prospect of taking this planet is considered a huge achievement because of the difficulty of taking it. Why so hard when i started playing with them at the same time? Easy, in the past year i created a company on Kelha II that focuses on Drone and Droid development. As of now I am considered the player with the most military and financial power. My military strength has gone up after my people developed several combat type drone and droids, properly name Security Drones and Droids. There are two types of each, a light armored units and heavily armored units. Light armored droids are just a bit bulkier than a human in a power suit and is three times as physically strong as a human in a suit. They are armed with some new weapons as well. The new weapons and tech they had that battle droids didn''t were things such as scanners in their eyes to check identity (think robocop), the scans work by the fact that everyone that comes down must register at the 8th satellite dock where they gain a small tracker placed on their ships which allow them to pass the shields and to be tracked while on the planet. They have regular laser pistols which are normally used as taser since it is always set to suppress instead of kill. (http://images.goodsmile.info/cgm/images/product/20141001/4650/30755/large/e3d0f9cbf4b357c3ea3111520663a7c3.jpg) The other weapon is the pulse rifle. This weapon uses low caliber rounds fired a immensely fast speeds and is designed to smash into its targets at med to long range and transfer all the speed in an impact. It is a burst action weapon that first three shots at once and can cause serious internal damage like busting organs and breaking bones. Now the second type of Security droid is much larger. It a bulky droid that has a human like torso but the legs are designed as tank tracks for speed in difficult conditions and locations. It is equipped with a scanner like the light unit and several different weapons. One is a laser mini gun which is to overwhelm opponents and is equipped where the left has is. In the spot for the right arm is a plasma missile launcher which is only used in situations of air raids. They also have magnet in the tracks which allows them to be used as substitutes for escorts with transports because they can be compared to a laser turret, with them on a freighter they can arm a ship that would normally never see guns on it. (sry no pic for any other) Now for the drones, the light unit drones works along side the light unit droids and has a much more advanced scanner that is used to search and scan the body of anyone for illegal or dangerous substances or unregistered substances. The scanner can also scan through walls which can be used to scout out any base or hideout. The are armed with a ship grade laser for combat and because of advances on upgraded software they can perform high level evasion maneuvers and formation attacks in auto mode with only a command. Large units can be compared to a fighter ship. They are about 2/3 the size of a stealth model fighter and have much higher powered laser guns as well as a number of plasma missiles. Thanks to my connection with the liberation merchant i got a contract with the liberation faction itself to produce large units for space combat. Thanks to these advances, our military power great enough to fend off attacks that ranged from 200-400 fighters and Dingy attacking simultaneously in different locations. Now past the military improvements the planet itself has undergone radical changes. First is the planet was heated up but not with just a single volcanic eruption, we needed to cause 2 other eruptions to get a thick enough atmosphere that could cause the heat on the planet to raise around 30-40 ¡ãC. This allowed for water to melt as well as evaporate at a fast rate enough to condense and make rain. At first the rain was really sparse and we could only see it from space but after the 4th month it all changed. After that month, a huge storm spread over a huge part of the planet for nearly a week. We were forced to have the shields block all the water to prevent flooding. Even then the area around the base had totally flooded from the massive amount of water but thankfully after 2 days it all headed downwards. Once the storm passed we called the satellites and asked for a visual of the planet. What was once a orange desert planet was now covered in almost greenish water. From space what remained of land left 8 large continents all still bare of vegetation. After an estimate it was said that the planet was 65% covered in water. Conner told me when terraforming the range you should aim for when causing the so called flooding on a desert planet would be between 60-80 of water covering the planet. He also explained that the greenish color was thanks to the immense quantities of minerals that had been washed into the water and taken down. After receiving samples of the sea water it was also shown the have very basic amoeba life forms already in there. when i asked how he said it was because of the lighting constantly hitting the water, if electricity hits mineral rich water the minerals will start to form into DNA and if its lucky it will get caught inside lipids that also form in the water and form a cell. All that really mattered now was to begin building the planet. He made a call to the station and ordered a shipment of plankton from a nearby planet. after that he started to make the mutation agent. During all this, we noticed that not many golems were appearing now. Only after a week with no rain did the dirt dry up enough for them to appear. They were very aggressive after the rainstorm and attacked fiercely and even entered the safe zone forcing us to unleash the, at the time, newly developed heavy battle droids. along side them my crew also helped take them down. A week later a freighter arrived with the plankton cargo. They were in large 1 ton tanks of filled with water. All the water with plankton were dumped into special container with a sealed floor that would open when the order was given. Inside was already a large amount of mutation agent and it was already mixing. The several droids pulling the containers soon left towards the shore of the nearest oceans. The flight with Dome drones, upgraded model of shield drone which originally had an 8 meter diameter shield, Dome drones have a 15 meter diameter shield which is almost twice as strong as the original. Upon reaching the shores, we manually controlled the drones and got them to hover around 15 meters over the shores. As we started to open the hatches to drop the water the alarm rang which meant there was a threat nearby. Going to the view of the drone that spotted we saw golems through the small flyers towards us upward. They were directly above us and having already released the water in the tanks. The water swept all of them down and into the water and looking at them we didn''t really care since the water dissolves them. The golems just looked since they couldn''t do anything from below. we finished dropping the cargo into the water and finally left not even giving a second glance at the golems. Month 6 after game release In the past two months the aquatic fauna and flora has blossomed in unprecedented degrees. The coral colonies began appearing after the first month and tiny fish were beginning to appear and were visible to the naked eye if you scooped up water. The growth of the ecosystem was going normal but after the first month something strange happened. Golem attacks had become increasingly more sparse. I got worried and ordered numerous pilots to search the continent to see if any appear go low and to attract them. The search didn''t yield any results not a single attack which made us wonder what was going on. We searched everywhere in the continent except near the water since they evade it. After not finding nothing i just gave it a shot and ordered for the drones to scout the shores. To every last one of our amazement we found them there. But what we found could only make our jaws hit the floor. The normal human golem was over 2 meters tall and somewhat disfigured but very powerful and aggressive. What was in front of us looked like a completely new kind of golem and not only that they were making some kind of tribe near the coast. From long range scans we estimated their size to range from 160 cm to 190 cm, like every golem they were made of stone but these were totally different than before. Before the rocks looked poorly put together and though it gave the image of a humanoid it gave the feeling of a monster. These new golems were very human shaped and were all proportionate at least for their body type. They were very bulky in size and could lift large boulders easily showing their strength which makes the old ones pale in comparison. What was interesting was their skin, before the skin was just a single plain rock with nothing really but these looked like they were crafted out of finely placed rocks which were just the right shape to match with its neighbor. (yep just like this thing http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110622061953/marveldatabase/images/a/ab/1238854-the_heroic_age_iamannewavengers_05.jpg) From their looks to their actions the weirdest thing was what they were doing in the water. They easily strolled in the water and suddenly grab what looks like a rock or fish and starts eating away at them. Finally having curiosity reach its max i moved a scanner drone close to the water and started scanning until i discovered what i wanted. The image that appeared in the holo projector was a large fish. The scanner say its a flyer fish but its body is totally different. Just like the human golems these developed a rocky skin that protected it from the water. As the scans continued i couldn''t help face palming. Conner: ...when did they start getting like this?! Noah: when we dumped the mutation agent it caught a group of the flying fish golems and drowned them, a few must have adapted fast enough to survive. Conner: how they are rock with a metal core in them! Noah: were they ever checked for genetic material. Conner: ...no. Noah: i think there are still some old bodies in the storage, check the cores and the bodies find it if you can. As i gave the orders an improved scan appeared of the fish. The composition of the fish was equal to that of a giant golem and there was even a core at the same size which was a small golf ball sized core. If the fish are developing something like this the human golems must have something comparable to B or C rank in materials in their bodies. I shudder to think of the giant golems or even the worms. As i was thinking a sudden rumble and crashing sound appeared a bit away. From the ground a gigantic golem similar to the human golems appeared, but there was differences. While the human golems showed signs that they had mellowed out and turned more pacific these looked bloodthirsty and this thing was 5 times bigger. As it looked down towards the tribe of golems and gave out a defining yell. The largest of the human golems dropped what they were doing and started to run towards the giant. The smaller golems ran for cover while a group of 10 large golems start a coordinated attack. The giant seeing this tried to disrupt the primitive formation but it didn''t work after he threw a punch at the ground. A golem nearby jumped on his hand while two other grabbed the hand and held it down while the other climbed the arm. While this was happening two other golems were punching the ground causing large cracks to appear and sticking their hands under ground they pulled out large boulders and with a simple spin to get speed they tossed them at the giant. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. With two holding them down and two throwing rocks at it the rest took the chance to climb aboard and began punching it everywhere. Ernest: i''m not hallucinating right there is a battle between two groups of golems right. Noah: i don''t think we can continue referring them as a single species anymore. I think the mutation agent caused the fish to mutate and as a chain reaction with high minerals in the fish the human golems began eating them and evolved and became smarter and i guess that followed in line with the giant eating the small ones as well. Adam: we have caused some crazy shit to happen to this planet. Noah: don''t tell me about it, i really don''t want to think of what the worms might become. we continue watching as the small golems thrash the giant until it finally had enough and was able to pull its hand from the two holding his and throw them away. By now cracks were all over its body as the dense rocky skin was breaking off. It started to grab and throw the golems on its back but the fall though painful looking the golems still got back up. A few went to help the rock throwers and together they started to pull a huge rock towards the area in 5. The rest kept it busy until one of the rock throwers gave a loud yell and they dispersed just as the rock was thrown. It was about the size of the giant itself and in the base everyone shuddered to think of the power behind those arms to lift such a thing in a G2 planet. The giant was still distracted by the small golems when the rock smashed into it head on and toppled it on its back. On queue the entire tribe sprang forth and grabbed the arms and legs of the giant and held them fixed to the ground. Noah: this is starting to look like one of those movies were the humans rope a giant and kill it. The others start laughing as they watched. Amazingly it had turned into a kind of movie since a large amount of people were watching it. ???: i wonder what they will do now? Gunner: hahaha i hope they break the arms and legs, damn this is better than the movies. HAHAHA!!! As if hearing Gunners desire a large human golem walked forward. He was the biggest in the tribe so it was probably the leader. It walked slowly past the giants head making sure it saw him which caused the giant to roar in rage but that didn''t help it escape the grasp of the tribe. The leader walked over to the right arm and with a few grumbles a few golems opened a space which revealed the area just above the elbow of the giant. The leader ran a bit towards it before delivering a heavy punch which broke the arm clean off. Behind me i could hear half a dozen laughs and a lot of cheers. Seems the crew likes the new human golems. Noah: "Maybe they will continue evolving and become a usable starting race. As I watch I could only grin because the previous hive mind that existed was broken with the evolution. As we watch the continue smashing each limb until only the head and torso are left. The giant had lost quite a bit of strength and could barely grumble now. He walked just before the head while looking down on the giant. He looked at it and with a step back he sent a heavy punch right on the peak of the head breaking it completely finishing the giant. As the event finished everyone filled out with a smile on their faces. It seems a hate for the walking rocks have been installed into most of the people here. With everyone gone only me, Gunner and Ernest were left. Gunner: hehe I like how they became. Noah: they are really strong but whats really surprising is how smart they became. The formation also looked interesting to see since they are just getting smarter to be able to do so much is amazing. Ernest: What do we do about them then? Noah: lets find out. I order a single scanner drone to approach the tribe and do a complete scan of the new golem including an extensive scan of the core. When the drone approached all the golems looked towards it but not with aggression but curiosity. They simply tilted their heads trying to figure out what the drone was while it scanned. The leader though was a bit cautious and carefully approached to drone and began poking it. The scene could only be described as a caveman meeting the future. Soon enough the scan of the leader was done. The structure of these golems are really dense. Its packed much more densely with minerals of different types and it even has a few inner organs that are probably used for digestion which are a bit more advanced than the primitive ones found in old golems. The core on the other was MUCH more complex. First it was the size of a human heart and in the same spot but the real interesting part was the molecular structure. As I was looking at the core scans Conner entered and saw the scan as well. Conner: I guess you figured out yourself look here. He pulled up a scan and showed me a much less complex genetic strand. Conner: this is a scan of the core from and old golem. Noah: so the core holds the genetic code...there is no X or Y chromosome? Conner: they don''t breed like us. I would venture a guess that the continued eating of those ore fish or a giant will eventually produce a new core which is dropped into the dirt where a new golem is born. Noah: but that doesn''t explain the changes in the giants as well. Ernest: they might have eaten a few of them of them and got a certain amount of evolution but they still seem tied to the main hive of golems. Noah: i think these new guys need a different name then it is only fitting if they are enemies of the golems. Ernest: i know a name, its from when i was a kid from an old super hero comic book i watched there were creature that looked like them right now. They were called Kronan. Noah: the really old marvel heroes alien race rock monsters. Ernest: yep, you know them? Noah: my dad showed me when i was little.
Because of evolution a new species of Golem has been born and discovered. You have chosen to name them as Kronan and will be known as such. Your actions in the future will determine where you will have a friendly or aggressive relationship with this race. Should you help them grow by accelerating their evolution and teaching them about your technology and history you can grew friendly with them.
Noah: "well that is convenient they seem to have a hive mind of their own but thanks to their higher intelligence they don''t follow instinct like the other ones." guys pass this to everyone as an order from me. Not a single Kronan is to be attacked they are a non aggressive creature that can one day become an addition to our forces and as you can see they are powerful, much more so than normal golems because they work together. Gunner and Ernest salute and run off to pass the message while Conner just takes another glance at the monitor and leaves. 9 months in game after game release In the last few months its been hectic. First we finished digging the shipyard which is big enough to make a freighter and still have space to spare. The problem was the cave in while finishing the digging part. Julius, the foreman that commanded the miner and digger drones was caught in the cave in and though we saved him he lost an arm and both legs which were crushed. I felt reasonable since i was the one who ordered the construction so i had the techs work on robotic appendages. Having had the limbs amputated we needed to make them so he wouldn''t need to ever take it off so we came to the conclusion of a power suit that had fully automated parts that were controlled by his brain waves and nerves system. It would move just as he wants it to as if it was his original arm. The suit was completed in month 8 and after getting used to the suit he ran back to work and even finished digging and reinforcing the chamber the water turbines were going to be built. Which is saying something since the ground around there had gotten moist after the water melted and the floor. Once he finished that he was still full of energy and suggested a defense idea which would prove valuable and it was something no one thought of. in the safe zone around both Site Beta, the base, and Alpha, farm, he began digging wide 10 meter diameter holes 10 meters deep. The idea was to place turrets all around the sites for air and ground fire. Half would be anti air turrets the rest laser turrets made to attack both ground and air attackers. This bolstered our defenses and made the takeover of the planet even harder. On the ninth month a new shipment of water tanks arrived. This one was loaded with algae and such which would be spread in deep sea but we made prepared a separate container for the Kronan we were hoping for greater development from them, enough for us to talk with them. We have watched them and found that only a single tribe exists which is the one we found. When that came to light i could only feel surprise after gaining a mission. [window] Mission: Kronan protection. You have discovered that the newest species of Golem the Kronan only have a single tribe with only 40 individuals. Because of their passive nature they and small food sources they can''t grow fast enough. You must provide safety and create better food sources to help them grow and begin new tribes. Difficulty C Completion requirements: 5 tribes with over 200 Kronan each(complete 0/5) Reward: familiarity of the Kronan, further evolution, growth in population. Failure: the tribe dies. [/]window Noah: "This isn''t good i can already see war coming, this mission is C rank so it affects region or planet so i think it will be me and them vs the hive better get to work them." 1 year in game after release Present day now, the last three months were intense. We made sure to leave heavy drone units ready for any attack after all the containers were dropped including the mutation agent near the tribe. They grew again to around 190 to 210 cm but also grew smarter and enough to learn our language which was done after we sent a group willing to go. They seemed curious about us and with a few weeks of dedicated teaching they could somewhat speak with humans now though i still think it could still be considered like teaching a dog a new trick its not sentience yet. During the time we were there it was constant attacks by the old golems. But it no longer endangered the Kronas. They were stronger and faster even though their bodies grew larger and most importantly much smarter. They used their hive mind to coordinate attacks and do the most damage without taking much damage. We had also taught them many strategies which they sucked up like a sponge and learned quickly because it was passed through all their minds so teaching one is like teaching them all. What was curious is what they did with the remains of the dead golems. The giants body was always dismembered and hollowed out which was eaten later and the rest was partially buried and used as housing especially the torso. The cores and such from the golems were thrown in the water and as explained by one of the Kronan it will be reborn as a fish which means given time the cores will rebuild the golems. The number of Kronan also began increasing a lot after the last drop because the algae and plankton began to take the form of coral which provided them with a lot of food and after teaching them, they gained the concept of farming. Though its underwater but thanks to their dense rock hide skin it doesn''t affect them like golems who still dissolve in water. The population rose quickly to over 200 in the last three months because of the greater amount of food so I was really happy that they were growing soon a group would go and make a new colony with my crew helping them survive. Side Story Birth of the Kronan 3rd POV from random Kronan Deep underground in the chamber of the Golem Hive Queen, the behemoth worm, a few golems were returning with two soaked cores from the flying fish that had dissolved in the water with plankton. They had washed ashore where the golems found it. The queen looked at them and soon ate them whole. Within they gained more mass but because the mutation agent was soaked around it the DNA with became complex before they were once again released from the queen as larger cores used to make the golems. They were taken and buried in the growth chamber where it would soon become a golem. A few days later the two golems emerged but unlike the others they were different, smaller more compact, stronger and not connected to the hive mind. As they walked out of the growth chamber they were seen by the queen she tried commanding them with the hive mind but that did not work. It let out a deafening screech. It called some giant golems who soon dragged away the two. It dragged them to an opening, an exit. Outside was raining furiously. It was after the floods already and rain had become common after that. The Giants pushed the small golems until they were thrown out into the rain. A normal golem would have dissolved because of the rain but these two lived and stood up. They had denser skin made of smaller rocks which are more densely packed which didn¡¯t absorb water like the other golems. The two not knowing what to do and only having each other in their hive mind started walking through the rain. They walked until they met a large body of water. The ocean, the bane of golems and yet they didn¡¯t feel fear from it. One of them walked in to see how it was under it. Golems don¡¯t need air so they just headed in. What he found was moving life forces for golems. A creature that needs minerals to live and they found a source to live from. The small fish shaped creature seeing him came over and started biting him chipping away at his body. This annoyed the golem and he grabbed the fish and opening his mouth for the first time. He felt that water enter his mouth, it was a strange sensation of a liquid so full of life force enter his body. He remembered the fish as it squirmed in his hand. He put the head in his mouth and with all his force he crushed the head and soon the body. He felt alive this creature it held power for him it was waiting for him to eat it. He grabbed more and ate until he was satisfied. He soon left the water and found his companion. Through the hive mind he showed what was underwater and soon the other walked in only to return hours later. Over the next month they grew and once they reached a week old they produced cores just like the queen. They planted the core seeds and soon more golems appeared. It was after their small tribe grew past 20 members that they appeared. Two giant golems, sent by the queen after a golem saw their group. The ate 15 of our offspring which left us in a rage. The five that were left, in their rage attacked and killed the giant. His core was taken by the other and it ran away. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The five left felt rage and sadness something that should be impossible for a golem. They returned to the waters and began eating more of the fish while leaving the cores in the water to replenish their food. Soon their numbers reached 40 and like before a giant appeared it looked like us but we saw it was the same giant we killed it had been reborn by the queen as a stronger monster then before but with our number we killed it and the large core was smashed and thrown in the water. It fed the small fish and they grew stronger as well. That same day after we killed the giant a small floating ball of ore appeared. We didnt do anything but our leader one of the two original golems since the other had died in the first giant attack. He walked up to the thing and poked it and looked at it. It was foreign to us what it was. We all felt a strange tension around it like it was dangerous as if past lives yelled to attack and destroy but we just looked. Soon it left but a few days later it returned larger in size and dropped water in the ocean we didn¡¯t know what happen but to us it is just a strange object. After the ore ball had gone the fish grew stronger and plants that gave us food appeared. We also grew stronger. Again those floating ore balls appear but this time a strange golem appeared. His skin was really strong. He spoke strangely but he didn''t attack. Soon others appeared and began teaching us to talk like them. What they taught passed through our hive mind and we learned to speak and fight really well. After they appeared our numbers grew more as well as growing stronger. They taught us how to make more food, a concept they call farming. We walked underwater and organized the rock plants they call coral in lines next to each other. This farming gave us lots of room to make food. Because we organized the coral, the fish grew in size because we provide food for them as well. Smaller fleshy fish also appeared. The creature told us those are food for their people. They are strong they can fight the golems just as well as we can. They named us Kronan because we weren''t golem anymore we were stronger and smarter so we weren''t them anymore. The creatures call themselves Terran''s or humans can also be used. We like these Terran people they protect and teach us many things and are willing to protect the new tribe that will be going soon. I hope they survive and we meet again but the hive mind will keep us together, also we don''t worry much because the Terran will protect them. Volume 3 Chapter 2 Human Experiment Yo guys here is the next chapter I hope you guys will continue supporting me and i hope you like the chapter and yes cybernetics will come soon i plan to make it a separate race to humans but not now ________________________________________ It¡¯s been a few hours since we left the first Kronan tribe along with 5 Kronan and a few tanks with coral bits and another tank with several more fish. These bastards have gotten huge since we taught the Kronan how to farm the coral. They are now the size of a Bluefin Tuna (2 meters long) and it was discovered some time ago that they, like the Kronan also produce cores but they do it like regular fish and release in large clutches. They have also grown powerful thanks to their size. The Kronan now have to hunt them instead of simply catch them. Ironically both consider the other a prey because they both need each other as food. Though when the coral is at its most plentiful size there isn''t much conflict but should they start growing too much in number you can easily guess that there will be a feast soon. Because of the plentiful amount of them we were allowed to harvest a large amount for research. Mainly their genetics as well as a few Kronan cores that are used for growing new ones we asked for a few when they are produced and were gladly given a few. Conner as well as other scientist are working at an intense pace mapping out their genetic map which had changed since we first discovered them. It¡¯s getting increasingly more complex and harder to map out. Though one interesting thing we found in both Kronan and the fish is that both seem to have some form or another of ¡°sensing¡± the minerals in the ground without even needing to examine it. This is how we found the current location of the second tribe. The ground underwater as well as on shore is very rich in minerals. There has been one thing that has puzzled us though it¡¯s how the core can control the rocks in their bodies. They have sensation in their body yet no nerves or anything that shows a way they are connected. Though Conner couldn''t even hypothesis anything. Us players had something in our mind, ¡°Earth/Mineral Manipulation¡±. Anyone that has played a fantasy game and seen a golem in their knows they have a wide control of earth magic though The Nebula doesn¡¯t have mana but it might work in that same principle. We think this because in a few instances the Kronan have pulled boulders and such out of the ground only for the find no hole in the ground. We told the scientists this and a few called us crazy but the higher ups like Mr. Kinter and his group as well as Conner himself listened enough that they were currently deciphering the genetic codes to try and find where such a thing might be. If found it might be possible to increase their power over that which could prove a great assist in the future. For now though we work to set up the start of the tribe. First the coral is placed in the water in its proper places and taken care of while only small ore fish are released to start adapting to the small amount of food. The large ones are used as food for the Kronan. In the first week they ate through most of them but by that time the small fish population had grown enough to sustain them. By that time the first core seeds were being produced and had been placed spread around and soon more Kronan would appear. With everything going so well, i went to site alpha. 2 of the 4 turbines we were making were done and was already producing enough energy to hold the dome shield up as well as the life support and lights. I landed in the designated area and looked around. The place looked like a slowly growing park or orchid. Many kinds of fruit trees that were common food items were all planet in here and was starting to grow. There were droids caring for the many trees and using the scanners to check for any diseases or damage it continued slowly. The place i headed to was underground. Because of the excessive water we made a large lake there which is starting to house plant life and soon enough other forms as well. There are a few of these lake preparing combinations of different ecosystems that after a while will be cultivated into the planet. I was here simply to see how it was coming along. It was interesting how they made the place. Very high ceilings, hundreds of solar lights (special lamp which replicates all the different waves of the sun) and depending on the ecosystem there would be many different depths to the lake/river. the place only has droids and scientists but i can''t find the on i was looking for. After the flood the planet grew safer and if we fly to space during rainfall the worm doesn''t attack. Though the danger of lightning striking us is high we use shields to protect ourselves. Without the attacks happening every time we leave we were able to increase the number of NPC to come down here. Word had gone all over the Liberation territory of the planet where Kelha R&D (Research and Development) Inc. had large amount of work in both space and on the planet surface. With so many people coming we were also forced to make a third site, Named Delta 1, specifically for residential needs. To accommodate a large growing population isn¡¯t easy so we made most of the buildings into large apartment buildings capable of housing large numbers of people. This area was also where we had fun making the place look nice with trees and such and giving it a calm feel. Though the place worked we had to transport everyone to work in either the Alpha or Beta site. Though we could make a large bus like drone which was easily made we needed to ensure safety. Our solution came when Mr. Kinter found out how the golem fish work its magnetic effect while others didn''t. Its core was just slightly more unique than others. The core needed to be made in a specific combination which we already know but what is unique is that it can produce a small electric pulse in it which allows it to attract or repel itself from something. Noah: how do they know when to attract or repel. Kinter: i would put money on the hive mind. In golems i think the leader is intelligent enough to control them and the hive mind might show it what its minions are doing so it can control with better precision even though it has such low intelligence. Noah: thanks this came at a prefect time, can you get the mechanic and tech researchers to see if they can make a large circular relay that can expand a tunnel like shield from each base to another. This will make transport from each site safer. He nods and leaves the room. The room i was in now was the software development research facility the place had filled with prospective researchers wanting to learn about my tech. Though I''m not some idiot, i have them sign a contract with very heavy penalties should they want to talk about the research here. Mainly you are given a high bounty and all your property is confiscated. This contract caught several people but for all newbies i have some droids watching them. They are all now in prison rotting away. No i will never force them to work, slavery is not on my to do list ever. The contract was also placed on all jobs, though depending on the job the penalties aren''t as severe. Like miner, its important but doesn''t risk losing everything so it¡¯s a normal work contract. Soon the construction of the first few relays were under way and i who had too much free time just sat around. Noah: " I¡¯m bored, all this company stuff has taken the fun out of the game. Though it is a VR game so it mimics reality. Damn, the golem barely attack anymore and it¡¯s not as exciting anymore unless i am fighting head on and not in a ship...hehehe lets make a visit to the Kronan" With that in mind i rushed off towards the new tribe on a Dingy. It might be bad but i was hoping a golem attacked i wanted in the action to kill my boredom. Landing next to the area i saw a single rocky building made of rocks. It wasn''t golem remains so there were no attacks recently. Walking over i found only the chief of the tribe. I could tell it was the leader thanks to his size being some 10-20 cm taller the other Kronan. Noah: hello Cro''ti. Cro''ti: friend...welcome. Noah: where are the others? Cro''ti: caring for farm...hunt food. Noah: hmm are the new kids about ready to rise? He nods his bulky head. Cro''ti: when big light reach peak. Noah: "So around noon, guess that explains the hunting." Suddenly we felt a tremor coming from just outside the tribe parameters. Two large areas caved in just as giant bulky arms appear. A grin could be seen on the Cro''ti''s face. He stood up and got ready to fight. Cro''ti: i fight you wait. he started to run before i could reply and just as half the body of the giant appeared which was an old version golem he jumped and smashed into its chest and made it topple backwards. The other being able to get up looks at Cro''ti and the downed golem and lifts its huge disfigured arm and swung it down. Cro''ti just gave a small glance down took a stance that would transfer the impact below him, which we taught them, and took the blow. There was a huge crash and a lot of cracking with a lot of dust being lifted. The hand of the golem stayed down where Cro''ti was, when i saw it try lifting its hand it started to struggle. As it struggled the dust settled and what i saw made my jaw drop. Cro''ti was in a large crater on top of the first giant who was definitely dead while easily gripping onto the other giants hand and holding him down with both hands. He started moving backwards while dragging the giant and finally he jumped off the corpse of the giant. He kept pulling it until he was clear from the corpse. With a grin he started to sink. My eyes went wide as i saw that it was like his body was sinking in quicksand while he pulled the giants arm underground. After nearly the whole arm is underground the ground hardened. The giant was crouched by now and with his free hand he was pushing down trying to pull the other arm out. As he was pulling his other hand was gripped from underground and was pulled in quickly completely trapping the giant. In quick succession the legs were pulled in sealing the giant. Cro''ti appeared next to it and walked my way laughing. Noah: how did you do that?! Cro''ti: What? Noah: going into the ground without digging. Cro''ti: dirt like water to Kronan. Golem dig in ground, Kronan swim, Golem die in water, Kronan walk. Noah: what? Cro¡¯ti: Cro¡¯ti not know how just do. Noah: what else can you do? He looks around and walks a bit before placing his hand on the ground. Soon the color of the dirt changes and he pulls out a rock from the ground. It was shining every color from all the different minerals stuffed in it. Noah: how long have Kronan been able to do this? Cro''ti: hmm when brother Bo''li rose. Bo''li was the second leader of the second tribe. He succeeded the tribe after the previous leader was killed in a giant attack when it still took ten or more Kronan to kill them. This must have been one of the things that gave the edge to the Kronan to allow them to win so much against bigger enemies. I looked over at the giant golem that is roaring in anger when being trapped underground. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Noah: ¡±how did they get so strong in so little time...i wonder how humans would change with enhancements done to our bodies¡± My mind was running at full speed thinking of it that i didn''t notice the other for arrive holding fish and coral crumbs. Soon tiny Kronan kids appeared from the ground and attacked the food. They grew quickly after birth by eating tremendous amounts of ore fish. I leave them after they start butchering the giants after killing them. I went slowly back to Site Beta with my head thinking in overdrive about the increasingly amazing feats that the Kronan have been showing. As i arrive i just walk past the mechanics that come up to me while in deep thought. When i finally wake up I¡¯m in Conner¡¯s lab which also had lots of biologist and other scientist of different fields. None of them notice me at the door but my next question grabs the attention of the whole lab when i saw it out loud. Noah: hey Conner! How well does your Mutation agent work on humans. They all looked at me bewildered by my question. Conner: why do you ask? Noah: i just saw a single Kronan take on two giant golems and crush them single handed as well displaying a lot of unique abilities they use by instinct and don''t know how to explain. I want to know how a human will react to it. Conner: Do you know why we drop the mutation agent in the water and not directly on top of the specimens themselves. I shook my head. Conner: it¡¯s because the agent is powerful and needs to be diluted at a lot and can only be used on aquatic life unless you put them in a large tank which can then be controlled. Noah: there haven''t been experiments with humans Conner: do you really think there are people willing enough to do it. It¡¯s easier for them to accept adding cybernetic parts to their body to enhance them than risk becoming some abomination and be killed and have to wait a years before being revived by the cloning center. Noah: what? i thought the clones were instant and then you train your body again. Conner: that is for a different group of people. Those are born clones from the beginning so they appear quickly but someone like me if i die an unnatural death i need to wait 9 months for my body to be ready and i will still need to retrain a bit to get used to the new body. Noah: so what if i offered myself to do those tests. Everyone just stared at me with slacked jaws that looked like it would fall soon. Conner: HAHAHA! nice joke there is no sane person that would go through that torturous procedure. Kinter: Conner you should stop joking, I can tell Noah is serious about this. Conner: ¡­*sigh* why do you want to do it so badly? Noah: i want to know how a human will react to it. If it fails you can kill me and i will just be reborn normally. Conner¡¯s face has a frown that clearly shows his reluctance. Conner: i will only do it if you find a female partner that will do it with you. He said it with a slightly devilish grin like i would never find someone that would do that but at the moment he said that the doors opened. ???: I¡¯ll do it. Everyone looked towards the voice only to find a beautiful platinum blonde haired girl with sharp sky blue eyes staring back. Jessica was standing there without shying away. The face Conner was making was priceless while i was grinning back at him before turning back. Noah: you sure its ok, I¡¯m willing but you don¡¯t have to. She blushed a bit and looked to the side not making eye contact. Jessica: i-its fine I¡¯m fine with this...it might be fun to try it and see what happens. Conner: hahahahaha!!! fun! Right more like a living hell. The only idiot that did this screamed at the top of his lungs. Jessica/Noah: Just sedate him then. Conner: eh? Noah: you know like any surgery sedate him and keep him/her asleep so they don''t react to the intense pain. More than half the scientists just sit down and stop working sighing. Conner also sits looking exhausted. Conner: you really like to drive us like slaves, first we need to examine the Kronan, golem and ore fish gene codes and now you want to do evolution experiments with humans and use yourself as a guinea pig. Don¡¯t you get tired of creating hard work. Noah: speaking of Kronan genes did you guys find the codes that correspond with the hive mind and earth manipulation abilities they display. Conner: DON''T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!! Kinter: *sigh* yes we found the hive mind genes. It was actually simple to find it. It¡¯s the most complex piece of genetic code any of us have ever seen and with each generation of Kronan it gets more complex. Conner: it seems to be a kind of telepathic ability. Noah: doesn¡¯t telepathic abilities need very high intelligence and a powerful brain to handle the strain? Conner: The three kinds of rock creatures on this place the golems, Kronan and fish all have one thing in common. The cores, it¡¯s their brain and with each generation it gets more complex it gets stronger. Noah: put simply the core itself is the connection to the hive mind. They nod. Noah: can they be implanted and used by humans or transformed into a comm unit to access the hive mind like a more powerful chat that can be used at distances. Kinter: Noah. Please calm down before you make up more work for us. Noah: right but it would be interesting to see if having a core implanted in our bodies while we undergo the mutation how it might affect our bodies. Jessica: i wonder if we who are already sentient beings will be able to forcible access the golem hive minds or whichever one and control them. Jessica had kept quiet but the only times she talked during the whole conversation left everyone in a state of shock. The scientists just looked from one to another. Scientist 1: having that implanted during the mutation can have very adverse effects to your body, we don''t know how it will effect an organic being, instead of growing stronger it could make you weaker. Jessica: science is the study that most involves trial and error right. Up until now you have only taken already made technology and remade them into a more useful form but you haven''t invented anything else. Kinter: you don''t want to go with cybernetics instead? Noah: no that would just make our bodies into weapons, we want to make normal bodies that are naturally stronger and not machine made. Jessica: I¡¯m sure someone like gunner or basil would happily accept becoming full cyborgs if they got to fight on the front lines. We hear some chuckles from the scientists that know both of them. Conner: heh i guess, Gunner would be even more averse to it because of Drune rex¡¯s history. *sigh* fine we will make it. It will take about a month for us to set up a quarantined lab made just for this as well as hiring the proper people to do this. We both smile and the scientist go back to work. Conner goes to the ships and goes into space to call in some favors. For the next month we help make the new map while continuing to help the Kronan grown and by the time the lab is ready there are over 10 tribes spread all over the continent with 1 over 200 and the rest much less but growing. Jessica and I meet up in the lab. The staff is totally different and only Conner is there to explain everything to us. Conner: well you two stubborn kids this is the favor i asked in this is the top genetics researcher team of the liberation and this is their leader Dr. Gustav Von Clov Gustav: So these are the brats you told me about. This boy is the owner of this planet and the one who wants to become new race and even wants to use the DNA of a soon to be sentient race in a mutation. You brats have guts I¡¯ll tell you that. Jessica: so how will this start them. Gustav: well we have already learned all about the coding of these interesting Kronan you have helped raise, quite powerful soldier type race i must say. You wish to have this hive mind ability within your genes and its locked inside this core that is in their bodies so we start with a little surgery to place this where it counts. He pokes our heads with a devilish grin. Gustav: there is no escape now kiddies you wanted this now you have to go through it. With that we had our fates sealed as guinea pigs for this experiment we asked for and they started the surgery. They told us that as soon as they carefully place the core which was the size of a golf ball in our heads we would be put in the tanks with water which will then release the mutation agent. We will be stuck in there a whole month while our bodies are undergoing mutation and will be sedated the whole time. Gustav: any last words before you go to sleep. Noah: heh do your worst and make sure this works the first time. He laughs and gives me a few pats on my chest before turning the gas on. Soon i feel my conscience fad until all went black.
You have been sedated and are unconscious, you cannot leave the pod until you wake up or your character might die. Pain has been lowered to 5% the real feeling you would have until you wake up.
You have been implanted with a foreign object
You have come in contact with diluted mutation agent, you race has now been set to unknown. Should you mutate into an abomination or non-sentient being and killed you will be reborn as a human. Should you mutate into a stable sentient life, your race will be permanently set to that race and your clones will be born to that race.
Foreign object is reacting to the mutation agent and has begun altering your body differently.
So much pain. It¡¯s so bad, I can''t focus, I can''t even read the messages that appear. How long has it been since I¡¯ve been asleep. My head hurts so much after the last message though I still don''t know what it says the pain leaves me blind to anything else. I¡¯ve tried so many times to log out but can''t focus enough to do so, i don''t know why the safety mechanism doesn¡¯t eject me maybe because of the circumstances. So much time passed but the pain is receding I¡¯m happy. For a while I¡¯ve been able to feel the presence of many people but i can''t talk with them. But i did find some beings i could far underground some in the water and some in the shores. I tried to talk with them but none of them could hear me. I could only connect with the presence beside me. It felt really comforting the touch of that mind on my own. I can¡¯t wait for all this pain to vanish and i wake up i want to walk, run, fight...live. I want to explore and i will with this presence next to me I will make sure of it. Volume 3 Chapter 3 Hive King and Queen Thanks for all the support guys here is the next chapter and i hope to you can continue sending feedback and ideas to help -------------------- Malcolm POV Today the craziest thing happen. While i worked through all the papers father had passed to me to do, my secretary ran in without even knocking which never happen. Secretary: Sir there¡¯s a problem. Malcolm: It must be big for you to come in without even knocking. Secretary: I''m sorry sir but the A.I. has picked up two players that have just began doing genetic experiments. And afterwards with a scan of the game it picked up another player that did the same. Malcolm: Its apart of the game, to make races and find existing one right. Secretary: The problem sir is that it is human experiments and they are using themselves as guinea pigs. Malcolm: Who is stupid enough to go through that much hell. She pulled three packets with info on the players. After looking through the first he still had a calm, non-caring expression but, after the second a slight cold sweat began appearing. As he read anxiously through the third he began trembling. Malcolm: quickly call for medical teams to go to each of the houses for each players that are stuck in game. They will need medical support while they are stuck and even more when they exit. Set their accounts to log them out 10 seconds after they wake up from their sedated state. Malcolm was pale and covered in cold sweat as he looked at the information of each evolutionary path and the names of the player above it. Noah Collins Sophia Brim Elizabeth Johns (Elizabeths race is a secret but it is important for the story ;D) Noah POV Ah the pain its almost gone and the presence of so many people around. I can feel lots of warm feelings from many of them but there are some strange ones that i feel disgust being around. The brightest presence is the one next to me whenever i feel something off i just feel for this presence. It¡¯s so warm i wonder who it is, i sometimes feel it touching my mind and i try responding. This presence is smart and sometimes it leads me to look around. It led me into the oceans and when we reached it we found a small group of connected minds swimming. It felt similar to us so we grabbed the connection but couldn''t connect like we were between each other. She gave up but i forced my mind to connect with theirs. As the connection forcibly linked the images from the eyes of many ore fish stormed by head. I was trapped in their hive mind until it was cut up by my partner. I was exhausted from the mental attack. The mind of my partner wrapped around me to protect me from further attacks while our minds returned to our bodies. We could feel that there was a stranger movement going around. We stayed in our bodies when i noticed my mind blacking out. I open my eyes and find myself on the floor of an empty glass tube. All around me i could see the blurry outlines of some people dressed in white as i tried getting up my thin body wouldn''t respond. When i woke up completely a notification appeared.
You Have been trapped 1 month in game because of your mutation experiment. By orders of the AI you will be ejected from the game in a moment.
Everything went black as i was ejected. When I open my eyes they were blurry like in the game. I wait a bit for my vision to clear. During the wait I felt like my head was being split in half. As my vision cleared I saw that the capsules lid had been removed like a medical capsule used for people with needs. All around me were many machines found in hospitals. Those used for monitoring the heart and breathing and all. I look a bit before trying to get up but a hand pushed me down again. When I looked at the owner of the hand I find dad and a doctor in a plain white overcoat and some nurses behind him. Dad: don''t get up. You''ve been trapped in the game for a week. Your mutation cause real life changes so until the doc says it you can''t walk on your own. Doctor: yes as he said. Mr. Brim allowed us access to a restricted feature of the capsules which monitors the brain waves while you play. We monitored your entire mutation process. The evolution happened mostly in your brain. This cause a backlash to your real brain when you in game brain began expanding with so much activity. Noah: i-i-i-i-is t-th-there a p-p-prob-blem d-doc. Doctor: for now I can¡¯t say but the other two also stuttered like you from the massive increase in brain activity. We think the increase in brain activity in game might have increase your real brains capacity but we will need to do tests. And you need to rest. Both your conscious and subconscious are probably very over stressed so get rest we will transport you. With a nod the nurses began to remove most of the machines. They finally brought out a stretcher and carefully laid me down on it before taking me to an ambulance. It took maybe ten minutes to reach the hospital and i was immediately taken to some large machines to scan my brain activity. This lasted an hour before i was changed cleaned and put in a room with two other beds and was told to sleep. Dad: rest up I''ll come later after i tell the others what happened. I doubt you will be allowed to play until your body regulates itself. I didn''t even respond because of my mental exhaustion so when i closed my eyes I fell asleep instantly. In my dream i felt like when i was in the game but the area i could explore was only in my room so i felt around. There wasn''t much but I felt two other people. On my right was someone with a warm presence like the one I felt in the game and to my left it was a presence that made me queasy so i kept far from it. After a bit i felt three nurse come in and began shaking us awake. As i woke up the smell of food overtook me and I finally felt my hunger and i sat up quickly forgetting my headache. A tray was placed for me by the nurse which i quickly cleaned and still hungry a new plate was clean as well. Then i drank some vitamin pills that were given and finished up. After the nurses left i began relaxing and looked at who my roommates where I was surprised to find Sophia next to me. Noah: H-hi S-Soph-hia. Sophia: H-hi No-oah, gu-uess t-the ex-exper-riment ca-aused s-some pr-rob-blem. ???: sh-shut u-up b-both o-of yo-you! We looked at the owner of the shuddering voice and find Elizabeth in the bed to the right. Noah: ah i-i rem-memb-ber y-you f-from t-the int-terv-view. E-Eli-izab-beth r-right? Elizabeth: hm. Y-ya wh-hat d-did y-you g-guys do t-to get i-in here! It wasnt a question she said it like an order that we had to answer but we kept quiet after I shook my head to Sophia. This pissed her off but that lasted only a moment because she felt dizzy. Noah: b-bett-ter c-calm d-down. Elizabeth: SH-SHUT UP! The yell could be heard outside because a moment later a male nurse came in and asked what is happening. When he saw the agitated Elizabeth he said she should either calm down or he will need to sedate her to calm her down. Though she had a frown showing her anger she lay down and turned the other way. I look towards Sophia shrugged and began talking with her. Though my head started to hurt after a while so i went to sleep. For a whole week I spend most of my time just doing tests to check for problems eating resting and talking with Sophia. Talking with her really helps but doing the same with Elizabeth only brings headaches. After a week we both could speak normally since we talked with a lot of people from the nurses to doctors and amongst ourselves so we would soon be discharged but we needed to wait another week before logging in to make curtain we got enough rest to handle the strain. Virtual Works even made a new capsule made to handle the races characteristic which would soon be released with an upcoming update which will introduce some new things to the game as well as present any new playable race that the characters found or made. When we were discharged the next day I was kind of sad to have to separate from Sophia. She makes great company to pass the time talking with about the base and life on the planet, though talks like this was only when it was the two of us because it might leak important info to competitors. Finally back home i go onto the internet to see any changes to my planet. The official web had been updated to allow players to check their stuff when the player was away. Opening the page with my planet a sign showing "At War" was glowing. I open the battle page and saw the many losses on both side. Currently there were two fights going on so I opened a page each and rapidly typed orders and formations to do and how to attack. The system would them take control of a high ranked NPC and execute my orders. I watch the fight as the number of enemy losses rose while a few of my drone army get taken down. As enemy reinforcement arrive i give more orders and continue directing them from here until the enemy retreats. Though I have my drones follow and destroy them all before sending out worker droids to scavenge for useable parts. With everything said and done i go to sleep. For another week I''m still not allowed inside the game so i continue ordering my men from the computer like playing a strategy game. Malcolm sure made a convenient game. But it didn''t have the same emotion as going at it normally but that ended on Friday. With the new capsule installed I jump in to check out the situation. As I log in I find myself in the medical bay of site beta where the lab had been made. I was laying down without my suit so it was near impossible for me to lift myself. Suddenly a barrage of notifications appeared in front of you.
You are the first player to wake up after undergoing rapid mutations. +1000 fame
You have gained a new stat Endurance By experiencing pain for a long time you can you now feel less pain and are naturally harder to kill. (Increases health and natural defense)
You have gained a new stat Willpower Because you felt tortuous pain for a month without going insane you have gained an iron will.
For surviving through the experiment without going insane from physical or mental damage your mind and body have grown stronger. + 50 willpower + 50 endurance
For being successful with your genetic experiment your race has been changed the name has yet to be decided. +500 fame
You have acquired a new stat Psyche Only more mentally evolved beings can obtain the power over the mind. Psyche is the power reserve in your body to perform supernatural feat with your mind. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. This stat grows the more intelligence you have. Warning exhausting your Psyche will leave you mentally fatigued
You have acquired new racial skills
Hive Mind basic 1 (passive) A race link that allows you to communicate with others of your kind
Hive Mind invasion You are able to invade the hive mind of a different species by forcing your mind into a weaker individual of the other race. Warning requires great willpower to overpower the mind of another hive mind. The more beings you have in your hive then the easier it is to take another hive.
Mind Invasion Thanks to your powerful mind you can invade the mind of creatures that don''t use the hive mind and cause hallucination and control them without them realizing
Because of your mutation being primarily in the brain. Your brain is now much denser from the growth of new brain cells and will form a larger array of connections. + 120 intelligence +200 wisdom
(A.N. remember increased wisdom grants faster thinking process)(also i am using the myth where humans use only 10% of the brain. I¡¯m sure there are people that would say otherwise so I¡¯m just stating this that the story follows that thought since it¡¯s easier to work the mutations with this)
Because of your mutation your bodies limit has been raised. All physical stats grow 1.5 time to the original value.
Photographic memory Thanks to your powerful mind you can remember anything you have seen once.
Presence sense Because of your hive mind mentality you naturally search for those like you and has given you a sixth sense that will allow you to see the nature of ones personality as well if they belong to a hive mind.
I could only stay slack jawed seeing the results of the month long torture I lived through. Noah: "guess the rewards for so much pain was a really handsome reward for sure" With the increase of strength it became slightly possible for me to move on my own without a power suit on Kelha II. As i sat up the guy on duty to watch us looked shocked my way. Guard: um h-hello um Conner told me to inform you that you should rest. Noah: I''ve been asleep for 2 months get me my power suit please. The man nervously nods his head and runs off. Noah: "heh Conner I hope you don''t think I''ll resign from my post as captain to be a guinea pig and let everyone do as they please. The man nervously returned with my suit and handed it over. The Skeleton, space suit and armor were already separated so it was easy to put each on without having to remove it all. Once the final piece was on I felt relieved being able to walk normally, no better than before. I could easily tell my strength was far beyond a humans at his peak which is around 50-70 strength agility and dexterity. Jessica and I probably broke that barrier with the mutation but to what degree i don''t know. I¡¯m sure with a power suit I might match up to a chief Kronan now and considering my hive invasion ability I just need to train it until I can control the golem race and evolve to be great soldiers...or I can turn them into the planets animals. The flying fish could soon become birds. I and pull the ore fish out of the water and see if reptile appear. To many options but first i need see how this placed is after my absence. I walk through the med lab and outside. I could only stare at the area with a blank expression. The place full of people I don''t know, the shields being attacked and few drones attacking. Slowly but surely my patience withered away and i found myself in the world where I feel presences. I send my conscience to the control area or the drones and find only my crew fighting off the invaders the NPC couldn''t care less. Veins appear on my head and i grab onto their minds and link myself to each and every soldier NPC in the place. Noah: This is Noah, I¡¯m back on my feet and what is the first thing i find in this place. A bunch of slackers who would let the base be taken over so easily without fighting. Didn''t my crew give you orders! I was dumping all my anger into the Hive mind make them feel how I felt. Noah: because you were all so incompetent I will take over this and fix it up. I then pull all their conscience into each the their minds trapping it in their subconscious and leaving them like a passenger in a car. My head starts working overtime to handle all the feedback from each NPC but I work through it all and force them to sit down and began releasing drones. Half were set to control 10 heavy laser drone and 1 dome drone while the other half was to get the inside of the base under control. they took control of the droid controls and released both heavy and light droids plus the light drone units and began capturing anyone not registered to be down here. If they retaliated they would be killed instantly. The base went up in flames as battle raged all over but the robot army being better armed and more powerful in general they recaptured the base in no time. When the base was almost captured on the inside I put all the droids and light drones on auto mode and allowed my focus to go to the heavy drones fighting outside. The player attacking looked to be a Union and a large one because they had quite a few stronger ships. Besides new models of fighters with strong weapons there were small gunships and some converted cargo ships. Being as smart as i was i had the drones aim for the engines taking the propulsion of the ships sending them crashing only when they got near the ground and grounding them so I can scavenge and reverse engineer them and make my own. The possibility of growing into an empire from this planet isn''t just a dream. Though there is a lot to do and I¡¯m not going to be an idiot like these guys and randomly attack. First i will take over this solar system. There are quite some good planets Kelha II and 3 are both within the habitable zone of the sun so we can also terraform that planet and provide another place where we could work from and if needed requesting reinforcement wouldn''t be hard. After an almost painful hour of forcing these idiot NPC to work i finally finish off the last enemy fighter around the base and give orders to go check out alpha site. I drop the link and returning the my body i saw i dripping in sweat and was mentally exhausted. Next to me was Jessica who had woken up some time ago and just watched without making a sound but still helping me by routing some of the impact to herself. Jessica: don¡¯t overwork yourself, we just got back here so don¡¯t go having yourself thrown back into bed remember our brains are using much more of its potential at one time unlike our normal bodies so don¡¯t force your mind. Noah: don¡¯t...joke around...did you...see how this...place was...after only 3...weeks. Jessica: that¡¯s 3 months here. Noah: and dad...was supposed to...be taking care...of this place. She crouched down next to me and looked out at the base that was still in chaos as the droids took the prisoners to jail while others cleaned out the rebels bodies. We just sat there with a single link between our minds letting each other feel the comfort of the others presence. Soon the place got quiet as the fighting stopped and we were approached by gunner and basil who were one of the few who were properly defending the base. Noah: good job defending the base even without those idiots helping. Gunner: um well no problem but...are you two ok. Noah: I¡¯m great why. Gunner: no its...well. Basil: it¡¯s that freaky red ball on each of your foreheads. Noah/Jessica: ball. We both reach up to touch our foreheads and feel a small round object on our heads and for the first time we look at each other. We kept our looks from before but just as they say there is a small red ball on Jessica¡¯s head which meant there was one on my own as well. Basil: it looks creepy but it reminds me of a race in a light novel i read as a kid. The...Supard race. They have human bodies but they have amazing perception skills and because of the gen on their forehead like yours they can see great distances like a radar but is there something else you can do. Noah: we have the hive mind abilities and like you saw when the fighters started to work again i can invade the mind of the people and take control but that is a real kicker and left me spent. Also the mutation caused real life changes and we are under the watchful eyes of the medics now. Gunner: real life? Noah: these bodies are just clones that are a body for our minds. We have tech that lets our mind control these bodies without being near. ¡±wonder if he will take the bait¡± Gunner: hmm only tech I¡¯ve heard like that is for VR games. Noah/Basil/Jessica: ¡±Sharp old man¡± Though he said that he just shrugged it off as his old age getting the better of him and he leaves. Basil: so you going with a different name for the race. Jessica: well it¡¯s not like we have a better name. Noah: hmm taking names from some old light novels soon the fantasy world might invade this game if we aren¡¯t careful but i think i know a good one.. I tell them the name and they laugh at me for thinking that but it doesn¡¯t matter because the notification already appeared.
Your race has been properly named as the Overseer. This race will not be allowed as a starting race because the mental backlash of this race is too large. For others to obtain this race they must undergo the same mutation process and must have the new capsule.
(A.N. I just put Supard because i couldn¡¯t think of anything else after seeing it in a comment. If someone has a better name please tell me)
The game will be going into standby mode for 7 days for updates starting at midnight today. Newly created or discovered races that are playable will also be released. Starting tomorrow the new capsules will be sold. They have far greater security systems against possible backlash effects of the game.
Volume 3 Chapter 4 The Update and free time Thanks for so many great ideas from the comments last chapters i got some great stuff to work from and also fixed some thinks from complaints. Here is the next chapter its a bit slower since its about the update so it leaves the game but things pick up next chapter. Hope you keep supporting me and all feedback good and bad would be great since it will help me grow and make the story better. -------------------- After cleaning beta site we saved Alpha as well. It was much better defended because of its importance so the reinforcements were less needed. With Jessica''s help through our own hive mind we controlled all the drones through the NPC fighters. After a long and tedious day we killed off the last attacker. I then released worker droids to retrieve some ships the crash landed and were intact enough to be remade. Security droids went along to kill off any survivors. With that done we finally release control of the NPC we controlled. From far we could already feel their anger as they ran our way. Noah: great now the slackers want to complain. Jessica: hey think we should discipline them a bit. The soon arrived finding us with the link we still had connected. They began yelling and cursing us for doing that to them. We left them yelling for about a minute before veins appeared on my head. I let them feel my anger and a moment later i began pressuring their minds with the heavy feeling. They all soon shut up and were starting to sweat. Noah: all of you come complaining to me because I took your free will away i understand your complaints but¡­ Now Jessica starts piling her anger on top of mine. Noah: if you were the leader, if you were in my place and woke up after 3 months to find your planet under attack and your soldiers not caring how would you react. By now they began to trembling. Jessica: if you spineless idiots want the right to complain go get to work!! Her words was spoken out loud and in the minds of every NPC around us which made all of them run off in a cold sweat leaving only Gunner and Basil with us slack jawed. Basil: we''ve been trying to get them to work for weeks and you two fixed the problem in a moment and they didn''t even complain about whatever you did to them. Noah/Jessica: pff ahahah! Noah: I can''t believe it did you see their faces. Jessica: serves them right haha. Gunner: hey what kind of changes happened to you guys. Still laughing we told them about our mutation. As we got into a few of the abilities they had already given up on being surprised. When they asked about "us", i could feel my face getting hotter as well as feeling the emotional storm going on in Jessica. Basil: guess we should leave the couple and get to work. He had a big grin on his faces as he said that and winked my way as he headed off. Both of us just sat there embarrassed with what they said it was an awkward silence which Jessica broke. Jessica: so what will you do now that we have these new abilities? Noah: i was thinking about the golems. Jessica: what exactly? Noah: well we have these abilities to override another hive mind. We could capture a few flying fish and evolve them into birds or airborne creature that can easily transport the Kronan like ships. Jessica: you want to develop organic tech for the Kronan from the golems. Noah: not just them reptiles are said to come from the sea. I wonder if the sea fish are the same. If we make a single new rock species and add it into our hive any that come later will as well. Mounts that can travel through space would be useful to spread the Kronan around. Jessica: less tech and more like breeders. What about the Kronan themselves. Noah: want to go link our hive minds. I grinned which makes her do the same. We jumped on a ship and soon flew off to the second tribe since i was well acquainted with their chief. As we arrive, we see the place had grown immensely. The 5 Kronan i saw the last time i was here was now over 100. You could see many transporting large ore fish or carts full of coral pieces. It seems farms have gotten along well. We walk around until i find who i wanted. Cro''ti sat in front of his home, the torso on one of the giant golems i watched him trap. He was napping so i give him a nudge in his mind which makes him stand up alert and ready for battle. When he sees us he calms down and smiles. Cro''ti: oh great friend welcome. Feel different, more like Kronan. Noah: we both grow stronger like the Kronan. We now have a link just like you and your friends. Cro''ti: what friend want? He sits down again with a loud thud. I move over and sit in front of him and Jessica next to me. Noah: well besides us having a link with each other we can also link with other people unlike us. We want to link with you and your people. His rocky forehead raises up in surprise before he smiles again. Cro''ti: friend already liked by Kronan, now you and you pair can be brother. I could feel Jessica getting embarrassed but i just smiled. Noah: thanks can we do so now?. He nods so with that i close my eyes and activate my sixth sense and feel all the presence within the village and about 1 km out into the ocean. I move slowly and touch Cro''ti''s mind and find the hive link. It had a warm feeling coming from it. As i linked our minds i felt a rush of conscious. The feeling spread to every Kronan and even further out until it reached every village and every Kronan. In my head I could freely feel every last Kronan clearly. They talked with one another as if they were in front of each other. Unlike the quiet streets the true noise was in their hive mind whose range far surpassed my presence sense. I bet if i went into space i would still feel each of them and could talk with them. As i open my eyes i find Cro''ti and many of the Kronan standing still and staring into space. They stayed like that for a moment and i found out why when a notification appeared.
You have formed a hive mind with a creature of less intelligence and bordering sentience. Because your species is already a sentient being and possess great knowledge and higher intelligence, you have cause the Kronan to develop sentience. Also because your mind is now linked they have also learned about your life and most of the knowledge about Terran.
After the message vanished the Kronan all around us began to wake up from the daze. They looked around and at themselves for a while and finally at us two. When their eyes had us in sight the dropped on their knees like a knight. All Kronan: All hail our King and Queen.
You have gained a title "King of the Kronan" + 20 Charisma + 20 Leadership
Noah: King?! Jessica: I''m Queen! We just stood there looking at them and when we looked at Cro''ti he was also kneeling down. Noah: please everyone stand and return to what you were doing please. They stood and soon all were back to their work. We turned to Cro''ti who was standing now. Noah: what just happened? Cro''ti: you are a greater being than us just as the queen Golem is to their race. In a hive mind we need a greater being to guide us that is why you are our king and queen. Jessica: you¡¯re speaking better now and why am i queen don''t you need a single leader?! Cro''ti: yes we gained the knowledge to speak as humans do when you joined our hive. And your highness are you not his partner? Jessica: ehhh!! Wait what how!! Cro''ti: Also my king i believe you wish to see the evolution of the golems and fish. If you can have that man prepare the water which makes everything grow we can do it. Noah: how much do you learn from my mind? Cro''ti: we know what this galaxy really is and how to speak. That said it all, seems hive minds will share all knowledge of a person with their hive but at least they have our own personalities. Jessica just stood there flustered, she really needs to control herself whenever someone talks about that, though it is cute to see her flustered.. Noah: well i guess it find can you gather some large core from the fish and find some golem fish. Cro''ti: a group has already left to do so while the ocean fish cores are already separated. Noah: ...wow well keep stocking them we will be gone a month while the AI running the galaxy updates it. He nods and goes to sleep like before. It was impressive the difference of walking through the streets of the village was when you could hear their talking. After a bit we returned to base and found Conner who was worried about any possible side effects from the mutation bit seeing us move around and resolved so much so quickly he soon dropped that idea. We had him begin production of some mutation agent specifically to evolve the golem cores into usable creatures. After that we had nothing to do so me and Jessica just trained our new psychic abilities. The range of or presence sense as just a bit past the safe zone around site beta but we found out that while we sleep the range goes as far as the ocean some 150 km away while meditating will only increase its range to Site Alpha so it really depends on who and when we use it. On the other hand Hive Mind is a totally different story. We can feel the Kronan constantly and if we want to see a specific person doing their work we just need to focus on him. Soon it was time to log out the update will eject everyone anyway so it was better done doing it willingly. As we get ready Jessica pokes me. Jessica: after getting out, d-do you w-want to h-hang out. Her face was a deep red from ear to ear and she was fidgeting. On the other hand i was in a daze. To be asked out for a recluse gamer like me and to someone so cute is like a dream come true. Noah: ok want me to go to your house. Jessica: I''ll have Wilson get you at your house in an hour. She quickly run into her room jumps on her bed and logs off leaving her game body to sleep. She just randomly jumped in so she was in an awkward position so I just put her faced up on the bed and jumped into my own before logging off. Sophia POV As the capsule lid opens i sit up blinking a few times. Soon i start feeling my face get warmer as I was thinking of what i had just asked Noah. Soon it dawned on me and i snapped out of my daze. Sophia: I-I CAN¡¯T BELIEVE I ASKED HIM OUT!!!!! With my sudden scream it scares one of the maids of the house. She was one of my friends a short but slightly ¡°larger¡± in some areas, waist long light brown hair and of course a maids dress. Her name is Beth Glint. Her mom and dad both work here so we have known each other since kids so we talk to each other more as friends instead of some master-maid relationship. (http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/files/costumes/3268/38236/Kaichou-wa-Maid-sama-01-Misaki-Is-a-Maid_00_48.jpg) Beth: umm you asked who out Sophia. I blush to a deep red and after sitting on my bed I grab a pillow and chuck it at her though she just catches it easily thanks to her almost anime like training. Dad made the maids and butlers like anime so they are just as trained if not better than the armed guards we have around the lawn. Beth: ah I remember Master Malcolm talking about it, Noah right. I think i remember seeing him when master called him over and had you dress up to show you off. You were dreading what he would think of you after you met him. Your so cute when you''re anxious and embarrassed. Sophia: I asked him out before logging off. i said that in a tiny voice barely audible but she still heard it and giggled. She then opened the closet and began looking through all the clothes throwing the very lavished dresses to the side and going deeper into the walk in closet. Soon she came out with a pile of cloths, very simple dresses with a simple design. I used those when i went out so i wouldn¡¯t attract unwanted attention but dad still had a guard follow me from behind. The dresses all were all simple. They were either a sleeveless one piece dress or a shirt and skirt that would go down to the knees. Before starting to choose i had Beth tell Wilson to pick Noah up in an hour and then i took a bath before getting ready. Noah POV I¡¯m a wreck right now I¡¯ve never gone on a date much less do i know how to go about it except for what I¡¯ve seen in the anime I¡¯ve watched. You know going to the mall, movies and those things. To calm myself i took a bath and simply got ready with a clean stripped shirt and jeans. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. After an hour Wilson arrived and i headed out. As we traveled with only the sound of the radio to kill the silence i could only feel more tense. Soon we arrived at her ¡°house¡±. As usual the huge lawn was wide open with a few patches of trees here and there. As i enter the house if find Malcolm already waiting. He was smiling but I could see his eyes weren''t and i felt a chill down my spine. Malcolm: good to see you Noah it¡¯s been awhile. His all too familiar business smile was flashed across his face and it only filled me with more dread. He stuck his hand out to shake and i slowly grabbed it. He gripped it in a vice grip and didn''t let go. Malcolm: I heard you¡¯re going on a date with Sophia when did you ask her out. Noah: s-she asked me before we logged out. His eyes grew colder. Malcolm: oh it¡¯s like that well i hope you have a great time, though exercise moderation, i wouldn''t want Sophia¡¯s disguise bodyguard to mistake you for one of those that fall under unwanted attention they are trained to attack. I was trembling now while nodding. I had wondered what a charismatic person felt like when they exercised their power and now i know and trust me you don¡¯t want to feel it. Malcolm: good boy now¡­ Before he could saw more he suddenly fell down unconscious. Behind him were two girls. One a maid that was looking down at Malcolm like he was a bug and the other was Sophia. When i saw how she was dressed i was in awe. She wore a pure white sleeveless one piece dress that went down to the knees while her black hair fell freely around her.. The black hair in contrast to the white dress made her already natural beauty shine more. (like this http://img2.blog.zdn.vn/55794492.jpg) Sophia: you can take him away Beth he¡¯s scared Noah enough already. Noah: um is...he alright. Sophia: don¡¯t worry Beth knows all the pressure points on my dad¡¯s body so she can knock him out just by poking them properly. He should wake up in a about an hour by then we will be far gone. So how do i look? Noah: um it¡¯s hard to describe¡­ though i know for sure you are far more beautiful than many people who show off on TV. She blushes. Noah: did you choose a simple dress so you wouldn''t attract attention? Sophia: ya why? Noah: i think it might attract more attention than a flashy dress would. You''re already naturally beautiful so a simple dress lets that shine really well. The maid giggles as i compliment Sophia. Sophia: w-we should go. She rushes past me blushing and I could hear the laughing and talk of the maids in the background. i look back and spot them looking from the corners of the doors and stairs. Seems this is a big event hope i don¡¯t fuck it up. (sry folks being someone that never went on a date or had a girlfriend i can only watch anime to see it so i will skip the date before i screw it up. But just so you know they get along well, REALLY well.) 3 hours later We had just finished watching a horror movie. It was Sophia¡¯s idea, seems she likes following the anime date plotline or she didn¡¯t plan anything as well. Though I¡¯m sure she didn''t expect how gruesome the movie would be. The movies now a days are made using VR. This makes all the scenes real but the actors are actually NPC and the movie comes from their POV. This one specifically was a zombie movie so...ya. There were some people that ran out holding their lunch in. Sophia was much worse she was paralyzed with fear and gripped my arm fiercely while trembling. I came out a bit better since i had seen the Reaver guts and stuff on the carrier when i first got it. As we leave the theater and help her move since she wouldn''t do so herself. I sit her down on a bench in the mall we were in and call out to her but she is still in shock. I couldn''t do anything normal to wake her up, shaking her, calling out and so one nothing worked. The one thing i didn''t do because of my fear of Malcolm might work because it would be a bigger shock. I shake her once more to see if she snapped out of it but she doesn''t. I sigh as i look at her, when i look at her with the little bit of presence sense i have in real life i see her presence is really weak as she closes herself in. I try wrapping around it but it pushes back so sighing again i approach her and give her a small kiss on the cheek. Noah: hey princess we need to get going. Sophia: eh? she looked my way in surprise. Like i thought it was a much larger shock. Sophia: you...eh...EHHHH!!! You¡­you just...me. She was in so much shock i just held her hand and guided her to the parked car Wilson was waiting in and we left. She soon fell asleep not caring anymore. Seems even with her stronger brain the amount of information that just rushed through it made her fall asleep. Wilson: you sure did a number on Miss Sophia. Noah: she was in shock after the movie. *sigh* how could she have bought tickets to such a graphic horror movie. Wilson: she was tempted by her father who is an anime fanatic, she must have fallen to temptation of holding on during the movie but it backfired it seemed. But really Noah kissing her, that is an even bigger shock that it brought her out of her other shock. Noah: i really hope Malcolm doesn''t do anything to me seeing Sophia like this. Wilson: i hope so as well. Oh right the doctors want to do some tests with you and miss Sophia about the larger brain power you have. Noah: test like what? Wilson: they want to see how it affects your mind, how much easier you can learn and things like that. So i guess written tests they will pass you that material and then a test on it. Noah: I bet their more interested if i can do any psychic abilities like telekinesis. He laughs at that as he drives. He is a pro butler so he doesn¡¯t show many emotions and keeps a poker face most of the time but to people he likes like Dad and me he open up. I have seen him a few times over the years show up at home. It was normal for him to stay stone-faced even when something funny is happening. We soon arrive at Malcolm¡¯s house and we could see a few other cars were there as well. There were some guards around the house more than usual which was probably because of the larger number of people than usual in there. We stop in front and i wake Sophia up. She gets up groggy from the sleep and shock. As she looks around and sees we are at her house but when she looks at me she becomes beet red and quickly leaves the car. We enter soon after and find Malcolm and the doctor that took care of is along with a few others talking in the large living room. Malcolm: ah they¡¯re back good. Did you have a good time? Sophia: yes but why are so many people here. Malcolm looked towards Wilson: Wilson: she fell asleep in the car before i said the news. Doctor: if it¡¯s like that then I¡¯ll explain. All of us are here to see how much you were affected by the mutation in the game. Malcolm told me you can now feel the presence of others near you as well as somewhat what their personality is like. Noah: i can feel the presence but the personality part i can do it only in the game. Sophia: me to, though i can feel Noah much easier and further than anyone else. I think when i sleep which is when we both feel like we leave our bodies and walk around, outside the game we can go at best around the room we are in but in the game we can reach the ocean from the Beta site, the original base on the planet. Doctor: hmm Malcolm showed us all the skills you got after your mutation. We would like to test the photographic memory and see if you have that. Noah: how exactly? The doctor opens a small bag and pulls out to small textbook. Doctor: we prepared a written test for what''s in there. Please read it and then we can begin. The book had about 100 pages and had basic subjects like math, physics and science. We sat down in the open seats and opened the book. We flipped to the first page and read. Reading was so quick it turned into skimming and we still picked up the more important parts. When we reached the 50th page after 20 minutes the doctor asked a quick question Doctor: Are you really reading that? It look like you''re barely reading. Noah: it just sticks to my head after a quick skim. Sophia: same for me i can also review what i saw some pages back and put it together with what i am reading now. We quickly continued and after an hour we finished the books. Everyone was looking amazed at us for finishing the book so quick. The doctor then pulled out the tests. It was a packet with 50 questions about the books. Suffice to say we finished it in under 10 minutes and aced it without even getting one wrong answer. The written questions even had the answers written word for word as it was in the book. Malcolm: well that is definitely proof enough to know that was brought with full power into the real world. You both could easily become the best scientist in the world with your photographic memory. Sophia: and only someone who wanted to would be. Doctor: hmm with this you could bring the games technology into the real world. Things like the ships and such. Noah: like she said only if someone wanted to they would and we both don''t want to. Psychologist: you to seem to think alike, does it have anything to do with your hive mind skill in the game. Sophia: don¡¯t think so we haven''t felt like we could read each other¡¯s minds like in the game. Noah: ya i feel the same, that ability is for there. I think its connected to the gem on ours head. Psychologist: interesting, about the gem we talked about it as well and with what you just said we can now theorize something. Doctor: right we believe that gem works as an antenna and amplifies your brains activity or abilities allow you to do what you can in the game, from what little we were able to get from the AI and your capsules we also believe they are still in an immature stat and can grow with time or if some conditions are complete and i dont mean more mutations. They are growing as well. Noah: so if you could amplify our brain waves we could do the same things in real life. Psychologist: well that is the idea but even with the Virtual reality tech we would like to evade testing that. It might attract...unwanted attention to you. The tests continued with more mental tests and questions until they were satisfied and finally left. Malcolm: finally they are gone. Noah: didn''t want them here? Malcolm: not in the least. I feel like they want to turn you both into guinea pigs and slice you open to check. Sophia: i get that feeling two. Noah: you guys watch too much anime. And old man what the hell is up with making Sophia by tickets suck a fucked up horror movie. She went into shock you know. Malcolm: about that. His tone turned cold as he looked my way. My instincts were shouting to get out of there but he grabs me by the shoulder and looks straight into my eyes. Malcolm: what the hell kind of shock therapy did you do to my daughter you bastard. Sophia: DAD STOP ALREADY!! It¡¯s embarrassing enough remembering what he had to do to wake me up don¡¯t make it worst. Just as she said that Wilson moved behind Malcolm and with a small grab to Malcolm¡¯s shoulder he falls unconscious like in those old spy movies. Noah: You guys really have to be careful no one ever sees that. Wilson: don''t worry, it¡¯s a good thing he only acts like this when he is at home. The rest of the time he is usually faking his smile and personality for the business man image. Want to go home? Noah: ya its late. Wilson: oh one more thing because of what has happened to you we will be leaving one of the maids at your place to watch over you. We are trained well in combat and though you and your father are skilled martial artists you can''t be too cautious with extremist cultist. Noah: is it that bad. Wilson: there were a few people who noticed the emergencies and the cover ups but with a bit of money it was a closed case but like i said you can''t be too cautious with extremist. Noah: right mind taking me home. Wilson: sure come on. I said bye to the others in the room and went home. The maid was already there and had cleaned all the rooms. It felt like a new house from how clean it was. With a whole week open thanks to the update I had a lot of time open. Being an indoor guy with some outdoor habits i stayed home most of the time. I trained a bit to kill time and spared with the maid which completely trashed me. She gave me pointers and we continued the week like this. With the announcement on the TV that the update would be finished at 8 am i went to sleep and woke an hour early to eat and get ready before jumping in.
You have logged into The Nebula
Volume 3 Chapter 5 The Return
The update has been complete. New Races have been discovered and some are available as starter races. New Starter Races Kronan: Born on the Planet Kelha II. They are 2 meter tall genderless stone men with power that rivals a trained soldier in a power suit that increases strength by 5. They are born in a planet that has G2 gravity as such the power strenght is much greater. They also show high levels of mental development thanks to their hive mind mentality. They are made up of various different kinds of beings in the hive but only the Human shaped Kronan is playable. (warning this species works with Hive mind and will follow the will of their queen. Ignoring will be noticed by everyone of the race) Mecron: A Cyborg race of humans That lives at the edge between the federation and Dominion and are mercenaries for hire. Their society is just like humans since they branched from it humans but spending large amounts of time experimenting with cybornetics has made it a part of their social lives. Mecron with less modifications are normally lower class, as they get more their social ranking raises. Mantrix: A insectoid race. The common soldier stands on their hind legs and are also the smartest of the species next to the queen. The others of the species are less intelligent and will follow orders from the smarter units of the army. The originate from planet Katera in Dominion space. (warning this species works with Hive mind and will follow the will of their queen. Ignoring will be noticed by everyone of the race) Races that can only be obtained under special conditions Overseer: Evolved Human species with great mental power. They are a special race that has become linked to the Kronan as its leaders. Possess some degree of mental power and has a much denser and much more developed brain than humans though they retain the human appearance without any exterior changes. Great queen: only possible to become this race by human genetic experiments. They are the great leaders of Mantrix and control all of the queens that are born. Queen: special conditions need to be acquired in game and only females can become this race. They aren''t breeders, they are the leaders of the race who command the troops in battle in the place of the great queen.
Racial war Your Hive has begun a war against the golem hive on Kalha II. They have led and captured many and have begun mutating and making new variations of the golems while adding them to your hive. New golem variations Raider Magnet Fish: similar to those found in space, these large 6 meter long rock fish are genetic mutations from the small magnet fish. They have low intelligence and follow orders from their riders by means of hive mind interaction. They fly by controlling special rocks they collect and have them orbit around it while repelling its body away from the rocks while attracting the rocks to its body which cause it to have non stop propulsion. Raider Lizard: A large reptilian golem born from the mutation of the ore fish placed on land. They are 10 meters long from nose to the tips of its tail and monstrously strong but because of its low intelligence they require constant orders from the hive mind. They are fast land runners and can manipulate the ground under it like a Kronan as long its give proper instruction Carrier Magnet Fish: These are special Magnet fish variant. They are as long as a small carrier ship and like the raider it has rocks orbiting it for propulsion. The mouth i large to allow entrance inside of it which has been remodeled by the Kronan with their earth manipulation ability making the inside similar to a regular ship. The skin on these creatures can be comparable to a reinforced hull plating on smaller carrier ships. Heavy Breeder: With the death and retrieval of the core of a golem queen. Mutations were made and now your race has a breeding vessel which creates large numbers of your variants. They are very smart but still less so than a Kronan but are capable of leading golems Ore fish: already known species the Kronan have assimilated them into the hive to make it easy to capture and breed them. A small few have been bred into larger variants for use as sea transport. Giant Kronan: Unintelligent Kronan born from giant golems. They are considered more a golem because of their lake of sentience and are controlled by smarter creatures
As i finish reading the message the connecting to the hive link and i feel the overwhelming weight of all the new Kronan mounts mind. The surge of minds in the hive was really impressive. The new Breeder unit sure was doing its job well. Most of the planet was being covered. It was impressive and scary at the same time at how fast the Kronan moved to get my evolution idea done. A new window appeared soon after
Number of Golem queens remaining. 1 Great queen 10 queen Capturing the greater queen will cause all the golems to submit.
Mission: Assimilation The Kronan in your hive has begun capturing all the golems on the planet. You must help them capture or kill the remaining queens. Difficulty B Reward: Complete control of the golem. Failure: Your hive dies
Wow a Mission as soon as i log in, nice. Seems the leaders of the Kronan have also set up a ranking system around the race but for some reason the hive connections and links are all screwed up with and messy which makes the load on my head really heavy since I''m a leader. I was currently in the bed i laid down in before i logged off before the update and with the heavy load on my mind i could barely move so i began focusing on the hive. First I examine the ranking they did. It was set up from highest rank to lowest by strength or intelligence.
King and Queen General: Village Chiefs Soldiers Workers Tamers Heavy Breeders. Golem variant ranking Giant Kronan Raider Lizard Raider Fish Carrier Fish Ore Fish
With it setup like this I could somewhat see the structure but the hive mind didnt match up and it didn''t set up a way for a higher rank to control the lower ones. With that in mind i first begin separating the golem links from the Kronan and grouping them all up in one large mass depending on which village they were in and keeping it linked to myself. Then i went about fixing the Kronan in a link like a spider web. Workers were attached to each other then all linked in a single link that ran up all the way to my and jessica. Higher up on this link the breeders were made just the same way, then tamers, soldiers and generals. It made a large tower like structure that got smaller as it rose up. When all this was done i fixed the mass of golems by their own ranking then attaching them below the base of the Kronan which meant they were the lowest ranking and had to follow everyones orders. I proceeded to do this to all the villages but it was at that moment that i noticed just how many there were. Over 30 villages filled with over 200 Kronan and 200 land and air golems while the ocean around it was swarming with ore fish. At that moment a new message appeared. [window] Mission: Kronan protection Complete You have protected the Kronan until they have grown into a power race. Not only that you have led them to sentience and gained given them knowledge of the universe. Reward: Max familiarity of the Kronan, further evolution, growth in population. [/]window Noah: ¡±so it was completed while we were gone. Must have been the thing with the breeders. I just lay there since the mental fatigue was heavy. Resting a bit i got back to work and fixed all the hive build for all the villages and with each village complete i felt the weight on my mind lessen and it became easier and faster to set up the hive mind. An hour later after i finish i was finally able to get up since the organized hive mind was now processing the information from all the Kronan much faster and easier. The pillar in the middle of each village which went from the highest to lowest made it easier for information to travel as well as making it easy to find who you want to talk to and the spider net organization of all the kronan was made so that the strongest were closer to the pillar while weaker ones were near the edges. Obviously the entire hive noticed the change and noticed the position and how it was placed since we were all linked. Form the link i could feel all the village chiefs pass around the messages to the others. They were the only ones that were connected to other village trees. A single link ran from every village chief to the other as well as to us. They all found it much easier to organize their villages now and control everyone since the links were no longer jumbled up and soon i could see through the eyes of each chief how things quickly changed in how everyone accepted orders. I soon weakened the link to the hive mind so I could concentrate on my own place. At the moment i was walking outside of the dormitories to look around. Unlike when I came back before the update everyone was working hard. There were lots of cargo drones flying to and from the mine pulling large amounts of ores and there were a freighter placed in the landing zone while 2 others were hovering over the base. Large amounts of processed metal was being loaded and I felt Void shouting out orders. I was curious if I could send a mental voice towards him so touching his mind i connected him separately from the hive. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Noah: hey void hows it been. He looked around and scratched his head in his mind i could hear his thoughts. Void: Must be hearing things Noah: only my voice Void. Now he jumped up and started searching for the source. Void: Who''s there. Noah: relax man, its now I¡¯m sure you heard i did a genetic experiment to myself in game right. Void: Noah oh its been awhile ya i heard. You were out like a light for 3 months right must have been hard finding something to do for three weeks. Noah: the AI trapped me in game during that time. Void: wha...really that sucks anyway is this the result of your evolution. Noah: its more like mutation and yes, my brain got denser and I am now known as an Overseer. Void: Ove...You mean like the Overseer from the message when you log in. Noah: ya the non starter race yep me and a friend have it. Void: wow it says you need special conditions and genetic mutation to get that race. Noah: sorry but you can''t get that info from me or any of my crew i ordered everyone to keep quiet (lie) Void: As if i want to go through a world of hurt just for a slightly stronger brain. Noah: heh well i should be going need to get ready for some mental battling Void: mental battle...as long as it doesn''t involve me i don''t care. Noah: I¡¯ll be going then. Void: ya cya later I pulled my mind way from Void and as I do i feel that familiar warm touch and i smile. I look back and find Jessica coming out. Jessica: urg my head. Noah: take it easy the Kronan have been taking over the golems so the number of minds have increased a lot. Jessica: i can tell but why is it organized how it is. Noah: i fixed it to take the load of our minds. Jessica: hmm thats good but we need to get really good or we won''t be able to handle the mental load. Noah: that is true. You should go check on the human fighters you haven''t been with your crew in a long time I''ll go check out the Kronan I¡¯m curious about these new golem variants and such. Jessica: ok but if you need anything just call. She smiles then with a little look around she starts going off. I go my own way towards the landing zone to grab a ship. While I was looking around my eyes caught something at the corner of the area. It was a large pile of ores and floating around them were large 5 meter long bodies. The shape reminded me of an orca. Floating in a circle under the large creatures were human head sized rocks perfectly spherical just floating in a circle. Sitting on the ground a bit away a small group of Kronan with a few few of my crew were there. I headed over. Gunner was there and to my surprise Cro¡¯ti the leader of the second Kronan Village was there as well. Gunner: OHH Boss you finally returned. Noah: hey gunner good to see you. I¡¯m glad to see that the men arent slacking this time around. Gunner: that thanks to my hehehe reeducation hehehehe I also got some help from Cro¡¯ti as well. Cro¡¯ti: Gunner is a most interesting Terran for sure. He was showed us Kronan many weapons that would be of great us for us in combat. Gunner: best things the Kronan invented were them strange flying fish. Those beasts can even fly into space a large group has gone into space and has been capturing the golems there and mutating them. Now we have a large space group that keeps any intruders from entering the planet from anywhere but the single tunnel we carved out. Noah: ive been wondering about them as well. How do they work, cant feel any intelligence from them. Cro¡¯ti: they dont have intelligence, they are golems, unlike the sea fish who are quite intelligent these are completely at the mercy of its rider. We control them with our hive mind. Noah: how do you stay on and how do they fly? Cro¡¯ti: they were able to maintain their magnetic abilities unlike the sea fish. The small orbs floating under them are what they use to fly. Unlike the older golems they carry around their orbs so they can fly at much higher speeds and heights. The repel their mineral rich bodies away from those rocks while attracting the rocks themselves towards their body. This is how they they move. Its very fast but not as much as your human ships. Noah: wow i cant wait to try them out. Gunner: its a thrill, and also that hive mind of yours is interesting. Cro¡¯ti was able to let me enter the mind for a short time. Cro¡¯ti: i can connect my mind to someone not of the hive for a short while. This is the method we use to capture golems. We force our minds in and cut their connections. Noah: thats good to know because we will soon be going after the queens until we have them all. He smiled at that. We continued a talking for quite a while all the while I was scanning through the hive looking at each Kronan doing their work. The ore fish have grown as large as the flying ones, as big as an orca but now they were part of the hive and they helped the Kronan with the coral farms when ordered. Besides them the fish and plant life has greatly blossomed under the seas as many kelp forests have appeared as well as large amounts of algae has begun to appear in lots of areas. From my readings the large increase of coral and sea flora has begun to release lots of pure oxygen and the toxic air has begun to purify into breathable air but its a long way from being breathable at the moment. At least the weather has begun stable and it seems to rain often even with few trees on land. This has caused lots of springs to appear with the soften ground. With these places Conner seems to have gotten the idea to make small patches of green around the opening of the springs using a few dome drones. He purifies the air enough for the plants to survive and then plants many different things making a large park. At the moment there are suppose to be around 20 of these already made but all with small trees of many different planets with many different biomes he is aiming for. A few with lots of springs might become a swamp so he planned for that. The dome drones were also set to hold the mix of oxygen and other gasses to that of earth standard. If the toxic gasses gets too low it will allow some in while releasing excess oxygen. This is allowing for a lot of oxygen to be purified and released without us needing some huge facilities to clean the air. After i while we seperated and i took the pleasure of trying out one of the flying fish. With my hive mind i controlled it somewhat and brought it down. When i told it to attract me a strong gravity pulled me onto the fish and i stood sideways on its body like i was on a separate planet from the planet below. i walked until i was level with the planet and was amazed how i held on so well. The power of the magnetism of these fish are impressive. Though they are much slower than a regular fighter ship they could easily cause them to go off balance and spiral out of control by using this magnetic power to attract or repel the ships. It was very interesting to say the least controlling this flyer i just sat down on its back and controlled it with my mind without much trouble. Me and several other Kronan went to the second Kronan Village. The place was transformed from when i last saw it. Nearing about 500 Kronan as well as 300 Flyers and 200 lizards the places was like a massive fort. The water was also filled with huge fish as well as small ones who were still growing. It was clear to see that the Kronan had become the dominate species on the planet instead of the golem. It was really a matter of time before they either died out or were captured. It was also that reason that i came here. First i wanted to check how they were and second i was already linked with all the chiefs and we began discussing how to effectively capture the golem queens. Their hive mind was very chaotic like how mine was before i fixed it and it was easy to break off a single golem from that kind of hive mind. With a lot of talk we opted for me and jessica to find them with our presence sensing ability to find the queens. When we do that we will move closer and then as a hive we will try and assault the mind of the queen and try to aim for the great queen and hope she breaks the connecting from the queen we want to take. With a bit more planning we finally decide on our course of action and the Kronan are soon a buz of activity getting ready for the battle that is sure to happen soon. Noah: ¡±i hope we can do this right because i definitely don''t want to stay stuck on this rock¡± Hopes of traveling space only pushes me forwards to get this overwith. ------------------------ Hey guys sorry for the late release. Life has been busy and there were recent internet problems. To many problems have been appearing that are eating away at our funds don''t know if home internet will stay on for too long been using cell phone but editing is a bitch. Also i know its late but thanks for the great support and helping me reach the top 50 currently rank 43. Anyway hope you like it and feedback and ideas for the future are really welcomed I¡¯m fighting against writers block right now and was just able to push to finish the chapter. Robooting "The Nebula" Alright! I had originally abandoned the Nebula because i had driven it into a dead end story line (going to fight the bug lady and done). i kind of... ran away and became VRDraco which most ppl should know. Now then, *cough cough* because of the pestering of a certain warhawk and several madmen from the Den of Madness i have become motivated once more with The Nebula and as such i have going to completely remake the story. The original was good but i was still a newbie writer so now with the help of the Den i will (with a lot of control and hopefully proper pacing) try to make a better fic. The characters and setting will be the same as before but how the story went will be completely different and unlike the other Nebula i will not restrict the game to only Human characters and will be adding other races from the get go. Also there will not be instant OPness like i had done before (since that would be going to fast and it would piss off a certain Slow demon lord that i want to avoid making 35 pg comments about how i was pacing poorly) Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Anyway after i build up some chapters i will begin releasing them through VRDraco (those who want Clockwork and Slime tamer, Sry *bows* not really motivated and haven''t been so since the end of last year due to high levels of stress from real life and far to little outlets besides writing what i feel like it (resulting in over 8 side projects) http://royalroadl.com/fiction/5100