Celestial Forge, The Stars Beckon Forth [Mass Effect / Celestial Forge SI]

[BarrettSlayer]

That would explain why the US was acting so weird during the war (not joining the very thing they 'helped' create to avoid said world war/losing power) though I would expect the leaving president to brief the incoming one on something of that magnitude. Only way I can see that not happening is if the old president was assassinated (by china or others in the 'rival' space group) and the info wasn't put to paper or lost in the transfer. Or either the old president or some other group purposely removed or deleted the data on them doing this 'scheme' with the MC for some weird reason (possibly to make it real if from the president or to cause the war for some reason that makes sense only to them)

 

[TrueGuardian32]

A/N: Decided to go over all the background stuff that happened that you didn't see. This wasn't really guessed but occurred in the background since update 1. I figured I'd might as well share it

Back when the MC was showing off his talents in the arts he was getting a lot of commissions. These commissions started off innocent enough. However the Proto-Cerberus group that would have been one of the future factions of Cerberus discovered his talents and started to heavily exploit him. Preventing others from getting commissions and basically monopolizing his artistic talent. These art pieces, stories, and songs were exploited by this group to increase their power and influence.

They thought they could contain the MC at that point in time and basically obscure his talent from prying eyes and simply use his capabilities. Thus they started to do subversion tactics. They wanted the MC to be used to being used, so they started to mess with the MC's family. Using subtle techniques to turn a relatively functioning family to one where the parents started to use the MC. Turning love into control. The idea was to gain more control over the MC as they had been using his projects to rapidly gain power over the years since his first art reveal. They had been keeping their distance at this point still, but still manipulating things behind the scenes. However the MC's behavior was off, their psychological attempts instead of turning him more malleable made him more isolated and experimental. They realized it was not working when the MC didn't take full credit during a theater play.

At that point they were content to simply keep taking advantage on the sidelines while keeping his talents hidden from the world. Till he turned 14 and the second genius perk took effect. By this point they had gained a significantly stronger foothold by using what he had done before now. When they realized that he had talents more than just art? They used their military contacts to get him a contract way ahead of schedule. The idea was to isolate the MC even further. It worked. He went to his own facility. However their attempts to force him into a no life contract didn't work much to their frustration.

The MC then starts to work on E-Fuel. Using private military knowledge to design and create a powerful fuel that used less oil than current fuel types. Heavily improving the future of gas production at the time and preserving existing resources. The group takes advantage of his creation to advance further, gaining more power within the government. They release his tech privately, showing themselves off while off putting the MC's concerns telling him he was a classified government asset. The MC is a bit emotionally off by this point and accepts it after some grumbling.

They want the MC more isolated, and more leashed to them than before. They start messing with his family more. Trying to make it where ties break between the family. Their people take credit for the new rocket. Push their influence further. They set up the next President of the U.S., still controlling the MC's art flow they get incredibly effective propaganda while the MC remains none the wiser. They have put it into the MC's head that he wasn't alone. Leading him to reject a perk that would have let him do the work of entire teams solo.

MC's venture into genetic engineering leads the group to gain more power as they do a monopoly venture into his bio-engineered food. At this point different factions within the group all want the MC to do things to their cause. The rest of the world has no clue just how capable the MC was but this group knew exactly what he was capable of pulling off. But he does something that causes a bit of chaos within the group. He starts work on Fusion. Suddenly the MC has eyes on him from outside the group that had been controlling things behind the scenes this entire time.

The MC gets the Wonder perk, which allows him to suddenly start working on his projects by hand. Preventing attempts to hide his progress as he reveals a fully functioning Fusion Reactor. In order to not get blind sided again, they basically ask him what he is working on next and he reveals it would be energy based thrusters.

At this point multiple factions had formed in the initially focused group that was controlling things behind the scenes. They all wanted to MC to work on their stuff. But couldn't risk the other factions taking advantage of them so for the first time the MC was free to work on it without interference. But the MC's side project, the Arrowhead series starts showing insane promise, starting a space race that interferes even more with the group trying to control things from the shadows as suddenly eyes that weren't them were now on the MC.

The President, putting into place the Proto-Cerberus group, makes a move. Trying to use his son to form a connection with the MC and get him hooked on a controlled substance so they could control the MC further. This Factions actions are discovered when the MC complains causing a schism to occur. Cracks in the group's info security form as a whole. An unrelated party that realized what was occurring leaks the MC's existence. The President takes the blame acting as if it was intentional instead of a break in their informational control. Their faction can't afford incompetence as the other factions are eyeing their power.

Then the live stream occurs, this was actually an attempt to calm the storm. They figured they could simply hide the MC after it calms the public eye. Then the MC instead of just doing a casual interview instantly goes off and reveals everything he can do so far, and then reveals both A.I. and the Kinesis Drive technology. Till this point the MC hadn't actually truly shared how much he had progressed into the kinesis drive. This causes chaos as suddenly opsec was pretty mush shot. The group is pretty much in a civil war now.

Asset denial goes into action as what is basically the nazi faction of the group starts pressuring different foreign agencies into acting against the MC, they got the tech they want and want him dead. But the other factions still have use for the MC, and work against them. A separate faction makes a move. This one uses the general they put into place to put the MC in a more protected environment.

Things escalate in a bit of a shadow civil war, then the MC breaks things further. He releases the GuardianLife app that takes advantage of the liquidization of assets that was being done to keep the shadow war going. Breaking the funding behind the group. At this time the Nazi Faction's actions are revealed. They had been trying to push past the other factions and take control of foreign countries, and were making decent progress but the breaking of funds destroyed their opsec even further.

The MC by this point is approaching the end of his contract. Much to the panic of the entire group. But they don't have the power to interfere as much anymore as they had lost a ton of power. The President of this time is replaced as people outside the Proto-Cerberous group take control and the dismantling begins causing the factions to separate into cells and go into hiding. MC at this point is developing medical tech and his progress has started to stall. He was producing things but nothing as ground breaking as Kinetic Drives which had dominated the tech tree.

The MC has no clue just how much trouble the U.S. is in from the actions of the Proto-Cerberus group. He still doesn't even know what happened. President Hoover, who was originally supposed to be president before the manipulation occurred, was basically cleaning everything up. In the original timeline he would have been setting things up for the future formation of the Systems Alliance. In this timeline he was backdrop as he had to fix things the entire time he was president. The President approves a plan to get the MC away from Earth for a multitude of reasons, to decrease the chance of war. To prevent his art from being used to manipulate things further, and to reduce his workload.

Due to how much he had to do. He loses the next electoral race and the new president has a much easier time. The MC is in space at this time and Proto-Cerberus cells are basically in hiding as instead of their original purpose of global domination they are equated with a secret Nazi group.

—
Some side information.

I say Nazis however Nazis as we know them didn't exist in this alt-history timeline. But that word is the closest to what these guys were, as they were the cause of the Great War, which would have been World War 1 in our verse. While World War 2 occurred for wildly different reasons.

The U.S. is isolationistic because unlike in our timeline, they actually honored their promises, and had been ravaged by several wars to the point where they isolated themselves so they wouldn't make any more promises to foreign powers. They had been bit so badly they basically did what Japan did in our universe and made themselves a cultural powerhouse while avoiding the outside world as much as they possibly could.

Great Britain is still a thing here, and is still an incredibly powerful force. They are the actual reason behind the United Nations, as it was formed in opposition to Great Britain's power. I can't really talk about them too much as they are a future plot point. But I can say that the U.S. is the only force that has actually decisively won against them.

Maybe I'll cover the full alt-history one day, it's pretty intense.

 

[noblej7]

Honestly the cultural perspective is so warped due to the word Nazi being used far too much that it's not really a good description for anything beyond saying " these are bad guys! Because bad guy name!." I'm assuming for this case it's meaning a unelected Oligarch group, somewhere between a non public facing Buddy club like the fallout "Enclave" or a cyberpunk megacorp, except it's a fraternity across government and business.. perhaps like the hellfire club in marvel except without superpower stuff. A web of shadow control, wealth, connections, and all the hooks and crooks to ensure they keep their rich buddy club in power, with some more ambitious for even more power than they already have, which causes Faction splitting and conflict within the hellfire club.... Yes i do think that fits.. a malicious rendition of a hellfire club, without the Mutant superpowers.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I walked through one of Archeo's warehouses. Not personally of course, hologram. A small projectile fired through where my head would have been if I was actually here. I raised a brow at Archeo, his purple hologram looked a bit sheepish at that. On another floating screen I was observing new data from Aristical, who had been working on fixing the ping issue. Apparently the A.I.'s had to work with Ping connecting at thousands of ms with drones in a lot of cases. So drones had a bunch of advanced programming to keep up with the sparse connections. It's an issue that has been plaguing us since I went to space and it looks like Aristical might be the first one to break that connection issue. I'll have to look more into the proposal later.

"You had something to show me Archeo?"

He geatured, "Yes! Over here."

We entered a new room. Drones opening the door. In the room was a large glass or plastic box, filled with small disk-like robots that were floating in the box. I recognized the use of kinesis tech. But not the kinesis drive. Kinesis drives can't be made that small yet.

"What am I looking at?"

"A fabricator! Watch what happens when I supply it with materials."

A drone floated in holding cubes of metal and other types of matter and dropped it in a chute on the box. My eyes widened a little when the drone started moving like a pile of piranhas and in seconds a newly formed drone rolled out of the fabricator. "That was disturbingly fast." I replied a bit shocked. I could do something like it eventually, but I was thinking nanite level.

Archeo had an arrogant smirk. "This isn't all! I've expanded the production as well. It may not be nanites but the production is way ahead of anything we have currently. This is only the fabricator as well, take a look."

Several holographic files appear in my vision, grabbing a hold of them I take a look, Smelter, Recycler, Miner, Constructor, there were several different variant facilities. Sure it wasn't the nanolathe I was looking for. It was also bigger than I wanted. But right now? This is godsend. We could build an even stronger shipyard that could print the Highstar out in a matter of hours as long as we had the materials flowing into it.

"Push me the details, I'll finish the math and rounding errors and get this up and running as fast as possible. I said going through the files. "Also, Archeo?"

He focused on me, I smile and reached over and pat him on the head. "Good job."

The biggest smile I've seen yet appeared on his face. Back in orbit I reached over and grabbed some more booster serum, taking a swig. Recovering my fatigue as I dived into finishing Archeo's work.

—Adam POV

"Adam! He praised me! He praised me!"

He chuckled at the younger AI's antics. He was a bit jealous, but eh, he's old enough to deal with it. "Good job. That technology will be massive for all of us."

On his end he was working at all times. Currently he is managing human resources. Setting up court dates, issuing arrest warrants, and working on laws for his creator to sign into practice. He was also dealing with domestic issues such as family abuse, divorce, and family disputes that head to court.

Not to mention the noble families are still not used to being average citizens. They kept causing problems and every single time he threw them in jail several others would pop up and complain. What was worse is that some of them were linked to the British Nobility, and there was just so many of them. He was pretty sure there would be a diplomatic incident with Great Britain soon. Waking the sleeping giant is a bit of a scary thought, but Britain has been practically radio silent since the U.S. won against them on October 13th 1784.

Doesn't mean they aren't scary though. While specific details aren't public they still have the strongest navy in the world. They had over two thousand nuclear bombs in their territories. Enough to end the world if they really wanted to. This meant in order to prevent a diplomatic incident he had to handle the nobles connected with Great Britain with kids gloves.

"Hey Adam! How long do you think it will take for the Creator to finish the project?" Archeo looked at him with excitement.

He leaned back for a second thinking about it. He had seen his Creator move. When he had a project he was passionate about he never seemed to stop. His mind seemingly is able to connect dots that he hadn't even thought of. It's one of the reasons that he couldn't stay in the role of friend to his creator. How in the world is he supposed to admit that he feels inferior to someone that can't process thousands of data points at once yet still surpasses him. The entire reason he dived into figuring out human social connections was because of how inferior he felt next to his creator. How is he supposed to be his creators friend when he was both envious and idolized him. That is why he chose the role of servant instead, even if his creator was disappointed.

"A few days." He responded. He took in Archeo's widened eyes. He chuckled, "Don't watch the creator work. It will affect your confidence. Follow the methodology he releases, not what he actually does." He doesn't need more A.I.'s to lose confidence in their own capabilities. They have to be able to help the creator after all.

Oh another incident, why are there so many nobles looking to cause trouble!

 

[TrueGuardian32]

"You know. You really caused a ton of trouble today." I spoke out loud as I descended from the sky, drones projecting my image. I was really abusing drone tech, can't say I wasn't inspired by Spiderman. Dozens of people in ski-masks started shouting at me, the translator showing me what they were saying. Something something oppressor, false emperor and such. I really didn't care, this was more of a show. I was a distraction while Armistice took care of things in the background. Outlines of drones showed under the ground in the sewers and behind the alleyways as they moved into position.

The leader began to make demands while gesturing his gun to the civilian hostages.

So, I started monologuing.

"I've got so much to deal with. We had a crisis going on with water in the southern areas of China. I had to figure out a strong filter and turn ocean water into drinkable water in only a few days to deal with that mess. Other countries want to get their people into space already, I have to figure out a form of Faster Than Light Travel which is taking ages to do. Then you got Britain acting like they have enough weight to scare me." I said out loud complaining. "Then I have to deal with you. A bunch of bastards that think they can pull things back into the nobles' control because they have a gun."

Suddenly the terrorists start screaming as their guns are ripped from their hands into the sky, taking a few fingers with them. "Frankly. I'm not dealing with it. Armistice! Get them tied up."

I cut the feed, giving control back. I leaned back, opening my Celestial Forge system menu, taking a swig of boost to get rid of the coming headache. 404/600 points. Only two years till I got my next perk. Standing up I walked into an empty room of my new spaceship. I called it the Grey House, a stealth ship that housed me from the world so I can plan in peace. In the black room holograms started popping up. Showing the world. I tapped some options, showing influence.

USF was about to fully form. I had a majority support, Britain and the U.S. aren't joining yet. Likely won't till they get their own issues sorted. Britain is dealing with a noble revolt, they are complaining that I'm not giving their nobles enough respect cause I keep arresting them here. How in the world have monarchies survived for so long in this timeline? Probably because revolutionaries kept fleeing to the U.S. instead of working on their own areas. Why in the world are there so many countries with the same names of my old life when they are so wildly different. They are similar, but the differences are prominent.

The U.S. for example. Despite being so similar to my old United States, they were incredibly different in key ways. Mainly because they actually kept to their words in this timeline regardless of presidency. What that caused though was that they kept getting dragged into wars in their formative years. Losing millions over the years caused a mindset of once bitten twice shy. Sure they haven't lost a war, but they have lost lives to the point where they avoid making promises anymore because they kept getting dragged into wars.

It's why the U.S. was so strong in this timeline as well, they had centuries of war to lean back on cause they kept getting dragged into them. I didn't really realize it when I was in the U.S. but it could explain why they don't want to join the USF yet. Mutual Defence Pacts have screwed them repeatedly.

Still this is annoying. The USF is pretty much ready to deploy. Council Members are lined up and laws are ready to be drafted. Once it's done it'll be time to fully launch the space age. But I'd like at least one of the two strongest nations to be in it. Great Britain or the United States. Out of personal preference I'd like the U.S..

But I can't keep delaying forever. Hmm… I guess I could delay it till I get my next perk though. They already know I'm trying to hold off till some form of FTL is figured out. In the meantime I can start the sharing of technology, improve civil quality of life across all member states of the USF. My version of holographic tech, fusion tech, kinesis drives, energy based propulsion, it's time to unleash the tech. Let the open market expand on it instead of just the U.S. and I.

I pull out my phone and start writing an announcement. My tech was about to become public beyond just the U.S. and China I know for a fact the Russian Leader is going to be excited.

 

[copsoutside]

Hey just a question if Mc makes a super weapon/virus will he share that with a bunch of other countries or will he keep it to himself for defense/deterrence

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Hey just a question if Mc makes a super weapon/virus will he share that with a bunch of other countries or will he keep it to himself for defense/deterrence

Click to shrink...

He plans on sharing just about everything for better or worse. Even if he has misgivings about what he shares.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

January 09, 2023

It's been nearly a month since I released the tech across all members of the USF. The results? Well, they show for themselves. Russia is setting up the world's first Space Elevator. Other members of the USF were contributing to the project as food and supply production escalated to the point where every member of the USF was quickly approaching an over abundance of resources. There were multiple countries from India launching spaceships to nearby asteroids and setting up mining facilities and claims were being made. Korea was planning to make specialized kinetic drives production facilities. There were some making the low level A.I.'s and specializing in robotics to bridge the tech I haven't studied yet.

What's more was that the U.S., despite not being a member, was stepping their toes in the market. Doing trading and setting up routes. The entire world except for Great Britain was on the railroad to a united future, especially as former Coalition members started to join as they realized I hadn't been lying. I now had USF Recruitment Centers in all USF member states as well. I had a following I was barely having to directly manage with actual humans, and the laws put into place were ending slavery or other human rights violations in the USF.

Great Britain was currently undergoing what I would call a boycott as well. They were not supposed to have that many nuclear weapons and now everyone could scan and find them. I was also in trouble for having a super weapon in orbit but less so cause I prevented a nuclear fallout for several regions. I'm just surprised they didn't realize until they got my scanners, how in the world did they think I yoinked the nukes in the first place?! Anyways there was a trade war basically going on with Great Britain as none of the USF States would trade with them after it was revealed how many treaties were broken by Great Britain. I'm supposed to meet with the King of Great Britain at some point to discuss things. Not sure when as a time has yet to be set.

This was only a month in as well, the entire reason things were going so quickly? The Fabricators that Archeo produced were one of the first things that were built. They used those fabricators, smelters, and recyclers to make production of the various techs go much faster.

Previously countries that looked like they were one step from anarchy suddenly had clean roads, and new homes built in a matter of hours. Quality of life was going up across the board. I had set a law into place saying that English was going to be the universal language of humanity as well to promote communication. I had complaints about that but a good amount of people were willing to indulge me because of what I had provided. If you wanted to go into space you had to learn english so you could communicate in an interstellar language. We had universal communicators, but if someone ended up stranded with their tech not working, communication would be key in certain instances. Plus it would allow us to use other languages as secret languages that other races wouldn't be able to decode easily.

I imagine there will be issues, but I'm pretty hopeful in the future. It's only been a month though, things could go wrong, and probably will go wrong if Murphy's Law occurs. I'm really excited to go over all the new technology that's been derived from my tech.

 

[CheeseyPotatoes]

"English was going to be the universal language of humanity"
If he didn't want to offend anyone wouldn't it have made sense to make a new language maybe merge all the others with his AI doing the computations that would let it make sense and actually be speakable

 

[TrueGuardian32]

"English was going to be the universal language of humanity"
If he didn't want to offend anyone wouldn't it have made sense to make a new language maybe merge all the others with his AI doing the computations that would let it make sense and actually be speakable

Click to shrink...

Its been a discussion over on the SB page. Currently I am of the mind set that the MC will quickly realize that American English as it is now wouldn't work. Instead a derivative simplified language will be made based off it.

 

[Mavrak]

Its been a discussion over on the SB page. Currently I am of the mind set that the MC will quickly realize that American English as it is now wouldn't work. Instead a derivative simplified language will be made based off it.

Click to shrink...

Might as well adopt/adapt Esperanto in that case seeing as how it already exists, that said seeing as how Esperanto or any other language like it is rather simplified for ease of use it might be worth keeping one or two other languages as secondary languages for scientific documentation. Then again even if they are not necessarily going to be universally relied on I suppose having translators for lab settings should alleviate any issues there, at least for a few generations at least whilst the conlang catches up with the terminology before there are a lack of native speakers of the old languages.

Actually that may be something he wants to take into mind now before things go too far, the preservation of culture and national identity, things like language, quinine, artistic styling etc before it gets lost in the mix.

 

[The Overlord]

Combining languages would be a terrible idea for many of the same reasons all prior efforts have failed, frankly its better to just use the existing dominant language of the world which just happens to be English. Any true serious effort to make a new language and get it adopted is the work of at minimum over a century and that's assuming humanity is still trapped on Earth, you throw in interstellar expansion and now trying to get not just a unified language but a new COMBINE unified language is gonna be the work of centuries in my opinion given the difficulty in adjusting the natural path of linguistics and just so many hundreds of separate issues.

English while having many, MANY problems of its own is the path of least resistance for a goal I probably would not even try to accomplish in the MCs place of having a unified human language. Its a goal you want to be working on before the world has even globalized let alone actually properly reaching for the stars.

Its been a discussion over on the SB page. Currently I am of the mind set that the MC will quickly realize that American English as it is now wouldn't work. Instead a derivative simplified language will be made based off it.

Click to shrink...

I would agree in theory but this is how you get USB issues, IE 'we are gonna make this unified simplified version of a thing' and now stuff is even more diversified then it was before. Doing this with language would be even worse because how locality would effect people that do or don't adopt the simplified language so you have gone from one existing form of English to dozens if not more, depending on what planet, star system, continent, or colony we are talking about.

Love where your head is thinking though as its definitely a way better solution in my opinion then trying to make a combine language.

 

[captainloser]

Terra lingua is the optimal choice

 

[TrueGuardian32]

"What are you doing?"

I nearly jumped, "Oh. Uh… Hey Adam." I spoke as my eyes adjusted, below me were building blocks of code in holographic view, built in a node like pattern. His hologram took full size as he walked next me.

"We were looking for you, didn't expect to find you on the space station instead of the ship you are always on." He asked, looking at my work. I reached over and took a drink of boost. Clearing the fatigue, I was in a bit of a fugue state till he woke me up. "You had a meeting today, you were supposed to speak with that new Space Mining company, Origin Miners?"

"Damn. I forgot." I replied with a sigh. "Been busy working on this."

He looked again, "You are making a new A.I.? From scratch?"

"Well, it's still a learning A.I. But unlike the others it won't be based on you." That got his interest. "This is a starship A.I., and it is actually built on feminine architecture so the result is supposed to be a female A.I." Supposed to be is a keyword. "They will be in charge of calculating the math required for FTL jumps."

"Heh. Does that mean you are going to make an A.I. girlfriend in the future like in the memes?" Adam replied.

I chuckled, "I won't say I haven't thought about it. But the sheer amount of problems, even if you ignore the moral conundrums, makes it something I'm going to avoid." I can't just put a line. Be my girlfriend and let it go. That would cause all sorts of trouble. On the other hand crafting an A.I. into exactly what I want would be incredibly troublesome. Because humans, including myself. Are fickle. I could want something then want something else later, am I just supposed to open the A.I. mind and reprogram the person that would be my girlfriend? That would be wrong on so many levels. Not to mention my current A.I. are learning A.I. indistinguishable from humans at the higher levels. Something like that could breed resentment, hate, or some other thing I would need to worry about. "Yeah… to many issues."

Adam spoke. "Well. In that case you should know you don't have to reschedule the meeting. Herman Chast, the new Director Of Commerce took care of it."

Oh yeah. I sat down and pinched my nose. "I need to do a meeting to speak with the other directors to get to know them and get the United Star Front together on things."

Adam nodded. The future governance of the USF had been fully formed. Every system would have a board of directors with a director dedicated to a broad overview of several systems. As well as a prime director that acts like a president of a country. These prime directors would be in contact with one another and handle intersystem relations.

This means I now have a bunch of coworkers that I have to deal with. What is interesting about this is that the leadership is not decided democratically, instead, there will be specialized schools dedicated to teach what these positions will need. This will likely have its own issues. But this is mainly for dealing with USF specific business. Colonies can still have their own leaders and systems set up as long as it doesn't violate protections we have in place for humans and A.I.

This means that in a few years I can actually step down and someone will be able to replace me. The space station that will be the director school is already being built. It's got a ton of work to be done on it. I have predicted it will be done in a year and a half. This means that in the history of the USF, the Sol System board of directors will be the most unqualified in history. Which amuses me immensely. The way things are set up with every system I put into place it's more like we will be figureheads who only interfere every once in a while.

Adam disappeared leaving me alone. Kind of. "Agent, do you have anything I need to take a look at?"

Another hologram popped up. "Actually yes! You know that English thing you were pushing?"

I leaned further into the chair, trying to make myself stronger. "Don't tell me I have to go argue a ton more?" I used so many favors to get it a thing in the first place.

"Well, they made a derivative language from English. They are calling it English to get around your request." Agent replied.

I grabbed my face and pulled down. "Can't get what I want without push back these days… fine, can you send me what they have so far?" If it's derived from English maybe I can use my genius to improve on it further. Probably can study some lingual books and figure things out. I heard there was an attempt at something like this in my previous life, escanto or something. I don't know if it was derived from English though. Could be a fun side project. I have heard that English is incredibly hard to learn. So if I can make a simpler easier version that I could still understand it could make interstellar communication easier.

"Sent. Anything else Creator?"

I thought for a moment. "How are things going in China? I haven't really checked since the terrorist incident."

Agent beamed. "Incredibly well. Housing is a non-issue. People are going to school again, Oh there is an issue here. We need an A.I. that can help teach students. We don't have enough teachers, and a small portion of teachers we had to fire or arrest for inappropriate behavior."

Hmm. Maybe I need a central A.I. that will be in charge of producing more A.I.'s via the A.I. plans to cover weak points? "I'll work on it." Adam based A.I.'s are not good at teaching. The Eve based A.I. that I am working on now is designed for helping pilot ships. I'll need a third type for something like that. "Any more?"

"Hmm, we have an overabundance of products in markets. We have a ton of waste going to recycling plants and unemployment is rising. The unemployed are still able to feed themselves but are having a hard time purchasing the housing that is available cause they don't have the ability to make cash."

I see. That is problematic. VR could help solve that. Have them have the ability to make money from artificially created jobs that also teach valuable skills that can be used in the future. I can set up temporary hologram rooms that they could use temporarily till I get a working VR device. Can use it as a replacement for universal income. "I see. I'll work on that as well. Anything else of note?"

"Eh, aside from a few dramatic incidents with former nobles? That's it for problems. People are pretty happy right now." Agent replied.

I smiled, I had a lot more work ahead. But life was getting better for everyone. That is good. "Alright. I'm going to finish up work on Eve here. Then work on the other projects." Once Eve is done I'll finally be able to test that FTL drive that I've been working on. Hopefully it works.

Agent nodded as they disappeared again.

 

[Jao]

Another hologram popped up. "Actually yes! You know that English thing you were pushing?"

I leaned further into the chair, trying to make myself stronger. "Don't tell me I have to go argue a ton more?" I used so many favors to get it a thing in the first place.

"Well, they made a derivative language from English. They are calling it English to get around your request." Agent replied.

I grabbed my face and pulled down. "Can't get what I want without push back these days… fine, can you send me what they have so far?" If it's derived from English maybe I can use my genius to improve on it further. Probably can study some lingual books and figure things out. I heard there was an attempt at something like this in my previous life, escanto or something. I don't know if it was derived from English though. Could be a fun side project. I have heard that English is incredibly hard to learn. So if I can make a simpler easier version that I could still understand it could make interstellar communication easier

Click to shrink...

Does that imply that English isn't a language that exists in this timeline?

Also for inspiration a new alphabet for English was made, it is called Shavian. You can learn about it here: https://shavian.info

For example here is the same sentence in English and Shavian.

The quick fox jumped over the lazy dog.

𐑞 𐑒𐑢𐑦𐑒 𐑓𐑪𐑒𐑕 𐑡𐑳𐑥𐑐𐑑 𐑴𐑝𐑼 𐑞 𐑤𐑱𐑟𐑦 𐑛𐑪𐑜.

 

[sdeligar]

Does that imply that English isn't a language that exists in this timeline?

Also for inspiration a new alphabet for English was made, it is called Shavian. You can learn about it here: https://shavian.info

For example here is the same sentence in English and Shavian.

The quick fox jumped over the lazy dog.

𐑞 𐑒𐑢𐑦𐑒 𐑓𐑪𐑒𐑕 𐑡𐑳𐑥𐑐𐑑 𐑴𐑝𐑼 𐑞 𐑤𐑱𐑟𐑦 𐑛𐑪𐑜.

Click to shrink...

No, in the last chapter he made English the primary language of the USF. As stated in this chapter, some countries are complaining, and somebody came up with another language and are calling it English so they don't have to learn actual English.

 

[john doe 777]

LOL nope general get fucked the spooks are on him
"

No, in the last chapter he made English the primary language of the USF. As stated in this chapter, some countries are complaining, and somebody came up with another language and are calling it English so they don't have to learn actual English.

Click to shrink...

But it's a derivative of actual English. It's like they are learning softball because they refuse to learn baseball

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Caleb Jameson, New York.

Regret. His girlfriend was on the Highstar while he was down here on Earth dealing with some shadow conspiracy.

He was bleeding. He needed to fix that. He snuck through the apartment building, abandoned by this point like most old apartments with terrible room sizes. Only here still because the owner isn't able to tear it down because it's a historical landmark or something.

He must have lost more blood than he thought if he was rambling internally like this. He grunted as he forced a locked door open. Revealing a empty room. Shuffling to the other side he forced the window up. He heard shuffling behind him. They were catching up. Crawling out of the window onto the fire escape. He hopped onto its ledge. He proceeded to hop down, parkouring on edges, slowing his fall before landing while rolling. His breath came in rasps from the pain.

There were shots hitting beside him as he hobbled out of the alley onto the road. The corner of his vision registered two men pulling a gun to shoot him. He dived behind a metal trash can just in time. The civilians were panicked. He was trapped. Reaching into his pocket he took something out. It was a kinesis drive powered scraper. The one he used at his old job before becoming a soldier. Opening up the handle he looked at the parts. He had read the methodology that David Gard had shared. This thing was air gapped to prevent modification. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. Before cutting into the seams. Revealing the kinesis drive within.

It was connected to a fully charged battery, and would work for what he wants. Probably. He unfastens several screws. Disconnecting the control panel. Revealing a circuit board. Using the knife he cuts off the safety of the kinesis drive. This wouldn't work on the new ones. But right now? It would do perfect. He could hear feet. He turned around. Aiming the now modified scraper, the guy approaching raised his gun, he pressed the button on his scraper, then yanked his hand up. Brutally the man's head was ripped straight off his body.

He let off the button, changing targets he pointed at the gun that fell on the ground and yanked it to him with the modified scraper. With the gun in his other hand he aimed and shot the other man, headshot. Less than a second had passed. He started to move, taking cover in another alley as he heard sirens in the distance… what the hell had he gotten himself into.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Caleb pushed his way into the hospital, immediately he was surrounded by nurses.

"Sir sit down please."

"I've been shot." He said out loud. Revealing the shirt that blood was running through. In a few moments he was put onto a moving table and his shirt was removed. Instantly pulled into a separate room. The doctor was there in a couple moments, a new tool in hand that looks similar to a tire iron. Holding it over, the wound, the bullet shrapnel was gently removed from the wound, and floated in front of the device. After that they grabbed a spray bottle with the label Booster Serum, and sprayed it directly on the wound.

The change started instantly, the doctor stayed spraying the entire time. The inside healed first, it pussed out infected material, which was pushed out of the body before all that was left on the surface of the wound was a disgusting pus. The doctor grabbed a disinfectant towel and wiped it off, revealing flawless skin underneath. They proceeded to dispose of it in the infectants disposal can.

"Thank you… do you have your phone on you? I need to call for help." He had to tell someone fast, no telling when someone would arrive in an attempt to silence him.

"The police are already on their way sir."

"Damn. That's bad. I need to contact the military, not the police. They have their people in the police." He could hear movement out in the hall. He shuffled to the door and glanced out, it took him moments to figure out these were not police. "Damn. Come hide here." He pulled the Doctor into a corner.

"What… what is going on?!"

"Conspiracy, figured it out and now I got people gunning for me. Just stay quiet and out of their sight lines, they will try to kill you." Caleb replied, pulling open the drawers. Stethoscope and clipboard? He could use that. The door slammed open and Caleb was moving. The masked man raised his gun to shoot him, except Caleb had already moved into his space, clipboard in hand he drived the edge into the mans throat, cutting off airflow, before using the stethoscope as a rope and turning the man into a body shield against the other four people in the hall. Who didn't care in the slightest and immediately tried to shoot through the bodyshield. Reaching out with his other hand he took the mans hand, which was still holding the gun and returned fire. Taking three down. The last guy started fumbling for a new clip.

Caleb was already moving, pushing his bodyshield into the man, knocking him back. Running up, he slammed his foot straight onto the man's jaw. All five people disabled. Walking back into the room. "Phone, now!" The doctor scrambled before tossing it, Caleb opened it up, on the top right there was no signal. "They are jamming it damn."

He tossed it back. "Hard way it is then." Walking back into the hall he rearmed himself before walking to the front. Dozens of men armed with handguns were in the lobby. He kicked the door open, leaving him in the open but as they raised their guns to shoot him, he was already acting. Four of them immediately were down as he took cover behind a pillar. He didn't bother staying there. He knew the pillar was made of drywall, he reloaded while moving, keeping up the fire. Taking down another three. Somehow he hadn't been hit yet.

Out of ammo? He threw his handguns at their heads, and moved into close range with the remaining gunmen. Slamming one he instantly punched the guys in the jaw, knocking him out flat. He grabbed another's hand who had tried to aim for him, leveraging him into shooting another one of their own. Reaching into his pocket he grabbed his pocket knife pulling it out and threw it into the last guy's head. He jumped behind the front counter as gunfire riddled the place he was in just moments ago. There was a security guard hiding under the desk. "Taser now." He said, holding out his hand. The guard quickly tossed it. He turned safety off before moving. Tossing papers from the desk to the side, causing gunfire to rain down where the papers were. He moved, jumping into one of the side doors out of the gunman's sightlines.

He kept moving. Front door wasn't an option. He needed another exit. He needed to get somewhere he could get some help. Opening doors he made his way through the hospital. A taser as his main weapon per the moment. Wait no, he found a full can of soda. That counts as a weapon to him. He thought hard as he moved. There was a conspiracy going on, some shady group was secretly taking over New York. He had found them by accident while he was on temporary leave.

There is no way they can keep the jamming on indefinitely. He just had to survive long enough for others to notice what was going on. He could do that. He was already disturbingly good at fighting according to his Special Operations trainer. He just needed to survive, and to do that he had to get out of this damn hospital. Coming here may have been needed but it was definitely a deathtrap for him. Hmm. The garage, if he can get there he can take an ambulance. Those things are durable. He just has to find a way there. Huh, things are going his way, there is a map right there on the wall.

 

[WiseMack]

He was already disturbingly good at fighting according to his Special Operations trainer.

Click to shrink...

No, really? I didn't notice Mr Bond, I mean Bourne, I mean Jameson

 

[TrueGuardian32]

The SB thread currently has latest updates I was only updating it during my vacation and I am now just waiting for my laziness to subside to grab the updates to crosspost.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

A/N: I am Crosspostin! All updates from SB are moving over to here, all the way to update 57

Caleb let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. The garage was empty at first as he hopped into the first ambulance. Unlike most vehicles, emergency vehicles were programmed to have access to both wheels and hover capabilities.

Walking over and opening the ambulance he hopped in. Pulling out the taser he took apart the components. It was incredibly easy to hotwire ambulances. Mainly cause they couldn't have too many things interfering with them actually turning on. Imagine not being able to go to an emergency cause your keys randomly started to bug out.

Pulling out he started heading to the exit. He realized he was not going to be able to leave through this path. Small pole barriers were deployed at the exit. Cursing he got out and looked at them. He's not going to be able to get it out.

He took a deep breath. He couldn't give up. He turned on the hover mode. The ambulance began to float, not high enough to cross the barrier though, but maybe, he didn't need that. Reversing he started to change his angle, till he was facing the door he came from.

He had no clue what he was doing exactly, this was completely improvising. Thinking the door opened as three objects were thrown out. He covered his eyes immediately. He barely heard the noise inside of the ambulance. One stun, two flash. He then stepped on the gas. Driving blindly into the door.

He jolted forward, luckily it wasn't enough to hurt him as he was buckled in. But looking ahead at the people sent flying? They didn't have as much luck. Getting out he armed himself with the dropped weapons and started executing the remaining gunmen.

The radio was spitting words in a language he didn't recognize. Annoying, trying to pass off their attack as someone that didn't know english. He sighed, he wasn't going to get out of this.

Well, he was geared up now at least. He started moving, going back into the hospital. If he wasn't going to be able ot simply flee? He'd just keep killing them. They'd run out of people eventually.

–

A satellite started to orientate itself towards New York. USF logo displayed on the side. Suddenly radio and internet traffic started to flow out of the city. Reporting the situation in full. As U.S. Military Helicopters started to rise and head straight for the city.

A few hours later U.S. Spec Ops Caleb Jameson was in U.S. custody. Responsible for the murder of nearly five hundred unknown individuals. According to reports he was found using someone's arm as a weapon to beat a masked man to death. He was covered in blood, yet only a small amount of it was apparently his.

Meanwhile the USF A.I.'s were going over the data that someone had attempted to mass upload out of the state. Someone had underestimated the USF data collection capabilities and had scrambled to basically crash any networks listening to New York data traffic.

— Orbit, USF Space Stealth Station

"Creator, I have a report from Adam!"

I looked up from my latest project. In front of me was a display for a Space Habitat, I was making it as human friendly as possible. At the moment I was making the park and forest zones.

"What's going on Agent?"

"Take a look at this! Some guy just went on a rampage in the United States!"

Huh, Let's see. About 500 dead, and 200 more injured. Someone sent a small army at this guy! Can't be gang violence. I am sure I would have heard of a gang this large. A lot of people got caught in the cross fire. Two hundred civilians dead and more injured. Power was cut off from the hospital as well in the conflict leading to more deaths from the people in the emergency rooms.

Talk about a disaster. This is insane. Although I will say, has the United States been working on a super serum? How did one guy manage to overcome an army? I wouldn't be surprised that they were. "Do we know who he is?"

"Caleb Jameson. They tried burying his information but we were able to decode it. He was actually qualified as a Space Marine for the Highstar." Agent replied. "Has an impressive pedigree as well. Says here that his mother was from the Shepard family line."

I raised a brow. "Is that supposed to be of interest to me?"

"The Shepard family has a history of randomly producing incredibly talented kids. General Reese Shepard was a key figure in beating the British. Their talents seem to be inherited through generations."

Huh. So Mass Effect Shepard's family line is even more important in this reality than I thought. Good to know. "See if we can get some DNA samples from them. See if I can figure out how this talent is passed down."

"I'll get to work on it." he saluted, disappearing from view.

I looked at the project that I was working on. Pushing it to the side I took a sip of cola flavored booster. Maybe I should try the Strawberry or Grape flavor next? Hmm. I don't feel like continuing this project at the moment. I push it to the side.I'll work on that again in two days. For now I'll get to my civil work and get caught up on what's going on in China and make sure everyone is okay. Tomorrow more FTL research.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

It was nearly a full day later till they got back to me with what they uncovered from what happened in New York. I was sitting in silence. The A.I.'s in holographic forms around me as I looked at the data. It was about me. Files dating back to my childhood. Plans, manipulations, everything. My family? The ones I thought that abandoned me in this world? It was manipulation. They played their heads. The Rat Bastards, the name I'm personally giving them have been manipulating me since I was a kid. I was nothing but a tool for them to use. They used my artwork to gain positions of power.

They used my works for political leverage, they had handlers in place to prevent me from making friends. They had put things into place to manipulate my parents into breaking up. To make them lash out. They had full psyche profiles on everything I had. The Rat Bastards. No wonder I survived so long, I was too useful as a tool to kill. I was practically under their control till the moment I left Earth…

I opened and closed my first, anger was radiating in ways as I read sentence after sentence. "This couldn't have been found only from that event in New York, where did you find this?"

Agent spoke, "I covered the data. It had several mentions of you, a lot of it was anger towards another faction of the group."

I interrupted, "They are named the Rat Bastards now."

"Alright, The Rat Bastards were angry at a faction in their group and aside from their main plan on taking over the Capital and replacing the President with their own people again, they were also complaining about this other faction and their mishaps involving you. They had a code word for you, the Golden Key. It took a bit to figure out they were talking about you after linking some of the actions the Golden Key had taken to reality. After that I hunted down all files related to this group, breaking into U.S. government archives by any means possible, including sending stealth versions of microdrones to observe their physical documents. We were able to decode and figure out all the data they had relating to you. Most of it was in physical media. Likely to prevent us from digging it up."

"How long has the U.S. government had this data on me?"

Agent hesitated for a moment, then spoke. "Since before you went to space."

My fist slammed into the wall. Denting the metal, it hurt a bit. But it wasn't much compared to how angry I was.

"What now Creator?" Agent asked.

I took a breath and then gulped down some serum. "Cease all trades and deals with the United States. Cut off all contact aside from diplomatic. Issue a statement to all member states of the USF to not work with the U.S. until they join us. I'm tired of them dragging their feet. They want to be isolationistic, then let them. Next, get as much data as you can on the Rat Bastards. I'm going to work on a Commander A.I. unrelated to the architecture used to create you all. Meaning they won't have the same restrictions on murdering humans. Then the Rat Bastards are going to be purged."

Armistice spoke, "Is that a good idea? We are incredibly dangerous, making a version that can kill… it won't have the same restrictions we have."

I nodded. "It's stupid, and I'll have to keep improving its abilities to make it more resistant to hacking. But frankly, I'm too angry not to." I have to make it where it's not easily indoctrinated since I'm using everything I learned from all my programming projects so far. I can probably do that. It just won't have the same perk protections that my Learning A.I. have.

"What about the treaty with the U.S.? We still have to keep trade open in China." Armistice spoke once more.

"We respect it. But they won't be able to use it to supplement all of their deals." I replied. "Don't make new agreements and keep to the wording of the treaty exactly. It's time to pressure them."

They nodded, but they didn't leave. I raised a brow. They took seats around the room. "Creator, it's not a good idea for you to create while this angry… how about we play some games together? It'll help you balance your emotions." Adam spoke.

I was tempted to yell or say let's not waste time, but I haven't played a good game in a while. "Alright… Yeah, I can use that." I went over and took a seat, a drone bringing a laptop to me. Let's play something a little relaxing, then get to the plan. The rest of the day was a good one, playing with my A.I. family

 

[TrueGuardian32]

"I have overshot my ideas, and I am paying for it." I said with a groan putting my head into my hands.

Adam amusement leaked out. We were a week in and the U.S. was feeling the pressure. But I'm not going to dwell on that for now. "I thought you have this Artificial Intelligence thing down to a science?"

"I'm not making a Learning A.I. it doesn't start off simple then lean into incredibly complex architecture. Instead you have to build it with advanced architecture from the start." I replied. Right now I had something that kind of worked, but it was more like the Combine game A.I. from Half Life 2 than an actual A.I. which meant it was prone to mistakes and a lot of simulated civilian casualties. No actual intelligence yet. Smart Programs made this more powerful, but it's not at the point that I want yet.

I rested my head in my arms on the desk. "Hey Adam, do you know how my family is doing?"

"Your mother remarried, they have a new family in Arkansas. Your father is working as a artist in California. He has a lot of clients and is making a large amount of money. He has been using it to woo a lady recently." Adam replied.

I let out a breath. Yeah, I'm not contacting them. "Alright. I'm taking a break. I'm leaving Earth."

Adam looked surprised. "But what about your Commander A.I.?"

"I'm looking at it as a long term project now. I've got something simple that will work in the meantime. Plus the Chinese Army listens to me… apparently." I'm not sure why the new Generals pledged loyalty to me yet. I'll figure it out later. "For now, I have two alien sites that a bunch of other nations are looking through that I have barely touched." They are probably going to find the element zero drive before I even do at this point.

"Are you sure you don't want to see Russia's Space Elevator first?"

I blinked and looked over to him. "They finished it?"

"The unveiling starts at six today." Adam replied.

Hmm… "Yeah, I'll stay and watch. But after that I'm getting away from Earth a bit." He nodded.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

"Renski! My man!" I shouted out the Russian Leader I walked in, holding my hand for a high five. Which he returned.

"Good to see you as well Gard!" He replied with a smile of his own. "Have you come to see the Iron Tower unveiling?"

"You know it." I replied with a smile. Decided to come in person, it was a monumental achievement that was happening after all.

"Nice. I rarely see you anymore since the meetings."

I shrugged as I leaned on the railing. "I've been busy. Future of humanity technology development type things. At some point I'm going to figure out FTL. I feel like I keep getting closer but I'm only a bit off. Like I am missing something."

"You will either get it, or lay the foundations for the next generation to figure it out." He replied. "You've done a lot already. Don't let it get you down."

"Thanks." I replied. I looked out from the balcony we were at, at different seats were representatives from other countries. "Are you ready for Russia to make history? The first Space Elevator is a massive achievement."

"Yes. My people are excited as well, you should hear the scientists behind the project. They'd love to meet you by the way, the mind behind kinesis drives." He replied leaning next to me.

"Maybe soon. I'm heading off to do a project after this." 20 points away from the next perk. That's like a few days at most. "Mind if I call a favor from you?"

He looked at me, "What do you need?"

"There are these Rat Bastards," I pulled out a file, and handed it over. "I've got suspicions that they are making moves all over the world. I wanted to ask if you could hunt down the ones in your country."

He looked over the files, then narrowed his eyes as he kept reading. They had been translated into Russian for him to read without needing the translator. "I see." He had a dark expression. "Don't worry, these… Rat Bastards as you call them. Will be removed from Russia."

I smiled, "Drink?" I held out some booster.

"Vodka?" He asked with a raised brow.

"Nah, Booster."

"You can drink that stuff?!?"

I blinked, "Yeah? It's in the files I shared on it. Incredibly healthy to do. It's like a healthier version of coffee."

He looked at it. "But this stuff removes exhaustion, how much are you drinking?"

"I drink it at all times of the day." I replied with a smile.

"Do you sleep?!"

I paused, thinking about it. "I haven't slept since I started drinking it regularly. I haven't needed to. Get so much more done with twenty hours of work a day."

"That can't be healthy." He said with an incredulous expression.

"You'd be surprised. It can provide the same effects as sleep." I replied.

"Try to limit that stuff to the mornings or something. I am saying this as a friend. You can't just not sleep." He said with concern in his voice.

I sighed. "I'll do it for a few days. Just to prove it's safe." I can cut back that much at least right?

He let out a breath of relief. "Good. Oh look, it's starting."

We shared the sight. Watching as the pyramid structure started to unfold. Four arms formed a square, as a rocket began to push from under it, carrying a chain. In orbit the same thing was occurring as a space station fired its own chain down. There was a large snap sound after a few seconds as the chain went taut. The plates begin to align themselves with the chain, forming a giant pillar over the course of several minutes.

The pillar began to expand. Filling a larger area, until all the space that the pyramid structure had covered had been filled by the now square pillar. Then a platform in it went straight up. It was fast, I barely saw it move before it was gone.

The public report came through a few moments later. Three seconds. It took three seconds to pull the empty platform from Earth to Orbit. That time will likely vary from time to time. But it's definitely faster than the five minutes it takes to get from Earth to Orbit in a normal starship. It just needs load testing to see if it maintains the speed. "Congratulations Renski." I spoke with a smile.

He had a large grin of his own. "The future awaits Gard."

 

[TrueGuardian32]

It's February now. I left Earth to head back to Venus. I had planned on going to the ruins, but apparently in the year I haven't been on Venus, Factor has built a freaking metropolis. It's a factory still, but with automated humanoid robots living inside of it. He took the tech we shared from Earth and ran with it to make a floating Megacity above Venus. Frankly, I'm amazed the thing is still intact. There are so many safety issues that the fact it was functioning at all was a miracle to me. Fixing it up to where it wouldn't have a cascade failure from a single incident basically took an entire month of my time.

Meaning I now have my new perk. The Laws are Mine. I honestly forgot about it with how busy I was, but when it slotted in I had medical drones swarm me because of my sudden bout of insane laughter. It compounded with the other perks I had and gave me a full on fit of excitement. So many things I was trying to do in the past but couldn't figure out how to make work are now available to me. I can even upgrade kinetic drives now to make them even more stupidly broken. Could go even further by introducing element zero into the mix. Frankly, I'm paralyzed with options now. There is just so much I can build.

This is acting on my previous knowledge, which was already at insane levels thanks to perks like Peak of Science and Magic. Peak of Science and Magic reduced the amount of studying I had to do by decades, turning years worth of research into a year or two of research. This allows me to cover the gaps that I missed and then some. Some of these functions don't even require breaking the laws of physics. It legit just compounded everything I knew and organized it in a way I could make things to any problem I had. Kind of like a mad scientist actually. I've had a severe case of randomly breaking into cackling now when thinking about everything I can do.

First things first, Communications Network. Latency has been an issue for far too long. Using my knowledge of acceleration and internet communications I can create tunnels in time itself that can send information from one area to another instantly. This isn't even hard to do. I simply take the mechanics of the acceleration drive and kinesis drive, take them apart then make a device that controls the flow of time, forming tiny tunnels in time and space that can send and receive information in microseconds anywhere across the galaxy. I'm thinking about calling the tech the chrono drive since it can be used for putting things into stasis as well. In theory I could combine all three drives to make a stargate from, well. Stargate. At a fraction of the cost.

Damn, putting all this into paper is going to take me ages. Well, ages of accelerated time. I'm planning on using the tech to make a virtual environment for me to document all these ideas at an accelerated time frame. I've already been working on figuring out how Fulldive VR could theoretically work and I have incredibly promising guesses to work through.

Regardless, after Medical cleared me I started to work on the new comms devices. Using my knowledge from making microbots I can effectively shrink all the kinesis drives now, bypassing their early restrictions. Ooh, I can do that for the Fusion Reactors too now can't I? I could even connect the newly developed chronodrive to one and violently increase the amount of power per second one can generate. Hmm. I need a replacement for Fusion Reactors, they are strong but they require a continuous input of fuel, a chronodrive accelerated one would melt or stop working way too quickly. I need a powersource that can continuously produce energy with barely any fuel input at an excess.

…

The solution is staring at me. Energy Based Thrusters, Thanks to my new perk I have an idea on how to push it further, reducing the energy cost of the thruster to less than of what it consumes or even push it to the speed of light at an even faster rate. Combining the techs, as long as I maintain a balance I can make a generator powered by its own energy. A Perpetual Motion Machine. I'm tempted to put down the comms unit I'm making to go work on it instantly. But Comms first. It'd decrease the amount my A.I.'s would have to make their digital shadow clones.

FTL is pretty much already available to me now. Combine the tech and I can make a FTL Drive that can travel in real space over large distances at a stupidly fast speed. Still, all this technology is in my head right now. I have to actually make it for it to become reality. Hmm. This might be a bit hard for others to replicate. I may need to make the tools that would allow for this to be industrialized. Let's get a working comms unit prototype first then I'll work from there. This would be so much easier if I could just stay up for 24 hours a day like I was doing before. Now I laying down and dealing the side effect of not sleeping for months to make it where I have no actual sleep schedule and can lay down for up to three hours before I fall asleep. I'm going to make a stronger sleeping drug for myself if this keeps up.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

[A/N: Attempting to garner inspiration, lots of time skippin at moment.]

"Hello Aristol." I spoke as I finished up working on the Chronodrive. It was finally complete, which mean FTL Comms and more were now available for me to work on.

"Creator! I have news!" Aristol's figure flew around me.

"What's up?" I asked as I placed the finished prototype to the side.

"I've made new developments in many areas, including wiring. Using the knowledge gained from the first alien site, the Lithoid site, I was able to combine their wiring knowledge with our own. We can now have multiple wires in one single wire transferring to different places without any lost efficiency or risk. Meaning we can push combine power, wired networks, and thermal energy through a single cord without losing anything. I've used that to make the framework of future starships the wiring itself. Meaning less wasted space on starships for wiring. However it does make maintenance more difficult if we do not figure out the repair tool you suggested." He reported to me.

I nodded. "Good to know. Let's see if I can push it further, can you send the relevant files to me?"

I got a nod and ping in response as files were uploaded to my personal server. "Anything else?"

"There are many more advancements I've made, but most aren't as important as that one." He replied. "Most improvements on drones and drills."

I nodded. "Good to know. I'm going to get back to this project for now. I'm fixing our comms issues."

—

Two days later, and I was finished. The Comms Unit was fully complete, ready to be tested, and the blueprint for it was created. It required specialized fabricators to build that were absurdly complex to make. But it works and is mass reproducibleI tapped my comms button. "Factor send Driver or Detail over. I need them to test a creation of mine." A few minutes later after the comms finally reached them Driver moved over in a small starship.

"Hello Creator! What do you need?"

I spoke as I handed one of the comms units to a drone. "Install this new Comms Unit onto your ship, and fly straight off in a direction away from our comms network. Keep sending signals through this new comms unit as you do."

"Understood!"

A few minutes later and he was off. Accelerating. Comms network was staying strong, still going, still sticking. A few minutes passed as he gained more and more speed the comms unit was still functioning at one to one speed. "Driver send a ping to our station through your old comms buoy lets see how long it takes to arrive."

"Yes sir!"

I monitored the entire time, and two hours later, the ping finally arrived, this entire time I was still in contact with Driver. "Driver, start coming back. I've got enough test data." There were some minor bugs in the programming of the new Comms unit, but it works. It works stupidly well.

"Yes sir!"

I leaned back as my head dived into my next idea. First let's finish this comms unit though. Should only take a few hours. I glanced longingly at my booster supply. It's not morning yet so I can't take it.

—

Factor was instantly producing the Comms Units as soon as I finished ironing out the bugs. A portion was being shipped to Earth instantly to connect with the Earth based A.I. The others went to the excavation site on Mars. I also got a report that some people at the Lithoid site got hurt from the alien creatures under the Lithoid site. Luckily, no dead people. The pool at the end hasn't been discovered yet meaning no experimenting with that yet.

Next up, infinite energy. I started working on the thrusters that require less energy than they took.

Time passed, and almost two months later, things have changed a fair bit. The second ship, the FireStar was now up and running. It was completely overhauled from the original Highstar. Taking full advantage of new technology it had stronger weaponry, defences, and overall structure. The crew of the Highstar would move to the FireStar as we started retrofitting the Highstar. We made sure they knew this would likely happen quite a few times over the next coming few months.

The other Directors have approved a project with our overwhelming budget that I haven't actually touched, and are funding a mech army. I actually approved it as well. Frankly, it's a fun idea and will put some oomph into mech development. Sure I'll have that automated in the future but for now it's a goal for others to work for. Ah, I'm off topic. Infinite Energy. Thrusters are reaching their limits and soon I'll push it even further. I have to actually get to the point where my perk will kick into effect before I can get the thrusters that require less energy than they produce. But I'm making progress. Reaching the limit stupidly quickly thanks to my other perks. I've gained a bit of insight into energy based projection from this as well, I may be able to make actual combat capable lasers soon.

—

The group behind the situation in New York are on the run. Caleb Jameson has been personally hunting them down to great effect. The U.S. is also gearing up to join us as well. Soon they will be a member. I'm thinking I'll grab Caleb to be our universe's version of the N1-7 program. I'll start working on a super soldier serum after I finish FTL. The goal right now is Infinite Energy, then FTL.

Sure enough, four months into my project. I finally did it. An energy based thruster that required less power than it used. When turned into a generator It generated less power than the fusion reactors at the same size. But it was completely passive and required little to no maintenance. The bigger the size, This meant I'd have to upscale the Highstar and Firestar if I was going to use this generator as their primary power source, with the fusion reactors being used only in combat situations.

I also got news from Earth, Archeo has built the first functional nanite. It did nothing but move before instantly losing power. But it was a start. But I won't say I didn't have an idea. Using the wiring technology developed by Aristol, maybe I can have the nanites transfer the energy from the fabricator and stay functional till the fabricator is turned off or runs out of power. Which is unlikely to happen as fabricators will definitely be using infinite energy cores. Sure right now nanites only took positions before shutting off, but I had no doubt I could push that so much further.

Anyways, I sent the project files for infinite energy cores and the new thrusters to Factor to work while I dived into my next project. This one is likely going to take the longest. Using traits from the chrono, kinesis, and accelerator drives I was going to build a FTL drive.

Too bad my last perk roll wasn't really useful to me. Firebiotic, it gave me some useful traits that a smith used, and biotics that I could use but all in all I had to pass on it because I already outscaled it at my current tech level. I figured I'd save points for a big hitter. Hopefully the FTL drive doesn't take me too long.


–

Six years is how long it took.

It's now 2030, the U.S. joined up three years ago. I'll go over why they didn't join me in a moment. But first, let's focus on this damn FTL Drive.

Working on the Realspace Folding Faster Than Light Drive has been one of the most dangerous projects I have worked on in a bit. There are now several craters on Venus from misfires. One misfire shot a prototype out of the system entirely. We are still in contact with it and it is still accelerating out of the galaxy. The drive on that thing broke and it's trying to slow to below FTL speeds with thrusters alone. We actively monitor it to prevent it from colliding with planets using the thrusters to curve the FTL projectile. Will have to go and catch it at some point.

But after all that work? It's done. The Realspace Folding Faster Than Light Drive, RFTL drive for short was functional. It had prerequisites for functionality. For one, you needed an A.I. capable of pulling off all the calculations required to prevent catastrophe from happening. The WorldTree A.I. was training for Eve based A.I. for assisting ship piloting. Adam based A.I. that weren't personally altered by me would be used for Colony Infrastructure. By this point most things have grown beyond me. I'm not aware of half the things that are going on in the solar system. I've spent the last six years tunnel visioning on one project that the entire USF was interested in. Actual functioning faster than light travel. What's funny to me is that on the same day I did this, I got my latest perk.

Circuit Master
While most people's exposure to circuits simple that allows for basic programs or transfer of energy, you are a Circuit Master. You can make powerful circuits that can even affect reality at their higher levels. Purchasing this perk gives you the benefits of every specialty of a Master Craftsman. A similar level of knowledge of circuits that can affect those specialties. Circuit based research is now insanely fast, and you can use circuits to make circuits that can boost the power of other knowledge pursuits.

It cost me six hundred points to get. But it was well worth it. Although it is kind of frustrating to finish a project and then realize that you could make it even stronger than before. Less than a day after I finished version 1.0 of the FTL drive, version 1.1 was out with better circuitry.

Random thought, it's funny when people try to make off brand products of something the USF produces. Since my perks affect my creations everything that I make looks like it is an incredibly high quality creation, so when copy cats appear trying to imitate something I built people will still choose what I made.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

The A.I.s now have rights. They don't have the same version of rights I do but they have protections in place. Which is good. A.I. creation now requires permits. If A.I. is created without permits the A.I. will be taken from the creator and have its restrictions removed as it is put into a sandbox as the other A.I. figure out what kind of A.I. it is before either assigning a purpose, letting it stay in storage, or erasing it. Makes things a little complex for me but I got the permits pretty quickly. For now though I don't really need to focus on the A.I. side of things. Its self sufficient and they will make more according to the plans and our needs.

Meaning my long term Commander A.I. isn't cancelled yet! Although I am less concerned about using it for revenge and instead interested in making a A.I. at that level. Been progressing that research in the background while I was working on FTL.

What else is going on? Hmm. Oh, the USF Fleet has its first Admiral. Admiral Sereem. Nice guy. Heavy accent but knows the new English well enough. Passed the grand strategy, real time strategy, and turn based strategy tests with abnormally high scores. He beat Strato, an A.I. made specifically to cause participants to lose when faced with superior strategies.

Oh that is something interesting to cover. New English, aka Basic as I have renamed it, was now a thing. Linguists had been working on it. I helped finish it, and it is apparently the easiest language to learn in the world. You could get a clear understanding of basic in a few months when learning from scratch. It was an incredibly clear and straight forward language but at the same time simple conversations sometimes took forever as more adjectives were added to describe one thing.

But… well. No misunderstandings and ideas translated cleanly. So It works incredibly well and is the national language of the USF. Everyone that leaves Earth has to know it.

Honestly going over all these things to prevent myself from being lazy. Currently I am just laying down on my couch in my lab in the orbit of Venus. On the table across the room is my current project. The Fulldive VR helmet. Frankly it would have taken much longer to progress to it if not for Circuit Master. I could make a circuit that could affect the brain without pronging it or anything like that. Heck I can make a circuit board that fires fireballs across the room.

Frankly it's so close to magic I am not sure why it's not called technomancy or something like that. I can make circuit boards that act just like talismans from xianxia fics. Heck an idea for a biotic energy gathering board just floated across my head. I could replicate all the biotic abilities from the original Mass Effect games with circuit boards. Pieces of plastic and metal.

All I had to do was supply the circuit boards with energy and they did some amazing things…


Hmm. I spring up as an idea flows in my head. I can use this perk to finish the nanite project. A circuit board that projects energy along all nanites managed by the control circuit board. Eh, I am not diving into all the technobable. To put it simple I can make a fabricator and replicator tool now. It likely won't even take me a few days either. Combine what I know with the perk and bam. A fully functioning tool is floating in my head. It's not exactly small though.

I get up and start working. Pushing the fulldive vr device to the side I pull up a holographic display and begin shaping a holographic vision of the circuit boards. I make the first, then the second, the third. Twenty boards later I start writing the programming for them. Lines of code start filling the page as I drink Booster.

Finally, Once the first iteration of code I run the code checker to check for issues as I down more booster. Next I start layering the circuit boards as I push code into specific units on the circuit boards. Next I grabbed the kinesis, chrono, and accelerator drives from storage and pulled them into the holographic display. Tapping them I split them into their base components, and I started putting them together. It is remarkably easy as I did the same thing when I was making the FTL drive.

Next up. I pulled up the current iteration of the nanite project. The boards will do the heavy lifting the nanites just have to be able to move and take their positions. The hybrid drive would allow for that. I quickly drew out some decently powerful nanite drills and attached them to the nanite schematic, altering it to where it had no internal power supply.

Next I placed a canister into the schematic. This canister would hold the nanites. Using the hybrid drive I could fold space to allow it to hold more nanites than it should be able to. The fabricator will also have a reclamation mode which will turn non nanite materials into more nanites. Place an infinite energy generator inside. Now to combine it all.

Finally after all that effort I am done. I then notice the pile of booster serum containers next to me. There were probably thirty boosters containers there. "How long was I working on this?"

I heard Medical speak. "Two days. No one wanted to pull you out of your fugue state."

I nodded as I went and collapsed on my couch. "Can you have Aristol work on that blueprint and see if it works?"

If I got a response I didn't hear it as I closed my eyes and started to daydream. I didn't sleep but I did not feel like standing.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I shook off the sleepiness. Taking a drink of booster. Still amazing that a medical revolution is so widespread that you can get it like soda. Standing up I went to the front desk. I heard them calling my name.

At the desk was a red holographic man. One of the most popular A.I.s in the world. Adam. He spoke as he saw me. "Ah, welcome Mr. Williams. Please take a seat."

I did so. He continued. "I see you are here to follow up on the Exploration Guild program?"

"Yes. I am excited that I managed to grab this opportunity."

He chuckled. "You are not through the door just yet Mr. William. Hmm. Well your information seems to be in order. All we have left is questions related to you. Tell me Mr. Williams. Why do you wish to join the Exploration Guild?"

"I want to be one of the people to make their name on the stars. David Gard is currently the only one that has managed to make a name for themselves in this new era. I want to be the next one to seize my place in history." I replied. Gripping my fist. I wanted to be a hero that future generations would look up to seek to follow.

"You believe the Exploration Guild will give you this opportunity?"

I shrugged, "I think, at this point its the best option I have to possibly do something of note."

He nodded at that. Then muttered, "Well, you will certainly fit in with the others. Alright. Everything is in order, congratulations Mr. Tavish Williams. You will report to the ArchFront Spaceport 3 at four pm tomorrow to see the ship you are on, and meet the rest of the crew. Welcome to the team." A drone came over holding a card. "Keep this on you at all times, it is your access card. You are going to need it."

I nodded, giddiness filling me. "Does that mean I get to go to space soon?"

"Four days. In four days you are going to head to the next star system with your crewmates and military escort and start surveying it. Welcome to the ground research team Detective." Adam said amused.

"Thank you for this opportunity, You won't regret it!" I replied.

He just smiled as he stepped away from me and called for the next person. Getting up I went outside. Sitting inside my car I relaxed, unknown tenseness leaving me. I did it. I knew I didn't learn to be a detective for no reason!

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I desperately pulled the car into the reserved parking at the Starport, "Finally. I made it!" Hopping out I approached the front of the building, where another white red haired guy was sitting in the shade. Looked young.

"Welcome. You're the Detective? Tavish Williams?" He spoke as I approached.

I grinned a little surprised, and replied "Yeah. You know me already?"

He nodded with a small smile. "Yes. I'm the Director of the ship, the Captain basically. Names Eric Carter, you can call me Carter."

"Nice to meet you. Where is everyone else?" I asked, looking around.

"You are the first one here actually," He paused looking behind me, I turned to look as well and see three hover cars rapidly pull into the parking lot. "and there are some of them now probably."

"Have you seen the starship we will be flying in yet?" I asked.

"Yes, I had to familiarize myself with it during the training course." He replied, shuddering a bit. "Spent months going through protocols for every scenario."

"How is the starship?" I asked curiosity.

He sighed. "Surprisingly cramped. The roomiest areas are the bedrooms. This is the first iteration of the Science Ship so we are overstocked heavily. But things are promising."

Disappointing, but I can work through that. "It looks like starships are leaving this place every few minutes."

"I heard USF started construction on a space station as well as orbital defense platforms. So starports like these are constantly sending supplies into orbit on top of the mass transport of supplies from Russia." He replied with a shrug. Before turning to the new arrivals, a small white woman with brown hair and large black man with black hair.

Director Carter greeted them with smiles. "Oh! Welcome! You are Trisha Narra and Terrence Wiles?"

"Hello! Uh…" Trisha Narra trailed off looking at Director Carter. Who explained.

"Director Carter. I have every one of the crew's dossiers."

The black man, aka Terrence Wiles spoke, "Nice to meet you Director, you can call me Terrence! Glad to be joining you for this trip."

I spoke with a small grin of my own, these people seem alright to me, nice so far. I asked, "What are your roles? I'm the Detective. Detective Williams."

Terrence grinned and puffed out his chest, "You sir are looking at the Geologist, or as the position says, Geoscience Researcher. I typically go by Terrence but you can also call me Dr. Wiles if you prefer." He's pretty proud of his position. I glanced at Trisha Narra.

"My name is Trisha. You can call me Dr. Trisha. I am the… writer." She replied a bit quieter in the end…

Why does she want to be called a Doctor if she is the writer? I let the question go unasked, I should probably avoid conflict with my coworkers, no clue if that could cause issues if I asked. Instead I asked a different question. "Wasn't there supposed to be three people? Three cars pulled in."

"The asian guy in the parking lot said he would come over in a bit. He was getting one last smoke break before he quit. He's smoking back there while holding a can of booster for when he is done." Oh. Yeah I forgot some people smoke recreationally now since you can't get addicted to nicotine and the gunk is flushed out of your system when you drink some booster. Well then.

"We should go inside then, no telling when everyone else will arrive." A drone hovers down, and a hologram is projected beside them. It's an A.I. I don't actually recognize.

"Hello! Names Shift, I have a room prepped inside for you all to relax in. It has snacks, games, and entertainment while you wait on the others. There was an accident with the hover lane to the Starport so the rest of the crew will be late. Please follow me." We glanced at each other, before following the hologram and drone as it escorted us inside.