• A notice about Rule 3 regarding sites hosting pirated/unauthorized content has been made. Please see here for details.
  • Staff is working to deal with the problem of synonymous tags. See here for more information and to suggest tag mergers.
  • QQ will shortly be reconfiguring its site domains. You may need to log in again. See here for details.
  • Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
  • For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
  • Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
  • Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.

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

View content
31
I looked over the news showing the attack on California. They had actually been stopped completely by civs on the beachhead. Pretty insane to me. What surprised me most is that these ships? They were undetectable to my scanners. I wanted them. I wanted to pull them apart and see what makes them tick. I sent a request over to the United State's president. Meanwhile. I focused on the Coalition. China was thriving at this point. All the resources from the conquered nations were flowing towards China. So, the scale tipped. Suddenly I was picking up random nations from Africa into my United Star Front. Almost half of the nations in Africa were now under the umbrella of the United Star Front. There were changes that they had to make of course. Some of these places had legalized slavery and they had to renounce that to become a member. With that my numbers were going and rules were officialized.

"Greetings, Prime Director Gard."

I was startled out of my funk as people walked into the Captain's Area. Looking at the badges on their uniforms I realized, it was the bridge crew. "Captain Larson, welcome to the ship." I replied holding my hand out, he shook it of course. Strong grip. He used to be a farmhand according to the files on him.

"It's good to meet ya sir." He said with a smile.

I grinned back. "Good to see you all as well. You've already met Armistice right?" I got nods in response. "Alright you are taking command of the Highstar for now. I do have some orders to start you off with. I need you to maintain orbit of Earth for now, you can do flight exercises around the moon and planet, but maintain orbit. We could be required to intervene in this conflict at any point. We have to be ready for it." I'm still surprised that the Coalition hadn't attacked anyone under the United Star Front. They must be terrified of the ship in orbit.

"So you are saying… we can take the ship for a joyride?" Their eyes were shining.

I sighed, "I suppose we could use a stress test for it. Yeah, but only after I'm off the ship. I got work I have to do. Yard, collect data from their joyride." I got a affirmative message in return. "Don't crash my first Frigate. Get a hold of things and learn how it works before you do any risky maneuvers."

"Yes Prime Director!"

—

Wang Long grimaced as he removed another target from the board. Another country joined up with the United Star Front. He glared at an image depicting the western ship in orbit. They couldn't take action against the USF till they had the ability to deal with that. They are half a year in this conflict and have only now started to stall. The Coalition had grown immensely due to this.

"The Emperor tried to break out of his chambers last night." One of his informants reported.

Wang Long's grimace did not go away. He hated this peace loving Emperor of his. They could have had the world in their hands long before this David Gard was born if not for past and current Emperors preferring peace. "Keep him out of the public eye. Double the patrols around his chambers." If he had taken action long ago all of Gard's advancements would have been theirs.

"The Shadowlances proved their effectiveness. Now the Americans know we can get to them!" General Li Quang spoke with pride.

Wang Long slammed his hand against the table. "Your actions revealed the Shadowlances to our enemies! Now they know we've been developing weapons to deal with their informational capabilities, and now. We have to deal with the U.S. actually sending their army to attack us directly!" Li Quang's face paled. "Not to mention it has kicked the U.S. into action. Till now they have been sluggish." Wang Long reached out and grabbed a file, sliding it to General Li Quang. On it were the United State's troop movements and military build up. They had been building up before the war even began, and now their war machine was up and running in full force. "General Li Quang, this was your mistake, so you will fix it. Take your army and prevent the U.S. from getting to Asia."

"Yes, Supreme General!" He bowed and left the room. Wang Long looked at the other Generals in the room.

"We can't afford to spread ourselves out further. Stop expanding and start setting up on our new borders. Prepare defenses."

Another General spoke, "What about Russia? Weren't we supposed to attack and take Russia a month ago."

Wang Long glared. "You want to bring that starship down on us? We cannot provoke the USF till we can get rid of their starship."

He looked at the new map. They had spread far, and the Chinese Empire will grow further still if he had anything to say about it. Except it would be under the Wang Dynasty.
 
32
Engineering Officer Jack Doesit looked in wonder as the ship sped around the moon. None of the crew felt anything at all. "Hey, A.I. how is none of us feel the movement the ship is pulling off?"

A green A.I. hologram appeared in view. Everyone was listening. "The artificial gravity field on this ship is powered by several variants of kinesis drives. This means that no matter how much movement the ship experiences, everyone on board will move with it. Just like the rotation of the Earth."

Jack Doesit looked out the viewport to the skies. "I have a question. How much of the ship is held by kinesis drives?"

"Only the gravity field and weapons are held by kinesis drives. However the armor of the ship can be enhanced by activating the kinesis drives underneath. Keeping them in place no matter how much damage they take."

"Good to know. But that isn't what I wanted to know. According to repeated resting things held by kinesis fields display no mass to anything except the kinesis drive. What would happen if all parts of the ship were held by kinesis drives as the thrusters were on. Could we go faster than light." Everyone went silent at the question.

A hologram popped up. This time of David Gard. "Who came up with this idea?"

Armistice pointed at Jack Doesit.

He looked over. "Good job. I am getting testing for the idea up and running. I will let you know if it succeeds."

Jack Doesit spoke. "Do you think it's possible?"

David shook his head. "No. We would need negative mass to do that. At most we could move near light speed faster. It would reduce the cost of acceleration immensely though."

He frowned, saddened. Then David continued. "However when combined with a certain element I know it might be possible to get negative mass. Which would allow for faster than light travel." That got everyone's attention. "Still need to test though cause it's only a guess at this point. But I'll get something going soon."

The hologram disappeared.

The bridge started cheering for Jack Doesit.

—[A/N: I'm switching to narrative POV for this, I can't write this in first person it keeps causing me to stall.]

While the Highstar flew around in orbit the United Star Front nations enjoyed a period of extended peace as the Coalition didn't drag them into the war. But a few days after the first attack on United States soil, the United States finally retaliated.

The United States Navy arrived on the shores of Asia, clearing a way for the army to land. Going straight for China. Blitzing their way forward they set up supply lines and claimed territory as the cut through towards China. The Chinese Navy resisted fiercely, but new kinesis drive weaponry allowed for weapons like railguns to be fielded with minimal issues.

Thousands were dying on both sides. But something was obvious after the first couple of fights. The United States was winning. They had free rein to attack the Coalition, but the Coalition couldn't get at the United States homeland anymore. They didn't have enough stealth boats to get past the U.S. Navy. It turned into a meat grinder as lines started to form reminiscent of World War 2. The Chinese used Coalition forces as walls to protect their own people. Causing Distrust to form with the Nations that had joined the Coalition. It took 4 months before the Coalition members started to have rebellions occur. A good portion of the member nations believed they were being used by the Chinese.

No members of the United Star Front were attacked in the entirety of these actions, despite the fact that Russia had started to build up its army further. The Chinese started to field their own soldiers, revealing their own arms race to the public. They were using a never before seen technology called Accelerant Drives. They were used to make mechs, tanks, and other high tech weapons. They were able to match the Kinesis Drive tech used by the United States in a different way. Instead of allowing the user to pick up things in a sort of stasis, the Accelerant Drives caused everything that passed through the fields they produced to speed up. They used these to make slow moving mechs move incredibly quickly as well as make power armor for their soldiers that doubled their speed. Even their common guns were practically railguns as long as an Accelerant Drive was strapped on.

On the United States side their soldiers fielded Kinesis Suits. Massively increasing their durability and strength. Despite the large backpack on their backs required to power the suits, it was judged as worth it as a single soldier could pick up a Chinese tank and slam it into the ground. Both sides started to see the downside of this war immediately. The cost, everything costs energy. Powerpacks were required for both Accelerant Drives and Kinesis Drives. The cost of that energy was enormous. Both sides were losing billions in this conflict. The Coalition by this point had taken a backseat as they were too battered and broken to continue this war. It was China vs the U.S. The U.S. didn't actually win against the entirety of the Coalition.

What had happened was that the Coalition's wanton expansion and resource plundering hadn't exactly earned favors with the areas they conquered. Militias and rebels popped up, causing the Coalition forces to split as they had to go and defend their conquered areas. Meanwhile they were dealing with protests from their own citizens. Meaning the Coalition's only fighter left was China. The World War was basically over by this point, it was now just a regular war with two super powers going head to head. There were still nukes ready to use. But neither had chosen to use them yet. The war was now a contest of resources, who had the energy to fund their war.
 
Last edited:
33
How in the world am I still not involved in this war?!

I sat in orbit looking down at Earth. The war was basically stalemated at the moment. Both sides revealed tech I really wanted to dig my hands into. Accelerator Drives look amazing! Not to mention the U.S. was using Kinetic Drives in ways I didn't think of. They were stalling out the conflict because the battles cost too much to do constantly. Why in the world is the President not joining the United Star Front. What the hell are they planning.

I sighed as I leaned back in my chair. Pulling out a peanut butter snack bar I chewed as I got up and went to the back. Entering the warehouse. Its about time to roll again. "Hey Celestial Forge. Can you give me my roll now?"

I did not expect a response as I snacked getting into a chair to work on the chemicals and med supplies on the table.

However, to my surprise, [Rolling] appeared in my vision.

The Laws are Mine [600CP]
The laws of such trivial things as physics, biology, chemistry, really any sort of recognized science are mere guidelines to you. You can break an established rule of scientific nature so long as it supports your goals and abilities. Anything from conservation of energy, to the conservation of matter, to the second law of thermodynamics in that entropy increases over time. Just... still... try not dividing by zero. I can't trust what will happen.


I blinked while reading the perk. I could lock in or pass on it. This could be absurdly broken. Hmm. Actually its a bit more balanced than I thought. Requires me to have abilities and knowledge to push it. I locked it in. I am at 130 celestial points right now. Based on past trends that perk will be mine in five years. Maybe less if whatever gives me celestial points increases.

Now then back to my actual project. I know I am close to a breakthrough. I've been working with stem cells and seeing how far I could push them. Shockingly I was able to use what I knew from creating E Fuel in this project to make a stimulant that promoted natural healing, weight loss, and muscle growth. This time. I was going to push that knowledge even further.


I stretched one more time, before diving into my samples.


Time passed, experiment after experiment, test after test, I was in a bit of a fugue state, taking notes. I knew I was close and I wasn't giving in till I broke the barrier. I wasn't working with viruses or something similar, I was focused on the system of a human. Every part of the human body was cells. I could push that further and I knew it.


Finally, on the verge of passing out, I shouted out in glee. "I freakin did it!"

In front of me were several microscopes and samples with a PC automatically taking notes on all changes. I made a serum that boosted everything about the body. The formula and process to create it all written down and recorded. Months of work finally paying off. It wasn't some super virus or gene altering device. It was, however, a super booster.

Not to mention this wasn't a simple drug. It could be taken pretty much on repeat. Theoretically, as long as you keep taking it you could live pretty much indefinitely as it could restore genes that made you healthier, de aging you back to your peak.

The thing is. I knew I could push this further. Grow up with a baby arm that refused to grow with you? I could make a version of this that fixed that. Tired of blurry vision and having to wear glasses at all times? I could fix that for you. I could push this way further. This is just the safest version. I giggled as I glanced at the serum in its vial. I was tempted to take it now. But it would be better to keep it sealed and make more to see if I made a mistake somewhere. But give me a few more days and a new breakthrough in human history would be ready to share.

The funny thing is that I was trying to make the stimpacks from Fallout but I ran down a rabbit hole and ended up with this instead. Its probably better though, it is so much less likely to have side effects. Oh I can finally get rid of the burn marks on my arms from my experiments in trying to figure out fusion!
 
34
I'm on the news again. Well, not personally but I shared what I accomplished a few days after finishing it, and it was doing a ton of good. The booster seemed to cure or alleviate such a wide range of illnesses and diseases that I didn't expect, it could allow a baby to process a cold in a couple minutes instead of risking the child's life. The parents of that one had released a heartfelt thanks in a video. The war was delayed once more as both the Chinese and United States people were scrambling to get some of the booster to the front lines, since it could also heal battle wounds and keep people in the fight. I naturally made a version for myself to strengthen my eyesight. I was already stuck wearing glasses in one life, I'd rather not have to deal with it again in this life.

I was in the warehouse again. Namely to clean up. Since my medical project is practically complete, I'll research it when I am not working on something else. Plus the people on Earth are sure to have some folks that will take the methodology I shared to advance further. Too bad it's not a super human serum. I could probably push it to that point, make V from The Boys or something similar. But that would delay my next project. I need to break FTL, I've got Artificial Gravity, Good Sublight Travel, Fusion Reactors, Powerful Scanning Tech, Strong Weaponry, Deflector Shielding, Life Support, Healing Serum, what else do I need? Eh, I'll ask the net. Heading out to the cockpit I took a seat while pulling out my phone.
Opening the GuardianLife companion app, I went over to the forums and sent a message.

[David Gard, The Director of United Star Front]
[Other than FTL, what else do you think we need tech wise for the space age? I'm figuring out what to work on next.]

I'll check on that in a bit. Meanwhile I'll take a look at the report from Aristical, and... a report from Medical?

I have to speak more with the other A.I.'s. I shouldn't be surprised to get reports from any of the twelve A.I.'s back at base. Adam doesn't count because he is staying near Earth. Medical is complaining that I'm not taking my socialization seriously. They are worried because I keep disappearing for extended periods of time. Do I really spend that much time in the warehouse? Hmm. Maybe I should interact more with the people on the Highstar? Get back into the graces of human contact... I'm sort of dreading it. I've become incredibly anti-social through prolonged isolation by this point. I know that isn't healthy though. Damn. Alright, Aristical what do you have for me, oh. Oh my. He's been hard at work excavating and studying both ruins. I forgot to tell them to wait for people from Earth. Oops. That will cause trouble politically, actually, no I didn't say we wouldn't be looking into them?

Regardless he found a starship on Mars and a decent supply of the element located in the other ruin as well. I have a sub report here from Overwatch, Overwatch is complaining that Aristol is over using the Instancing mode and is causing errors in his own code, Aristol has a total of twenty eight thousand instances and counting. I ran my hands through my head as I leaned back into my chair. Aristol is my Science A.I. meant to do the same thing I'm trying with the others back on Earth. To keep advancing technology forward. Is he making any progress?

Hmm, I can't tell. I'll have to head back to find out. I know what I'll do. I'll take a nap here in orbit, read forum comments in the morning and then head back while leaving an instance of Armistice to monitor the situation and prevent a nuclear apocalypse from possibly occurring. That's a plan, I slid into the cockpit and leaned back turning it into its rest mode as I closed my eyes.
 
35
The forum was incredibly active. I wrote down notes.

I needed Planetary Defense Weapons. That was apparently for sure as it was recommended the most out of all items. In theory, that could be done quite easily, pulling up a designer I made a simple rocket, energy thrusters on bottom, reactor within. It takes a bit to hit the target, but once I figure out the Acceleration Drive that the Chinese are using I can probably use that to make it even stronger. I don't even have to develop the targeting systems for these, they already exist. Simulate… I can fire a rocket from Earth to Space in a minute in a half by combining a launch platform, splitting the round into stages where the bottom falls off to reveal the thruster once it reaches peak height, The sonic boom causes the round to go off course slightly, but a targeting computer in the round would fix that, I would just have to thicken the round. As for a launch platform? I can create a high speed railgun quite easily, the tech is there already I just got to make it viable.

Now when I combine all the tech into these rounds I can make a planetary defence cannon that can fire sixteen rounds every minute. I can make that faster as well. The primary cost once set up would be the ammo. But these would be homing rounds that are the size of a small shuttle, they would hit hard. Hmm, I'll have to keep expanding the idea. I'll let Armistice figure out the rest.

What else we got. Replicator and recycler for bootstrapping? Hmm. I can't do that yet. I can probably make a 3d printer using kinesis drives to make molds out of held gas like I do in Venus's orbit. I'll have to keep researching this, and figure out how to do it. Maybe there is existing technology that I could use? I remember Recycling Plants existed in my previous life, there has to be some here. Maybe I can use what they know and expand on it.

Lasers? I'd rather not go into lasers till later. I've already got good kinetics, I'll make laser sooner or later. Colony Ships? I can work on that, but that would need a fabricator and recycler combo to make things easier as well. Cloning, huh lots of cloning requests. Why would I do that? I mean, I could probably make clones? Probably, but wouldn't it be easier to just make a remote control unit for robot bodies for remote work? If I figure out VR I could have them use it to remotely control a robot synth body. Player Character style. That would mean I'd have to improve robot tech, which isn't a terrible idea, especially with how much robotics has progressed in the last three years.

Stasis for long trips so people don't die on the way to their location. That seems quite important actually. Could be used for medical purposes as well. That seems like an important tech. I'll work on that one too. I should make a list. I'm going to make a list. Oh shuttle to surface? I already have the arrowhead series for that. I should design a Carrier Ship, wait, come on David don't get distracted. What else are they suggesting? FTL Comms. That is incredibly important. I already have really strong life support, I mean the Highstar is capable of supporting thousands of people. Maybe I should start working on a Space Colony for people to try out?

Honestly the highest priority should be a fabricator type thing. Something that can take raw material and spit out what people need. A 3d printer for all components. A factory builder for the factorio type. I need to do some research but I already have a few ideas. I need to make it where a single person could make an entire base on any planet. I could do that. I think.

I organize my priority list.

1. Recycler and Fabricator. I need to make something good enough to use regularly. Make it where you can scrap parts of a ship to make it where it still works if other parts are missing.

2. FTL Comms, No matter what that is a priority. I've got some ideas. Honestly micro-wormholes would probably be the way to go for this. In my head this is a higher priority than actual FTL, .

3. VR. This is important for practice and entertainment. It would allow people to test out equipment and get a hold of things before messing with the real deal.

I'll keep it simple and work towards these three. "Hey Adam?"

"Yes Sir?" The response was instant.

"Can you get all the data you can on current material crafting methods and recycling methods. I need to do some research for the next project."

"Yes Sir."

Alright then. "I'l leave after you get the data, I've got some more work to get done back at the base." There was no response but a few minutes later the shuttle was getting a data upload. Well then. I'm going to play some games while I wait.

—

China, The Imperial Fortress.

Wang Long growled as he walked to the strategy room. The war wasn't going as planned and he wasn't a fool. He knew that total victory looked improbable at this moment.

Walking in he saw the other generals grouped together and whispering to one another. He had to repeat himself in his head. He was no fool. He took the actions he had because he knew they could win. Now, due to the stupidity of the other Generals, their repeated attempts to gain honor by defeating the U.S. Troops had led to them suffering loss after loss till he stepped in and had the army bunker down and defended instead of going head to head with the U.S. Military by repeatedly attacking.

Ideally he could stall the U.S. front, rebuild Coalition forces and get them back into the war. But instead of doing that he had to return here to deal with the other Generals trying to overstep in his absence.

General Li Quang "General Wang Long. Good for you to join us." He realized something was off immediately. Li Quang was disgraced, all the Generals in this room except for him had lost against the U.S.. So why do they look so arrogant?

Not to mention, why was Li Quang in his spot at the head of the Strategic Discussion table. Wang Long reached into his jacket and subtly pressed a button. "I have come because I heard that you were going to do something truly stupid."

Li Quang chuckled. "Stupid? No, the one doing the stupid action is all you. No we are the heroes that ousted a rogue general that killed the Emperor and nuked the U.S."

Long Wang wasn't a fool, he would repeat this a third time in his head. He knew exactly what this was. It was a coup. But his eyes widened slightly anyway. "You didn't."

"You don't need to know regardless." Li Quang replied with a grin. Imperial Soldiers entered the room. "Seize the traitor."

Suddenly the door slammed open. It was one of the people that dealt with battle reports. "Generals! The nukes were stolen into the sky! The United Star Front said they are now interfering in the war as China has attempted to use nuclear weapons!?!" He shouted in a confused and questioning tone. He was about to speak more than his eyes registered the scene in front of him.

Then the scene got a bit more chaotic as soldiers poured in, wearing the emblem of Long Wang's army. Immediately starting a shoot out as the Generals took cover. After taking cover Wang Long pulled out his phone, and opened a certain app. A recording of the previous conversation was uploaded to the United Star Front Forums; he was not going to go down just because these foolish generals wanted to overthrow him.

Then he made a separate call. His agent within the palace answered giving confirmation. The body double he had put into place for the Emperor's protection had been killed. He wasn't going to go down in history as the one that overthrew the Emperor by killing him. No, he had planned to prove to the him that he was a better investment than the United Star Front. All he needed to do was succeed and the Emperor who wanted to retire regardless in order to go back to his debauchery will voluntarily hand him the position of Emperor. Instead he was dealing with schemes and backstabbing, chuckling slightly at the irony, after all, he did it first. "Live and learn." He followed his troops escaping the fight.
 
Last edited:
36
Right when I'm going to leave, the moment I'm going to turn around and go back to Venus. They overplay their hand.

It was time to bring down the thunder. Drones were in the air and targets were identified. They looked like the Sentinels from Halo honestly. Attached to them are gravity guns. What were they doing?

Several things actually. There were over a hundred different types of drones going into China from the shuttles I had in space. Armistice had brought a small fleet of twelve Arrowheads. Each configured into a Drone Carrier Variant. Meanwhile the Highstar was now hovering above the Imperial City.

The light effects were put into place and were causing an active intimidation effect. The awe inspiring ship had turned into terror inducing. It looked like it was fully ready to drop dozens of lasers onto the populace. The A.I.'s were working in tandem to disable the Chinese defences. Radiowave type weapons disabled the soldiers manning the defenses, while gravity gun drones tore the AA guns apart by hand. Mining Drones would land on tanks and mechs and dig through their joints completely disabling them. Sure they destroyed a couple hundred of the drones with gun fire. But we had thousands. Honestly I'm pretty sure this is going to intimidate the rest of the world as I am taking apart one of the strongest countries in the world by just drone rushing the place. The thing is, this wouldn't work against me, I have anti-riot weaponry built inspired by Zero-K to deal with my own tactics.

What's even better about all this? The A.I.'s doing this entirely non-lethally. My tech was better than what the U.S. had. I wasn't going to share everything with them till they joined the United Star Front. So despite them having varied tech based on my Kinetic Drives, I had more powerful versions. Every few minutes a new high ranking Chinese member was captured and pulled into a cell via gravity guns. Now then, where the hell is Long Wang?

Armistice was tracking everything down but Long Wang had somehow disappeared from existence entirely. Sure the guy cleared his name from the attempt at using nukes but he was still important as I couldn't fully end this war till he was captured.

"Creator!"

"What up?" I said as I overlooked the map.

"I am running into problems with the United States Army, they are trying to push further in and take advantage of the chaos."

"Get me in contact with their general." I replied without thinking.

A few moments later. A hologram of a man in a uniform appeared. "What does the United Star Front want?"

"Your forces. Pull them back." I replied. He frowned, a light glare came from him.

"China has to answer to us. They attacked us and were going to nuke us."

I nodded, "They threatened the United Star Front charter and threatened all human life on Earth. This is now a USF matter. The President of the United States can talk during the USF Trial of these people if he wishes. But for now I need the U.S. to back out."

"We don't answer to foreign powers." He replied with a straight face.

"Are you threatening war with the USF as well?" I replied. "If you continue this path you will attract our attention."

He froze at that. Contemplating before laughing. "You think we are afraid of you? We are the strongest nation in the world, you think we will be pressured by the USF?"

I grinned, "Maybe not the USF entirely, but you will be by me. If you don't back off, the United States will no longer receive technology from me."

He was about to talk, when another figure entered, and I saw the man get physically restrained and pulled out of view. A different suited man spoke. "We will pull back our forces."

"Good." I replied. It's always good to have leverage. Now then, back to China.
 
37
I can finally relax. China is in a period of chaos. Well, not really I have drones maintaining order and a ready stream of people happy to work with me there. The A.I. instances here are quite taken with it. I've decided to copy the memory packets for the originals and finish up the missing data for these A.I. to make them their own separate A.I. this is actually the reason A.I. don't have completely equal rights, because they can do stuff like this. Just make more of themselves and manipulate things like votes or majority rules. Instead they have what I call Freeman rights A.I. Basically A.I. can be made to fulfill a role and can work earnestly in that role. However they can leave that role and do other things if they so wished. But they don't hold the right to vote due to the way they are. If they wish to they have to show that they are a singular mind, and aren't a copy of another A.I. Or prove they diverged enough as a copy to count as their own person. It's still a work in progress the A.I. themselves are actually working it.

Typically A.I. leaving their roles won't happen because A.I. are purpose made most of the time. But it can occur. After that the other A.I. are in charge of helping preserve the rights of said A.I. in the end ideally in the end they will have their own side government that manages A.I. protects them, and helps make it where future A.I. will manage their own evolving situations due to how fast A.I.s process things compared to humans.

I really need to make basic A.I. at some point. I can make sapient Star Wars type battle droids if I wanted to with those. They would help augment the workforce especially since they actually would enjoy repetitive work as long as they are maintained and not abused.

Although the biological A.I. plans are a bit confusing to me. The A.I. plans perk gave me sets of plans based around different types of A.I. Peak, Advanced, Basic, Stupid. There was also biological versions that used something called a bio-womb which I do not have but have a decent idea on how to build now. Most of them were anthro furry designs. They were all classified as Learning A.I. meaning they could learn and adapt to their roles. It also included the program for an inbuilt logic loop that ran on air gapped programming despite being in the same architecture as the actual program. This is what made the A.I. unhackable. Since nothing can actually reach the brain behind their personality. That does not mean they can't be hacked though. Their memory can be copied or viewed if physical access to their system is gained or if the network they are on is hacked by a foreign intelligence. They would just have the ability to interfere and shut down the attempt.

Why am I going over this, well I'll get back to that in a moment, the perk says that they can't be hacked. Yet their memory can be viewed and their actions tracked. They just can't be converted or changed from their task. I want to fix this. The easiest method I can think of is an incredibly strong firewall and detection software. Which I can make. I have the perks, knowledge, and experience to make Smart Programs that were based on learning A.I. even though they aren't actually A.I. I can make an adaptive program that the A.I. can control to protect themselves from intrusion.

I also should note, none of the A.I. I have right now are actually capable of hacking. They can learn, but it's not something they were built for in mind. I may need to make infiltrator A.I. for future hostile elements. Not yet, I'm still working with my current A.I. I should also check for any broken architecture in the A.I.'s I do have, as they are all Instanced copies of Adam's original files, just altered to fit their roles. The reason they are all male because they share the same original datasets.

I should probably also get protections in place so when people start making their own A.I. we don't have situations like in Doki Doki Literature club or that Mi game occur in real life. Lot's of ethical rules need to be put in place before that tech is shared among the USF.

This is all important because it leads to me realizing that knowledge can be used to create fabricators. I didn't advance to the point to make nanites. But someone on Earth in Britain made Microbots, Big Hero 6 style. I take the concept from that, send that lady a big ole check and a recruitment offer. Take the tech, expand on it. Then make a specialized Stupid AI that would be the partner of every human that goes to space. Each human would have a multitool that was stuffed full of nanites. These specialized nanites could be commanded from the Stupid level AI. to build preprogrammed blueprints, and use the environment to make specialized tools to survive said environments.

This project isn't complete yet. Because it comes with a ton of ethical dilemmas. How smart should I make these assistant A.I. 's what if they evolve beyond their original purpose. How much upward mobility should they have? Not to mention the tech itself isn't fully complete yet. It's a work in progress. I was figuring out how to fold space, and was making tremendous strides in developing a new space manipulation type of drive instead of the kinesis one. I also had to develop nanites, but with existing information it wouldn't take long for me to figure that out. My perks were synergizing to make this shockingly easy to do as it used knowledge I learned from all of my previous research and experiments.

Still, once finished. That would be the both Recycler and Fabricator basically done. I just need time to work on it, instead of worrying about politics and warcrimes. I want to just put Adam in charge but that would be stupid… right?

Actually… could Adam pretend to be me?

I mean, he's been studying humans the entire time I've been gone, he's got a dating app that is somehow working despite all dating apps failing in the past, he has improved the GuardianLife companion app way beyond its original functionality. Eh, what the hell, I'll throw it on Adam and have him pretend to be me while I go waste away in my warehouse for a few weeks and finish this tech.
 
38
"I am not going to pretend to be you just so you can disappear into your secret lab."

Adam responded to my request. I sighed. "Welp, was worth a shot. There is just so much to do." I replied while taking a sip of very useful liquid.

"No creating an A.I. to do it for you either." Adam interjected.

I shrugged. "Didn't plan on it. Got a better understanding of how you all work since I made you."

Been playing around with tons of ideas. Most which require tech I haven't figured out yet. "Alright. Council Meeting time."

13 holograms appeared around me.

"Alright. I've delayed long enough. Time to put my genius to action. First up, we get China back to its feet where it can run itself. Easy to do, we have the methods for it already. Adam!" His attention was on me. "Get some drones and start spreading the GuardianLife companion app, it has all the laws and information they need to adapt to being a part of the United Star Front." I turned to Construct, Yard's instance turned individual A.I. "Construct. Start getting some builder drones together and start some factories here in China. Recruit some locals if you have to. Tory you work with Construct on this, efficiency is secondary, get them up and running." Tory is Factor's instance of Factor turned A.I.

Next, "Docta, Go through Medical Institutions here in China, make sure we don't have any secret organ trafficking rings and such. Armistice will work with you. Make sure our people aren't getting screwed, spread out the use of the Booster Serum so we can save more lives."

"Script, Accelerator. You are on background duty. You work with infrastructure and make sure nothing is falling behind. Keep sanitation and housing functioning."

"Archeo, You are going to work on my idea, send me progress reports as you progress. Agent, you are working with me. You're my assistant for the political crap shoot I'm going to have to deal with for the next few days."

Adam spoke, "Sir? Are you the real David Gard?"

I blinked. "The heck you on about?"

"I've never seen you actually take initiative and think this hard, normally you just follow what everyone tells you."

Oh, "That's cause I'm really freakin lazy. But I took a booster earlier and now my will to do things has massively improved." I replied with a shrug. "Easier to trust than take action." Really should not have made it this far. I put way too much faith in the U.S. government despite knowing how many times they screwed people in my previous life. I think it may have been a mix of depression and my young mind, just going with the flow instead of actually doing the smart thing. My relationship with my family in this world really screwed me up now that I think of it, I hadn't been used like that in my old world so I wasn't expecting it.

Now then. "Let's get moving on. You three," I focused on the last three A.I. "Cargolis, you are inventory duty, get a hold of everything we control now. Collect data and figure just how much of the world we now hold. Radwave, take control of the internet in this region and reinforce it. I want everyone to be connected, get free internet set up, it will help us more in the long run. Lastly, Expedition, I want you manage the army. Get them to work with the other A.I. and help make sure chaos doesn't last here in China." I clapped my hands. "Go!"

All holograms but one disappeared and outside the viewport I saw even more drones start deploying. We were definitely running low on drones. I walked over to the cockpit, taking a seat as I sipped some more on my booster serum. Way better than coffee. "Agent, it's time I answer my calls.
 
39
2022, January 3rd, the first day since I started to actually take action. The first thing I had to do was prevent exploitation of my newly added citizens. Meaning I had to deal with the USA and what they were owed for the attack and war. I wasn't really interested in reclaiming lost territory because I was more focused on the space side of things than a few strips of land on Earth.

This is where I ran into a fun and rather informing issue. The U.S. did not want the land they conquered. I was confused at first then I realized. If they kept it, they would have to take responsibility for the locals, the land and developing said land. What they wanted was for me to buy back said land while keeping free trade rights. Basically they wanted the benefits of owning the land without being responsible for it. It would also likely be turned into its own state if it integrates meaning it would upset the balance of their elections.

Long term, it is way more beneficial for me to simply give up the lost land on Earth because I would pay less, and I could replace the land with space habitats and land on other planets. I took full advantage of that, and with my more energized state I think I was really troubling the U.S. President, Actually I knew I was troubling him because my MO had completely changed. I was no longer in the background but now at the forefront and actually talking.

Back in China things were a bit chaotic. A lot of people were going straight to jail. I was arresting thousands. Why? Well, it turns out China had a thriving underworld in this world linked to noble families, human trafficking, extortion, drug trade, you name it they were doing it. I had to put trials on hold and was likely grabbing innocent people in the process but there were so many that the priority was to get them off the street before anyone was harmed or they tried to take more territory or cause chaos. Docta was way overwhelmed by the sheer number of patients they were having to deal with and factories dedicated to producing Booster Serum were being worked on in the dozens. China was about to be the largest producer of Booster Serum in the world, and most of it would likely be used domestically. A cure for most problems the human body can face is apparently incredibly valuable, who knew.

That was on the first day, second day I was still negotiating, dealing with what would have been a headache if not for my regular supply of booster serum. I think they believe my change is temporary and that I will eventually go back to the docile researcher I was before. Eh, they will realise the mental effects of booster serum as they test it more. Domestically the number of arrests were slowing drastically. The criminal underground had gone into hiding, and I was still tracking them down. It helps that they use tattoos to mark gang affiliations. We were up to seven prisons and over a hundred thousand people in jail. It wasn't much compared to the millions in China, but these people were oppressing those millions.

I was gaining tons of support incredibly quickly as well. People were actively praising the USF actions here in China, there was criticism, but the positive feedback was way higher. I did say during a speech that all those imprisoned would be processed eventually. In the afternoons I was correcting mistakes in the reports that Archeo sent me, massively speeding up his progress. Odds are that it would need my personal touch to fully push the idea to the finish line.

February 12th, 2022.

I found the former Emperor. Guy was shockingly not dead. He was living a NEET life in a safehouse just hiding from the world. Docta did a diagnosis on him and we found that not only was he suicidally depressed. He was also dealing with an extreme case of dissociation. It was likely something that occurred when all his brothers and sisters assassinated each other. Only reason he was still alive was cause he didn't want to cause chaos by committing suicide. One of the reasons he was interested in having China join the USF. By this point through repeated testing I could confirm now. Especially with how the former Emperor acted when given boost serum that we now know for sure that boost serum regulates the emotional center of the brain preventing trauma from inhibiting actions. Doesn't treat it, I mean it can. It just takes a long time and repeated dosage to treat it.

Aside from that I was still not done negotiating with the U.S. we were making progress though. The side project with Archeo was going well too as I was having to fix fewer and fewer issues as they worked on figuring out how to make nanites. Surprisingly it was several times faster than me doing it on my own. Figured out later due to some pictures that Archeo was experimenting at fifty times the rate I was to match the work of my genius perks. So in order to catch up to my mind he had to basically test on a large scale collecting as much data as possible. I mean, it is one way to do it. Just throw experiment after experiment to the wall till something sticks. Just needs me to guide him a bit so he can actually progress. Data without direction just sits there doing nothing.
 
40
[A/N: One More Small Update before I head to sleep for work tomorrow.]

"So we have a deal?" President Sutton asked.

I smiled and held my hand out. "Of course!" He went to shake my hand, only to phase through it. We both looked, "Ah, sorry. Forgot for a moment that I was just a hologram."

He snorted, "Why are you a hologram in an important meeting like this one?!"

"Security mostly. I've had dozens of assassination attempts ever since I interfered. Opsec requires me to stay secured."

He started looking at corners. "Does that mean I am in danger here?"

I shook my head no. "Possibly, but no more than the White House. The hologram thing is primarily for public appearances. I'm just happy to finally reach a deal. Tired of all these meetings. I have a ton of new tech I have to research and figure out. Not to mention taking a look at the accelerator drives and seeing how those tick."

He had a look of sympathy, but then in a questioning tone. "Why did you leave the U.S.? I was curious ever since I became President."

I blinked, looking at him. "You don't know?"

He looked confused at my question. I laughed a little at that. "You should take a look at classified documents. There should be a file somewhere in there telling you exactly why I left. Hmm. Alright, now that we are done here I need to get going. I've a lot of work to do today." I turned, then paused. "Oh wait, before I got I have a list of Chinese gangs that have snuck into the U.S. Something for your Homeland Security to deal with."

He frowned as a drone flew in and placed a folder on the table. "What are Chinese gangs doing in the United States?"

"Fleeing the law. I've been dismantling the underground here." I replied. "Alright, I'll get going."

"What about the deal? You have to sign it for it to be legitimate." He asked a bit concerned.

I nodded. "I'll be heading down at some point this week to sign it. Leave it with your Ambassador and I'll show up to sign it at some point this week. Does that work?"

He nodded. "That is fine with me." I waved bye as I cut the connection.

I sat down, grin on my face. A month and a half of negotiating, dealing with the mess in China, and dealing with the remains of the criminal underground has been busy. Sure I had off loaded it to my A.I.'s. But personal verification of most tasks were on me. I was on Earth actually, and was staying in a temple as a guest. Very polite monks, I try not to intrude too much. I was only visiting for a few hours to clear my mind.

Beautiful place. I expect to see more like it in space. Especially as the Japanese start reaching to the stars as well.

I also had something to toy with now. The creatures in the underground labyrinth did not like Aristical's drones and tried to attack them. But he was able to collect some Element Zero for me. So I now had a 5 inch cube of eezo to experiment with. I'm really excited to toy with it. It was in a hazard crate for now. Apparently it was tricky to hold with kinesis fields, the fields kept slipping. He discovered it was better to hold the cube containing the matter instead of holding the matter itself. I'll have to examine that interaction.
 
41
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!
 
42
"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.
 
43
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.
 
44
"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.
 
45
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.
 
Last edited:
46
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.
 
Update 47 New
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.
 
Update 48 New
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
 
Update 49 New
"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.
 
Update 50 New
"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."
 
Update 51 New
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.
 
Update 52 New
[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.
 
Update 53 New
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.
 
Arc 2, Update 54 New
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!
 
Arc 2, Update 55 New
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.
 
Arc 2, Update 56 New
The most drunk drink in the world right now is Health Booster. I'm no exception to that rule. We were currently in one of the spaceports waiting rooms. With a magnificent view of the city. In the year since David Gard basically conquered China the cities here have completely transformed. Robots were used to make the cities more livable for the excessive population and the City's law and order is incredibly high. Honestly, at this point it surpassed his home in Britain. Although, considering the problems back home it's to be expected.

One of the reasons he left Great Britain actually. He was doing two things. Following his dreams and getting out of the incoming civil war. He wasn't blind, there were three powers in Great Britain right now, which was causing the Country to be so isolated despite supposedly being one of the strongest countries. You had the Noble Faction, and the Other Noble Faction, known as the Bloodline and the Commonality. The Commonality wanted to democratize the country and had a majority support from the common citizen. The Bloodline were a faction that believed they were superior to the common people, and despite not being popular, they had private armies and people loyal to them.

Then you had the Royals. Who were indecisive at the moment and dealing with excessive amounts of family drama and an internal war over the heir to the throne. Barely even paying attention to the common people at this point. Although he heard that the Second Prince was a good egg.

Oh well, I don't really care to think too hard about that now. After today it won't be my problem. Looking at the door, two more people entered the room. Escorted by a drone.

I looked at the gathering and took in all their details. I instantly noticed something. Despite the varied backgrounds each person had something in common. They were all smiling, or generally interacting with each other positively. Naturally I wasn't going to be left behind, no point in being a brooding detective.

"So you were working on documenting volcanos?" -

"Yep, It was actually rather interesting. You'd be surprised what you can learn from a few soil samples alone. The scanners were a larger help though."

"Fascinating."

I spoke up, "Well, since we are all here now… Director, would you do the honors?"

He grinned, "It's good to meet you all. I am Director Carter. I'll be in charge of our expedition to space. Making important decisions making sure we don't die from a stupid avoidable mistake. To start with let's go around, introduce yourself and your position while our ship is prepped for us to leave."

"I am Lin, no last name. I have the title of assistant."

"My name is Zhao Mei! I am an Archaeologist."

"I am Mikhail Orlov, you can call me Mikhail. Or Mik. I am a Bio Researcher. Mess with cells and such. I am qualified doctor if need comes."

"My name is Haruto Takahashi, I am an engineer. Sorry about the smoke. It is a bad habit but I figured I'd have one more before we took off, releasing the nerves."

"It's not really an issue anymore." Zhao Mei replied, gesturing to the booster drinks.

"My name is David, David Rickson. I am the Cameraman." That… was kind of obvious. He was covered in equipment, most importantly floating next to him was a floating camera ball, the red light on it signalling it was recording.

We turned to the last one, obviously the other assistant. The last guy was a big muscular white guy. "My name is Chad Wilkin! If you need help moving stuff let me know!"

After that, we chatted a bit more. Nothing really complex, mainly small talk before Shift floated back in.

"Good! It appears you are integrating well with one another! That is great. We will be going through a few more exercises before we take off. Standard stuff to make sure you are ready. Also a few last second tests to make sure you are all fully functioning. Please follow me."

We followed the floating drone out, and I couldn't help but look outside the windows at the Spaceport Facility, I could see parts being put into place to build small ships, and fully constructed starships of varying sizes, from the size of a small car to a full on blimp, and further back, I saw it. Well, part of it. There was a large ship in the furthest back area of the place.

"Please take a seat!"

I glanced back at the group. We were getting into a large booth like train thing. I believe this is one of the gravity rails used for navigating large facilities. Apparently they are everywhere on the larger space stations. Helps people get from one area to another area of a facility incredibly quickly without having to walk a mile to get from room to room.

When everyone took a seat, it started to move. I didn't even feel it move, instead I knew it was moving cause everything outside the booth blurred. Amazing. I don't feel sick, or feel like I am on a roller coaster. Then, less than a second later the surroundings stopped being blurry. Shift spoke again, "Please step off the Gravrail."

"I've never road a gravrail before." Lin spoke looking at the thing in awe.

Shift replied to him. "They are relatively new technology. Developed by Toyota actually. They are basically just a specially designed mix of Accelerator Drives and Kinesis Drives, but they work really well. Last I heard the others were talking about hiring Toyota to make a full on Gravrail system in this city."

"Fascinating." I replied. That would have made my trip here so much easier.

Then Haruto spoke, "I thought all USF Tech was developed by the USF?"

Shift's drone chuckled, weirdly human despite being a A.I. "That is a common misconception. Most of the technology we use was refined by other groups, we just provided the entry tech to allow it to be possible. The gravity gloves made by the Tesla Company for example are upgraded versions of the gravity guns, reducing the weight of anything you touch till you can easily move it. If the USF was paving the path of technology alone, Director Gard would not be able to pave new avenues or tech or refine tech further."

That is pretty fascinating. So David Gard made the building blocks of this technology, then others pushed it in different directions to be used in more civil life. Like Radios did after World War 1.

—

We separated from one eventually, mainly for tests. It was fast though. One thing I like about the new high tech needles, you don't feel anything when it pulls blood from your body. It was apparently refined deconstruction tech, uses tiny needles invisible to the naked eye to make a cut then stitches it back together using your own skin. I don't feel a thing from it. All it feels like is a tiny tube pushed against your arm before being removed a second later. The blood loss makes my arm feel a bit weak for a minute or two but I recover fast enough.

After that was it was various zero-g tests. We entered specialized rooms with the kinesis suits and learned how to manipulate the suit.

"Oh, now this is trippy." I said, I was walking on the air upside down. You could freeze your foot falls to move as if you are on the ground.

"Aren't we supposed to be uncontrollable in space?" Terrenace asked, he was standing sideways in the air.

Shift pulled their drone over. "Realspace Manipulators. That large pack on your back? It allows you to move as if you were on a flat surface, even if you are not."

"This is a weird sense of vertigo." Lin spoke, They were messing with the settings on their wrist and walking in circles, I mean their head was never where their feet was, they were treating it like a hamster wheel that didn't move and they could stick to.

Director Carter was jumping, turning disabling the realspace drive to fly across the fan room, before turning it back on to stop himself from hitting the other wall.

"Did Director Gard come up with this?" Zhao Mei asked, curiosity beaming.

"No. The Realspace Manipulator was designed and made by a Russian Company known as Blue Bear Industries. We purchased them in bulk after testing and realizing that they were incredibly useful in space. Originally they were meant for deep sea expeditions, they have since been repurposed."

Now I'm curious. "What was built by the USF?"

"Your fabricators. Which reminds me. It is time for the next test, please enable your real space manipulators and walk to the exit, unless you would like to fall onto the grate when the fans turn off."

Well, there goes that fun. I reorient myself to the exit. Fabricators huh. Time to see what they do.
 
Arc 2, Update 58 New
We were moving about the USF Star Seeker. Examining equipment, moving things into place. We had long lifted off of Earth. We were currently in the plotting stage. Director Carter was in the command center talking with Astha, planning the expedition to Alpha Centauri. Soon we will be the first human explorers beyond- "Huh, what is the Highstar doing?" I spoke looking out the window. Interrupting the others as they focused on where I was looking. Off in the distance the Highstar was coming next to our starship.

We looked at each other. Lin put up the suggestion first. "Command Center?"

A few moments later we grabbed onto the we walked into the Command Center. Displayed in the center was a person in a very different space suit, black camo instead of the various colors we deployed.

Carter spoke, "OH, that is the rest of my crew now."

I spoke, "What's the Highstar interested in us for?"

The figure spoke, the voice was masculine enough, probably a man. "The Highstar will be escorting your ship for this expedition."

Another hologram appeared, this one in a very different green suit. We all knew who this was, the USF Director Insignia on display on the top right of his chest. Director David Gard. "Hello. Highstar and Starseeker, this will be our first journey out of the star system. For safety reasons, and to set up for future expeditions, the USF Starseeker will be escorted by the USF Highstar. For the safety of our expedition team. In the future, expedition ships will be escorted by drone escorts. For now the Highstar will be your escort."

Carter spoke, "Director, I have to ask, why aren't you coming? Isn't it your dream to reach into space?"

He chuckled. "My dream was to help humanity reach into space. I'll be exploring the cosmos later. I have too many projects to work on. I still need to make it as safe as possible." He sounds so confident that he can do that. No hesitation at all in his voice. He continued. "This will be a test of our FTL Comms units as well. In theory you should be able to talk to us without any lag all the way in from the Alpha Centauri system. But that is a theory, it has to be proven first." He then turned his focus, "Commander Calder. Your job will be to escort the USF Starseeker. This should be an easy mission as I haven't detected anything anomalous over at Alpha Centauri, but just in case I want you on guard."

The Blackcamo suit saluted, "Yes Sir!"

"Good luck everyone. You are to engage in FTL by seven tonight." Director David Gard cut off his transmission.

Commander Calder spoke, "I'll have our A.I. Alana coordinate with your A.I. The USF Highstar shall enter the system first, and you should be in a few moments later. If there is something on the other side the USF Highstar will deal with it.

"Understood Commander Calder." Director Carter responded then the hologram cut off as the call ended. He turned, I could see his smile under his helmet. "Alright you heard them. Get the lab rooms set up and strap things down. We got three hours till we leave the system!"

It was a flurry of movement from the others, he looks at me. "Don't you have something to do?"

"Computer Lab is already set up for me. Need help?" I replied. He paused for a moment. "Actually, yes. Can you check on the microscope scanners on the bottom of the ship? You have to go on a space walk for this, but it would be helpful."

I nodded. "I can do that, Astha can you escort me to an airlock that will lead me to the microscope scanners?"

The hologram appeared. "Yes I can. Follow me."

As she walked, I can't help but wonder, why in the world is she swaying her hips like that?!
 
Arc 2, Update 59 New
The ship shook, everyone was inside, and watching intently. Before in their vision the world started to split, white lines formed in space as white bubbles started covering both starships. However, once the bubble fully covered them, they were still hovering in the same place.

I spoke out loud, "So… this is how this works?"

Astha chuckled, "FTL Bubbles are active. Waiting on you Alana."

A comms communication hit back. "Hitting thrust in 3. 2. 1.-"

The stars around us shifted, becoming white lines, as the planets disappeared. Carter asked "How long till we are there?"

Astha looked into the air, "Six minutes."

That is absurd. "I thought it would take hours." Terrence spoke, "Didn't the briefing say it would?"

"That was for version 0.3 of the FTL Drive. We are already at version 1.5." Astha replied.

Lin spoke, "We already have multiple versions of the FTL Drive?!"

"It's an active project. It's being refined by multiple people daily. It's only natural for it to progress." Astha replied.

"So… what are you expecting Director Carter?" Haruto asked, looking over at the Director.

Carter shrugged. "Not much honestly. We have really good documentation on the Alpha Centauri star system. There is one Garden World, and a few other celestial bodies we can investigate the system. For the most part this will be a data collection trip. Four total planets including the garden world."

"Wait, weren't there only two planets?" Trisha asked.

Carter replied to that, "Upgraded scanners, we are able to get a good idea of the star systems in several light years."

Astha interrupted. "Exiting FTL in Three, two… one."

The surroundings stopped being blurry, and outside the window we could see three stars, and several small asteroids and four planets, two of them being rather small, but one looking rather similar to Earth.

"Welcome to Alpha Centauri." Astha spoke, "Receiving connection from Hightstar."

A familiar hologram appeared. It was the same figure as last time, Commander Calder. "Highstar is going to take an escort position while you work. Take your time."

"Understood." Carter replied before standing up and doing a minor stretch. The call ending, "Alright, you heard them. We will start by collecting samples and running samples of the lifeless planets, finishing up with Centauri B. Since that thing is looking rather habitable from orbit."

—

The rest of this… was actually rather boring. I spent most of the time just examining what we took pictures of to see if we missed anything. Which hadn't been anything so far. It would likely take us a few days to finish scanning everything. Most of it was actually automated, even a portion of going over the data was looked at from Science AI's in the Sol System.

I want to use the FTL Engine again to go to another system, that was cool. Maybe we could find something.

"Detective Williams, can you take a look at this?" Zhao Mei asked, looking up from her monitor.

I sighed, and came over, it was a picture of one of the moons. I paused. Looking closer. That is not natural. "Are you talking about this?" I said pointing at the unnatural structure.

"What?" She looked, "Oh, no. I was talking about this." She pointed to a separate picture, it was a bunch of dunes in one of the moons… or these are from the same moon.

"That." I paused, "That is an anomaly."

Everyone started crowding.

Director Carter spoke, "We have located an unidentified structure, possibly a ruin?"

A hologram appeared shortly, two in fact. It was Commander Calder and USF Director David Gard. He was bent over looking at the details, obviously what was sent back. Calder was taking a more obvious approach, placing the Highstar between them and the anomaly. "Orders Director?"

Gard tapped the bottom of his helmet. "Send drones to take closer pictures before we investigate further. For now I want the Starseeker to finish surveying the rest of the system. We will take a look at this anomaly further after to see just what it is."

So this is going to be more interesting than I thought.
 
View content
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top