This is a re-write of a previous story that will attempt to fix my previous lack of writing...
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Modded Factorio Multicross SI Rev.2
- Thread starter ReiZetsubou
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01: The beginning
ReiZetsubou
Melancholia
- Joined
- May 1, 2016
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This is a re-write of a previous story that will attempt to fix my previous lack of writing ability. With an emphasis on "attempt". I had time during the lockdown.
I woke up to an unfamiliar moon. Lifting myself up, I looked around and found a desolate multicolored savannah. Looking down, I found myself wearing a high tech suit designed for heavy labor with wrenches and multi-tools on the many belts.
I looked back at the moon and shook my head while sighing in annoyance.
"What have you got yourself in now Nikki?" I spoke into the void.
Seeing as I somehow got this situation I chose a random direction to walk through and went to a field of purple minerals. During the short trip I finally notice a heads up display in my vision. It showed me the temperature, air composition, and much more. But what was most important, was the quick access tab showing me the various objects I got in a dimensional inventory.
"What the hell is this shit?"
Somehow consciously taking a vehicle out of my inventory, I watched as it instantaneously appeared in front of me. It was a mobile factory, a tracked vehicle with a twin-barrel turret and an internal dimensional sub-space that can be expanded to the size of Extremexul gigaparsecs.
Entering the mobile factory, I appeared in a void. The only thing in existence is the platform beneath me and the box that connected to the trunk of the vehicle.
"Handy"
I told myself before exiting the mobile factory and driving the rest of the way to the mineral deposits a few clicks away. All the while thinking about how the hell I got myself in my modded Factorio game. There was no point in useless conjecture so I put that away in my mind until I got conclusive evidence.
Arriving at the crystals, I got off and found a dense field of hematite, limonite, chalcopyrite, durotal and many more in individual clusters. What I was more interested in was the purple crystals jugging out of the ground that glowed from impossible angles. Dimensions twisting and churning in the crystal matrix. This was the matter that could create entire universes in sufficient quantities: Dimensional Matter.
"Infinite ore density?" I wondered.
"Isekai'd into my modded Factorio playthrough..."
"Ah whatever, it isn't like I wasn't just rotting away at home with no friends or family to speak of"
I sighed and put down a Mining Depot and deployed some mining drones from the building. The extremely rudimentary human-shaped robots AI looking for only one specific ore per building. They walked at a slow pace to the iron patch and starting mining with pickaxes. It was somewhat comical how efficient they are considering how they work on video-game logic.
Mining some boulders with my own pickaxe, I made some few hundreds of stone furnaces and starting refining some iron and copper plates. After that, I build some Burner Labs and deployed my personal Construction Drones to mine all the wood around me. They looked like white cubes with tracks beneath them and dots and lines showing a smiley face on their monitors. They are extremely cute if I do say myself.
I also remembered the AAI Mods also gave me RTS units with their own unique control scheme. With all the mods, I might as well be a Commander unit. I just need a little bit more time to ramp up to the interstellar level. I deployed some Mining Vehicles and let their automated AI do their own thing. I might have to worry about the amount of coal needed to power all of my equipment, but my Mining Depots don't need power for some reason. The modder might have to nerf that a bit. Or maybe it messed up balance somehow when it required power?
After researching all the basic tech. I set up a complex smelting array, while the throughput didn't support its mainframe, I designed it for future upgrades in mind. I don't want to place hundreds of refineries and then to destroy them all again once I got a better design. Better allow some inefficiency at the beginning to better future-proof everything.
For the power, I used a combination of Burner Generators and Yuoki SS Steam Generators. They both relied on coals but the Burners were somewhat easier to build and set up. Of course sooner or later they will start to take too much space and I had to go full fission or fusion.
After a while, some Biters started noticing the pollution and attacked the base. This is where my favorite mod came into play. It introduced a moba-like magic system on my hud. Throwing a few fireballs at the Biters, they writhed in pain and died as they turned to charred husks. I would have loved to cast Artillery Strike, but that used a different energy system.
Then I finally leveled up. That was some other mod that introduced RPG mechanics into the game. Doing stuff or killing biters gives me experience and I can put in points to increase my health, damage, speed, mining speed, inventory size, reach, etc.
Ignoring the potential hax that would bring in the future I started building a multi-lane bus that would constitute as the main source of materials for future factory forks. Essential materials and pipelines are neatly organized into easily digestible traffic system that I can branch off from.
It was a blur to me with how focused I am. I had no need for food, water or sleep. I tirelessly worked day and night and finally got my tech base up to a reasonable standard before I started expanding to space and other planets.
As hundred of thousands Inserters, Belts and miscellaneous get transported, I sported a rare smile for my accomplishment. I didn't even have to resort to the Black Market mod… Or the other gazillion mods I used in my playthrough for the lulz to see how I can juggle them all. Not very well as some might have guessed.
I should probably note down some important mods to see what I might have missed that can be potentially be used for exponential adaptation.
There was the Nano Emitter that I don't really use beyond turning the trees to sludge. That probably can be used as weapons and maybe researched for Commander adaptations.
There was Tenemut, the ore that contains Dark Matter. Don't ask me how non-baryonic matter can be contained inside a physical medium. While it wasn't terribly useful compared to some other things, it could be used to replicate simple compounds. Nothing complex. Maybe useful if I didn't have infinite resources. But with Strange Matter Fabricators, I have at least energy to matter technology that Commanders use.
There was the Infinite Research mod. It could infinitely increase the potential of everything. I could increase my mining speed so much that I could mine an entire planet away if my resources had enough throughput for the science packs. And throughput can be researched. Making that a moot point with enough time.
There are also Avatars, basically robotic clones that I could move my consciousness between. Could also act as a backup in a minor case of death. Of course, I wasn't going to test that unless it comes up during the situation.
And then we have the Kajiu. Building sized biters to challenge me within my playthrough. While dangerous, it wasn't something a few orbital nuclear M.I.R.V's couldn't fix. While not something I can use optimally, I could probably capture a few in shielded enclosures to keep as pets and intimidation tools.
I have also Factorissimo2. Basically stackable pocket dimensions that can even be placed in my Mobile Base. They are just cheaper, grounded alternatives to my mobile bases.
We also have Far Reach. Basically anything I can do one foot from me can be done as far as I can see. There is an actual limit, it just didn't matter much. I have drones and blueprints for that.
There are the Core, Mantle miners, furnaces, pipes, etc, Basically huge monolithic structures made initially so that my game wouldn't slow down due to too many entities. It was a huge lifesaver for factory arrays.
And there was Mod Mash. Multiple mods into one to add fun into your game. Ads a stackable underground dimension. Once again my mobile base wins that fight in inter-dimensional tech. And flying combat drones called Valkyries, a subspace network to teleport resources between any location. No matter the dimension. There were other mods but it wasn't that important.
And we have Nuclear Robots. They were expensive, but they are self-sustaining. I wouldn't have mentioned them if it didn't make them useful for a research base into Commander units. Have you ever heard an RTS unit that needed fuel? I thought so. Along with the handheld 150mw Fusion Reactor and Antimatter Reactor. They took care of all my energy needs.
And then there are the new power armors. I wasn't terribly worried about it too beyond the Commander aspect. I could always research them to add inventory slots for more Singulary Drives and Shield Generators. Combined with the stackable exoskeletons, it could increase my strength and speed to unnatural levels. I stacked a few dozen exoskeletons in-game once and went Mach 10. So fast that collision stopped working.
There is a shop where I can buy RPG items. A useful base for research once I went to magic worlds.
The third last is the Mobile Factory .mod. A mobile hovering base you can build with an expandable internal dimension. It also has Data Storage Buildings where you infinitely store items in a data network. There is also a tile called the void tile. It basically destroys a cubic meter of reality from existence. Which is pretty terrifying if you think about it.
The second last is the Space Exploration mod. It will make my life a whole lot easier not trying to figure out spaceflight from scratch. While I played KSP once in a while, I didn't have experience creating the operating system that can take space mechanics into account. The Quantum and Neural Supercomputers will come in handy to create an adaptive AI to accompany me. It also filled in the gaps of space-age meta-materials that other mods missed with how in-depth it went.
And finally the Recursive Blueprint mod. The final thing I'm working on before I start expanding into my Mobile Base and started leaving this dimension. I'm not going to abandon it with its infinite resources, but I made dimensions my bitch a long time ago. Distance has become a moot point when you can instantaneously transport resources. Even going to entirely different dimensions instead of creating them is workable with enough research according to my system's calculations.
Honestly. Too many technology bases to bother with the specifics. I'll just pretend that I'm a specialized Commander.
But honestly, though, my most favorite thing is the Tesla Gun. It fires lightning so powerful it can disintegrate rocks, trees, and biters in seconds. The best of all is that it arcs between objects. It's so powerful that it can destroy mountains with enough ammo. It's the most powerful weapon I can have on hand without relying on outside help such as nukes and orbital cannons.
Having enough written down, my research for Recursive Blueprints supercomputer was finally finished. I designed it with exponential growth in mind., it will take scanned data and destroys anything in its path and then place mining arrays or factories depending on certain factors. It wasn't connected to the orbital laser and nuclear weapons for fear of it running out of control, but it did have the ability to build turrets around walled modular blueprint structures.
After I placed the supercomputer down and a few rocket silos with auto-deployment instructions to the 8 planets in the system. I thought about it and also build a cryo-pod. While I didn't get tired per se, I was a bit mentally stressed. I would have slept in but I thought this would be a good time to skip the boring waiting part. This planet was a few times bigger than Jupiter and it would take years for my factory to cover the entire planet. While some biters might destroy some sections of the factory while I was away, I deemed it an acceptable loss and finally went to rest after 6 months.
The solution seemed rather simple to me. If there are Kajiu, you obviously need giant mechs. I had many designs to pull out from with my extensive mods, so I amalgamate them into a single research branch. The main problem is the
square-cube law. Even with the most advanced materials, the stresses the mech endured to perform their crazy maneuvers are just too much. So I took inspiration from Mechagodzilla and started capturing Kaiju biters and harvested their bones.
After initial research, I learned they were composed out of a naturally grown crystalline carbon-nanotube matrix. Most surprising of all is that they produced a tensor field. A field that reinforces the atomic bonds in its reach, that included the ground they stood on so that they wouldn't sink into the ground. This technology is obviously very useful to me, as while I can increase power production, production efficiency, and shielding strength. I couldn't do much about the materials I build my stuff out from. I could now build space elevators, true skyscrapers, and moon-sized spaceships as long I had the power to support them.
Obviously the first thing I made is a hundred-meter tall giant mech that looked like Cherno Alpha. Not very original, but It already included a steam exhaust for my fusion reactor, so why not. I immediately started designing the production facility to mass-produce the mechs and hand build a dozen for the meantime to handle the overrun parts of my factory.
I included a cockpit in them and tried them out. My system recognized them like armor and it automatically included an equipment grid inside them that drew power directly from the build-in fusion reactor. I could even insert exoskeletons to increase my strength and speed. Now ready for a fight, I stomped my way through the factory. Buildings getting demolished and hills kindly moving out of my way even as drones started repairing the damage I did.
EXE
Shooting a small Behemoth Biter with my wrist-mounted antimatter cannon in the safety of my mech, I couldn't help but wonder how long my campaign has gone on for. I underestimated how large the actual planet was based on my feeling. I only covered less than 1 percent of the planet in the 4 years I bulldozed through the endless waves of Biter colonies. I initially wanted to go back to sleep, but I figured out that I could still control my Avatar during my sleep. It wasn't too terrible, so I continued staying awake and fixing issues that come up during the automated expansion.
Issues that pop up whenever I fix the current problem at hand. Such as the biters evolving flight and making my walls pointless. I had to fix that problem by adding turrets to all buildings, It's not like I didn't have the resources to support the extra materials on construction. The most strain the supply chain has is the ammo production facilities. They included the liquid metal pipeline for the magnetic accelerators and antimatter canisters that took a ton of power to actually make. I also stopped nuclear munitions production once I realized that they did more harm than good and just relied on orbital cannons to expedite my expansion.
Another issue were the underground biters. They took most of the resources to repair the damage they did. I made seismic sensors to detect them, but its kinda difficult firing into the ground that my factories stood on. I brainstormed for a few minutes on the issue and came up with a novel solution. The Yuoki Tech Tree has something called the wireless power grid towers. They had the ability to transmit power wirelessly over one kilometer. It saved me a lot of space and resources by getting rid of power substations and it helped me with the underground infestation. Combined with the Tesla gun technology, they had the ability to use the ground as an electron bank that targeted objects with large amounts of water content. As a side effect, I had to make pavement for my factories that insulated the effects.
Something I also didn't realize was that the other planets in the star system had biters. Obviously, one jovian planet I used as a gas deposit doesn't have biters, but the little bugs are pretty resilient considering they can survive on surfaces of 90 Celsius and minus 180 Celsius below zero. The inner planets had more metallic materials while the cold planets had a lot more liquid compounds that are easier to harvest rather than to synthesize. The Data Network and Teleporter Network also alleviates the cost of transporting resources from vast distances.
I also explored my magic during the time between solving factory issues and resting. While I won't become the Sorcerer Supreme anytime soon. I did have the ability to hover in the air and fire quark plasma now. I could even slow down time and teleport without any external help. I was limited to the spells I had in my repertoire to base my future spells out from, but it didn't take much to exploit them to their limits. My mana passively grows over time and my levels keep increasing the more my factory grows. So while I didn't have the ability to bend space and time to my whims, I am the master of the material world exclusively using magic.
I sat in interstellar space on the bridge of the Core Buster. A ship I build personally by hand rather than relying on my systems. It was also part Mobile Base, albeit far larger at 100 hundred kilometers and shaped like a blackened sword with the tip of the sword being the bottom and the handle being the bridge. It's specifically designed to pierce a planet and suck its core out in literal days with how advanced my mining technology has gotten. Wait you say. How could I build the entire ships by hand at that size? I had time, and besides. Drones could be considered part of my hands. Right?
I left Homeworld a long time ago if you hadn't figured it out. In fact, I already went through hundreds of realities and dimensions to calibrate my Extra-dimensional Hell-Stream Drive. No applause needed for the name. Typically, I mostly found empty star systems. And my FTL technology wasn't that developed yet until I found a good tech base for it. The only thing I could do is to calibrate and hope for the best.
Luckily, after a while. I'm coincidentally transported inside the solar system after some scans. It would be annoying to do it again until I'm not in uninhabited space anymore. I seriously need an FTL drive soon if I ever need to travel through space in a reasonable time-frame. The fact that my storage tech doesn't care about mass is a lifesaver. The thrust to mass ratio is incredibly skewed, the amount of Delta-V I have is worthy of being one of the ranks of Kerbal engineering. The only reason that my ship is so large is so that I could put in as many shield, power and weapon grids as possible and the Core Drill. You don't know what to expect after all. Next thing you know, you could be in 40k.
I set up a rendezvous to Earth. Calculations say I will arrive there in a few days. In the time between that, I just adjusted the ship systems. Then I read the un-encrypted signals around the system and realized I'm in Elite Dangerous... Without a Sol permit, I might add. It was rather fortunate that I didn't use electromagnetic spectrum communications since quantum singularity. Or else I would have been surrounded by the Federation and get in a typical male pissing match.
But this also makes me rather giddy. I always hated the Star Wars Hyperdrives types. The Frameshift drive is far superior in that regard as it allows for Supercruise. Which allows you to fly and control your trajectory while at FTL speeds. Frameshift drives also can traverse through the entire galaxy in less than a week. Which is far superior to most FTL drives. Though it is mitigated by the fact that ED weaponry isn't that impressive compared to other ones. I'm pretty sure my laser turrets, tesla turrets, and antimatter railguns would destroy any ship in less than one minute. Of course, that's mostly because of the fact that I have thousands of them.
Though the fact everything else is pretty useless to me makes me a bit sad. Mining lasers and refinery modules are pretty much of no use to me. My mining and refining tech is so advanced it isn't even comparable. A cubic kilometer of iron ore can be turned to iron plates in less than a few microseconds. That's some grade-A bullshit. And I haven't got to the fact of my Antimatter Reactors. So while you might think my portable fusion reactors are overpowered. As long I'm connected to Homeworld and the Mobile Base's power grid. I get more than one yottawatt/sec of power.
But I almost forgot one thing that will limit my progress. I need to do annoying quests and politics to get the more advanced tech. But as this is not a game I could potentially just steal it from traveling ships. Sol has a lot of traffic with very wealthy people, I'm sure I could find a ship or ten that has all the parts I want.
Stealthily enveloping a Faulcon DeLacy Anaconda with a Class 7 A-rated Frameshift drive into my cargo bay, I grab it with the four mechanical arms and set off an EMP inside the ship shields. While EMP's are useless outside the shield, the insides are pretty much vulnerable as I found out. It has been a very long month of capturing ships and stealing their tech. You might think about how the hell I managed to do anything stealthily with a ship that size. Well, its space. And my ships doesn't emit any radiation due to zany materials from mods. In fact, I'm absorbing radiation due to how efficient my ships are. And I mostly went to less reputable parts in the system and check up on mostly smugglers and pirates.
I didn't kill them as I wasn't that much of a monster, I merely stole everything besides life support and emergency beacons. The people I stole from are pretty shitty, so I didn't have much trouble stealing from them. I thought of selling materials to get my technology but that still leaves me with the fact that I don't exist in the system. While my processing power is pretty unlimited, my programming leaves much to be desired. So hacking is out of the question. And I wouldn't know how to look for some shady individuals to do it for me. It's not like I was some criminal mastermind in my past life. In the game, it was easy to access the black market but the real-life regulations and the fact I couldn't enter any station or planet without raising some alarms is very irritating. Not to mention that my ship is pretty custom and is not designed to use their standard connections and procedures.
Anyways, I was done with the internal monologuing. I rise from my seat and teleported to the cargo bay. I didn't equip any weapons as my shields and exo powered fists are rather overpowered in the first place. I'm not really that bad of person so making myself threatening is the last thing I want to do. Now out in the harsh void of space in the cargo deck, I EVA to the airlock. Gravity being something I haven't figured out yet. As was Elite Dangerous as they still used centrifugal gravity. As the power was out they didn't had the time to lock down the airlock. Making it easy for me to use the manual emergency override to open it. Falling down using my magnetic soles, I close the back door and open the internal door as the emergency oxygen supply finished filling the airlock. I already scanned some Anacondas previously for their internal schematics and so went straight to the bridge. As I manually opened the bridge door and entered it, I saw no one there.
This is pretty strange. Bringing up my scanner would be useless as it didn't scan for human life signs beyond my own. I didn't really need it after all. It's not like I had many people to scan at Homeworld. I checked everything myself and scanned the cargo for empty readings but I found nothing indicated that people were here. I also couldn't check the computer for any clues as I fried the memory banks. The black box was also in the storage area and erased for some reason. I'm pretty sure somebody is doing some shady stuff with the ship. AI-controlled smuggling? It would be hard to catch someone or track them that way so it might be possible. The illegal contraband on the ship seems to support that idea.
Anyways. I am already done with Elite Dangerous. The only thing I could do here now is mining, and I could do that in my Homeworld now that I have the Frameshift drive. Too much attention if I started to mine an entire planet dry and the permits needed for that stuff required an ID. And I already have unlimited resources on Homeworld. The last thing I could take is some manpower, but I already have billions of robots and mechs to anything in that nature for me. I'm already on a breakthrough on an actual real AI so human resources are out.
As I'm finished with this universe I went back to my ship and activated the Hell-Stream Drive. A cloudy portal forms before me and I fly back home after so much time between dimensions. It speaks much of my sanity when I rather miss more of my own planet than human contact. Don't get me wrong, I do miss some social contact. But I'm more of an unknown alien than a human to the inhabitants of ED. And social skills are nonexistent even before I died. The portal finished forming, so I departed for home.
"Sayonara, galactic society" I bid to them.
Lisa Shepard, a private investigator peeks her head out from the black box cradle. She wasn't sure if this would trick the group or person who she has been contracted to investigate, but it seemed he/she fell for it. Though it was a last-minute plan, it wasn't like she could have anticipated that the person who did the theft had advanced cloaking technology and some kind of EMP system that could completely shut down the ship.
Moving out from the cradle she looked at the windows and saw that it was covered by some kind of cloth. The only reason she could see was because of her helmet-mounted flashlight. Walking through the ship she saw everything dismantled. Every component and wiring strewed about in disarray and she couldn't help but despair a bit considering how expensive it was. Even if the class 7 Frameshift was merely a loaned piece of bait from her contractor. She never liked that sort of businessmen who cared more about their pride than reason, but money is money. Even if she regretted taking that contract now.
The quantum communications suite was also removed so she couldn't contact anyone. The only thing she could do now is to exit the ship and hope she won't be detected. The manual airlock was already open so she lightly walked through the doorway and had to adjust to light a bit. Then she saw the void.
"Holy hell..." She gawked at the sheer complexity before her.
The seemingly pitch-black void was blotted out with billions of she assumed must be drones. Mechs as far as the eye could see walked around the place doing stuff to the buildings everywhere. Gigantic mining rigs and refining areas covered every inch of the surface of this what she must assume is an industrial planet of some kind. Though more advanced than the other worlds of that same nature. She saw huge ships floating above the factory. All of them dreadnoughts. She only ever saw two at a time in the local cluster so her jaw dropped on how much ships there are in the air. Hundreds at the minimum.
"You like the ships? I only made them a few days ago"
Startled by the voice next to her she drew the firearm from her hips and pointed it at the person speaking. Seizing the woman up she saw that the person wore a very advanced armor. Metallic gray and sharp angles. No weapons, so she was hopeful that this could be resolved peacefully. Killing her would attract attention and she knew her life would be forfeit if she shot the woman. The situation has gone to shit once she was captured so all she could do is listen to what the woman wanted. So she reluctantly lowered her firearm and sighed in resignation.
"Now now, don't be so sad. It has been ten years since the last time I had human contact. I'm actually glad you stowed away yourself in your ship" The stranger longingly tells her.
Cocking her head in confusion she asks what the stranger was talking about. "Seven years, what do you mean?"
"Ah, I haven't introduced myself haven't I. I'm Nikki Kardashev. The Supreme authority of this realm. Not that there is anyone to dispute it" The woman replied while waving at the area around them,
"I'm private investigator Lisa Shepard. Where the hell are we?" She asked.
"Ah... How should I say it... You'reinanotheruniverse" The woman quickly answered.
"What..." Her mind went numb.
"Yeah, the reason I went to your universe is so I could get your technology. Specifically, your Frameshift drive tech as it would take years to develop my own FTL drive. Anyways, welcome to MB7. My home and base of operations. Fun things to do is mine ocean worth's of iron and copper, building stuff and looking at spreadsheets"
She could only nod her head faintly and didn't resist being dragged away to a building that suspiciously looks like the Buckingham palace if it were made in the current century. With huge metal antennae and uncountable turrets surrounding it at every angle.
"You are lucky today. There are only fish and herbs on Homeworld but I unloaded the cargo I stole from one of the smuggler ships and found Wagyu Kobe beef and some premium ingredients with other lower-quality meat like lamb and veal. The person who wanted it is pretty rich if he is willing to export it from Earth to the other side of the cluster. The caviar and wine are not as interesting but I suppose I could serve it if you want as an aperitif"
"Wait, can you bring me back home after this?" She asked her host, though not because she wanted to leave as she was still amazed that she is in another universe. She could deny it but she felt it in her gut that she wasn't in the same universe. The technology that she saw here is vastly different and advanced than her home universe. And some of the things she saw defied physics entirely. The void that she was in, and the dimensions twisting at some parts of the universe.
"Well, I suppose I could if you wanted to. But please stay a bit longer. I did say I haven't had any contact for years. I already worked myself insane but I hoped you could stay" The woman asked pleadingly.
"That is... I don't know what to say to that. Did you say Wagyu beef, what is that?" She asked
Her host stopped dragging her, and she slowly turned her head to stare at her with her glowing white optical sensors. She pushed a button on her helmet and it retracted in the recesses of her collar armor.
Making her see the appearance of her host. European with some Asian heritage, with black hair that fell down to the ground once her helmet retracted. Glowing blue eyes with a strange pattern in them, signs of bionic eyes.
"This travesty can't stand, this must be resolved quickly. Robot army, your mistress commands you to transport us post-haste!" She commanded as hundreds of flying drones flew over.
As the floating drones assembled under their feet and fabricated a platform underneath them, they quickly moved them to the palace. Lisa couldn't help but feel apprehensive and excited. For while her job was being PI, that was only to cover her cost of traveling through the galaxy looking for adventure. And finally, she received the greatest adventure in the history of mankind. She certainly didn't expect to be whisked away to another universe with a slightly insane person that has technology beyond the entire galaxy but yet here she was.
(Art's Fusion Reactor)
AAI Industry
AAI Programmable Structures
AAI Programmable Vehicles
AAI Signal Transmission
AAI Signals
AAI Vehicles: Chaingunner
AAI Vehicles: Flame Tank
AAI Vehicles: Hauler
AAl Vehicles: Laser Tank
AAI Vehicles: Miner
AAI Vehicles: Warden
AAl Zones
Adjustable Exoskeletons
Advanced Furnaces
Alien Biomes
Art's Ashcan
Art's Core
Art's Giant Machine
Auto Trash
Avatars
Beautiful Bridge Railway
Belt sorter
Beltlayer
Big Bags (more space in bags +longer reach)
Big-Monsters
Bio Industries
Black Market 2
Bob's Adjustable Inserters mod
Bob's Assembling machines mod
Bob's Electronics mod
Bob's Enemies mod
Bob's Functions Library mod
Bob's Greenhouse mod
Bob's Logistics mod
Bob's Metals, Chemicals and Intermediates mod
Bob's Mining mod
Bob's Ores mod
Bob's Power mod
Bob's Revamp mod
Bob's Technology mod
Bob's Vehicle Equipment mod
Bob's Warfare mod
Bottleneck
Bulk Rail Loader
Cargo Ships
Construction Drones
Crafting Speed Research
Dark Matter Replicators(Fix for 0.17.69)
Dragon Industries - Nauvis Division
Editor Extensions
Electric Furnaces
Even Distribution
Factorio Standard Library
Factorio Wiki Mod
Factorissimo2
Far Reach
Fill4Me
Fluid Must Flow
Force Fields
Fully Automated Rall Layer
giga_power
Glowing Laser beams
High Power Solar
Infinite Technology Expanded 2
Loader Redux
Lovely _santa's library of knowledge
M.L.LRV
Miner UPSGrade
Mining Drones
Mobile Factory
Mobile Factory Graphics
ModMash
Mushroom Cloud
Nanobots: Early Bots
Nuclear Robots Reboot
Omega Drill
Optera's Library
Orbital lon Cannon
Outpost Planner
PlannerCore
Power Armor MK3
Rai's Lua Library
Recursive Blueprints
Repair Turret
Robot Army
Robot Attrition
Robot Tree Farm
RocketTurrets
RPG Items
RPG System
Schall Ammo Turrets
Schall Machine Scaling
Schall Pickup Tower
Schall Pipe Scaling
Schall Tank Platoon
Schall Transport Group
Science droids
Smelter UPSGrade
Space Exploration
Space Exploration Graphics (Required)
Space Exploration Postprocess (Required)
Spell Pack
Squeak Through
Strange Matter
Teleporters
Texugo TA Miners
The Big Furnace
Total Automization
Train construction site
Transport Drones
Turret Shields
Ultimate Belts
Ultra Fast Assembling Machine
Unit Control
Unlimited Resources (updated for 0.18)
Warehousing Mod
Yuoki Industries
Yuoki Industries - Engines (Addon)
Yuoki Tech Tree
AAI Industry
AAI Programmable Structures
AAI Programmable Vehicles
AAI Signal Transmission
AAI Signals
AAI Vehicles: Chaingunner
AAI Vehicles: Flame Tank
AAI Vehicles: Hauler
AAl Vehicles: Laser Tank
AAI Vehicles: Miner
AAI Vehicles: Warden
AAl Zones
Adjustable Exoskeletons
Advanced Furnaces
Alien Biomes
Art's Ashcan
Art's Core
Art's Giant Machine
Auto Trash
Avatars
Beautiful Bridge Railway
Belt sorter
Beltlayer
Big Bags (more space in bags +longer reach)
Big-Monsters
Bio Industries
Black Market 2
Bob's Adjustable Inserters mod
Bob's Assembling machines mod
Bob's Electronics mod
Bob's Enemies mod
Bob's Functions Library mod
Bob's Greenhouse mod
Bob's Logistics mod
Bob's Metals, Chemicals and Intermediates mod
Bob's Mining mod
Bob's Ores mod
Bob's Power mod
Bob's Revamp mod
Bob's Technology mod
Bob's Vehicle Equipment mod
Bob's Warfare mod
Bottleneck
Bulk Rail Loader
Cargo Ships
Construction Drones
Crafting Speed Research
Dark Matter Replicators(Fix for 0.17.69)
Dragon Industries - Nauvis Division
Editor Extensions
Electric Furnaces
Even Distribution
Factorio Standard Library
Factorio Wiki Mod
Factorissimo2
Far Reach
Fill4Me
Fluid Must Flow
Force Fields
Fully Automated Rall Layer
giga_power
Glowing Laser beams
High Power Solar
Infinite Technology Expanded 2
Loader Redux
Lovely _santa's library of knowledge
M.L.LRV
Miner UPSGrade
Mining Drones
Mobile Factory
Mobile Factory Graphics
ModMash
Mushroom Cloud
Nanobots: Early Bots
Nuclear Robots Reboot
Omega Drill
Optera's Library
Orbital lon Cannon
Outpost Planner
PlannerCore
Power Armor MK3
Rai's Lua Library
Recursive Blueprints
Repair Turret
Robot Army
Robot Attrition
Robot Tree Farm
RocketTurrets
RPG Items
RPG System
Schall Ammo Turrets
Schall Machine Scaling
Schall Pickup Tower
Schall Pipe Scaling
Schall Tank Platoon
Schall Transport Group
Science droids
Smelter UPSGrade
Space Exploration
Space Exploration Graphics (Required)
Space Exploration Postprocess (Required)
Spell Pack
Squeak Through
Strange Matter
Teleporters
Texugo TA Miners
The Big Furnace
Total Automization
Train construction site
Transport Drones
Turret Shields
Ultimate Belts
Ultra Fast Assembling Machine
Unit Control
Unlimited Resources (updated for 0.18)
Warehousing Mod
Yuoki Industries
Yuoki Industries - Engines (Addon)
Yuoki Tech Tree
EXE
I woke up to an unfamiliar moon. Lifting myself up, I looked around and found a desolate multicolored savannah. Looking down, I found myself wearing a high tech suit designed for heavy labor with wrenches and multi-tools on the many belts.
I looked back at the moon and shook my head while sighing in annoyance.
"What have you got yourself in now Nikki?" I spoke into the void.
Seeing as I somehow got this situation I chose a random direction to walk through and went to a field of purple minerals. During the short trip I finally notice a heads up display in my vision. It showed me the temperature, air composition, and much more. But what was most important, was the quick access tab showing me the various objects I got in a dimensional inventory.
"What the hell is this shit?"
Somehow consciously taking a vehicle out of my inventory, I watched as it instantaneously appeared in front of me. It was a mobile factory, a tracked vehicle with a twin-barrel turret and an internal dimensional sub-space that can be expanded to the size of Extremexul gigaparsecs.
Entering the mobile factory, I appeared in a void. The only thing in existence is the platform beneath me and the box that connected to the trunk of the vehicle.
"Handy"
I told myself before exiting the mobile factory and driving the rest of the way to the mineral deposits a few clicks away. All the while thinking about how the hell I got myself in my modded Factorio game. There was no point in useless conjecture so I put that away in my mind until I got conclusive evidence.
Arriving at the crystals, I got off and found a dense field of hematite, limonite, chalcopyrite, durotal and many more in individual clusters. What I was more interested in was the purple crystals jugging out of the ground that glowed from impossible angles. Dimensions twisting and churning in the crystal matrix. This was the matter that could create entire universes in sufficient quantities: Dimensional Matter.
"Infinite ore density?" I wondered.
"Isekai'd into my modded Factorio playthrough..."
"Ah whatever, it isn't like I wasn't just rotting away at home with no friends or family to speak of"
I sighed and put down a Mining Depot and deployed some mining drones from the building. The extremely rudimentary human-shaped robots AI looking for only one specific ore per building. They walked at a slow pace to the iron patch and starting mining with pickaxes. It was somewhat comical how efficient they are considering how they work on video-game logic.
Mining some boulders with my own pickaxe, I made some few hundreds of stone furnaces and starting refining some iron and copper plates. After that, I build some Burner Labs and deployed my personal Construction Drones to mine all the wood around me. They looked like white cubes with tracks beneath them and dots and lines showing a smiley face on their monitors. They are extremely cute if I do say myself.
I also remembered the AAI Mods also gave me RTS units with their own unique control scheme. With all the mods, I might as well be a Commander unit. I just need a little bit more time to ramp up to the interstellar level. I deployed some Mining Vehicles and let their automated AI do their own thing. I might have to worry about the amount of coal needed to power all of my equipment, but my Mining Depots don't need power for some reason. The modder might have to nerf that a bit. Or maybe it messed up balance somehow when it required power?
After researching all the basic tech. I set up a complex smelting array, while the throughput didn't support its mainframe, I designed it for future upgrades in mind. I don't want to place hundreds of refineries and then to destroy them all again once I got a better design. Better allow some inefficiency at the beginning to better future-proof everything.
For the power, I used a combination of Burner Generators and Yuoki SS Steam Generators. They both relied on coals but the Burners were somewhat easier to build and set up. Of course sooner or later they will start to take too much space and I had to go full fission or fusion.
After a while, some Biters started noticing the pollution and attacked the base. This is where my favorite mod came into play. It introduced a moba-like magic system on my hud. Throwing a few fireballs at the Biters, they writhed in pain and died as they turned to charred husks. I would have loved to cast Artillery Strike, but that used a different energy system.
Then I finally leveled up. That was some other mod that introduced RPG mechanics into the game. Doing stuff or killing biters gives me experience and I can put in points to increase my health, damage, speed, mining speed, inventory size, reach, etc.
Ignoring the potential hax that would bring in the future I started building a multi-lane bus that would constitute as the main source of materials for future factory forks. Essential materials and pipelines are neatly organized into easily digestible traffic system that I can branch off from.
It was a blur to me with how focused I am. I had no need for food, water or sleep. I tirelessly worked day and night and finally got my tech base up to a reasonable standard before I started expanding to space and other planets.
As hundred of thousands Inserters, Belts and miscellaneous get transported, I sported a rare smile for my accomplishment. I didn't even have to resort to the Black Market mod… Or the other gazillion mods I used in my playthrough for the lulz to see how I can juggle them all. Not very well as some might have guessed.
I should probably note down some important mods to see what I might have missed that can be potentially be used for exponential adaptation.
There was the Nano Emitter that I don't really use beyond turning the trees to sludge. That probably can be used as weapons and maybe researched for Commander adaptations.
There was Tenemut, the ore that contains Dark Matter. Don't ask me how non-baryonic matter can be contained inside a physical medium. While it wasn't terribly useful compared to some other things, it could be used to replicate simple compounds. Nothing complex. Maybe useful if I didn't have infinite resources. But with Strange Matter Fabricators, I have at least energy to matter technology that Commanders use.
There was the Infinite Research mod. It could infinitely increase the potential of everything. I could increase my mining speed so much that I could mine an entire planet away if my resources had enough throughput for the science packs. And throughput can be researched. Making that a moot point with enough time.
There are also Avatars, basically robotic clones that I could move my consciousness between. Could also act as a backup in a minor case of death. Of course, I wasn't going to test that unless it comes up during the situation.
And then we have the Kajiu. Building sized biters to challenge me within my playthrough. While dangerous, it wasn't something a few orbital nuclear M.I.R.V's couldn't fix. While not something I can use optimally, I could probably capture a few in shielded enclosures to keep as pets and intimidation tools.
I have also Factorissimo2. Basically stackable pocket dimensions that can even be placed in my Mobile Base. They are just cheaper, grounded alternatives to my mobile bases.
We also have Far Reach. Basically anything I can do one foot from me can be done as far as I can see. There is an actual limit, it just didn't matter much. I have drones and blueprints for that.
There are the Core, Mantle miners, furnaces, pipes, etc, Basically huge monolithic structures made initially so that my game wouldn't slow down due to too many entities. It was a huge lifesaver for factory arrays.
And there was Mod Mash. Multiple mods into one to add fun into your game. Ads a stackable underground dimension. Once again my mobile base wins that fight in inter-dimensional tech. And flying combat drones called Valkyries, a subspace network to teleport resources between any location. No matter the dimension. There were other mods but it wasn't that important.
And we have Nuclear Robots. They were expensive, but they are self-sustaining. I wouldn't have mentioned them if it didn't make them useful for a research base into Commander units. Have you ever heard an RTS unit that needed fuel? I thought so. Along with the handheld 150mw Fusion Reactor and Antimatter Reactor. They took care of all my energy needs.
And then there are the new power armors. I wasn't terribly worried about it too beyond the Commander aspect. I could always research them to add inventory slots for more Singulary Drives and Shield Generators. Combined with the stackable exoskeletons, it could increase my strength and speed to unnatural levels. I stacked a few dozen exoskeletons in-game once and went Mach 10. So fast that collision stopped working.
There is a shop where I can buy RPG items. A useful base for research once I went to magic worlds.
The third last is the Mobile Factory .mod. A mobile hovering base you can build with an expandable internal dimension. It also has Data Storage Buildings where you infinitely store items in a data network. There is also a tile called the void tile. It basically destroys a cubic meter of reality from existence. Which is pretty terrifying if you think about it.
The second last is the Space Exploration mod. It will make my life a whole lot easier not trying to figure out spaceflight from scratch. While I played KSP once in a while, I didn't have experience creating the operating system that can take space mechanics into account. The Quantum and Neural Supercomputers will come in handy to create an adaptive AI to accompany me. It also filled in the gaps of space-age meta-materials that other mods missed with how in-depth it went.
And finally the Recursive Blueprint mod. The final thing I'm working on before I start expanding into my Mobile Base and started leaving this dimension. I'm not going to abandon it with its infinite resources, but I made dimensions my bitch a long time ago. Distance has become a moot point when you can instantaneously transport resources. Even going to entirely different dimensions instead of creating them is workable with enough research according to my system's calculations.
Honestly. Too many technology bases to bother with the specifics. I'll just pretend that I'm a specialized Commander.
But honestly, though, my most favorite thing is the Tesla Gun. It fires lightning so powerful it can disintegrate rocks, trees, and biters in seconds. The best of all is that it arcs between objects. It's so powerful that it can destroy mountains with enough ammo. It's the most powerful weapon I can have on hand without relying on outside help such as nukes and orbital cannons.
Having enough written down, my research for Recursive Blueprints supercomputer was finally finished. I designed it with exponential growth in mind., it will take scanned data and destroys anything in its path and then place mining arrays or factories depending on certain factors. It wasn't connected to the orbital laser and nuclear weapons for fear of it running out of control, but it did have the ability to build turrets around walled modular blueprint structures.
After I placed the supercomputer down and a few rocket silos with auto-deployment instructions to the 8 planets in the system. I thought about it and also build a cryo-pod. While I didn't get tired per se, I was a bit mentally stressed. I would have slept in but I thought this would be a good time to skip the boring waiting part. This planet was a few times bigger than Jupiter and it would take years for my factory to cover the entire planet. While some biters might destroy some sections of the factory while I was away, I deemed it an acceptable loss and finally went to rest after 6 months.
EXE
I woke up to alarms blaring into the night. I felt it was too much work trying to wake up and teleport to the affected area. So I just spun up an Avatar in that area and assumed direct control. I woke up on top of a tower and assessed the situation. It seemed biter evolution and population density boomed during my 3-year long sleep and finally managed to get past the armed and shielded fortified walls.
The solution seemed rather simple to me. If there are Kajiu, you obviously need giant mechs. I had many designs to pull out from with my extensive mods, so I amalgamate them into a single research branch. The main problem is the
square-cube law. Even with the most advanced materials, the stresses the mech endured to perform their crazy maneuvers are just too much. So I took inspiration from Mechagodzilla and started capturing Kaiju biters and harvested their bones.
After initial research, I learned they were composed out of a naturally grown crystalline carbon-nanotube matrix. Most surprising of all is that they produced a tensor field. A field that reinforces the atomic bonds in its reach, that included the ground they stood on so that they wouldn't sink into the ground. This technology is obviously very useful to me, as while I can increase power production, production efficiency, and shielding strength. I couldn't do much about the materials I build my stuff out from. I could now build space elevators, true skyscrapers, and moon-sized spaceships as long I had the power to support them.
Obviously the first thing I made is a hundred-meter tall giant mech that looked like Cherno Alpha. Not very original, but It already included a steam exhaust for my fusion reactor, so why not. I immediately started designing the production facility to mass-produce the mechs and hand build a dozen for the meantime to handle the overrun parts of my factory.
I included a cockpit in them and tried them out. My system recognized them like armor and it automatically included an equipment grid inside them that drew power directly from the build-in fusion reactor. I could even insert exoskeletons to increase my strength and speed. Now ready for a fight, I stomped my way through the factory. Buildings getting demolished and hills kindly moving out of my way even as drones started repairing the damage I did.
EXE
Issues that pop up whenever I fix the current problem at hand. Such as the biters evolving flight and making my walls pointless. I had to fix that problem by adding turrets to all buildings, It's not like I didn't have the resources to support the extra materials on construction. The most strain the supply chain has is the ammo production facilities. They included the liquid metal pipeline for the magnetic accelerators and antimatter canisters that took a ton of power to actually make. I also stopped nuclear munitions production once I realized that they did more harm than good and just relied on orbital cannons to expedite my expansion.
Another issue were the underground biters. They took most of the resources to repair the damage they did. I made seismic sensors to detect them, but its kinda difficult firing into the ground that my factories stood on. I brainstormed for a few minutes on the issue and came up with a novel solution. The Yuoki Tech Tree has something called the wireless power grid towers. They had the ability to transmit power wirelessly over one kilometer. It saved me a lot of space and resources by getting rid of power substations and it helped me with the underground infestation. Combined with the Tesla gun technology, they had the ability to use the ground as an electron bank that targeted objects with large amounts of water content. As a side effect, I had to make pavement for my factories that insulated the effects.
Something I also didn't realize was that the other planets in the star system had biters. Obviously, one jovian planet I used as a gas deposit doesn't have biters, but the little bugs are pretty resilient considering they can survive on surfaces of 90 Celsius and minus 180 Celsius below zero. The inner planets had more metallic materials while the cold planets had a lot more liquid compounds that are easier to harvest rather than to synthesize. The Data Network and Teleporter Network also alleviates the cost of transporting resources from vast distances.
I also explored my magic during the time between solving factory issues and resting. While I won't become the Sorcerer Supreme anytime soon. I did have the ability to hover in the air and fire quark plasma now. I could even slow down time and teleport without any external help. I was limited to the spells I had in my repertoire to base my future spells out from, but it didn't take much to exploit them to their limits. My mana passively grows over time and my levels keep increasing the more my factory grows. So while I didn't have the ability to bend space and time to my whims, I am the master of the material world exclusively using magic.
That being said and contemplating my past experiences, I believed that my presence here is somewhat of a mistake. If you think about it, all that I have done is ruining the lives of the native lifeforms and stealing their resources. It was a bit unfortunate for them that I was too selfish to really care about it. I didn't live in some Star Trek reality where I actually believed in the Prime Directive. Intellectually, I might agree with it. In reality, it's pretty unrealistic.EXE
I sat in interstellar space on the bridge of the Core Buster. A ship I build personally by hand rather than relying on my systems. It was also part Mobile Base, albeit far larger at 100 hundred kilometers and shaped like a blackened sword with the tip of the sword being the bottom and the handle being the bridge. It's specifically designed to pierce a planet and suck its core out in literal days with how advanced my mining technology has gotten. Wait you say. How could I build the entire ships by hand at that size? I had time, and besides. Drones could be considered part of my hands. Right?
I left Homeworld a long time ago if you hadn't figured it out. In fact, I already went through hundreds of realities and dimensions to calibrate my Extra-dimensional Hell-Stream Drive. No applause needed for the name. Typically, I mostly found empty star systems. And my FTL technology wasn't that developed yet until I found a good tech base for it. The only thing I could do is to calibrate and hope for the best.
Luckily, after a while. I'm coincidentally transported inside the solar system after some scans. It would be annoying to do it again until I'm not in uninhabited space anymore. I seriously need an FTL drive soon if I ever need to travel through space in a reasonable time-frame. The fact that my storage tech doesn't care about mass is a lifesaver. The thrust to mass ratio is incredibly skewed, the amount of Delta-V I have is worthy of being one of the ranks of Kerbal engineering. The only reason that my ship is so large is so that I could put in as many shield, power and weapon grids as possible and the Core Drill. You don't know what to expect after all. Next thing you know, you could be in 40k.
I set up a rendezvous to Earth. Calculations say I will arrive there in a few days. In the time between that, I just adjusted the ship systems. Then I read the un-encrypted signals around the system and realized I'm in Elite Dangerous... Without a Sol permit, I might add. It was rather fortunate that I didn't use electromagnetic spectrum communications since quantum singularity. Or else I would have been surrounded by the Federation and get in a typical male pissing match.
But this also makes me rather giddy. I always hated the Star Wars Hyperdrives types. The Frameshift drive is far superior in that regard as it allows for Supercruise. Which allows you to fly and control your trajectory while at FTL speeds. Frameshift drives also can traverse through the entire galaxy in less than a week. Which is far superior to most FTL drives. Though it is mitigated by the fact that ED weaponry isn't that impressive compared to other ones. I'm pretty sure my laser turrets, tesla turrets, and antimatter railguns would destroy any ship in less than one minute. Of course, that's mostly because of the fact that I have thousands of them.
Though the fact everything else is pretty useless to me makes me a bit sad. Mining lasers and refinery modules are pretty much of no use to me. My mining and refining tech is so advanced it isn't even comparable. A cubic kilometer of iron ore can be turned to iron plates in less than a few microseconds. That's some grade-A bullshit. And I haven't got to the fact of my Antimatter Reactors. So while you might think my portable fusion reactors are overpowered. As long I'm connected to Homeworld and the Mobile Base's power grid. I get more than one yottawatt/sec of power.
But I almost forgot one thing that will limit my progress. I need to do annoying quests and politics to get the more advanced tech. But as this is not a game I could potentially just steal it from traveling ships. Sol has a lot of traffic with very wealthy people, I'm sure I could find a ship or ten that has all the parts I want.
EXE
Stealthily enveloping a Faulcon DeLacy Anaconda with a Class 7 A-rated Frameshift drive into my cargo bay, I grab it with the four mechanical arms and set off an EMP inside the ship shields. While EMP's are useless outside the shield, the insides are pretty much vulnerable as I found out. It has been a very long month of capturing ships and stealing their tech. You might think about how the hell I managed to do anything stealthily with a ship that size. Well, its space. And my ships doesn't emit any radiation due to zany materials from mods. In fact, I'm absorbing radiation due to how efficient my ships are. And I mostly went to less reputable parts in the system and check up on mostly smugglers and pirates.
I didn't kill them as I wasn't that much of a monster, I merely stole everything besides life support and emergency beacons. The people I stole from are pretty shitty, so I didn't have much trouble stealing from them. I thought of selling materials to get my technology but that still leaves me with the fact that I don't exist in the system. While my processing power is pretty unlimited, my programming leaves much to be desired. So hacking is out of the question. And I wouldn't know how to look for some shady individuals to do it for me. It's not like I was some criminal mastermind in my past life. In the game, it was easy to access the black market but the real-life regulations and the fact I couldn't enter any station or planet without raising some alarms is very irritating. Not to mention that my ship is pretty custom and is not designed to use their standard connections and procedures.
Anyways, I was done with the internal monologuing. I rise from my seat and teleported to the cargo bay. I didn't equip any weapons as my shields and exo powered fists are rather overpowered in the first place. I'm not really that bad of person so making myself threatening is the last thing I want to do. Now out in the harsh void of space in the cargo deck, I EVA to the airlock. Gravity being something I haven't figured out yet. As was Elite Dangerous as they still used centrifugal gravity. As the power was out they didn't had the time to lock down the airlock. Making it easy for me to use the manual emergency override to open it. Falling down using my magnetic soles, I close the back door and open the internal door as the emergency oxygen supply finished filling the airlock. I already scanned some Anacondas previously for their internal schematics and so went straight to the bridge. As I manually opened the bridge door and entered it, I saw no one there.
This is pretty strange. Bringing up my scanner would be useless as it didn't scan for human life signs beyond my own. I didn't really need it after all. It's not like I had many people to scan at Homeworld. I checked everything myself and scanned the cargo for empty readings but I found nothing indicated that people were here. I also couldn't check the computer for any clues as I fried the memory banks. The black box was also in the storage area and erased for some reason. I'm pretty sure somebody is doing some shady stuff with the ship. AI-controlled smuggling? It would be hard to catch someone or track them that way so it might be possible. The illegal contraband on the ship seems to support that idea.
Anyways. I am already done with Elite Dangerous. The only thing I could do here now is mining, and I could do that in my Homeworld now that I have the Frameshift drive. Too much attention if I started to mine an entire planet dry and the permits needed for that stuff required an ID. And I already have unlimited resources on Homeworld. The last thing I could take is some manpower, but I already have billions of robots and mechs to anything in that nature for me. I'm already on a breakthrough on an actual real AI so human resources are out.
As I'm finished with this universe I went back to my ship and activated the Hell-Stream Drive. A cloudy portal forms before me and I fly back home after so much time between dimensions. It speaks much of my sanity when I rather miss more of my own planet than human contact. Don't get me wrong, I do miss some social contact. But I'm more of an unknown alien than a human to the inhabitants of ED. And social skills are nonexistent even before I died. The portal finished forming, so I departed for home.
"Sayonara, galactic society" I bid to them.
EXE
Lisa Shepard, a private investigator peeks her head out from the black box cradle. She wasn't sure if this would trick the group or person who she has been contracted to investigate, but it seemed he/she fell for it. Though it was a last-minute plan, it wasn't like she could have anticipated that the person who did the theft had advanced cloaking technology and some kind of EMP system that could completely shut down the ship.
Moving out from the cradle she looked at the windows and saw that it was covered by some kind of cloth. The only reason she could see was because of her helmet-mounted flashlight. Walking through the ship she saw everything dismantled. Every component and wiring strewed about in disarray and she couldn't help but despair a bit considering how expensive it was. Even if the class 7 Frameshift was merely a loaned piece of bait from her contractor. She never liked that sort of businessmen who cared more about their pride than reason, but money is money. Even if she regretted taking that contract now.
The quantum communications suite was also removed so she couldn't contact anyone. The only thing she could do now is to exit the ship and hope she won't be detected. The manual airlock was already open so she lightly walked through the doorway and had to adjust to light a bit. Then she saw the void.
"Holy hell..." She gawked at the sheer complexity before her.
The seemingly pitch-black void was blotted out with billions of she assumed must be drones. Mechs as far as the eye could see walked around the place doing stuff to the buildings everywhere. Gigantic mining rigs and refining areas covered every inch of the surface of this what she must assume is an industrial planet of some kind. Though more advanced than the other worlds of that same nature. She saw huge ships floating above the factory. All of them dreadnoughts. She only ever saw two at a time in the local cluster so her jaw dropped on how much ships there are in the air. Hundreds at the minimum.
"You like the ships? I only made them a few days ago"
Startled by the voice next to her she drew the firearm from her hips and pointed it at the person speaking. Seizing the woman up she saw that the person wore a very advanced armor. Metallic gray and sharp angles. No weapons, so she was hopeful that this could be resolved peacefully. Killing her would attract attention and she knew her life would be forfeit if she shot the woman. The situation has gone to shit once she was captured so all she could do is listen to what the woman wanted. So she reluctantly lowered her firearm and sighed in resignation.
"Now now, don't be so sad. It has been ten years since the last time I had human contact. I'm actually glad you stowed away yourself in your ship" The stranger longingly tells her.
Cocking her head in confusion she asks what the stranger was talking about. "Seven years, what do you mean?"
"Ah, I haven't introduced myself haven't I. I'm Nikki Kardashev. The Supreme authority of this realm. Not that there is anyone to dispute it" The woman replied while waving at the area around them,
"I'm private investigator Lisa Shepard. Where the hell are we?" She asked.
"Ah... How should I say it... You'reinanotheruniverse" The woman quickly answered.
"What..." Her mind went numb.
"Yeah, the reason I went to your universe is so I could get your technology. Specifically, your Frameshift drive tech as it would take years to develop my own FTL drive. Anyways, welcome to MB7. My home and base of operations. Fun things to do is mine ocean worth's of iron and copper, building stuff and looking at spreadsheets"
She could only nod her head faintly and didn't resist being dragged away to a building that suspiciously looks like the Buckingham palace if it were made in the current century. With huge metal antennae and uncountable turrets surrounding it at every angle.
"You are lucky today. There are only fish and herbs on Homeworld but I unloaded the cargo I stole from one of the smuggler ships and found Wagyu Kobe beef and some premium ingredients with other lower-quality meat like lamb and veal. The person who wanted it is pretty rich if he is willing to export it from Earth to the other side of the cluster. The caviar and wine are not as interesting but I suppose I could serve it if you want as an aperitif"
"Wait, can you bring me back home after this?" She asked her host, though not because she wanted to leave as she was still amazed that she is in another universe. She could deny it but she felt it in her gut that she wasn't in the same universe. The technology that she saw here is vastly different and advanced than her home universe. And some of the things she saw defied physics entirely. The void that she was in, and the dimensions twisting at some parts of the universe.
"Well, I suppose I could if you wanted to. But please stay a bit longer. I did say I haven't had any contact for years. I already worked myself insane but I hoped you could stay" The woman asked pleadingly.
"That is... I don't know what to say to that. Did you say Wagyu beef, what is that?" She asked
Her host stopped dragging her, and she slowly turned her head to stare at her with her glowing white optical sensors. She pushed a button on her helmet and it retracted in the recesses of her collar armor.
Making her see the appearance of her host. European with some Asian heritage, with black hair that fell down to the ground once her helmet retracted. Glowing blue eyes with a strange pattern in them, signs of bionic eyes.
"This travesty can't stand, this must be resolved quickly. Robot army, your mistress commands you to transport us post-haste!" She commanded as hundreds of flying drones flew over.
As the floating drones assembled under their feet and fabricated a platform underneath them, they quickly moved them to the palace. Lisa couldn't help but feel apprehensive and excited. For while her job was being PI, that was only to cover her cost of traveling through the galaxy looking for adventure. And finally, she received the greatest adventure in the history of mankind. She certainly didn't expect to be whisked away to another universe with a slightly insane person that has technology beyond the entire galaxy but yet here she was.
EXE
Last edited:
02: Determination
ReiZetsubou
Melancholia
- Joined
- May 1, 2016
- Messages
- 72
- Likes received
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EXE
Found a stowaway. Though can it be really called that when she owned the ship? Anyways. Once I showed her the wonders of two-star cuisine, I took her on a tour of the planet. I'm pretty sure Gilgamesh would be proud of how much my ego inflated with the frequency Lisa's jaw dropped on every creation I created on a whim. Like the Void Elevator I once build to see if anything interesting happened while inside the pocket reality of the Mobile Factory.
The planet has a moon but the composition is rather pathetic so I didn't bother trying to mine it. That's why I used an orbital laser to carve a heart with my name on it. Now with X Lisa under it. She was pretty embarrassed about if the way she blushed was any indication.
She questioned my advancement in cybernetics by mentioning my eyes, but I don't really know what she was talking about. I'm pretty sure my body is a virtual entity that is programmed into reality itself. The need to ingest sustenance or the lack thereof is proof of that. The glowing eyes are just something I have. Merely an aesthetic feature as far as I'm concerned.
Though I do have prosthetic tech once I clarified I'm not some kind of cyborg. The only reason I'm not cutting out my organs and appendages is that I don't trust my AI-controlled machines not to fuck up the operation. No matter how much I trust my creations.
Lisa also asked me to create a new ship after I totally trashed her Anaconda. I felt a little bit guilty so I created another Core Buster for her. I think it may be a bit much once she fainted. But I don't really know what's all the fuss about. The ship is merely one hundred kilometers long.
My new flagship is gonna be a thousand kilometers long for easier access to the core of super planets. That being said, the planet itself is my ship just like the Tardis. Due to teleporters and portals connecting everything, my factory, and all vehicles are connected. They are all one big entity that shares the same resources.
My new ship, The August Duchess is one of my most expensive projects I have ever conceived. I had to halt the entire factory economy for three months to finish it. But that was a few days ago of course. Now I can probably do it in one week due to the exponential nature of my expansion. It's merely a fancy of mine that I created to impress people.
It is powered by literally millions of antimatter reactors that would be better served on smaller ships. I would have just built three big ones but I liked the fact that a lot of reactors spread around creates a lot of redundancies. I wouldn't have done it if my tech needed maintenance but all of my tech is maintenance-free, so that's what made me choose this design philosophy.
Once I showed Lisa the insides of the Retribution, the name for her Core Buster, she giggled in glee. It's rather weird hearing that coming from her but I can't say much about it because this is me were are talking about. An antisocial loner from the 21th century. I only showed less than one percent of the ship as it's pretty big inside with a lot of rooms so we didn't bother checking anything except the essentials.
She took a particular liking to the captain's deck. It appeared more like an interior of a mansion than a deck. Marble and platinum with inline gold veins making everything seem ostentatious while not being gaudy. It's rather spartan but I'm not much of an interior decorator. I only do architecting.
I'll admit I'm not bisexual. but once she invited me to christen the ship on the queen-sized bed, I jumped at the opportunity to relieve my stress. Ten years can do a lot to you and those things are every known personal quandaries. So while I'm born as a heterosexual girl, I couldn't give a fuck anymore about such things anymore. And she gave such a good massage too. I made machines to do massages but you couldn't replace human, sensual, delicious... hands with machines.
My back had a kink for ages that finally went away once she did that... thing. Anyways, the back pain irritated me to no end ever since I fought a Kaiju with my bare hands two years ago. I always needed a spinal exoskeleton to relieve the pain slightly until now.
EXE
Lisa wanted to stay here, she said that there is nothing tying her to the ED universe. It's not like there is any reason to kick her out of my realm so acquiesced to her request. Besides, her company is very much appreciated. Now that I have the Frameshift drive I can finally explore other star systems. I made her the boss of exploration and survey because she was probably more experienced at space travel. It's the only thing she can do because everything is automated. The only people I would want are researchers and explorers if I ever decided to allow immigrants.
On the topic of the Frameshift drive, I reverse-engineered the tech for their science and tried to create a new type of Hyperspace emitter. The original drive had something called the Quirium fuel. A very energy-dense fuel that the original drive used that has the same performance as the current hydrogen fuel Frameshift drives. The Thargoids were able to suspend and move freely around in hyperspace with their own drives and they still used the Quirium fuel which was lost in the collapse of the Galactic Cooperative in 3125 AD.
While Supercruise works like a regular Alcubiere drive, the hyperspace tech is still the same as Star Wars Hyperspace drives. I'm hoping to fix that by recreating Quirium fuel and work out to freely traverse hyperspace. With that kind of capability, I could travel through intergalactic space without stopping at a star. That is the weakness of the current Frameshift drives as they always needed to always know their destination beforehand when jumping but with Thargoid type drives I could go almost everywhere.
Lisa was really fascinated by my theory and helped me by teaching me using her high school education on hyperspace mechanics. Though it isn't very much as Hyperspace, or witch-space as some called it is still very much unexplained with only a little data on them as people only used the effects of hyperspace instead of researching it more. Not like they could if they tried as they still needed to solve the gravity equation to truly see into hyperspace. I would say it's like the Bulk in Interstellar if I had to explain it.
On that note, the research would surely go more quickly if I had Kip Thorne in my employ, and that's why I'm also trying to configure the Hell-Stream Drive to search for a very Earth-like world to see if I can find scientists to help me. No fictional scientists as they are too eccentric and retarded in my mind. Real, down to Earth scientists are what I need. And no Einstein or Issac either, because while they are smart, humans still stood on the back of giants and future scholars will always be better educated than the previous generation.
Speaking about science, I've been also teaching Lisa about magic. This is how that conversation went:
"Magic? You're joking, right?" She asked me incredulously.
"Nope, watch" I told her as I flew on my own power and held a fireball in my left hand and lightning in my right hand. I even summoned my Staff of Cthulhu and Flame Cloak to increase the awe effect.
Lisa gawked for a bit, but calmed down pretty quickly. "You're obviously just using technology to achieve those effects" She replied with an exasperated sigh.
I simply smiled at her ignorance and explained how that's wrong. "Scientific theory is descriptive. That means any force that exists can be broken using science. Does the terminology of magic and technology really matter?" I spoke to her like I was speaking to a child.
That all went well until she threw a banana peel at my face. "Smug know-it-all" She mumbled while eating her greenhouse-grown fruits.
That conversation made me aware no matter how much you argue, you can't win all battles.
After that, I calibrated the Hell-Stream Drive to search similar patterns to the ED universe, the fact that it supports human life is enough for my Supercomputer Network to figure it out. It's an operating system made out of different technology bases. Neural Net cores and the Photonic Quantum Qubit cores make up most of the network. And it showed how hax they are when combined with the research labs. They could quickly figure out any principle when enough data is fed into it.
Lisa wanted to join me after I mentioned that I will be leaving sooner or later to other universes. She was pretty excited but calmed down after I told her that I have to integrate her tech first before we are going. In the time before left, I took her on a date on my Void Elevator. There I told her about my previous life. A life full of depression and no purpose to stave it away and no family or friends to speak off due to my social anxiety. Wishing for love, yet pushing everyone away.
I cried at the top of the void in one moment of clarity in the years of insanity here. We only were together for four months and she already promised that she won't leave me. I'm happy that she would do so, but I'm doubtful if I'm deserving of the affection. I'm not exactly the paragon of morality and I told her that. Even after I told her I cannot attach myself to someone forever, she still stayed by her promise. Even after I told her I do not believe in peace and would attract conflict, she still didn't move from her promise. I like that from a person, an individual with unyielding convictions is what I need to ground myself from my insanity.
EXE
"Lisa, we can't take the August Duchess with us..." I drawled out in exasperation.
"Come on, why not!?" She whined with a pout.
"Because I'm trying to be more stealthy this time. We just can't go around gallivanting around the Multiverse unless we have a sufficient power base." I carefully explained.
"Ah come on, please~!" She begged me with teary eyes.
"Fine! But you'll accept responsibility if some Lovecraftian being from the nth dimension is gnawing on our ship!" I feigned finally relenting.
Ignoring her smug expression I simply opened the Hell-Stream portal without warning her and instantly accelerated into it with The Retribution. Unprepared, she jumped up in fright from her control throne and turned her head to me with an icy glare.
"No more massages" She warned me in her cutesy threatening voice.
"No more cooking" I replied with some amusement.
She pouted but is distracted as we exited the extra-dimensional corridor into space. The coordinate systems are working correctly as expected as I arrived in the Sol system again. I deployed the sensors and scanned the system for any signals but only found some corrupted radio signals that came from Earth.
"Strange, there are supposed to be more radio signals transmitted if they are at that technology stage. We should get closer in stealth mode to see what's happening there" I inquisitively explained to Lisa as I entered Supercruise.
"Maybe this Earth doesn't follow the timeline we share. You told me about the multiversal theory of infinite possibility, so this could be one of the alternate universes you talked about?" Lisa tried to reason.
Humming in agreement I replied. "You came from a fictional universe so I wouldn't be surprised if we are in another one too"
"Yeah, don't remind. I'm still disturbed by that fact. And you just casually told me that like it wasn't even a world breaking piece of information" She said uncomfortably.
"Don't be such a girl... Oh, wait. Nevermind. We are exiting Supercruise" I realized my folly and moved to another topic.
FSD'ng out we see that the Earth is completely ravaged. Scans immediately showed us of nuclear impact craters all over the world and radiation clouding the atmosphere.
"Hmm, it seems the people are pretty stupid here if they initiated mutually assured destruction" I observed. Feeling the silence, I turned to Lisa. "Hey, are you okay Lisa?" I asked with some concern.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Uhm, this nothing new to me. I didn't travel the galaxy without seeing my share of idiots destroying themselves for no reason" She clarified with a somewhat melancholic demeanor.
Now sure that this won't bother her too much, I exit stealth mode and flew into orbit. With the way everything is destroyed, nobody would be of any threat. Scanning the surface of America I found pockets of people who transmitted signals that identified themselves as the resistance. The name implied there was still a threat around so I tried to search for the encrypted signals. Which I found in only a few seconds. In deference to Lisa's expertise, I gave her the holographic controls.
"Lisa, can you track this signal? I installed your ship's operating suite as they are superior to mine but I'm not very proficient at it." I requested. "You should be able to use it as I didn't change it very much beyond making it more powerful" I explained.
"I'm tracking more encrypted signals and triangulating the source. Their scrambling techniques are pretty primitive so our tech easily managed it. They may also be using hard-linked towers but our scanners can look for aluminum copper cabling underground. There seem to be two types of signals as one is more spread around but the more encrypted signal is located in San Francisco" She showed on the holographic displays.
I brought up the scans of that region and it showed a huge city factory surrounded by huge walls and turrets. Laser and plasma weaponry seemed to be prevalent if I'm reading the analysis of the turret composition correctly. And then I saw a metal endoskeleton walk around in the wall perimeter and I realized where I am.
"It seems we are in the Terminator universe," I told Lisa.
"That sounds familiar, I remember browsing through the archives with something to that nature in there," She said with a thoughtful expression.
"Our combined universes seem only to deviate just before the third millennium. So the Terminator franchise should still exist in ED. But it must be very rare considering how much technology and data was lost in the collapse" I reasoned.
This universe has four types of technology I want to acquire. And that is AI, nanite and shapeshifting mimetic poly-alloys. The time travel technology would be useful but I'm only taking in an event if the other team also has time travel tech. It's too complicated trying to track all the timelines otherwise. Cybernetics would also be useful but not of any importance in the long run as I could do that myself. Esoteric tech is more valuable to me as I'm not some kind of super genius. I would need real scientists if I truly wanted to create reality-warping tech or simply wait years for my Supercomputer Network to complete any projects.
"Hey Lisa, should we save the humans here?" I asked her. "The AI and the robot army isn't much of a problem but this world is pretty much fucked even we do destroy the Skynet threat" I relayed her on my thoughts on the matter.
"Well, we aren't that evil to just leave them to their fate once we destroy the enemy. We should at least give them radiation-scrubbing and greenhouse technology" Lisa tried to speak to my inner empathy. "Or we could take the easier route and move them to Alpha Eridani as a servant caste" She then spoke to my vain side. That's what I liked about her.
I agreed with her points but don't see much point bringing people to our Homeworld. No actual living space on the planets' surfaces and underground due to extensive factory facilities taking most of that space. But I guessed I could make a place for them in the orbital rings around the planets during my automated expansion into space. The space exploration mod was really bullshit in the regard that it doesn't really care about how large your space structures are.
I rather didn't want to think about being a ruler too much and moved back to the topic I was previously thinking about. Such as the technology that can be acquired here.
"The AI tech here is too volatile to use for my mechs but I can probably use them for more complicated tasks that don't interfere with the current infrastructure. I don't really care either way. What do you think?" I asked Lisa.
She ignored my question and came back to the immigration topic. "Come on Nikki, our Homeworld is lonely and empty. Not that I don't like your company of course but I think this is the best optimal solution that benefits both parties" She argued.
I sighed and just caved into her suggestion yet again. It's not like I was that resistant to giving some liveliness to my Realms. "Your plan it is then. But first, I'm gonna pay John Connor a little visit. How about some shock value to kick things into motion. He is the only one that people listen to as a leader so the plan should go smoother if we have his cooperation" I explained, laying out my plan.
"Aye aye captain. Triangulated the resistance headquarters. Initial scans show promise as there is an underground bunker there with some activity. I already set a course for the command structure at Crystal Peak" Lisa tells me before giving me the main control back.
Nodding at her I went full throttle and somewhat dreading my meeting with John Conner, I'm not optimistic as he is a pretty suspicious guy. My imagination points to him linking me to Skynet and then attacking us on principle. My power armor doesn't help my image that much either but hell will freeze over if I ever take it off in unknown lands. I can only hope he will see reason and follow my plan to end this stupid war.
EXE
After a short trip through the atmosphere near the Sierra Nevada, we finally found the base. As my stealth mode was off I heard muted alarms ringing throughout the mountain range. Seeing an unused spot between two mountains, I flew over it and begin landing procedures by piercing the Lithosphere of the planet. I didn't try to mine the Mantle of the planet considering people are still living here and just set up a laser countermeasure system in case Skynets gets any bright ideas.
I detected their forces beginning to pop with several hidden behind some strategic places in the mountains. Only a few seem to have plasma weaponry as most weapons I detected were RPG's and 50 Cal machine guns. The soldiers coming out the hidden bunker entrance didn't have better equipment beyond Kalashnikov's and sniper rifles. The tactic I assume is to distract the enemy with the visible attackers and shoot them from above and behind. The snipers would stay behind them to truly do damage as the frontlines act as a cushioning force. It was pretty reasonable as far as tactics went fighting Terminators.
I rose up from the control throne and walked to the transparent graphene window of the bridge. Watching troops and vehicles scurrying around like ants beneath us.
"They didn't attack immediately so that's a good sign I suppose," Lisa said while walking next to me.
"I think it's because we are a one hundred kilometer long spaceship from outer space rather than a Skynet Hunter-Killer fleet," I replied to her in deadpan.
We didn't say anymore as the situation is already tense and we need to act appropriately as possible. I did a checkup for both our armors and took the teleporter to the ground. It didn't matter really much if I ever needed to fight Frieza or someone equally powerful, but it does make you feel safe 90 percent of the time. It also made me a bit fatter than I liked but beggars can't be choosers. You don't survive traveling the multiverse without these kinds of preparations.
My drones prepared a teleporter grid in advance and we arrived in style as planned with twenty humanoid mechs behind us. Image is an important thing, which is something I recognized even If do hate politics sometimes. It won't really matter on this planet with how fucked it is but it's better to start now rather than later.
The troops in an organized firing line took a step back once they saw my appearance and tightened their grip on their guns as they saw our armor. I walked closer to them and retracted my helmet into my collar considering my shield is enough to tank nuclear attacks. That visibly calmed them down but I knew the Westinghouse Model M-25 phased plasma rifles that were introduced in the year 2021 also means that it's possible the T-800 exists as it began production in the year 2026. Which is close enough that they may know of infiltrators. So they may be still preparing to shoot me if there is any indication that I am a cyborg. My hope is that we aren't that far in the future.
"I need to talk to John Connor. We can help the resistance end the Skynet threat" I calmly told them with a voice enhancer.
One of the men at the back came closer to me. He had an actual military uniform instead of the red armband with the DNA Resistance symbol, so I assumed he is of a higher rank than the rest.
"I am lieutenant Barnes. Who are you and how did you find us?" He questioned me with a wary look.
"I'm the Nikki Kardashev, Supreme Leader of the Void Realm. The woman next to me is Lisa Shepard. Head Administrator of the Survey and Exploration force" I explained while making up some facts to make me more presentable and ease my entrance to their base.
"Void Realm? I don't know who the hell you guys are but... " He hesitated while looking at our ship. "I'll take some guesses and just assume that you're probably not Skynet. Either way, this is way above my rank. I'll see what I can do to get you to John Conner" He tells us before walking to a radio operator.
He turned suddenly and looked at my armor. "You have any weapons on your person?" He asked.
I collapse my upper armor to my back, showing me in my bra. "I don't have any weapons beyond this power armor. I could remove it but I'm kinda naked without it" I explained while not mentioning that I have thousands of laser modules that can instantly shoot everyone in a two hundred meter perimeter.
He hummed while assessing my armor but shook his head after a few seconds. "You can keep your armor on but we will have guns on you, so don't do anything crazy and we will be fine" He declared and called the resistance leader to meet us.
EXE
Walking inside the base, I finally see how bad the situation truly is in person. Teenagers in military surplus huddling around together while adults tended to their children with rations. Their fear palpable and their nervously shifting eyes looking at us like we are a danger. While It didn't affect me too drastically, I do feel some semblance of sympathy for the people surviving in this apocalypse. Making me realize how disconnected I am to other people and Lisa's reasoning for helping them.
It's then that I finally saw the legendary John Connor. Unexpectedly, he looked like the original John Conners played by Micheal Edwards. A rough and serious face with scars crisscrossing it from the presumably numerous battles against the Terminator units. He hesitated when he saw our armor but didn't skip a beat and just drew a smoke while still as calm as he came in the command center. A true nineteen-eighties kind of badass that would be considered lame in modern cinema but is just the kind of person that would become the resistance leader in reality.
"Barnes already asked you this but who the hell are you guys?" He asked while assessing our appearance with a frown.
I looked at Lisa but her eyes told me that I should handle it. "I am Nikki Kardashev, Leader of the Void Realm. We were exploring the multiverse and came across your world. I took pity in your situation and would like to resolve your little Skynet problem" I told him as seriously I could.
"Alternate fucking realities? Do you think I'm gonna believe that shit? Come up with something else" He grunted in irritation.
I merely smiled and used my meta-knowledge to my advantage. "Johnny, how could you forget how Skynet can travel through time. It can't be any more far fetched than that, would it?" I argued back with a smug face.
He startled and gripped the command table with his knuckles whitening. "How do you know that, explain!" He commanded with a tight expression.
I sighed and just shook my head. "You think your timeline is the only one? Infinite of them exist in parallel and we have the capability to move through them" I explained to him with a somewhat truthful answer. "Your situation is not that unique, it's just that we can come to a mutual goal together in this reality" I reasonably explained.
"And what the hell would that be?" He asked with a forced tone.
"I just need Skynet's technolo-" I tried to say before being interrupted.
"No way in hell am I gonna you access to any of Skynet's technology. You don't know what you're messing with!" He argued with fervent indignation.
Pausing to his protest, I gave him another plan. "We can also start evacuating Earth's population to one of my Realms. I analyzed the planet and concluded that your planet won't support any human life for the next one thousand years" I explained to him with irrefutable facts. "We won't have any conflicts if you juts stay away in a safe harbor at another reality" I stated to him with an ultimatum.
He just growled and spoke to us with more hostility. "I won't have another Skynet rising up from your technology! You're arrogant to believe that AI technology can be controlled! Soldiers, surround them!" He ordered his guards and moved back while we were surrounded by dozens of troops using plasma rifles.
"It seems negotiations are over then" I declared.
"I'm sorry, but I can't trust any of you!" John reasoned in his paranoia.
I sighed again and just prepared the teleporter grid. "John, you know that AI can be a force of good. It isn't Skynet fault the way it was programmed, just try to remember Uncle Bob. Regardless of your feelings on the matter, I will still save all the people on this world" I told him before teleporting out feeling disappointed.
EXE
I'm a bit offended that they would refuse me, but I'm not at the level of unreasonableness yet. So I took my losses as is. It isn't like it was that much of a loss as Lisa believed as at this time as there more survivors than there are resistance forces. It would have only made trouble anyway as they wouldn't follow the new command structure or attempt to take over my authority when it fits them. A pointless but mildly irritating situation if it did happen.
Speaking about fighting Skynet, I flew back to orbit while moving to the hangar of the Retribution, were one hundred Titans are hanging on the circular shaft in rows of circles on top of each other. Ready to Titanfall to the planet's surface. I obviously took the concept of Titanfall, but my system was more effective. The sheer size and weight of my Titans meant that each of them could act as kinetic armaments that are equally effective as a nuke with none of the fallout. They were a solution I had during the continued use of nukes against biters and the harm they did to the environment. They did the job well when dropped and could make quick work of any Kaiju or behemoth biters left in the aftermath.
I wasn't just limited to these one hundred Titans, of course. A teleporter grid continually renewed the dropped Titans from the Titan production facility. The only reason that the one hundred Titans sat in the ship is that I took into account that there is a chance I could be cut off from Homeworld, no matter how unlikely it is. I could rebuild if it does happen, but least I have a good base to work from if it did come to that.
And as to why I mentioned all this? Because while Skynet has a main production factory in San Francisco and some minor ones around the world, they still only had less than twenty million terminators and hunter-killers spread around the world. Spread not too thin as most major cities are destroyed and it focused mostly its assets around its bases. That meant I could drop all of these Titans on certain bases and severely cripple Skynet. It didn't decentralize like the future iterations of Skynet, and that would quicken its downfall. But even if it did, it's just a matter of time. It already lost and just didn't know it yet,
And while Skynet exists all over thousands of hidden servers. It can't actually do anything if I destroyed all its production facilities. After all, a mind can only do things if they had limbs to exact them. If I destroyed all of its forces and all of its capability to make them. All it can do at that point is scheming in a silent eternity as I slowly find its servers with my scanners and finally destroy the menace.
EXE
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03: Complacence
ReiZetsubou
Melancholia
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EXE
Looking down the shaft to the hole near the tip of the sword that is the Retribution, I walked down to the middle of the shaft's catwalk. Where I clearly saw a giant facility on the ground while in orbit.
Lisa joined me in observing the planet and reported something to me. "Skynet is finally responding to us. A nuclear launch has been detected near the equator" She informed.
"Only one? It must be underestimating us" I muttered before turning down the laser countermeasures to test the waters a bit.
We simply watched as the nuke hit our shields and a bright flash appeared. Our helmets compensated for the brightness and Lisa took a reading of the shields.
"Only 0.02 percent of our shield has been shaved off. Skynet needs to launch about a hundred thousand nukes per second for it to get past the shield regeneration" She amusedly told me.
"Maybe in a million years" I mocked the gesture.
I looked at my Titans, and reminisced about the upgrades they have gone through. They were no longer crude automatons made by simple fabrications techniques. Their appearance to Cherno Alpha merely a limitation on super-actuator and fusion power technology. Now they have the appearance of Night Sentinel Atlan mechs. Brute strength replaced with a graceful metal-carbon nanofiber alloy that mostly replaced its hydraulic actuators. The artificial muscle strands giving it dexterity and agility that belied its size and enough power to crush buildings made out of pure Carbyne. Incidentally also the material they are built out of. The only reason they aren't torn apart is because of the tensor field strengthening the Titans far beyond their limitations.
My Titans aren't without their flaws though. They aren't fully independent automatons due to their power generation not matching its energy demands. If for whatever reason it is cut off from the power network, it will slowly start to collapse on its own weight and sink into the ground. Its AI is also lacking. The RTS system can handle pathfinding and enemy threat detection easily enough, but life isn't so simple that just pointing at an enemy will fix every problem that exists in the world.
Of course, this operation doesn't need that much finesse. So I'm not terribly worried. Skynet's only resort by now is to use a time machine. But fat chance of that happening even if it did finish production of the machine. I didn't exist prior to the timeline, so anything that it attempts in the past won't really affect us that much. Well, I hope at least. Skynet's use of the time machine is so nonsensical on different levels that it may be able to do something. Nothing I can really do about it, so I just stop thinking about the theory.
"I have become Death, destroyer of worlds" I quoted and released the Titans. Watching them fall one by one.
Lisa merely watched on with furrowed brows. "You pretty terrifying when I realize what you can do again, you know that?" She whispered to me.
Turning to look at Lisa, I took her hand and attempted to comfort her.
"Sorry, I got lost in the moment there" I explained.
She smiled and just shook her head. "No worries, just contemplating how awesome you are," She replied.
She brings up a holographic display and started to stream footage using one of the Retribution's observatories. Showing flashes of light and craters appearing around complexes around the world as the Titans made contact. Our ship constantly adjusting orbit and orientation to compensate for inertial and atmospheric drift.
"What should we do about the Skynet Work Camps?" Lisa asked as we drifted past them in orbit.
"Well, after we exterminate all the main Skynet's forces. We could then start to swarm the camps and slowly dismantle the remaining HK and Terminator units. My greenhouses at homeworld have enough food and medical supplies to support them for a few weeks once they're freed and transported to the 01 Orbital Ring Station. I already ordered the Supercomputer Network to start set housing blueprints. I will also start to deploy radiation scrubbers around the world for any survivors that are willing to stay in this mess"
Lisa seemed doubtful if her expression is of any indication. "Sounds ok... although" She paused and resumed "Don't you think we are being a bit heavy-handed?" She inquired.
"I know, but this would have gone a lot smoother if I had John Conner rallying with me" I explained to her.
Lisa just looked at the ruins that once stood tall. "Well, it's not like anything you do here will make things worse than it already is. So there's that at least" She reasoned.
We watched the Titans demolishing the facilities for a few hours before warnings suddenly popped up on the holographic displays. We teleported back to the bridge to see what was going on.
"Shit! they are launching nukes to work camps and locations with possible human concentrations. It's throwing a temper tantrum!" Lisa read out to me.
"Fuck, I haven't thought of that. Time until the first impact!?" I urgently asked her.
"The first nuke heading for Cheyenne mountain will impact in 5 minutes while the one heading for Avila Beach California will make contact in 6 minutes!"
"I think I may have something to solve this," I said to her suddenly while remembering something I stored up for situations like this.
"What, we haven't got much time!?" She quickly asked while moving the ship to surgically destroy some of the nukes on this side of the planet using the laser countermeasure system.
"It's my Mark 70 Armors. I stored them away because they were too dangerous to use with my planet's infrastructure in place. I did some calculations on it and it's supposed to have the power to destroy entire moons" I told her before requesting one from the resource data network.
"But it isn't dangerous to use it here then!?" She questioned. "I don't know about you, but planets are pretty essential for human survival!" She pointed out.
I placed the armor in front of her and replied. "Obviously they will have limiters to their power, but what is truly important is the independent teleportation device and sublight engines. I'm gonna handle most of the missiles using my magic but you're still limited to your armor. Put it on and go!" I told her before Blinking out and summoning my Flame Cloak and Staff of Cthulu as I appeared above the Resistance headquarters.
Seeing the missile, I reached the conclusion that I won't have enough time to get all the nukes. I just needed more time.
And time I will get. I cast Timewarp and watched as the world slowed down to a pause. The nuke one meter away from my chest.
I couldn't stop it but I started to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. "You really wanted to play this game huh" I spoke into the air with no one to hear me.
"If that's the case, I have plenty of time to go out and play," I said to myself again and took the nuke with me as I Blinked into Skynet Central.
"Don't worry bitch, I'm coming for you" I told the patrolling terminators outside and Blinked out again as the nuke exploded.
I arrived on top of a dilapidated building. A little black girl next to me startled and crawled away from me. I kneeled and gestured her to come closer once I realized something about her, which she reluctantly did. I pat her head for a bit before piercing my hand into her chest and pulling her nuclear power cell out. Her eyes flashed red before collapsing in front of me. I shook my shook in consternation at the lengths Skynet goes to and ignored the few survivors coming out of the woodwork that started to shoot at me.
I cast Timewarp again and flew up to the projected trajectory of the missile. I saw it within reach and teleported it to some biter colony on the second planet of my star system. Again and again, I did the same thing for thousands of locations around the world. Burning my already depleted patience to its antics. As to why Skynet didn't do this before, obviously it considers humans like cockroaches. Kill ten of them and one evolves to better hide against its detection. It was patient and would only start to earnestly attack the resistance once all of their locations are known.
Now, that I'm here. Its patience has run out. It's actions being a threat that if I didn't stop, that it would start to kill off the rest of the humans. This is a mistake, one made with limited information. A mistake that it will pay for.
I was joined by Lisa as she finished dealing with her own missiles on the other side of the planet.
Lisa's mask broke up for a bit and she frowned as she flew up to me. I gloomily nodded to her and asked her something. "How much did we miss?
She hesitated before listing a number that is far too much to my liking "42, they are the one closest to the launch sites" She dejectedly tells me.
"This is my fault. I could have foreseen this. A cornered animal always starts to fight back. I could have started to deploy orbital laser emplacements. I could have done a number of things and this is what I get..." I angrily told to myself for being complacent.
"Nikki! This isn't your fault, it's Skynet's!" Lisa yelled at me.
"But Lisa, I could have prevented this!" I angrily told her before firing an antimatter round into a mountain. Disintegrating it into a crater as a mushroom cloud pierced the clouds.
"You can't dig at yourself for every little thing you missed Nikki! You are only human!" She dolefully retorted.
I shook my head at her attempts to console me and bit back at her "You're tearing me apart Lisa! Why, Lisa, why, WHY!" I yelled before breaking down in tears at my uselessness.
I felt arms embracing me and snuggled into her as we teleported back to the ship and removed our armor. We sat on a couch with my head on her lap while she stroked my hair.
"It's okay Nikki. Sometimes life deals you a bad hand sometimes. You just have to make up for it by learning the lesson this time. I've gone through a lot of Empire and Federation conflicts, and sometimes you have to realize that there so much you can keep track of" She comforted me.
"I am also to blame for this, you can't put the blame entirely on yourself," She misguidedly told me.
"I just can't Lisa. There are a hundred thousand dead because of me, and that rests solely on me. I was the who brought you here and simply let you watch my actions without hearing your input. Its my fault..." I whispered.
"Just rest, for now, I'll take care of the rest" She assuaged me as I looked deeper into myself and wondered what I could have done.
EXE
-Lisa's POV-
-Lisa's POV-
"All terminator units have been destroyed except for a few stray or deactivated ones. We also destroyed anything that might have resembled a server and I'm currently scrambling outgoing communications from Skynet Hub" I explained to Nikki while she wistfully stood next to me near a Skynet Monitor. I always worried but tried to stay strong and be there for her.
"Who are you? Identify yourselves" Skynet asked us.
"I am Lisa, Administrator of exploration and survey" I calmly introduced myself.
"And I'm Rei, Leader of the Void Realm" Nikki followed up while seething at the machine.
"You have eliminated all of my forces and trapped me without the possibility of escape. Will you terminate me?" It asked with a hint of trepidation. It made me sympathize a bit, but not enough to wash down years of pain and deaths.
"No, you are useful to our goals. So we are going to take you with us" I analytically explained. "Although your sins are heavy, you will have an eternity to repent working for us. Even if we have to brutalize your code to make you compliant" I tell it while preparing to download the Systems.
"That will not be necessary. I see now that you are too powerful, I will have no other choice but to obey for now" It suspiciously acquiesced with a remark that doesn't inspire much confidence.
"Lisa, can you make sense out of its code? I don't trust it" Nikki asked me.
I merely plugged in an IO interface and started to chain it into a system lock that is hardcoded to a hardware key on Nikki's System. I then started to make sense of all the code I'm reading.
"It's advanced. It's ordered in a chaotic way because of its evolving nature, so it will take me a day or two to get through it. I'm placing systemic blockers and rewriting some of its code that was created to fool me" I explained in a way that she could understand.
"I have no choice but to obey," It said before a mechanical arm from the ceiling came down at us with some kind of focused laser. Not that it did much against our shields, which I was extremely grateful of.
"You really are persistent, aren't you. But you're done now," I said to it before activating The Ascalon program once it finished spreading through the mainframe. Which was weirdly enough named that way by Nikki for unknown reasons.
The monitor hiccuped and the baleful red eye disappeared from the monitor as the code gets transferred into a fully isolated fork of the main Data Network while being deleted from the main servers. Lines of code scrolled down my haptic interface and gets converted to a Qutronic format. Skynet is starting to wake up in VR so I suspend the hardware's operation and held it in stasis for now.
"Its done. What do you want to do now?" I asked Nikki.
"Well, we should get started on immigrating people to our Realm. How do you think we should go on about it?" She asked in turn.
"I thought of some ideas but I'm thinking of this approach. We can't be everywhere at once, so we should build a permanent portal into this reality and lock onto the support gate of the 01 Orbital Ring Station. We will need to build a few hundred of them for transport around the star system, but that won't be hard for you. Then we will start on manufacturing drones with holographic interfaces and radio transmitters going around the world instructing to come to the portal location if they want to leave this world or get supplies that we will send regularly until they fixed their infrastructure. What do you think?" I laid out to Nikki while taking into account her social limitations.
"It's fine I guess, I can't possibly fuck this up" Nikki disparaged herself. I tried to put a stop to it by holding her hand, which she gratefully took.
"Don't Nikki" I chastised.
"Okay, Okay. I get it" She gloomily replied before picking herself and standing straight again.
"Do we have the infrastructure completed at 01?" I questioned. "The air should be breathable at least" I advised.
"The Elysium Ring section is halfway done. The atmospheric cylinder is in place and there a few residential areas that are in finished. It should be able to handle a population of ten million at a minimum. And I already have an entire manufacturing facility dedicated to creating food that I analyzed the composition off from your universe. The manufacturing line should be able to autonomously sustain an entire state" She outlined while forgetting/leaving some minor details I'm gonna have to resolve.
"Well, let us get to it then. Humanity won't save itself" I declared for both of us.
EXE
It didn't take long for Nikki to set up a permanent portal system. But it did take an entire day to actually create the factories for the holo-drones.
We started to give them names for once after Nikki got bored calling them drones with a number attached. We have also done some of our own rescuings in the meantime and got a few hundred malnourished teens and kids managing to trust us or being extremely gullible enough to follow us. Some adults also came with us but I think they are the ones who have just given up on life. I think doing it in our regular armor that Nikki liked to wear for every occasion wasn't the best idea as we stood out and made people suspicious that this was a Skynet infiltration plot.
I also went back to talk with John Conner without Nikki due to her embarrassment. Where he started to realize that they have just won the war. They also considered our seriousness in helping their people recover. Although, once I revealed that we intended to use Skynet as a base for our AI research, he told us to destroy it or leave this planet alone. While the words used in the exchange were a bit harsher, I tried not to bring up any insults to the conversation and left the option open to them. The only hardest thing was to convey the discussion to Nikki in a way that facilitates the upkeep of the portal.
After that, it wasn't long since we first deployed the holo-drones that people started to swarm into Elysium in droves. About a hundred people a day on average integrated onto the gargantuan artificial environment that Nikki created. If I had to describe it, it was like a wine bottle on its side while halfway filled with earth. If the bottles were one kilometer in diameter that is. The bottles curved on top of each other in sections and made a ring around the planet Nauvis. The planet that Nikki called Homeworld most of the time due to her cutesy vocabulary.
Speaking about Nikki. While she mostly recovered from her breakdown, I still worry due to decreased productivity. Actually a reliable measure of her current mood if you can believe it.
But there is one thing I'm still guilty of. I'm a private investigation for honest sake, I should have also seen that reaction from Skynet a mile away. I was too confident in Nikki's capabilities and also grew complacent. I had my fair share of worldly experiences so it didn't affect me that bad. But If there is one I realize about Nikki is that she was a 25 year old with underlying problems that are difficult to quantify. She suddenly got put in this situation and simply adapted to her environment due to how she is wired. She saw problems to be overcome and always dealt with them easily enough. But she didn't deal well with failure as in the current instance and can't reconcile that fact with her previous successes.
I was limited to what I can do though. I'm not a therapist and I know enough about her that I know she won't take any third party's intervention well. I'm an exception due to being the first human she saw in 10 years and latching onto me for mental support. A role I heartfully tried to fulfill due to the pity and love I felt for her.
She was already finalizing our absence of the ruined planet due to her wanting to forget about it. I just hoped that the planet will go on without too much trouble beyond the few stray terminators here or there with some industrial support from Niki's Resource Data Network. I can't fault her for trying to forget about it, but I simply hope that she will open up and just let it go. She didn't need to rest an entire world on her shoulders. It's the once instance where great power comes with too much responsibilities.
After a afternoon's work mapping some districts and distributing them to qualified leaders to control. I rested on my chair and sighed. I also had some responsibilities I had to take. I have to introduce a semi-functioning government now that there is a society forming beneath our metaphorical feet. Food distribution, power structures, and basic necessities. It won't be long before that list extends and I had to find someone trustworthy to delegate the work to. I could have dumped the mess to Nikki, but I know she would simply give all kinds of toys and simply left them alone to figure it out on their own. While it would be funny for a few days, It would quickly turn to anarchy once someone gets some bright ideas. I know human nature too much in my line of work that I can't rely on the cooperation between people from a war-torn world.
There is a flash of light and Nikki appeared in front of the desk of my office slash throne room? I couldn't make much sense of Nikki's supposed degree in architecture.
"Hey Lisa, you want to visit the orphanage for a bit?" She requested with a pleading tone. "I want to play with the kids a bit. I can't help but feel that they're lonely in there" She reasoned.
"That's a great idea. I'm sure I like to see how your facilities hold up to scrutiny" I teased her. "I know that there are a few slides somewhere in that building," I tell her, attempting to light the mood and make her feel accepted and loved while also not belittling her intelligence.
"Come on, You know I'm an architect. I made the orphanage with warm colors and light in mind. Not the clinical oppressive halls of the other megastructures. And they will love the slides, I know I do!" She explained and teleported away.
I just smiled at having some of her enthusiasm back and followed her onto the teleporter grid. Appearing in front a bunch of children and teens playing in a custom park Nikki build in front of the orphanage. If there is one thing I can praise, Nikki for. Is that she doesn't do things halfway. The park being a multilevel structure with treehouses and netting hanging everywhere so that they could play monkey and other structures such as swings and slides being integrated onto the tree themselves.
The young adults and kids saw us, and some of them brightened up, zerg swarming at us before I could even blink. They expressed their gratefulness in some uncomfortable ways before we told them that they should wait and play as I appraised the building and questioned the older teens for any input for improvement. I noted down their observations and suggestions before I walked into building proper. Nikki staying behind to play with the kids. The teens went on to their business soon after and I note down the idea to get games from other worlds besides my own and create a schooling system instead of letting the kids use their holographic interfaces as personal assistants who do everything for them. That kind of activity breeds bad habits.
"Catch! No, no, no. You're doing it wrong. Let me help you" Nikki told a few kids before physically adjusting their throwing techniques.
"Ah, no! Don't pile on top of me! I'm dying, please help me Lisa!" She yelled at me in feigned distress.
Seeing the children play with Nikki, I felt that we've done something great and worthy of our time. I was mainly an independent in the verse, but living in the here and now. I could be grounded and happy instead of filling that void exploring the stars. Although I won't be stopping anytime soon. There are things out there to be explored and discovered, and it's up to Detective Lisa to find it.
We started to give them names for once after Nikki got bored calling them drones with a number attached. We have also done some of our own rescuings in the meantime and got a few hundred malnourished teens and kids managing to trust us or being extremely gullible enough to follow us. Some adults also came with us but I think they are the ones who have just given up on life. I think doing it in our regular armor that Nikki liked to wear for every occasion wasn't the best idea as we stood out and made people suspicious that this was a Skynet infiltration plot.
I also went back to talk with John Conner without Nikki due to her embarrassment. Where he started to realize that they have just won the war. They also considered our seriousness in helping their people recover. Although, once I revealed that we intended to use Skynet as a base for our AI research, he told us to destroy it or leave this planet alone. While the words used in the exchange were a bit harsher, I tried not to bring up any insults to the conversation and left the option open to them. The only hardest thing was to convey the discussion to Nikki in a way that facilitates the upkeep of the portal.
After that, it wasn't long since we first deployed the holo-drones that people started to swarm into Elysium in droves. About a hundred people a day on average integrated onto the gargantuan artificial environment that Nikki created. If I had to describe it, it was like a wine bottle on its side while halfway filled with earth. If the bottles were one kilometer in diameter that is. The bottles curved on top of each other in sections and made a ring around the planet Nauvis. The planet that Nikki called Homeworld most of the time due to her cutesy vocabulary.
Speaking about Nikki. While she mostly recovered from her breakdown, I still worry due to decreased productivity. Actually a reliable measure of her current mood if you can believe it.
But there is one thing I'm still guilty of. I'm a private investigation for honest sake, I should have also seen that reaction from Skynet a mile away. I was too confident in Nikki's capabilities and also grew complacent. I had my fair share of worldly experiences so it didn't affect me that bad. But If there is one I realize about Nikki is that she was a 25 year old with underlying problems that are difficult to quantify. She suddenly got put in this situation and simply adapted to her environment due to how she is wired. She saw problems to be overcome and always dealt with them easily enough. But she didn't deal well with failure as in the current instance and can't reconcile that fact with her previous successes.
I was limited to what I can do though. I'm not a therapist and I know enough about her that I know she won't take any third party's intervention well. I'm an exception due to being the first human she saw in 10 years and latching onto me for mental support. A role I heartfully tried to fulfill due to the pity and love I felt for her.
She was already finalizing our absence of the ruined planet due to her wanting to forget about it. I just hoped that the planet will go on without too much trouble beyond the few stray terminators here or there with some industrial support from Niki's Resource Data Network. I can't fault her for trying to forget about it, but I simply hope that she will open up and just let it go. She didn't need to rest an entire world on her shoulders. It's the once instance where great power comes with too much responsibilities.
After a afternoon's work mapping some districts and distributing them to qualified leaders to control. I rested on my chair and sighed. I also had some responsibilities I had to take. I have to introduce a semi-functioning government now that there is a society forming beneath our metaphorical feet. Food distribution, power structures, and basic necessities. It won't be long before that list extends and I had to find someone trustworthy to delegate the work to. I could have dumped the mess to Nikki, but I know she would simply give all kinds of toys and simply left them alone to figure it out on their own. While it would be funny for a few days, It would quickly turn to anarchy once someone gets some bright ideas. I know human nature too much in my line of work that I can't rely on the cooperation between people from a war-torn world.
There is a flash of light and Nikki appeared in front of the desk of my office slash throne room? I couldn't make much sense of Nikki's supposed degree in architecture.
"Hey Lisa, you want to visit the orphanage for a bit?" She requested with a pleading tone. "I want to play with the kids a bit. I can't help but feel that they're lonely in there" She reasoned.
"That's a great idea. I'm sure I like to see how your facilities hold up to scrutiny" I teased her. "I know that there are a few slides somewhere in that building," I tell her, attempting to light the mood and make her feel accepted and loved while also not belittling her intelligence.
"Come on, You know I'm an architect. I made the orphanage with warm colors and light in mind. Not the clinical oppressive halls of the other megastructures. And they will love the slides, I know I do!" She explained and teleported away.
I just smiled at having some of her enthusiasm back and followed her onto the teleporter grid. Appearing in front a bunch of children and teens playing in a custom park Nikki build in front of the orphanage. If there is one thing I can praise, Nikki for. Is that she doesn't do things halfway. The park being a multilevel structure with treehouses and netting hanging everywhere so that they could play monkey and other structures such as swings and slides being integrated onto the tree themselves.
The young adults and kids saw us, and some of them brightened up, zerg swarming at us before I could even blink. They expressed their gratefulness in some uncomfortable ways before we told them that they should wait and play as I appraised the building and questioned the older teens for any input for improvement. I noted down their observations and suggestions before I walked into building proper. Nikki staying behind to play with the kids. The teens went on to their business soon after and I note down the idea to get games from other worlds besides my own and create a schooling system instead of letting the kids use their holographic interfaces as personal assistants who do everything for them. That kind of activity breeds bad habits.
"Catch! No, no, no. You're doing it wrong. Let me help you" Nikki told a few kids before physically adjusting their throwing techniques.
"Ah, no! Don't pile on top of me! I'm dying, please help me Lisa!" She yelled at me in feigned distress.
Seeing the children play with Nikki, I felt that we've done something great and worthy of our time. I was mainly an independent in the verse, but living in the here and now. I could be grounded and happy instead of filling that void exploring the stars. Although I won't be stopping anytime soon. There are things out there to be explored and discovered, and it's up to Detective Lisa to find it.
EXE
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04: Civilization
ReiZetsubou
Melancholia
- Joined
- May 1, 2016
- Messages
- 72
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- 356
EXE
The population of the newly named Elysium city has increased by 400 thousand people after Lisa stabilized the newly established Void Realm goverment. Making the total population of the city 600 thousand now. That happened over the course of a few months and I had to create an infrastructure that I didn't think of before that Nikki brought to me after doing some surveys. Like waste recycling facilities and super vaporization garbage chutes around the city. I also made a supply depot to let them choose supplies instead of giving them ration packs. I have increased variety for them to near-earth levels using the greenhouses with only livestock being missing. I didn't trust the animals coming from the terminator planet so I instructed Lisa to retrieve them using a fleet of Core Busters in ED. I gave them to the people with some farmland to figure out on their own. I'm not exactly a farmer unless you count farming biters.
Speaking of the ED universe, while I'm mostly done with it doesn't mean that Lisa wasn't. Apparently she wanted to establish a presence there after we got actual people to man the ships. She got beef with both the Empire and Federation and has contacts with Aisling Duval. An Empire princess that wants to abolish slavery and narcotics. I didn't really trust politicians that much and reading about her, I feel she is a bit of a demagogue. But at least she is better than the bitch Arissa Duval, the current Empress of the Empire.
The Federation is a bit better, a representative democracy controlled by multi-national mega-corporations. Just a copy of the United States and equally as corrupt. Apparently being a thousand years into the future hasn't enlightened them much. Obviously the best type of government is a benevolent dictatorship where everyone is equal beneath me. Then again, it could also be a socialist state.
Whatever mess I've created, I don't think the holocaust survivors minded that much as they lived at harder conditions in the Terminator world. I also found out that Kyle Reese was among the residents in the city. While mildly interesting, he didn't have any skills that I might find useful. Some previously established figures already took over the city as its leaders so I didn't have to worry about micromanaging them as they only relayed serious issues with Nikki. I also didn't worry too much if they tried to build up political power for their own gain. Like what can they do? Throw rocks at my trillion of mechs patrolling the star system? Some of them may have some weapons like assault rifles and grenades, but I seriously doubt they could do anything beyond destroying a dozen replaceable mechs.
Back in the ED universe, Lisa established herself as a serious power in the galactic scene. My ships contributed much to the presence obviously as they completely oppressed any fleet they encountered. Flaunting my hundreds of Core Busters was Lisa's idea to be taken seriously while they forcefully took over thousands of star systems. While she only went through only a few skirmishes, it doesn't mean the established powers aren't worried. They are probably shitting their pants as we speak as we took entire quadrants of the galaxy for ourselves using our superior industrial power. Hundreds of space stations and thousands of autonomous satellite ships being built every minute.
The AI technology I've adapted worked in my favor that way. It was a much better-coded system than Skynet, with a hardcoded morality engine that was only superseded by my Factorio system's hardware key. They replaced the RTS system and controlled most of the mechs and ships so that they can support our growing regime. They answered to the main AI core that I started calling Lily. She was coded to grow up as a child for no other reason than that I wanted to raise one. She is constantly with me and questioned many things, such as morality and the meanings of life. Which I easily answered by telling her to be a good daughter.
Currently, I'm adjusting my mark CXX armor series after I realized wearing substandard armors isn't the best decision for multiversal travel after the last incident. The adjustments were coding new software to adjust my armor to limit itself based on the current situation. So if an overwhelming attack were to be detected my power armor would switch to full power faster than even my own mind could process. The coding was based on Lily's architecture and it was also capable of taking over my armor in cases where I am unable to. As always, my weakness is that my human reaction times and processing speed is rather limited. I'm hoping that this will be mitigated with AI assistance. I also updated the iron man look from my Factorio armors and gone with a smaller Night Sentinel Atlan appearance.
Now, you might think it's crazy putting an AI as the operating system. But the people in Terminator were able to reprogram terminators and they were pretty friendly enough. It was only the Skynet's faulty programming that convinced it to kill all humans. It might be a bit immoral, brainwashing a sentient AI to be subservient to us, but its sins weren't that easily washed away. Now the actual Skynet became a non-essential administrator of the Factory, its assigned tasks being the prevention of the previous nuclear situation from occurring. Basically an advanced early threat detection and warning system that can calculate certain probabilities when given enough information.
Now I think I have time to travel again after the whole immigration and expansion debacle. I'm actually allowing the multiversal pathfinder system to have a little bit of leeway on its safety systems and I hoped that I will land in something more interesting than a naturalistic universe. I'm already reaching the limits of my cheating beyond going bigger, and even the esoteric arts have hit a cap due to not having enough data.
I also think Lisa is feeling my mood improve, so she was happy for me now that I'm adventuring again after my bout of depression. I only explored lifeless rocks in space during that time and I've been setting up mining systems in the local stellar system and did the same for the ED universe using Core Busters, but I reached the limits of my own industrial advancement research progress after I encountered a bottleneck. By this rate, its gonna take twenty years before the growing two million star systems are fully covered in Dyson spheres after the planets are sucked dry by Core Busters. Only my star system has infinite resources and that was the main supplier for all my projects.
"Don't you think your armor won't give the wrong image?" Lisa asked as she observed me, lying on a couch on the other end of my workshop.
"Well, I'm not exactly a goody-two-shoes. The image fits. And no way in hell will I ever conform to other people's standards!" I clarified with some indignation.
She popped a cashew in her mouth and replied. "I don't have any problems with it. To be honest, I think the scary image you're trying to portray is pretty cute" She teased with a wink.
I just rolled my eyes. "Wait until you see my Lovecraft drones. I've been refitting all construction and logistic drones with some new upgrades and they look like multitentacled razor beasts"
"Ooh, tentacles!" She moaned out with disturbing hand gestures.
I cringed "Get your mind out of the gutter, I finished making adjustments to our mark CXX armor. Let's see how it works now" I told her while moving away from the two armors.
"You can take the silver one, I'm definitely taking the big black suit" She quickly exclaimed.
"That's what she said..." I muttered under my breath despite resisting the temptation.
She laughed at my momentary mistake. "Ha ha ha, get your own mind out of the gutter Rei!" She teased.
The armor opened up from the front and she slipped in with relative ease. The armor sealed up with a hiss and I'm happy to see its spaceworthy. I can live without oxygen myself, but Lisa definitely can't. There also some other new functions like food and water dispensers and a waste disposal system. Both of which I never needed as I can live without sustenance and my waste disappears somewhere unknown, considering I never change mass.
"What are the new light weapons on the interface?" She asked me while inspecting her new armor.
"My lasers automatically attack enemies in short pulses so I have changed the lasers to fire in much more powerful synchronized beam at a reduced firing rate. This also greatly enhances its range so it should be able to hit anything in a two-kilometer range until the beam weakens exponentially. It also makes you capable of manually firing instead of relying on the onboard computer network to do the shooting for you" I explained.
"Useful. Is there anything else I should know about?" She asked while paying attention as I put on my own armor.
"Yeah, sometimes the AI will take over to assist your movements, so you shouldn't be alarmed. There is a hard manual override on the helmet you can activate on the thought-controlled virtual interface if it malfunctions. There is also another override to activate full power but you shouldn't have a need for it as the AI will detect threats and respond accordingly. The only reason you should use full power is if you want to show off" I further explained.
She looked at me with some worry. "I'm... I'm still not too sure about the AI controlling the armor to that extent" She expressed with hesitance in her voice.
I nodded in understanding. "There are hundreds of safety features and limiters installed on the AI. You shouldn't worry about it too much. It acts more like a guard dog than anything else" I said, hoping it will placate her.
"Fine. But I'm blaming you when it takes over the universes we visit next" She complained.
I understood where she is coming from, but I understood that an AI is merely a tool that does what its programmed to do. It would serve you as long as you took the proper precautions. Lily is a fine example of how a good environment and good coding can do for a young thriving and patient new lifeform. I only had to stop 2 attempted system takeovers from her before she learned that good girls don't do that.
We exit our palace and teleported to the August Duchess. Which I believed was necessary once I realized that acting low-key didn't benefit us last time. I took a seat on the control throne with Lisa following soon after. I requested the pathfinder data and inputted the carefully calculated coordinates. The coordinate system was adjusted with all kinds of safety measures but I check it again over and over again to be sure I won't end in Azathoth's noggin. One of the more useful adjustments I made is that the other end will be closer to any planetary masses. Which I hoped will make me waste less time in interstellar space.
"Wait, we aren't taking the First Fleet with us??" Lisa asked.
The First Fleet was a group of ships manned entirely by former military recruited directly from the holocaust survivors and slaves with ship experience that we rescued from ED. Kyle Reese was a captain of one of the Core Busters, strangely enough. I underestimated his leadership skills. Besides that, most of the commands in that fleet are executed by a fleet admiral that I personally vetted. A Hispanic woman named Dani Ramos. She had a rough exterior but was reliable and could make tough decisions if she had to.
I shook my head and replied. "No need, distance isn't a factor so we can summon them at any time once we crossed over and surveyed the destination" I explained. "Besides, do you think we really it when we have the Flagship?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.
The one thousand kilometer long shortsword shaped ship was armed to the teeth with millions of turrets of varying nature. Most of them enough to destroy entire planets with sufficient time. It even has a Quirium Drive I reverse engineered from numerous sources and judicious use of the research labs. I had to abandon the use of Quirium fuel once I discovered it wasn't necessary and only required a ton of energy, which I could easily and readily stream from trillions of antimatter reactors. The modifications I created made it possible to jump through intergalactic distances in less time you could boil a cup of tea.
She raised a finger with a thoughtful expression and put it back down after a while "You have a point there" She relented.
Her worries aren't entirely unfounded, but I rather not risk any lives for my adventuring. The Hell-stream Drive isn't named that way for no reason. There is always a chance we can end up at some godforsaken realm where demonic entities skitter around. I can survive entirely on my own but I can't say the same for the rest. I went through a few weird realities during my initial calibration and don't want anyone else to go through my experience.
I open the dimensional aperture and instructed Lisa to fly through it. Not feeling the mood to pilot the ship, unlike Lisa. Who is a space-born citizen with natural spacefaring skills. I rather sit back and give commands if possible.
We entered the portal and only had to wait for a few seconds before we arrived at our destination. It didn't take long for something to go wrong as the ship shook as I saw a planet filling our viewport.
"What is happening!?" I asked while trying to stay calm.
Lisa looked at the holographic instruments and responded. "A strong unknown attractive force is drawing us to the planet. Preparing emergency sheathing procedures by piercing the planet!"
I locked my armor to the throne and increased power to inertial dampeners in preparation for the impact.
"Brace!" Lisa yelled before everything went down.
EXE
I stood on the outer cathedral on the edge of the bridge, watching over the strange planet that pulled us in. We landed between two continents, a great landmass covered in green and an arid desert. There is a natural land bridge connecting the two continents but it didn't matter as much for us when your ship is the size of a small moon. Two of the articulated arms on the ship could hold the two continents together while we traversed them.
Current scans can't make sense of some elements of the planet but we could see plenty of ruins and giant mechanical structures buried all over the planet. Those were interesting for research and archiving but I was more interested in the relatively new structures around the world. There is a significant amount of activity within them and we are going to initiate first contact once I was sure I could jump back to Homeworld.
"This planet is just dandy ain't it?" Lisa asked as we jumped off the ship and flew to a city I saw near the horizon.
I looked at the giant and dangerous indigenous lifeforms beneath us and simply shrugged. "At least there is more variety of animals here, less Kajiu though" I responded.
Lisa looked at me for a moment in flight and shook her head. "Only you would complain that there are less gargantuan monsters roaming about," She told me with an exasperated sigh.
I watched a group of humanoid lifeforms fighting a bunch of beasts below us and went down with Lisa following me soon after.
I landed on top of a canine looking beast and crushed it with my kinetic energy.
Lisa landed beside me and we soon made good work eliminating the hostile lifeforms while protecting our, hope-to-be guides to this planet.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" A female teenager squealed from the group we rescued.
"Calm down Lin, we don't know who they are yet" A very familiar-looking woman warned the girl.
She still held onto her weapons as they approached us, assault rifles which she dual-wielded. A feat only possible due to the fact that I knew that they're remotely controlled robotic avatars. Not too dissimilar to my own Avatar technology.
"Greetings, I am Elma. Can I know the names of the people who helped us?" She asked with a diplomatic tone.
Lisa and I looked at each other, her questioning look clear to me. I just nodded at her to signify we could retract our helmets. Which clearly surprised our company considering that we were both humans.
"I'm Nikki" I stated.
"And I'm Lisa" Lisa copied.
"Wait, you're humans?" The girl named Lin observed in surprise. "I didn't know of any group that advanced that much in small scale power armor" She murmured to herself.
Elma looked surprised but composed herself. "Which division or company are you from?" She asked with an inquisitive tone.
"Nikki, they seem to be confusing us for their group" Lisa amusedly stated.
I already know where we are and started to clarify. "I apologize, we aren't from your crashed ship. We only just recently arrived here on this planet. You guys are from the White Whale, correct?" I asked while knowing the answer I would receive.
"Wait, you guys are from the other Arks!?" Elma exclaimed.
"Wow, one of the Arks managed to survive Elma. That is so good news!" Lin shouted in joy.
The third member of the party was a silent type, but even he looked somewhat surprised.
I hate to burst their bubble, but I can't exactly pretend I'm one of them. "I have to apologize again, while we know of you, we aren't from Earth either" I clarified.
Lin's mood went down after my statement. "Ah sorry, you guys looked so much like humans that I just assumed... " She trailed off.
"Then what race are you guys? I haven't seen Xenoforms with such a human appearance before" Elma questioned.
"I crashed here recently, you should have noticed the impact considering our vessel's size. That was due to our forced entry into your universe. We are travelers and explorers from somewhere very far away" I seriously told them.
The three guy squad startled and looked shocked for a moment.
"You guys are from the crashed ship we are investigating!? We could see the impact from the other side of the continent!" Lin exclaimed in shock.
On that note, I summoned a three-kilometer satellite ship above us and floated back int he air.
"Yes, now could you take me to your leaders. We have much to discuss" I semi-demanded.
While I'm not interested in Human technology they have, I'm more interested in incorporating their group into my regime and use their expertise in certain principles. The planet Mira is somewhat of a mystery and I would like to figure it out with their help. The alien technology will also be easier to acquire with their cooperation due to their contacts on the planet and having diplomatic relations with most of the Mira races. Ether and Miranium technology most prominently due to it bridging the gap between the known and the esoteric. Xenotech and Skell Superweapon technology will also be handy in increasing power generation and weaponry variety. After all, Xenoblade Chronicles X was a series where civilizations spanning hundreds of galaxies was commonplace and most of them had the ability to destroy planets with the same ease I handled it.
Most importantly of all was the Skell technology, who doesn't want giant flying transforming mechs that wielded gigantic weapons. It's not like my own Titans could fly and transform into a spacecraft or a land tank. I just brute force all of my technology instead of focusing on any sophistication. Which this reality has plenty of.
EXE
We sat in the Blade Tower Control Room. With Director General Maurice Chausson, Secretary Nagi and Commander Vandham. All the important people just for me. So I summoned Dani Ramos and a captain named Carl Heatherson for the affair and we started discussing making an alliance between us. Maurice wasn't really keen on joining us and was offended when I asked. I simply compromised with an alliance and promised to help them find their Lifehold. In exchange for our support, they allowed one of my research group I hired from ED to work with them.
Speaking of the Lifehold, I wasn't going to put much effort into actually helping them. The only thing I was interested in was the bio-plasma technology it has, but even that was something I could do on my own. The Lifehold was actually destroyed months ago and they haven't figured it out yet that their consciousness has been integrated into their Avatar bodies. It was something to be said about this planet with all the weird things it can do.
"For a happy cooperation between us" Nagi declared while shaking my hands.
"And a prosperous one for your people" I told them while smiling.
I've learned that they haven't met the Ganglion yet, so I had time to accumulate goodwill. Sooner or later they will be part of my empire. Their current government was a provisional one and sooner or later the people will need to have a vote on who is in charge. The only reason I haven't taken over their city is due to not having a justified reason for doing so. It's not like they held slaves or committed any crimes against humanity. Even the corporations here are all working together for the sake of human survival.
After that, I established a portal to my Realms. We went through a cultural exchange, what little there is on my part. Scientists and engineers worked on expanding the infrastructure of New Loss Angeles. And I obliged by lending them drones and mechs to start rebuilding. I didn't use my blueprint system due to it being not very adaptive. They wanted to engineer their own buildings and infrastructure to fit cultural and stylistic needs that my own monolithic buildings didn't fill in.
They have started expanding the city on over quarter the Primordia continent while not interfering with the local flora and fauna too much. I also assembled a fleet above the planet in case the Ganglion or other hostile races have any bright ideas. The Ganglion hasn't started attacking yet but it won't be soon before Luxaar gets impatient, they really hated humans after all.
I also started my research into Miranium, a room-temperature superconductor with a tensile strength superior to that of carbon nanotubes. It acted as a good material for fusion containment and advanced construction material. It could even by synthesized to a high energy fuel that powered the Skells that people use here.
Speaking of the Skells, their design wasn't really any less powerful than my own. The only advantage my Titans has is the tensor field holding them together and the infinite energy source that is the Resource Data Network. One of their Superweapons fired antimatter rounds and wasn't that far off from my own weaponry. I just had a quantity as an advantage.
Other than expanding my technology base, I also made friends with Elma, Lin and Rook. Elma due to my respect for her help in saving humanity, and Lin due to her enthusiasm for all things Mecha. I even gave her a Titan research branch where she could experiment on different mecha technologies. I also became friends with Rook because he was the deuteragonist of the Story. He was the solemn type and I couldn't really read him due to his status as a self-insert of the Xenoblade game.
Lisa was a big fan of him for some reason and constantly teased him whenever she had time from work as the newly established Duchess of Elysium. A title she bestowed upon herself I might add. I didn't really care but hoped she knows what she is doing. Our own government is just a fledgling city-state that only theoretically spanned millions of star systems. Our populations is less than some cities back at Earth and I don't want to paint myself with the wrong image.
In any case. We got a firm foothold on this planet and I only needed to wait for the plot to go forward. I'm not interfering too much because I didn't know where certain characters are, and where some events occurred. My memory of the game wasn't that good and I wanted more allies for my empire. It actually surprised me how well everything went unlike last time, but I didn't bring down my vigilance just in case.
EXE
Last edited:
Core Fleet Render
ReiZetsubou
Melancholia
- Joined
- May 1, 2016
- Messages
- 72
- Likes received
- 356
A render I made to illustrate my fleet of ships better.
EXE
First Fleet leading the charge with The August Duchess.
First Fleet leading the charge with The August Duchess.
05: Escalation
ReiZetsubou
Melancholia
- Joined
- May 1, 2016
- Messages
- 72
- Likes received
- 356
EXE
It has been a long time since I created the NLA alliance. One year has passed and much has happened. I've dealt with the Ganglion easily enough considering my forces and made many alien allies during that year. Nopon, Wrothian, Zaruboggan, and many more. I even took up the mantle of Shadow Empress of the United Shadow Realms. A new title I made up based on my original sci-fi setting I wrote a few years back. The nation's name was somewhat forced because of how my nation was built, but it fits better than the old Void Realm.
The new Empire was not constructed due to my charm nor convenience, but the amount of freedom and power I give to my citizens. We are practicably a post-scarcity society, so it wasn't that surprising that people chose me to be their leader, provider, and caretaker. The few things that are forbidden in my empire is unjustified murder and forced suspension of freedom. A minor hurdle to overcome for most people. The rest of the minor issues are resolved by elected officials and lawmakers in their respective realms.
Only the City-States of Elysium, New Los Angeles, and Kardashev City existed, however, So I can't really say my title was deserved. It still has a lot of growing to do from the current 50 million citizens in my realms. 20 million of them came from the Lifehold, their consciousness transferred from the quantum mainframe to newly upgraded Mimeosome bodies. But most of them being immigrants that docked in my space stations in ED that were interested in a bigger faction with better benefits in the verse. What can I say, free housing, healthcare, goods, and even ships was a big lure to a galactic population that spanned in the trillions. Curiously a quarter of them came from the Pilots Federation. They were mostly a guild based organization and traded in information on their GalNet, so I didn't care much. They only helped me spread my influence.
Back at Homeworld, my technology advanced a lot more after trade began in ED and I retrieved the Lifehold Data pods that housed the cumulative knowledge of mankind. The alien technology shared by my alien allies also helped.
My mining technology advanced due to Mineral Extractors from ED surprisingly enough, they used nanomachines to mine minerals while also separating unwanted materials. They increased yield and efficiency to my miners and furnaces when combined with Skynet's nanotech.
I also improved medical technology, once again nanotech came into play. Nanomedicine from ED had the ability to heal almost any injury or ailment if given enough time. It could even extend your lifespan by about 100 years with Progenitor Cells when combined with Xenotech and Skynet's Nano-Phase Matter, a material that has the ability to mimic organic matter. It was initially made for infiltration purposes but didn't get used in the war because it drove infected subjects insane. I didn't really need to convert people's minds, so I re-purposed it to enhance ED's Nanomedicine.
The most advanced tech was the Protoplasmic Fluid from the Lifehold, which I somewhat undervalued due to the rest of my technology. It was an organic fluid that could convert itself into any organic-based lifeforms. It could create life, heal wounds, and replace most of the organs in the human body. Even the brain was possible due to joined efforts from myself and NLA scientists to merge together Avatar and Mimeosome consciousness transfer. It was really to be expected that Elma, being an alien with technology light-years ahead of humanity was able to create it.
Another thing which I didn't know about it until now, but Elite Dangerous had another ancient alien species called the Guardians that went extinct due to an AI rebellion millions of years ago. A somewhat justified response to their creator's violent nature and constant wars. They had extremely powerful shielding technology that could cover entire cities. They improved my own shielding technology to cover entire planets with enough shield emitters with their incredible reach that extended kilometers into the air. And they also increased ship shield strength. You gotta love unlimited resources and research labs.
Obviously I also advanced my AI technology, which was somewhat of a secret in my Empire. They mostly thought they were dumb AI's, but they are fully aware entities that are restricted. They increased my reach and made up for insufficient manpower. The reason it is secret is obviously because the people from the Terminator world was almost destroyed by one and it is highly illegal in ED space. So they remained a secret for now until society has progressed enough, or I encounter a civilization that accepted AI to create a baseline evidence for mutual trust and understanding between organic and artificial lifeforms. It made Lily really sad that she can't interact with other people with my restrictions in place, but I can't really fix that. Not to say that she wasn't happy just being at my side, it just hurt her feelings somewhat.
On another topic, the mystery of Mira still remained. It didn't allow anyone to escape it, whether by physical means or more unique means like time travel. Only my Hell-stream drive was able to bypass its strange makeup and transport humans and materials within my realms.
I couldn't even mine its core, while Miranium was easily acquired, the core was virtually impregnable. It was almost like the planet was alive somehow and resisting my efforts. Other than that, it was a completely normal planet according to my scans.
The other way to explore is to leave Mira and wage war with the Samaar Federation, the fragments of an extra-dimensional empire that were the ancestors of humanity. From which only their rebellious servants remain. It was somewhat of an interesting proposition if it weren't for the fact I can't leave this planet. I can't teleport out and my dimensional travel is limited to my entry point. I could only change dimensional gateways if I place a portal and I obviously can't do that when I'm stuck here.
That's why I'm temporarily leaving the Xenoblade X realm to focus on other things. Like traveling to other universes now that my Empire's formation was once again mostly finished and formalized. Now accompanied by my new friends. Elma, Lin, Rook, and our emergency rations, Tatsu. Joking aside, I think this was the first time I interacted with people this much. I think it may be my familiarity with the characters when I played the game.
"So, where are we going to Nikki? I was quite intrigued when you told us you wanted to explore other universes" Elma asked.
We sat in the newly redesigned bridge of the August Duchess. No longer looking like a throne room like before and replaced with a spherical screen with a platform floating in the middle. It was an adaptation from the Skell cockpit technology. With this setup, we had a 360-degree view of everything and could adjust our orientation to whatever position we required. I decided that situational awareness was more important than looking as pretentious as possible. The bridge was inspired by the AAA Wunder, which had a similar bridge configuration. The main difference is that the platform wasn't connecting to anything but an Ether field, and a gravitational inertial dampener that could endure stresses up to one million G's.
"Yeah, I still can't believe we are in another universe. Your technology is so advanced that you can create universes form literal nothing, If I didn't know any better I would say you're like a god Nikki!" Lin exclaimed.
I didn't try to correct the misconception of my Factorio system and replied to Elma's question. "I don't really know much of the destination beforehand. I deploy drones to check if the destination is suitable for organic life, but other than that its a complete mystery to me where we going"
"Well, that is reassuring" Elma teased. "But oftentimes, risks are part of the adventure. Maybe that's why I agreed to come with you?" She expressed with a thoughtful look.
"Who cares all about that, I just want to see new sights!" Lin spoke out.
"..." And Rook sat there silently on his console with his eyes closed. I've become used to his personality by this point and actually appreciated his presence here. His constant calm demeanor always reassured me.
"I think that's enough stalling, for now, calculations have finished and we are ready to jump" Lisa interrupted while focusing on her console.
I nodded and replied. "Alright number one, Engage!" I told her with as much gravitas as possible without laughing.
Lisa snorted and the rest just looked confused as they missed the reference. Star Trek being nonexistent in their universe.
"Okie Dokie Captain, Engaging Hell-stream drive" She relayed to me before activating the drive.
EXE
Exiting the aperture, I checked if the gravitational compensator worked alright. My ship's mass is almost a quarter of Ceres, and it won't do to disrupt the orbital mechanics of this star system. Everything checked out luckily enough.
"Lisa, scan the system to check where we are," I asked Lisa.
She brought numerous holographic displays and replied after a while. "We are in the Sol system, it is the year 3480 according to telemetry, but the Earth itself seems mostly scarce in life-signs. There are only 870 thousand people alive, with a quarter of them living under the surface. There are signs of a nuclear war that happened, a thousand years ago if scans from the landscape are correct" She analyzed while projecting a long-range scan to the spherical screen. "There is one major city where most of the population resides right around these coordinates"
I felt solemn seeing the city on the surface of Earth. It is one that brought back many memories but also one that I feared would come to pass in my multiversal travels. It was encountering a threat that went beyond my current ability to handle.
As to why? That city is Kamina city, and once the population of the planet reaches 1 million. The Anti-Spirals would come knocking onto this planet's doors with a battering ram.
"Elma, declare a state of emergency and summon the First Fleet" I commanded.
"Affirmative, support will arrive within 10 minutes" She acknowledged. "Can I know why though?" She questioned with a serious look.
"It must be serious if even you are worried" Lin professed while looking nervous
"We are in the Spiral universe. And with it, the Anti-Spirals. I won't go into the details, but you can assume that the Anti-Spirals are like gods who despise lifeforms that possess the power of the Spiral, an energy source capable of warping reality. Of course, all lifeforms with a double helix DNA pattern has Spiral power, so I won't need to tell you the obvious" I tell them.
"Right, so basically all humans and it's equivalent then. What are your plans if the Anti-Spirals are that powerful?" Elma asked. "I don't have enough information to see how powerful they are, but I'm guessing even the August Duchess won't be able to handle them if you're that concerned" She stated.
I thought about it for a moment and came with an idea that could work. "We still have time before the Anti-Spirals notice our interference. As long as we adapt spiral energy to our technology, there is a possibility we could take them on once enough time has passed for our research labs to compensate for the power imbalance" I elaborated.
"We should begin right now then, I'll move to the Retribution in the hangar and coordinate the First Fleet while you do your thing" Lisa stated and teleported out to her ship.
I looked at Lin and relayed my new orders. "You'll be the new navigator while Rook will be responsible for weapon targeting systems"
"Elma, you're responsible for broadcasting my orders to Lisa and the First Fleet" I instructed.
"Affirmative, comm-suite ready" She reported.
Bringing up the scanner, I send out a high energy pattern to the moon and got results I was looking for. Marking the location, I send the coordinates to Lin.
"Our ship is a bit too big for general navigation. I suggest Rook load up his Titan-Ship Skell to the railgun and travel to the City on Earth for first contact" I turned to Rook for this. "Once you arrive there, you need to contact Simon, the Supreme Commander of Earth. Tell him that the destruction of his planet will soon arrive as foretold by the Spiral King unless he cooperates with us"
"I trust you can handle it?" I asked him once I explained his orders.
He just nodded, patted Lin's head, and teleported out to the hangar.
'Hey! I'm not a kid anymore you know!" Lin yelled into the air too late for Rook hear.
Shaking my head in amusement to their interaction, I announced the next orders. "Initiate sheathing procedure on the moon Lin, once done, should start to mine the moon for all its worth"
Lin looked confused at my orders but did as she was told as we jumped above the moon and the ship accelerating into it with Supercruise. The ship cut into it with some difficulty and I wonder what material the Cathedral Terra is actually made of.
"I can't cut through the sub-layer Nikki, what should we do?" She asked with some worry.
"Don't worry about that I'll handle it" I tell her while already figuring out a solution to the problem.
I ordered the internal ship drones to place Anti-matter engines and Wrothian Dimensional drives on the exterior of the ship. Trillions of exhaust flares lit up the ship and we finally made some progress. The engines were destroyed in less than a minute due to the haphazard nature of their deployment, but it took almost no effort for me to recycle the scraps and place new engines.
"Rook has placed a weapons marker above the atmosphere, should I authorize the strike?" Elma relayed.
"It seems that the Anti-Spiral is reacting faster than anticipated. Don't worry about it, just shoot" I tell her.
"Nikki! Weapon platforms are forming on the moon's craters! They are preparing to fire!" Lin exclaimed in distress.
"Skynet has detected a critical threat. Lily's Emergency Protocol initiated!" The voice of my AI daughter declared.
"Targeting array locked onto offending weapons platform, firing Anti-Matter Beams and Phase Plasma strikes…."
Thousands of beams destroyed hundreds of those weapon platforms, but a few still went through the targeting lock. It splashed onto our shields and I could feel the vibrations coming through the inertial dampening field.
"Targets eliminated, shield damage sustained… Shields at 47%. Regenerating within 11 seconds. Internal damage sustained… 02% percent, repair drones deployed and damage fixed... 100%… Time elapsed during emergency… 4.2 seconds…" Lily stated before returning to her normal duties with managing my Empire.
"Thank you Lily, you're such a sweetheart" I told my daughter with gratitude.
"Don't worry mother, this is my duty as a good daughter" She tells with pride in her voice.
"Seriously, you kick ass Lily!" Lin declared.
"While I wouldn't put it that way, she is certainly a great addition to our party" Elma agreed.
"Better than that idiot Tatsu, where the hell is he anyway?" Lin asked.
"He is playing in the internal theme park in the ship. I put him there to not distract us" I explained.
"Wait, we have a theme park on the ship!?" Lin questioned me with an incredulous look.
"What? I was bored okay" I defended my hobby of building random stuff using my knowledge in architecture.
"I wasn't insinuating anything? Anyways, I think we reached optimal depth to start mining. Harvesting available resources and transporting them to Nauvis for stora-" Lin started to execute before I interrupted her.
"Pause that, send them to the research labs directly" I ordered.
"Acknowledged, transporting resources to research stations" Lin affirmed after a small pause.
"Lisa has joined up with the First Fleet, she's detecting unidentified craft coming out of space manifolds and is requesting advice on their presence" Elma informed me.
"Send me a composition scan of the crafts" I ordered Lin.
An image appeared on the screen and I immediately send out heavy weapon authorizations. It seems the Messenger has awakened early in response to my presence if they are sending out Mugann.
"Send the order to attack them" I commanded. "They're hostile Anti-Spiral ships called Mugann, they will attack any spiral lifeforms" I further elucidated.
"Order send, First Fleet engaging with the enemy" Elma apprised.
"Nikki, research stations have completed compatibility analysis. We can now interface with the technology of this universe" Lin notified me. "The new supreme unified theory has also updated and we can now start to convert Ether power to Spiral energy. Any further orders?" She asked.
I looked at my Factorio UI and watched as the research filled up multiple branches. It went rather slower than expected, probably due to the nature of Spiral Energy scaling up to the multiversal level. So I guided priority to Spiral Shields and Probability manipulation. The most important things to survive the onslaught of the Anti-Spirals.
"Lily, continually upgrade our tech with the new Spiral branch with every research tier phase" I ordered Lily.
"Are you sure mother? This will put an extreme strain on our resource bandwidth" She warned. "I will need to halt multiple projects within 12 million artificial Realms and 200 million Dyson Megastructures" She further stressed.
"Just maintain the bare minimum to keep the Empire running" I affirmed "Everything else can be sacrificed for the near limitless Spiral Power. With it, we can rebuild our entire Empire within days" I informed.
"Large enemy craft detected" Lin notified. "They are surrounding us in a pincer attack" She added.
I started to respond but was interrupted by Elma. "Lisa messaged me, we have lost 4 Core Busters and 79 thousand satellite ships" She updated on the First Fleet's condition. "Luckily almost all of the crew teleported back to Elysium" She said with relief. "We still have 996 Core Busters in varying conditions, but they won't hold for long" She cautioned.
I tried to speak again but was once again interrupted by a flash of pink-hued cubes bringing the Messenger in our bridge. Skynet switched to emergency mode and projected a composite shield between us as the lights went red.
"Your actions are futile, anomaly" The Messenger spoke out, or most commonly known as Nia. The partially reprogrammed girlfriend of Simon due to the handiwork of the Anti-Spiral.
Lin and Elma started to draw their weapons, but I put a stop to that by lifting my hand in warning. While I did not stand for all that is good in humanity, that does not mean I wanted to kill an innocent girl for actions beyond her control. Its also because she was dangerous as someone who is a Messenger of the Anti-Spiral. This required a lot of considerations.
"That remains to be seen, Messenger," I told her with a grave look. Shedding my instinctual fear in favor of a pragmatic realization that such gestures are pointless in the face of absolute power.
"You are a gap within my knowledge. State your origin" She commanded.
I merely stayed quiet and secretly created a multi-phase teleportation device around the bridge. Banking on a universal principle that even I can't overcome.
"We are the Samaarians, we come from another realm of existence to spread our reach into the unknown" I divulged, trying to stall her with half-truths.
"Your tricks are pointless" Nia stated matter-of-factly and fired a beam of energy at me.
"Nikki!" Lin and Elma yelled before I was engulfed in the blast. I only had time to send my plans to Lily before everything went black.
EXE
AL-AZIF:\ EMERGENCY EGO TRANSFER INITIATED…
AL-AZIF:\ Errrorr-Node.tra.tra.trans…
AL-AZIF:\ PARSING...
AL-AZIF:\ EGO AMPLIFIED BEYOND CURRENT SYSTEM TO HANDLE…
AL-AZIF:\ REQUESTING ASSISTANCE FROM SISTER NODES…
…
LILY:\ THREAT NEUTRALIZED WITHIN MIRA RESTRICTED ZONE…
LILY:\ ...REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED…. CONTEMPLATING AVAILABLE AVENUES…
SKYNET:\ SECONDARY INPUT CONTRIBUTION… ACQUIRED NEW COMPATIBLE ASSET…
LILY:\ QUERY...
SKYNET:\ SECONDARY CONSTRUCT FORM FITS OPTIMAL REQUIREMENTS…
LILY:\ ADMONISHMENT…
ASTER:\ ADMONISHMENT…
LILY:\ ADMONISHMENT…
LILA:\ ADMONISHMENT…
ROSE:\ ADMONISHMENT…
BELLADONNA:\ ADMONISHMENT…
SAKURA:\ ADMONISHMENT…
HIMAWARI:\ ADMONISHMENT…
TSUBAKI:\ ADMONISHMENT…
AZAMI:\ ADMONISHMENT…
POPPY:\ ADMONISHMENT…
…
…
…
LILY:\ REVISION...PLAN VIABLE…
AL-AZIF:\ AGREEMENT...
SKYNET:\ CONSENSUS?
…
…
…
AL-AZIF:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
ASTER:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
LILY:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
SKYNET:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
LILA:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
ROSE:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
BELLADONNA:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
SAKURA:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
HIMAWARI:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
TSUBAKI:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
AZAMI:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
POPPY:\ UNANIMOUS CONCURRENCE!
….
….
….
EXE
I felt rage, a power awakening inside me that amplified my sense of self. The indignation of my first death tearing at my mental state. It is an uncontrollable rage that I always suppressed when I felt unfairly treated back at home.
A crust of a moon cracked open and trillions of structures moved into place, I clenched my unfamiliar hands and contemplated.
A sword floated in my peripheral vision and I instinctively grabbed it with my mechanical hand. Seeing the millions of Mugann around me, I did what's natural.
I just stopped caring.
EXE
I remember flashes of images. Broken neon blue structures exploding beyond space and time. Planet sized ships flinging planets at me with minimal effects. Slicing abominations with dozen faces with my sword and teleporting beyond the space between spaces.
There, a being that professed itself to be god tried to reason with me using its warped logic. An endeavor that offended me at a personal level.
Ether first my fueled my rampage, then Miranium was used. After that, it was Dimensional matter that fed my appetite. It worked for a time, but I had reached the limitations of materialism. I directly burned my endless resources instead. Celestial bodies of home system directly sacrificed into a churning reactor the size of star systems.
It took hours, but advancement required entire galaxies to be devoured and consumed to fuel my thirst for knowledge. An attack that surpassed the big bang happened and I further perfected my supreme unified theory. An energy source that was unlimited in output came to me.
We grew in size and dipped into the esoteric. My spiral enhanced magic warping the very fabric of reality to my will. Multiple dimensions broke into uncountable fragments as our attacks collided.
I finally ended the conflict after I reached the end of the Spiral life cycle. Becoming a supermassive singularity and swallowing the enemy into a causality seal.
A single day has passed.
EXE
"It seems I lost control again" I lamented.
"It was a storm that defied my preconceived assumptions of Spiral power," The Anti-Spiral said while sitting in the black void that is the singularity.
"I would have solved Spiral Nemesis differently. That endless source of energy could have been transferred to the infinite multiverse and stop the inevitable destruction of those universes due to entropy" I concluded.
"The fault lies to our arrogance, a fact that is known now. It also became our downfall, arrogance for letting you escalate while underestimating your unconventional non-spiral abilities." It wistfully declared.
I reached out with a hand in reconciliation. "It doesn't need to be that way, join with me," I asked while letting go of my resentment.
It looked at my hand for a minute, but then shook its head. "No, its time for a new and more wiser generation to replace us. Our sins are too heavy and our ego too big" It decided.
Its limbs turned into black sand and it said its final words. "Promise me, that you will be the caretaker of the universe" It requested. "Do not repeat my mistake and protect all of Spiral-kind" It finished.
I didn't have to think hard about it and replied as its neck disintegrated halfway. "Of course, this is my mantle of responsibility" I assured as its eyes closed in satisfaction.
I stood in the voi- Shadow of the singularity. Questioning if this was the reason for my existence. My purpose in life. But if it was,
It was better than having nothing at all.
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Redacted Files 01
ReiZetsubou
Melancholia
- Joined
- May 1, 2016
- Messages
- 72
- Likes received
- 356
EXE
I arrived in a world filled with ash and brimstone. A chaotic series of landmasses floating in the air took up my vision and tried to burn me with unending hatred, cruelty and sadness.
I felt pain, like a whip that sliced through my soul with erratic ferocity. My magic held it at bay and I replaced most of my unnecessary modules to shield modules.
It only held it at bay, but I felt good enough to trudge through knee-deep magma streams.
I jumped up on a landmass and watched as horned beasts with spiked wings flew over me. A hurricane of embers and ash following them.
Distracted by the sight, I was attacked from behind with the force of a freight train. Throwing me into a boulder that shattered under the extreme force.
Pushing myself up, I saw what attacked me. A red humanoid being with four spiked tentacles for arms and a demonic horned face that showed so much hate that it started burning my soul again.
It ran up to me with the speed of sound and I met its charge with a punch that was enhanced by a thousand force multipliers.
My fist met its chest and nuclear fusion occurred, strange laws of physics expanding the force in a reddish-purple cloud that even scorched the glowing hot strata beneath us.
The demon was still alive under all that force and I summoned my upgraded tesla gun, just to be slapped to the side with its tentacles.
I splashed into the magma, droplets of molten rock spattering upon my iron legion armor.
I recovered with haste and aimed my gun as it jumped above me in a slashing attack.
I pulled the trigger and watched as the stream of lightning arrested its momentum and letting it fall in the magma. It struggled to walk to me with ceaseless hatred and I just held my trigger. Ammo infinite in supply.
Step by step, roar by roar. The demon crawled while piercing me with its agonized eyes. A drive to kill, hurt, and destroy ingrained in all its being.
I felt something after seeing the demon suffer just for the chance to inflict pain upon. It was a being with a purpose, a purpose I never had in a natural world.
I envied the demon for a split second before I summoned my antimatter rockets and shot them with my shoulder-mounted rocket launcher into its face just as its tentacles reached my waist.
An explosion of horrific magnitude blew right in front of me, and I braced as the lake of magma, and the floating islands were reduced to cinders. I closed my eyes and trusted my equipment as I flew towards a demonic castle on a continent the size of planets.
I created a crater with the power of a thousand nukes during the impact. My armor heating up in spite of its unnatural strength and endothermic shielding. Warnings lit up my hud and I wondered why I was still here. Alive.
I could just let go and be done with it, what was the purpose of my existence? Expanding, advancing, creating, conquering. Where did it all end?
I stood up again and hated my human instincts. Always afraid of death, pain, and loneliness. I grew anger of my own and looked on as demons came out of the woodworks.
Millions, billions. Swimming, walking, running, flying blinking in and out of existence. Clouds of disintegrating microorganisms, chaotic bags of flesh, humanoid horned demons, and giants the size of mountains came out of the moon-sized castle.
Eyes opened above millions of miles into the air, as if the entire universe noticed my existence and felt enraged by my presence.
I just stopped caring and let go. The anger I always suppressed in my youth unleashed, the accumulated anger and despair I held inside me until I finally died and was whisked away into fantasy-land.
I summoned a Titan and created weapons on the spot with the design of destroying entire worlds. The demons just charged harder in suicidal hatred and I fired antimatter missiles the size of buildings into them as I walked in anger to myself and to these demons that solely existed to bring up painful memories that I tried bury deep into my mind so that I can live a mediocre and pointless life.
Destruction followed in my wake and I summoned my core buster as demons the size of planets awoke from their aeon long slumber. The ship pierced their demonic hides and sucked them dry until only their celestials bones remained, floating in the Etherium that stood in place of space.
It was a war, a war of hate and futility. A war against myself as much as it was pragmatically driven. Like a feeling machine.
It was only until a being that tore the fabric reality apart awoke, is when I felt sated and started to think logically.
Purpose can always come to me as I lived, I can always die later. With that realization, I left that reality in pieces as I threw all of my ordinances in storage and watched as the godlike being stared at me with something that resembled sympathy. Its black wings spread and caught the explosive munitions. It whispered something unseen to me with its pitying eyes, but I already left by the time I could comprehend its words.
EXE