Voidwalker Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Paint your Wagon.

I stared down at the spot where the Platinum vein was buried. It was crazy to me that I ended up having to dig deep underground to get the stuff. The closest one was the original one I had detected, which was nearly ten kilometers down. Digging through all kinds of things, from small caves to empty spaces, through the water table and into small pockets of magma that, thankfully, were not connected to any part of the outer core, I finally reached the spot.

It was a murderous four hundred- and ninety-degrees Fahrenheit outside the Buster. Only the environmental defenses of the mech protected me, and Buster, from being cooked alive.

“Alright you fucker. Let’s see how big a vein you…oh…okay. Worth it.”

My HUD showed a very extensive vein. One that stretched for a mile in length and several hundred feet high and wide. It was jagged, due to the pressures down here from the literal megatons of rock above me, but the Terrain Manipulator Bore did its work beautifully, creating walls that were denser than the surrounding rock, and in turn grew stronger from all the pressure.

“Alright. Let’s mine this shit.”

I slowly, methodically, and with the smallest setting on the bore to maximize the amount of minerals I got, it took me an agonizing and mind numbing eleven hours. Eleven hours of nothing but mining. God, I need music.

In the end, I hit the jackpot. I was immensely happy with the four hundred and seventy thousand units I came out with.

I literally kissed Buster’s control console. I don’t care what anyone thought if they had seen it.

“Thank You bae.” I cooed. Weirdly enough, I think it, who I felt was a he, responded with a cringe. Or maybe that was my exhaustion addled brain. Whatever.

“With this…uh…I think…” I spoke befuddled. I was tired as hell, and I wasn’t sure what was even math at this point. Shaking my head, which I noticed was now heavy as I yawned, I simply opted to get back up to the surface and sleep it off.

With the path I made, it took me forty minutes to reach the surface. Upon reaching it, I went to bed for ten hours. It was a simple ride back to the base, with the speed of the Buster making it less than an hour of running and jumping.

From there I refined the entire load into Nanite clusters. It took me an hour altogether, and I had enough to purchase fifty three different blueprints.

“Alright. I need to be reeeeeally selective about this. Take what I need rather than what I want. After which…then I take what I want.”

Thoroughly looking over everything, from products, to buildings, and equipment, and decided that my base building needs more if I’m going to do more.

Opening the Blue Print computer, I purchased all the Industrial and Power generation designs for the base building, then I took agricultural items, and smaller things. Overall, it took sixteen of my choices away, but I could now power my base, create a farm, harvest from both the ground and atmosphere with autonomous units, and also had both the short-range teleporter, and the base teleportation module.

So, if I made more than one base, I could teleport to said bases, even if they were on other planets, in other solar systems.

A lot of my anxiety drained away from me with these done.

Next, with the remaining thirty choices, I would get product recipes, ones I needed to make the parts for the ship, and others for other upgrades.

I spent twenty-six choices on only the recipes I needed to get the ship working again, as well as a pathway to other items. I could now create all of the plants from No Man’s Sky, as well as everything I needed to create quantum processors, and in turn 5th dimensional torus’s.

With the final eleven choices, I looked to the blueprints for the Star Ships. I now have the shield Battery, so I can finish the deflector shield, as well as all of the Pulse Engine upgrades, the shield upgrade, and the weapon system so I can install No Man’s Sky weapons onto the thing, starting with the Photon Cannon, it’s upgrade, and Rocket Launcher.

When I finished my choices, I felt relief, as most of my issues were done away with by this one huge dig.

“Of course, now I needed to actually make these things.”

Fortunately, it was somewhat easy to do.

I looked over the Pulse Engine, needing microprocessors, I made them and installed them. The system alerted me the engine was complete, and ready to go.

“Alright. Next.”

Making a Starship shield Battery was simple, and upon installing, the shield activated itself and I saw appear for a moment around the hull.

“Very Star Trek.”

I added the Ablative Armor upgrade, and I watched as the hull of the ship change into a duller metal hue.

I watched, fascinated until it was done, before nodding in satisfaction.

“Now…weapon systems.”

It wouldn’t take much, but I used the four wire looms, seals, Magnetized Ferrite, and hydraulic arms to build the weapon system and the two guns that made up the system. They appeared out of thin air upon the fuselage just behind the cockpit. One gun per side.

I then installed the Photon Cannons, the Nonlinear Optics, and the Rocket Launcher.

“Now she has teeth.”

Aside from the Hyperdrive, this ship was ready to fly now. Still, I wanted to finish upgrading it.

“I might be able to do so. Most of the Pulse Engine ones anyways…and the Teleporter.”

Installing the Teleport Receiver was simple, and now I could use the ships inventory from a distance. Next, I saw to installing the Pulse Drive upgrades, and I found I could only install the Sub-light Amplifier.

“Better than nothing.” I grumbled.

I watched as the engine section of the ship shifted, and a pair of hoses appeared from the middle of the engine section to the exhaust nozzle. It then solidified, and became a silvery color.

“Alright.” I nodded and then took a good look at the ship. It was a wreck no more than…three days ago. Now it was a mostly functional ship. It lacked the Hyperdrive, and that requires me to create No Man’s Sky plants, or find similar ones, to create many of the necessary materials, which are used to create the parts.

I clenched my hand. “I will make it to the galaxy, and find out why Atlas, or whatever, brought me here.”

With nothing more to say, I walked back into the base, and finished creating the Base Teleporter, powering it with the solar panels and batteries I made. I couldn’t help but stare at the bright event horizon of what was basically a Stargate. I grinned as I patted the side of the device and walked back out.

I stopped beside Buster, looking up at him and nodded.

“I’ll see you soon. If not, I’ll make a Geobay and bring you to me.” I said, patting his foot. He didn’t respond, obviously, but I felt he would have nodded and gave me a thumbs up for good luck. Maybe.

Staring upon the Spaceport for a few minutes, I remembered my vow. I had figured out what happened, but now I had to give them all a final rest.

“Let me find a better planet, and I’ll do it then. I promise.”

With little left to say, I walked over to my ship, and teleported into the cockpit.

It was arranged from what it was to a set up from a No Man’s Sky Hauler cockpit. Unlike those game ships however, this one could be entered in multiple ways, and could carry passengers, and had beds and amenities for a long voyage. A mobile base for me primarily.

“Alright. Let’s head to space.” I said with a wide eyed grin, and activated the engine.

I felt the power thrum throughout the ship, and all of the cockpit HUD lit up with different pieces of data. To my left, the throttle and navigation controls, and ship diagnostics. To the right, the control stick along with weapons and defense systems.

Grabbing a hold of both, the AI guided me with instructions of how to lift off.

“Engage throttle to lift off, and use control stick to maneuver.”

Following instructions, it felt natural to have my hands on these controls. Moreso than even the Buster and Minotaur. The thought that Atlas placed that in me passed through my head for a moment before I focused back on the act of flying.

The ship lifted off the ground straight into the air, and slowly began to move forward. I turned the ship around towards the north, and pointed up slightly. With a soft push, the engine roared to life and I felt pushed back into my seat before the Anti-gravity kicked in and negated the force.

Pushing the throttle to full, the ship accelerated into Boost mode, and the velocity increased rapidly. Going from hundreds of kilometers per hour to thousands in seconds. Sonic booms followed my wake, as I rose higher and higher into the atmosphere.

I was shivering, the thrill of flight and the freedom to roam the stars was in my grasp, only for my thoughts to suddenly pause, as I saw it.

I slowed down, and turned to the side to look out the window, and I looked down in awe.

I was high above the planet, practically near space, and I could see the curvature of the world. The north pole was in sight, and there nearly dead center, was a gigantic piece of glowing ice. It was so large; it made the planet look like it had a bump on its head. It was glowing. A bright, and ghostly blue. Surrounding it were cloud formations that looked like ribbons, and were an unnatural purple.

“I think I know why I’m here now…or at least what the issue is. Whatever the hell that is…it’s clearly got Sentinel shit going on with it, if that purple is any indication.” I spoke out loud, unsettled by what I was seeing.

Looking at the planetary data, I noticed it was blank, so I quickly scanned the planet.

Looking over what the scan acquired, most of it was obvious, except one.

“Sentinels: Out of Control.” I said in quiet tone. I hadn’t seen or heard sentinels at all…yet they were present. Looking back at the planet, it appeared they might all be concentrated around the comet.

“That is a death sentence if I’ve seen one. I can’t go there and survive as I am.”

As much as I did want to go there, a feeling I couldn’t describe telling me that was the path I had to go, I knew it would lead to me getting killed without a ton of upgrades and modifications to myself and everything I had. I resisted the pull, and turned the ship away towards space.

Gazing upon the distant stars, the pull disappeared and was replaced by a different pull. One I was glad to give into.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

I pushed the throttle forward to maximum. I watched in amazement as the ship’s speed changed over to Gees in acceleration, and soon stopped upon reaching Three hundred and five gees. I was accelerating at a velocity of ten thousand, seven hundred and sixty seven kilometers per hour, per second.

The planet behind me was growing in distance, slowly getting smaller as the seconds ticked by. I turned back and grinned again.

“Alright. Let’s see what happens when I hit the Boost.”

I pushed the throttle past the normal flight mode, and into the boost mode, and in that instant, I was pushed back into my seat with force, the Anti-Gravity systems struggled to keep me from getting crushed for a moment before things went back to normal.

“Woo. That was something-grk!” I said before choking at the sight of the acceleration.

“Thirty thousand, six hundred and four gee acceleration!?!” I yelled out in shock. I actually had trouble doing the math for that…and shifted the acceleration over to velocity, and watched in awe and fear as the kilometers per hour rose by millions each second that passed. After fifteen seconds, I had traveled a distance that would have covered a trip between the Earth and its Moon.

I looked behind me again to the planet, which was quickly getting smaller and smaller.

“Jesus Christ.” I murmured before my mind caught up and I pulled back on the throttle. I quickly slowed down, somehow, and the velocity reduced from the millions to the thousand, and then to the hundreds of kilometers per hour.

“Okay…space travel at that rate is way dangerous. I could have hit something and splattered across the universe.” I shuddered. The AI chose that time to speak up.

“Commence system scan to find planetary bodies.”

I blinked, and regained my senses as I did just that. The scan went out, and after a few seconds, I got a blip. The system hologram showed me the system as a whole. Three planets, but one…

“This day is full of surprises.” I blinked at the data.

A gas giant approximately three million, two hundred and nine thousand kilometers in diameter, which makes it the biggest one ever seen as far as my memory of such things tells me. Given how big some stars are, why not gas giants?

“Wait, no. There are rules for this sort of thing. Don’t they become stars after reaching a level of mass? Like this one is supposed to be? Unless its size belies its mass somehow?” I muttered.

The ship beeped, bringing me out of my thoughts when I saw the planets…moons that orbited the giant.

“Wow…some of them are as large as Earth. They also are…most of them are tidal locked, so they only stay on the side of the giant that faces the sun. They however spin, giving them a day and night cycle, and some have moons of their own.” I muttered more as I absorbed the data.

Glancing at the inner most planet, just inside portion of the yellow zone nearest to the star, it appears to be a hot world, but one capable of human habitation.

Then I glanced at the various moons in orbit of the gas giant, and took note of two that are also capable of sustaining human life. One which was right in the perfect zone without needing specialized colony equipment.

“I don’t know if there is even anyone in the system, but I will search each one until I find something.”

Marking the hot planet of the three life sustaining worlds, I felt the shipturn itself to face it directly.

“Press Pulse Drive Button while thrusting to Boost Mode to enter Pulse Jump”

Looking at the throttle, I saw the red thumb button on the end of the handle, and nodded.

“Here we go, again.”

Pressing it, I felt the engine engage something, and then as I pushed it to boost mode, a countdown as the engine powered up. Then…everything was moving fast.

I saw the star field around me despite seemingly being in real space. I passed through asteroid fields and similar gas formations without any hint of them interacting with me.

I glanced over at the velocity, and the number was going all over the place, so I shifted it until it was a number I could understand.

“…Fifteen times the speed of light.”

I had nothing else to say about that.

I stared ahead of me, as the icon of the planet showed its distance. It was several tens of millions of miles away, but closing rapidly. It took two minutes of traveling faster than light, but eventually I saw the small yellowed orb closing in. It appeared rapidly as I got closer, and instantly stopped once I was one thousand kilometers from the planet surface.

My velocity was reduced to hundreds of kilometers per hour again, but I was holding my breath. When my mind caught up, I began taking deep breaths, and letting myself take in the impossibility I just committed.

“No Man’s Sky is bullshit.” I finally grunted.

Focusing on the planet below me, I hit the scanner button to take a more detailed look upon it. The data came back, and it was…capable of sustaining human life, but the thing was pretty much Tatooine. One giant dust ball.

“Alright. Let’s see if I can scan for things.” I mutter as I inputted the scan function to search for artificial structures. A wave filled the HUD of my cockpit, and in a few seconds, an icon of a structure appeared.

“Oh…okay then.” I said, anxiety suddenly filling me as I realized there might be people down there. Once more setting the scanner, I set it up to pick up signals from any transponders or radio towers. With the scanner, it returned with a negative.

“So, either no one is up, or there’s no one down there.” I said with a narrowed gaze at the icon. I decided to take a risk and activated the communication suite.

“Air flight Control, this is…Star Ocean One calling. Over.”

I get silence in return.

“Air Flight Control, this is Star Ocean One, come in please. Over.”

More silence. I frowned.

“Anyone listening, please respond. This is Star Ocean One, come back. Over.”

The silence continued, and I let out a sigh.

“Understood. No response. Proceeding with caution towards planet.”

Angling the ship towards the icon, I increased thrust and began to travel at high speed above the planet. Normally I would have used the Pulse Jump, but given how fast this ship was without it, I decided to test it later when I wasn’t about to land near a potentially occupied location.

Six minutes of flying over the hot world, I got a good look at its features. The north pole from where I could see, was without any ice cap, but still shimmered a bit from what might be liquid of some kind. Perhaps it was something else, but I didn’t know.

The rest of it however appeared to be a single type biome, or at least related biomes. Below the poles appeared to be arid lands of rocks, dirt and shrublands space out here and there. Down towards the equator however you get desert, and then sand dunes at the equator.

An arid world, basically. Good thing I got water, not that the heat will be too much of a threat to me, unless I go to the equator. I wasn’t though, since the icon was directly on the shrublands area.

I dove down into the atmosphere, and the shield lit up with heat as I passed through at high speed. Once I slowed down, the heat dissipated and the view cleared, revealing extensive dry lands beneath me. I slowed down further as I came near the facility.

I appeared to be a strip-mine operation due to the large hole in the earth. Large, mobile buildings had sat near the edge of the hole, with only a few vehicles here and there that looked enormous.

Finding a good spot, I initiated the landing sequence, and the AI took control, maneuvering the ship and landing it with no issues. I sat and waited for activity, looking around to see if anyone would react. With no reaction after a minute, I teleported to the ground.

The sun made everything bright, and looking at the temperature, it was one hundred and two degrees. Fortunately, the shield wasn’t reducing, but my oxygen was. That was fine though, since it would last six hours before I needed to recharge it.

Looking over to the largest of the mobile building-things, I decided that would be my first stop and began making my way over.

“Let’s have a looksie.”