Voidwalker Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Cold Ghosts.

It was quiet, and cold. The crunch of snow and frost under my feet as I wandered through the front entrance. I wanted initially to search the gate zones closest to my ship and base, but it was crumpled inwards by some great force, once I mined the snow away with the Terrain Manipulator.

It was strange, but I was beginning to have my theories about what happened to the world. It was only that however. Theory. I needed data.

Shooting the front door with the mining laser, I quickly turned it into dust, getting ferrite out of it before stepping into the small front baggage claim and ticket desks. To my surprise, there were dozens of bags all over the place in various states. My stomach dropped as I began to realize what may have happened here. I’ve seen too many, and read to many of these stories to not have an educated guess.

I walked through more sedately, and as I passed through what was a security gate, I began to see damage, and a few bodies.

“Oh god, no.” I murmured as I picked up the pace and walked into the hallways to the gates and stopped dead.

Bodies everywhere. The halls to the gates were collapsed in some ways, but bodies of men, women, and children heaped in piles along the western wall, crushed and pushed even through the wall by whatever occurred here.

Compassion and stoicism warred in me as I walked past small groups of people, which I could only assumed were families given how they held one another.

As I wandered deeper, and the number of bodies grew, I began to lose my composure. The shock, horror, disbelief, and grief for these people, coupled with the other things I buried to keep moving forward. The impossible reality I am now a part of, on top of what I was ripped away from, and dealing with this world, it all came to the fore.

Sure, these people were dead for two hundred years…but there are so many of them, and they died horrifically, and quickly. I’m not a weak man. Being raised in Alaska doesn’t make weaklings of people, but everyone has their limit. I’ve reached mine.

“WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!” I shouted, my words echoing in the ruins as I slammed my fist into the wall, crushing it with my gauntlet. I squeezed my eyes closed, as I felt tears build, and my teeth hurt as I clenched my jaw in rage.

I said nothing else for a few minutes, just standing there, starring at the humanity, allowing myself to calm down, and regain control. Shock turned to logic, and grief turned to anger. I was pissed now. Pissed off at an unknown force that took so many lives. I felt determined now, more than before, to find out what happened to this world.

When I found the buried truck, I was curious, but it was a mystery for later. When I found the building and the dead there, I felt sorrow for them, but it was a mystery that would come later when I had the time. The Mine was more of the same.

Not anymore. I was going to solve this. You cannot just ignore this much death, and not know why.

“I will discover what happened, and bring it to the light for others to know. This I vow.” I growled.

Goal in hand, I straightened up, and continued my search. As morbid as it was, I searched the bodies that I could. Thousands of units of Mordite was gathered, along with gold, silver, platinum, and many odd items that my system converted into usable products. I could build a few new items and tools now as a result.

I was not too focused on that however. I was scanning each body and recording who these people appearances, any identification on them, and how they died. Most of them were killed by incredible pressure, likely the reason for the caved in side and ceiling of the boarding gate area. Incredible cold finished the job. So, for most, they were killed immediately, while the rest died soon after.

I was able to record sixty five percent of the people, but the rest were either too badly damaged or buried under people. I would have to sort through everyone properly later.

Finding the remains of the security forces, I was able to get a look at their equipment, such as it was. Ablative ballistic armor, with firearms not too out of place to what I was used to. Something akin to an American “M” series military rifle, and the pistols were semi-automatic nine millimeters. Scanning them unlocked some new tech for my Multitool, and allowed me to construct copies of said weapons, or create my own versions of said weapons.

I took the better part of two hours to sort through the mass, and put them into some form of order for later. With the Medium Refiners nearly finished with their work, I left the Gate Terminal and walked back into the Space Port. Recharging my shield, I paused as I took a look at the Control Tower, and realized that I might find something there.

I briskly made my way there, shooting through glass to just go directly there instead of a round-about manner. The tower was locked, but shooting the hinges off the double doors, and then kicking them in worked well enough as a key.

The first and second levels provided nothing but lounges and administration stuff too far gone for me to read through. The Third level however was where “Meteorology” was located. The room was covered in print outs long since abandoned. Given the state of the Spaceport, I’m surprised this tower wasn’t knocked down, and all of this data scattered to the wind.

“Let’s see what we have.”

Using the scanner, the AI read through the data as best as it can, and in the end gave me a basic read out. It turned out the atmosphere went through some violent shifts just before everything went to hell. First an increase of pressure, then increase of heat, and then a violent force of wind more than several hundred miles per hour, followed by a sudden drop in pressure and insane drop in temperature to negative three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. After which things failed and the printouts stop.

“Jesus. It’s the end of the world.” I spoke in a quiet tone as I dropped the printout to the ground. Before continuing up, I found a world map, and scanned it. I then passed several more rooms which held nothing for me before reaching the control center. A dozen bodies piled up on one side of the room, with glass and debris blown inwards.

Scanning the room, I quickly found what appeared to be a blackbox recorder of some sort. It lacked power, but taking it into my inventory, and fixing it, I managed to get the data out of it. I began to listen to the recording that was on it, surprisingly clear despite sitting for so long.

[spoiler=Recording] [Sounds of bustling activity in the control tower. There's a sense of urgency in the air.]

Control Tower Operator 1: (Urgent) "Incoming object detected on radar! It's the comet, it’s approaching fast!"

Control Tower Operator 2: (Steadfast) "We've got to use every second we have! Everyone, stay focused. We have a limited number of shuttles left."

Control Tower Operator 3: (Calm, but resolute) "Alert all inbound flights, abort landing and take-off immediately. All grounded craft, prepare for mass evacuations."

[The recording captures the sounds of alarms blaring and the controlled chaos as people try to evacuate. Security personnel and staff are doing their best to maintain order. Sounds of a few shuttles taking off thunder through the air, while a distant rumbling begins to build.]

Control Tower Operator 1: (Stressed) "We need more time! There are too many people and not enough shuttles!"

Control Tower Operator 4: (Panicked voice in the background) "They're rioting near the shuttles! We can't hold them back much longer!"

[The recording captures the sounds of the comet's approach causing massive disturbances and panic among the people.]

Control Tower Operator 3: (In awe and dread) "Look at that... It's like the heavens themselves are tearing apart."

Control Tower Operator 1: (Horror and Despair) “Shuttles five, seven and nine have been destroyed! That shift in pressure tore them apart as it passed by!”

[The recording goes silent for a moment before a deafening crash is heard, followed by a sudden rolling thunder.]

Control Tower Operator 2: (Anxious) "Hold on, everyone! Incoming Shockwave! Brace for Impa—"

[The recording abruptly ends.]

[/spoiler]

My face was set in a grim expression when the recording finished, before I gazed out towards the distance horizon where I believe the Comet had crashed. I couldn’t see anything, with the ever-present overcast and snow, but it was out there.

There wasn’t anything more to say. I didn’t think it would be so easy to learn what happened, but here I am. The world had a cataclysm which killed everyone. Whether everyone was actually dead or not was a question though, since the safest place would be the opposite side of the world.

Looking at the new world map I had, a feature not in No Man’s Sky, I looked upon the spot where the AI marked my position, and then looked at the opposite spot on the globe.

Nothing but a large sea, but there might still be life near the coastlines.

“Something to check.”

With nothing more to do, aside from scanning the bodies and taking what I needed from them, I left the tower and headed back to the base.

The Nitrogen was almost done being turned to gas, so I waited, impatiently. Eventually, after having some eggs, water, and pacing about like a tiger in a cage, the Gas was done.

Keeping a third of it as nitrogen, I began the process of converting the Nitrogen into Sulphurine. It would reduce it all to a third of what it was, but it will be enough for my needs.

“Another two plus hours to wait.”

Not wanting to just sit around and do nothing, I resolved to do what I was going to do after the space port was searched, and head into the city to scavenge.

“It’ll be better than sitting in my own head.”

When I reached the town, I set the Bore to mine out the snow and did so until I hit the road beneath. I then followed it up with the “Flatten” mode which allowed me to clear the snow without destroying structures, vehicles, and other things like…bodies.

“Fuck.” I whispered as I clear the snow, revealing vehicles in small traffic jams filled with skeletons and frozen bodies.

I silently continued, clearing away street by street, trying to avoid crushing bodies and objects as best as I could. I was getting frustrated when the AI alerted me to the different visual modes at my disposal. Checking them, I chose to use virtual reality to provide a third person view of the vehicle, just as one does in so many games, and it allowed me to maneuver far better.

Most of the buildings were in ruins, but they still had an enormous number of resources to draw upon. Getting out of the mech several times as I went, scanned when I found something new, and used my mining laser to break down and harvest materials from vehicles, buildings, and various objects. I was positively filled on Ferrite Dust, Pure Ferrite, and Magnetized Ferrit. I also was half filled on a slot for Aluminum, and even found gold, Silver, Copper, and now had Platinum. For the next two hours I continued this task, tedious as it felt near the end, but I ended up having over seven hundred units of Platinum when I was finished from all the vehicles I harvested from.

However, I prevented myself from just turning it into nanites as I would only get twenty units out of it.

“Not worth it.” I grumbled.

It could still be used for many other things however, so saving it will be for the best.

I found several places along the way that were of important note. The Milita Headquarters was near the north edge of town and got hit with head on by the shockwave, thus it was flattened for the most part. There were harvestable objects I recognized as aircraft and mechs like the one I was piloting, but they were total wrecks. Still, an absolute ton of material to harvest, and after scanning them, I got new weapon systems to construct and install upon my mech and Minotaur if I wanted. I was happy about that.

I also ended up finding relatively intact combat vehicles in the form of APCs and IFVs of some kind. More weapons and material harvested. I ended up having to return to base, and change over to the Minotaur since it had more inventory space than the mech did.

Which made me pause.

“Does this machine have that Nano-system the shuttle required?”

Opening the Mech, it turned out it didn’t. I was in fact using the artificial musculature as a means of constructing and repairing items on the mech. That wouldn’t do, so I checked and made more Wire Looms to install the system.

It was to my surprise that the Musculature was changed over to Nanite-polymer muscles. While it had Carbon-nanotubes and Magnetic Resonators already, all it did was restore the artificial muscles to a functional condition. Now, they were far stronger than the originals. My installing the Daedalus engine before made the machine faster and have more power, but it was being held back by the less advanced musculature. Now it wouldn’t be.

The mech also now had a forty-slot inventory, and a thirty-slot tech inventory. So that was a plus.

Checking over the new equipment, I learned that I could now upgrade the mining lasers with the A-Class upgrade module from the game. Plus, I now had access to…Pulse Cannons?

“Is that…a Pulse Spitter, but for Exocraft?” I wondered in glee.

Checking it over, it wasn’t nearly as expensive as the other things I had been making from scratch, but it was expensive. I ended up making more wire looms, but I had enough materials left to make fifteen more.

With them, plus six units of glass, Ionized cobalt, Magnetic Resonators, Magnetized Ferrite, and several Hermetic Seals, I created a pair of pulse cannons. One per arm.

I also could make rocket launchers now, which are the same weapons for the Star Ships. It was easy to make, and I had a three tube launcher on the left torso.

I also found one last upgrade. The Metal Plate that covered the mech could now be upgraded to “Battle Plate”, thus making it equal to military grade armor. Given this was a civilian machine, I wasn’t surprised by the machine not having battle armor. That was fine though.

It required Pure Ferrite, Condensed Carbon, and more Metal Plating. It was a simple enough upgrade to do. Now it could match whatever military machines the locals used, at least in terms of armor.

Filling the weapons with energy, I enthusiastically got into the machine and began to test out its new capabilities.

“Alright. Let’s see what this can do now.” I grinned as I accelerated it. The stomping grew louder as I reached sixty-five kilometers per hour, and then surpassed it. It kept moving faster and faster until it finally topped out at ninety-four kilometers per hour.

“Not bad. Not bad at all!” I cheered.

Slowing back down to nothing, I changed my weapons over to the pulse cannons.

“Alright. Let’s use this on…that pile of snow there…wait. Something might be under that…how about that gantry then.”

Looking at the fallen remains of a tower edifice, I took aim, and fired. With a loud hiss of heat and power, green bolts of energy fired out from the cannons onto the gantry. It tore the structure apart, melting metal into liquid upon impact, and heated the area up enough to cause rapid steam combustion of the snow.

“Woah! That’s powerful!”

I fired again, holding the trigger until the weapon ran out of energy. It took thirty seconds to do so, but I refueled it quickly and it was ready to go.

I did notice some heat resulting from it, and checked the temperature in the cockpit.

“Woah. Ninety-seven degrees? The cooling system must be stressing out right now. Gonna have to keep an eye on that.”

Switching over to the rocket launcher, I took aim and fired. Three rockets quickly fired out and covered the distance in a few seconds. Upon impact they exploded with tremendous force, annihilating what was left of the gantry.

“Cool~, but how far can it shoot?”

I turned around, and saw no target really worth shooting at that I wouldn’t regret, before looking to the east and seeing a distant hill. It was about four kilometers away.

“That will do.”

Taking aim, I fired. The rockets fired out and spiraled towards the hill, and hit it approximately a second and a half after launching them. I could see the explosions despite the snow.

“Fuck me.” I said in awe. A small part of me wasn’t too surprised by the capabilities of the weapon, but seeing it for real was a different matter.

I grinned widely. “Well…if I face any sentinels…they’ll have to call the walkers right at the start, because this baby will kick their asses!”

I paused, and pondered for a moment.

“Say. I don’t even know the name of this machine now that I think about it. I just keep calling it Mech.”

I checked the data of the machine, and found the name quickly enough.

“Buster-BV-XV. Buster it is then! Way better than just Mech.” I nodded to myself.

As I walked the Buster back to the base, another thought occurred to me which made me frown in worry.

“I could make a Geobay for the Minotaur, but I can’t do the same for the Buster. It’s practically a large craft in its own right…I need to see if I can construct a Geobay or it. Barring that, the Exocraft Summoning System and hooking it up to that.”

Walking back slowly, I quickly checked up on constructing a Geobay for the machine. The suit AI helped me in that, but it was…prohibitively expensive at this point. I needed far more exotic items than I had on me.

checking up on whether I could hook it to the summoning system, I cheered jubilantly when I found it could. Provided I could make it. That was when limitations hit me again.

“Dammit! I need tritium. I have no idea how to get that since it’s in space, assuming this place is like No Man’s Sky…maybe I can make it? I seem to be able to make all kinds of things that you can’t in the game.”

Researching into Tritium, I looked at what it was, and if it could be artificially made. To my shock, it can, and I had everything I needed to do so. I laughed manically as I stopped next to the base.

The Sulphurine gas was finished, and taking out the thousands of units, I went to the water I had, and placed one hundred liters into the medium refiner, setting it to give me Hydrogen.

With a second medium refiner, I placed in the Sulphurine, and magnetized ferrite, and began making Paraffinium. Not the most needed material, but necessary to create Geobays, certain materials to make other materials, and most importantly, Star Bulbs for Poly Fiber.

In time, the water broke down and became hydrogen, which when combined in the medium refiner with Ionized Cobalt, created Tritium. Only a little, as it was a three to one ratio for hydrogen, but enough to create several hundred units.

Eventually I stopped making Paraffinium as I realized I needed the Sulphurine to make Radon…which is then used with Paraffinium to make uranium…which I need to fuel the ship, and create the Exocraft Summoning station.

I leaned against the wall, and groaned.

“So much of this juggling shit!”

I pushed away, frustrated, and began the process again. I decided to refine only one hundred units of Radon, because I didn’t want to spend all day doing this shit!

It didn’t take long, thankfully, and with it and Magnetized ferrite, I had three hundred units of Uranium.

Walking outside, with all the necessary items within my inventory, I constructed the Station. It bashed snow away as the dish spun in place. I sighed satisfied, and turned towards an empty space.

“Let’s test this.”

Going through my options, I opened the Exocraft summoning menu, and found the Buster there. Clicking on it, and seeing a hologram visual of where it would land in my HUD, I placed it a safe distance away, and summoned it.

It disappeared from my right into…something, and then reappeared out of thin air, fifty feet above the ground.

“Oh shit!” I jumped back and fell on my ass as it crashed to the ground feet first, snow exploding everywhere and leaving craters underneath its feet, before righting itself up into a stand by position, waiting to be entered.

I stood back up, pleased, but jittery.

“Well, that works. So, I won’t have to worry about Buster when I leave here.”

Looking up to the sky, I noticed it was starting to get dark. With a nod, I walked back into my base.

“Calling it a day. I’ll need to see to getting Platinum tomorrow.”

I paused, and on a whim, made all the Exocraft Geobays. I would handle the platinum, and the vehicles, tomorrow.