The days following the robot and human forces that had tried to capture me felt intense. I was surprised I had made it somewhere safe when I made my jump, the chip was destroyed and so I had no more quick escapes if they found me. I made my way quickly and with all communications devices turned off to the nearest outpost where I could buy myself the tool needed to get this implant out of my head. I was sure it would somehow let them find me again if I didn't get it out. Once I had removed it I quickly destroyed it, not even daring to sell it in case they were looking for the IDs of anything I had owned. I then made my way back to civilization, not having a teleporter nearby to make it an easy process. I had to work my way through different creatures, trying to figure out where I was. I didn't dare turn on the map, lest my technology give me away. Once I had stumbled on to a teleporter I used the generic interface to get myself to town and quickly sold everything I had to street vendors, only once it was all gone and I had replaced my clothes with the basic orange jumper did I feel more comfortable. If I was going to stay under the radar I had much work to do and so my next step was to make some quick cash. Luckily my knowledge had some value, and though I hated to give it up I extracted some of it to sell on the market. Once I had enough PED I then got to work changing my looks. Though I had grown accustomed to how I had looked since my arrival here on Calypso, I was no longer able to keep the appearance, I could be recognized. And so after a few procedures I was very much different than what I had been for the last year. My next task was to start modifying my standard issue items that I would never be able to replace if I had given them up. I didn't dare turn any of them on yet and instead just hoped that once I made my modifications I would be able to use them once more.
It had taken a good couple of weeks, lying low and eating fruits that I found, before I had finished modifying my handheld device. It wouldn't connect normally to the main network, but instead would only connect to what I needed, which meant they wouldn't be able to track me as they did before. I still didn't completely understand why they had all come for me, I was very glad however to be free of that situation for now. With the PDA back on I quickly checked to see if the systems could find me, which, to my relief, they couldn't. I knew I had more modifications to make but at least I was no longer vulnerable as this device would be what I needed to stay alive in case something decided to try to eat me. With this done I dared make use of the auctions again and got some basic equipment, just the things I would need to try to make a living while I searched out my options. As I familiarized myself with my tools again I noticed how awkward they felt. Had I really used these before? I wish I hadn't had to sell so much of my knowledge, but it was necessary for survival. After I had a good idea how to work the device well enough again I set out trying to find the resources that I would sell to make some more money. As I did this, during the time between drops, I checked the latest news, it seemed that lots of things had changed. Apparently there were vehicles that had made it, finally, to the planet and there were also other planets that had been discovered. Had it really only been a few weeks? It seemed odd to me that so much could happen so quickly. I decided to do something a bit more risky and started searching for news about me, I saw a few of the bounties that had been created, but they were over a year old! I was very confused about the date change, it had only been two weeks for me and yet here was the date, telling me I had lost months of my life with no memory of what I did during that time. I determined to try to figure it out, but not here, there would be too much at stake doing it on this planet and it would be impossible for me to know if it was someone here who had erased my memory of the past year and so I felt safer getting somewhere new. I checked the headlines about the different planets and eventually decided my best bet might be Arkadia. Though it had its own problems it looked like a place I would enjoy and it was far enough away that I might be able to examine what had happened in relative peace. At least there weren't robots on that planet to fight against, though the Oratan could be a problem, but I'd have to risk it.
It didn't take long to find the money to buy a vehicle that could handle space, I had quite a bit still left from when I sold everything and the prices had dropped quickly as supplies increased. Though once it was all done and I had what I believed I needed I was once again poor, but I had high hopes when I arrived at my new home. It took a while to get there, being a small craft flying in deep parts of space in order to avoid detection, but once I arrived I was greeted by lovely landscapes that just begged me to begin looking for their treasures and secrets. It would be hard, but at least here I was unknown.
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