Thankfulness

The thing was huge, but I knew I had to take it out. Arks of hot, thick, red liquid flew as I slashed at this creature with my horribly damaged dagger. Why did I take this thing? He said it could be good again given some care, but right now it wasn't helping much. The creature fought back with its talons, landing some blows here and there. I hadn't had time to put on some armor when this thing showed up and as I felt the pain of it ripping my flesh I wished I had some seconds to prepare. A few quick evasive maneuvers put me in the right position though, and throwing my entire weight into it I managed to sever the head from this hideous creature. It's body flopped around for a bit and as I had a chance to look at it I realized it really did look like a berycled, though a bit uglier. The feathers just seemed out of place on it and the neck just too long. It's body was huge, far too big to be natural. Curious of what it was, I used my scanner to figure out what kind of creature this was. The screen displayed it's name: a turkey, from planet Earth. How it got here, I had no idea, but the screen also mentioned that it was a very tasty thing to eat and my stomach told me to waste no time and cook that sucker up! I started a fire and soon the smell of it cooking made my mouth water, I couldn't wait to try this thing.

Once it was done cooking I ripped some flesh from the beast and pulled it towards my mouth. Saliva flowed freely as I anticipated the first taste and as it finally reached my tongue... I woke up. It was a dream! My curiosity had brought me all the information about Thanksgiving, a holiday of abundance celebrated back on Earth. I tried desperately to think of what it would have tasted like, but even the fabricated smells left my waking senses and I was left with just one thing to remember from it all; my stomach growling and the pains of hunger. As I prepared to leave the comfort of my apartment I mentally thought about what I was thankful for. The home I had here, the living I made, no matter how meager it was at times, and the fact that I lived on a planet as beautiful as this one is. Yeah, I was hungry most of the time, but at least I still had life within me and work to look forward to doing. Perhaps today I would find the big one and be able to get a few pieces of furniture, though I was still thankful to just have a place to call my own, a giant step forward from what a lot of colonists had these days. I hoped others would take some time to remember to be thankful for what they had, even if we don't formally celebrate the holiday here, there were plenty of others who had lost so much to get us here and still so many more who sacrificed much to allow us to stay.

I am NOT lunch!

I've just been having an amazing week so far. Most of my runs have finally been turning up something useful and I have been able to get some of my tools back in shape, hopefully soon I'll be able to do more but I'm doing my best to go slow and take my time, when I rush I tend to lose more than I want to. Anyway, yesterday was no different from the last few days, I head out and shortly find myself getting a claim large enough to make me excited. But what was different yesterday was where I was mining was full of atrax and armax and later a few other things, but the atrax and the armax seemed to be very hungry or pissed off because I had to run away from a few of them that decided I looked threatening or like a good meal. Luckily my Sleipnir gets me out of a bad situation pretty well, otherwise I would have been spending a good portion of my time trying to get them far enough from my claims to not come after me again. After the first few good claims were up I moved beyond their territory, freeing me to go about my business in relative peace, though I was extra caution for the rest of my runs. Lucky for me, beyond their range was some better mining. So in the end all I have to say to these blasted creatures is, "I am not lunch! But thank you for pointing me in the right direction."

Gone Fishing

The other day I did something a little different. Recently I followed the people who took me in and taught me how to survive here to a new society. Since then I have been slowly learning who the other people are, which is difficult when you spend most of your time out on your own looking for resources. But as I was listening to them talk from their remote location I decided I wanted to see their activities first hand. So, using my hover pod I took a trip from Fort Cayuze out to the middle of nowhere in the water where they were hunting Leviathan. I've seen these fish before, but it never ceases to amaze me at how big they actually are. I'm surprised anyone can fight them as they should just be able to gobble them down in one swift motion. However, the fish seem to be unaware of that and instead try to kill you before thinking about eating you. Luckily the revive system keeps them from actually making a meal of us, or else I'd think they'd stop fighting and just swallow us whole as they might actually like our taste. Anyway, I watched them kill a few and thought, that looks like fun, but I opted to continue my normal activities and went off to a land area filled with those giant spiders that live on this planet. The run went poorly and I thought again about joining the hunt. Since my runs had been so bad lately I decided that would be a good idea and went back to Fort Cayuze to prepare.

Now, handling a weapon of any type is rare for me, especially guns. Plus, with a limited budget, I couldn't afford much. So with my little Kiwio and some ammo I found my soc mates again and started shooting with them. My pathetic gun didn't do much, but every little bit helps I'm told, so when we (them mostly) killed the big fish we were shooting at and activated the processing function of our handhelds I was pleasantly surprised that I got a small share of the fish. Those around me were quite excited, so I figured we must have gotten a much fatter one than they had been getting before. They equaled out the oils that were extracted from this behemoth really quick, giving me a little extra for my pathetic effort and then we continued on. It didn't take me long to see that the first fish had been quite good compared to the normal ones, but we got at least one more good one before it was time to head in. It was definitely a bit different fishing in this way, but it was quite enjoyable and I got to relieve some loneliness for a change. I'm back to my normal task of mining now, but I'm thinking some more fishing trips with the guys will be in my future.

The New Rig

There are just so many robot conflicts that have happened over the years on Calypso. Some areas you just avoid because of the robot activity, at least I do. Without proper weapons and armor against them I have to make sure I don't encounter them while I mine up the resources we need to continue the fight. One area in particular was burnt up by the robots, which is a shame. The black burning scar that once had other life living on it was pretty nice, if you could avoid the wildlife. I mined that area a few times, but once it had been destroyed I stopped going. It was the fear of getting shot down by the robots, which I know isn't a huge deal with the revival system in place, but it still hurts like you wouldn't believe. Recently, however, it came to my attention that the robots in the area had been wiped out and in their place we found a nice reserve of oil, much like the one in the middle of the desert, though not quite as rich. They placed a pump on this one as well and if you're lucky enough to be there at the right time you might find a few barrels that didn't get sent to the right place. These barrels can sure help in getting through some rough times. The only problem with the arrival of the new rig is that they no longer patrol the area to keep you safe. It seems they know they can't stop the conflict and so they don't even try. So when there you are competing with others to get what little you can and some of them won't hesitate to shoot you down, knowing full well it isn't murder if you're going to revive again shortly after they take you out. So the new rig isn't much different than the old except in that the new one drops so much less than the old that less people will spend a lot of time there defending it, so I have a much better chance of getting a few drops once in awhile when I need them.

First Space Fight

So many years spent on Calypso and I've never taken the time to fight the greatest threat we have, at least not directly. I know my work has contributed to the weapons we use against them and I have been with someone who was shooting them, keeping them alive, but never had I been so closely involved that I felt like I was doing my part. So finally I got the chance, and how do you think I started my campaign? Big.

One of the friends I've made here has a ship, not the largest out there, but much bigger than my quad. He took a handful of people with him into the depths of space to show us a secret spot he had found. I had heard of his love of hunting in space, but I never knew what he hunted, and I knew there were dangerous things up here, but I had always avoided them. I also knew that what I've seen isn't much of a secret, so if he had a secret spot then I knew it was something special, and I also knew it was likely dangerous. I was to meet up with the group on Next Island, this was where they were currently stationed and my trip here was non-eventful, though I did take my time to look at a couple of strange things in space, a green pulsating light and a grouping of space rocks. I have plans to get a closer look at these things in the future, but I didn't have the fuel to waste too much time out there this time. My few days on the planet were spent unsuccessfully trying to make a living, but it just wasn't happening. I've felt off lately, which is why I agreed to go on this trip.

When the time finally came to leave there was little time spent in preparation, all of us had what we needed and anything else could be purchased from the ships on-board trade terminal. The inside of the ship was amazing, I had never been in one of the bigger ships. I walked around for a bit familiarizing myself with where things were and imagined that this thing could work just as well as an apartment to live in, though I'm quite sure I couldn't afford it at this point. As we got ready to jump to our location I was offered a seat by our pilot so I could see what it was like. As I sat there the ship rumbled and the computer's voice spoke of what was going on, but the synthesized feminine informant faded into the background as the swirling portal opened before us. In moments the ship lurched forward with great speed and I watched as countless stars sped by. Of course they weren't moving, we were, but from my perspective they were lines, not dots, so they seemed to be the ones going at great speeds past us. Seconds later the ship left the jump and we were close to our destination. I left my seat and made my way to the lower section of the ship to do my job, which would be to keep the ship from exploding.

After some time doing light work I made my way up to see what exactly was causing the damage and saw quickly that I was finally participating in the war against the machines. Before me were several dropships, though most did not seem to be moving or have noticed us. I watched them for a moment as my fellow crew members shot a couple down and then made my way below again to ensure we survived our ordeal. A little while later our pilot asked if I'd like to take control of the ship for a bit. By the time I could word the reply that I would enjoy it I had stumbled up the stairs and was standing beside him as he got up. He wished me luck and I sat in the captain's seat. The ship was much larger than anything I had piloted before, so I took a moment getting used to how it handled and then followed the instructions of our leader to find the next ship to shoot down. When we found a ship I made my approach and quickly saw the shots being fired from our guns at it. The ship fired back, missing quite a few shots and landing others, but in the end we were victorious and I was in love with piloting. I steered the ship around some more, putting us in position to take out several of these massive ships and imagined how many robots we were destroying in the process, though I knew it paled in comparison to their real numbers, I was just proud to be finally helping. In the end the ship had never reached any point of danger from the damage it took and we reduced the stress of the Calypso military by a bit. I knew that if I got the opportunity again to go on this hunt that I would readily accept, especially if it meant I could steer the ship once more.

Whole Once More

Darkness, that's all there is here, darkness. Why is it so dark? At least the temperature is... wait, I can feel the temperature!? It must have worked! But where am I? There, that feels like a door, but where's the handle? How do I get out of here? It's small, it must be a holding chamber. But why can't I open the door? Wait, I hear something, it sounds like voices. Yes, I must be in the ship somewhere, it's Ambrilestri and Niracina, that's whose voices I hear. They sound like they're working on something. I hope it's... yes! Light! Wow, that is bright, I suppose it makes sense that it's so bright, these eyes have never experienced it before. They're looking at me strangely, maybe they expect me to say something? But not now, I feel that emptiness in my head, I need to get those memories back, I long to be complete.

Of course they followed me, why wouldn't they? The surprised look on their faces as I move deeper into this facility is amusing at least, they keep asking me how I know all these puzzles and then gave me an even more comical look when I said it is because I made this place. They want to know how, but that answer can wait, I'm sure I'll have a better understanding of it when I am whole. It is obvious no one else ever got through any of these puzzles, everything is as I had left it. Just a few more doors and I can finally sit in that chair I made oh so many lifetimes ago. Ah, yes, the suit, I'm sure I will bring that back into use shortly, plus I have plenty of ideas on how to improve the design, though I do wonder if it has any power left, but that doesn't matter, just one more door. Ah yes, dread, in all my excitement I forgot about dread, this is going to be painful, but it must be done.

Did I black out? No, no additional time has passed, but it feels like I've been gone for so... wait! I have been gone! And yet, I've been here. All these memories flowing together. Ambri! Nira! Oh! I am finally home! Here are my friends and this is my body, at least the one for this life. How many lives have I... wow, that is a lot. So many things I've done, so many personalities. So many faces, but none so dear to me as these two. But now here's the puzzle, if I built this facility so long ago using a body from my future, how did I get to the past in the first place? I didn't build a time machine and there is no technology here that has been modified. Something else intervened and it wasn't my doing. Someone is keeping track of me and interfering in my doings, but who is it and where are they? I suppose that question will be answered in time, but for now I have so much to talk about, but not here, I've spent too many long years in dark places, I long for light and to be in something natural.

Taking it Easy

Sleeping on a floor in a place I own has been everything I dreamed it would be so far. I know it isn't luxurious, but before this I was sleeping outside when I felt safe enough or sleeping beside a terminal hoping that someone wouldn't start using it and wake me up. To me, the new apartment is luxury! That being said, I do wish I could furnish it, but until I can start making some PED again doing my mining it'll be tough. I've invested quite a bit in trying to understand the higher end tools but in the end have had to sell them off to afford to live a little better, so back to the basics for me. One thing I've noticed so far with these tools is that they aren't so difficult to use but what makes them complicated is their sensitivity, trying to lock on to a signal of a worthwhile resource is much harder when you see so many more signals. Those deep depths are so full of random stuff that you lock on to the smaller stuff too often thinking it could be the big one. It'll take some time, but I'm sure with going back to the basics and working my way through the tools again I'll have a better understanding in the long run. As it is, I sure am starting to look at how this all works a lot more closely, it is so much more complicated as you understand it better, but I'm confident that I will reach the point of understanding eventually, maybe even be able to distinguish the signals better and lock in on the ones I actually want a little more. I've also started to gather some of the small resources again in hopes of staying ahead. Stones look more and more like gold to me as I try my best to locate a good find. I'm sure I'll get it again, it just feels like I'm a little off lately and that has negatively impacted my returns.

One thing that has been interesting is using that fishing pole I bought, it was an impulse buy but using it has been a hoot. There isn't a darn thing worth catching, not that I even get any bites, but the act of just sitting there along the shore and casting out my line once in awhile and letting my mind wander has been the best meditation lately, I can see why it was so popular on Earth at one point. I know my time would be more profitable if I went looking for stones, but taking some time to enjoy life here is important too, keeps me from going too crazy. Plus, the time I get to sit and contemplate could be fruitful in the end, perhaps I'll come up with another way of making a living here, though I don't make that the focus of my outings, instead I just take in the fresh air, warm sunshine, feel the sand between my toes and listen to the waves lap against the shores. Of course, I always have to watch the radar as well, you never know when a stray Atrox will come along and decide you might make a good meal. Not that it happens often, but I must say thank goodness for the revival network. I could just imagine how small our population here would be if we didn't have that thing running all the time.

Mini-GOAL: Level 25 Prospector/Surveyor

One of those last little goals I threw up on my list towards the end of last month, I wasn't sure if returns would be good enough or not so I wanted to have the goal up there and that was to reach level 25 in prospector and surveyor so I could use a TK320 (with SIB, yes, I know maxed finders are best, but I have a goal to reach!). Unfortunately, to reach that goal I was trying my best not to deposit and I got all the way to about 2.5% left when the PED finally was depleted past the point of squeezing out a run. I had already sold the TK320 I had bought earlier so I could keep going (can't use it, why keep it, right?), and had burned through that PED, so sadly to reach my goal I had to put in my $10 deposit for the month. Shortly after I had hit level 25 in surveyor and had reached my goal and then shortly after that had once again run out of PED. So I did my best to squeeze some more because I didn't want to give up for the month yet and so when I had sold something I could afford to be without I went on another few runs. Luckily I finally got something back, 444 PED HoF, woohoo! I used that to get the tools I had sold back and to get started on my next runs. So far they've been okay, but I could sure use some more of those globals to get me back to where I think I should be. Anyway, I am already over 25% to level 26 prospector, so maybe, if returns can stay non-horrendous I can reach my goal of level 30 sometime in the near future (my hope is by the end of summer, but that depends a lot on returns, at least I have SIB now to give me a hand).

Escape

I understand now their concern about the right kind of energy, the device needs a very particular instance of energy when it is created, though I do believe I have encountered an adequate type of energy before, but I have forbade myself from ever trying to use it again. I'm sure I can find a way to get the type of energy required, it will just take some tests to figure out when and how they utilized it. I also see that the device didn't survive the first use, which might explain why I never encountered it. The ship is amazing though, and it is easy to get distracted by it. With the interface I have with it I can feel and see what the ship does, which is almost like having a body again, though with some limits. I am quite sure those limits could be overcome, but I still desire my own flesh back as that is the only way I'll get back that life I lost. My hope is that somehow that life is the first, which would answer so many questions, but I am doubtful as this prison is older than he was. The others are walking in the ship now, starting to run diagnostics and making sure everything is ready once more. It is strange to feel them walking inside of it, inside of me, or at least it could be me, so easily it could be me, but I must not go that route, I would miss my chance. The energy that flows through this ship is very close to the type that is needed, but the ship would die if I tried to use it, I'm sure of that. From what I have learned of their past success the ship nearly did die but it survived, barely, though I am sure my requirements for the new body would deplete it far beyond that first run. There are very specific needs I have to make sure that the new body can meet, in particular the ability to hold more knowledge. My patience has brought me far, but it is finally starting to run out, I am so close that I fear I will make a poor decision and lose my chance of getting out of here. Maybe I should take a break from this before I do something I will regret.

No turning back now, I flipped the switch. My break probably wasn't long enough, but I'm sure this will work, at least it better work or else, well, I guess the or else doesn't really matter, but the escape from this prison is certain at least. I can feel it drawing me in, all of me, every life I've lived is going in to this machine and soon this cube will be nothing more than a piece of technology to examine. I should be dreading this, if the process fails I'll be gone, but I have a sense of peace about this. Perhaps I should have informed the others of my plans before doing this, but I'm sure they would have stopped me. It is strange, I feel both myself in the forming body and in the cube, though the body is getting more of me as each moment passes. The readings tell me that the energy is quickly running out, I hope this thing can finish before the energy is gone. One last little...

Unexpected Cooperation

That wasn't quite what I was expecting, and also quite a shock for me as well. Allowing them to put a display on me so they could communicate with an image wasn't a big deal, but them knowing my name when they saw me? And then agreeing to my request without question? I am a bit perplexed, though I can speculate now who that third being was that was with them, though now I want to know where he is as his knowledge would be quite invaluable to me. They said it would take some time for the ship to grow back to its former shape, and so now I must wait, though that isn't a big deal, I've been waiting for a very long time as it is. Hopefully they will keep their promise and not just try to escape once the ship is back, but we shall see. At least I can keep the new interceptor ship in orbit ready to capture them if they do.

I'm sure if I had facial features they would have been laughing at me, I was in awe as I monitored this thing coming back to its full shape. I had been unsuccessful when I infected it of getting any information back, I still am not sure why that didn't work, but as each section came back I soon realized how inadequate my attack had ultimately been. I had missed any vital section that could have communicated back with me, though after seeing this thing grow I didn't want to try again as I could seriously damage an irreplaceable system. The life signs coming from the ship were different than anything I had ever encountered, though I did find some similarities between the ship and Niracina, which made me wonder how close their connection was. It became obvious that she was the one that had a body built from the technology that this ship contained and so she must have been the one who made this ship, but why I had never encountered something like this technology before still baffled me. I still held my doubts about a race living so far away coming to this system and befriending a race that had no real technology. Perhaps I would figure this out once I had the rest of my memories restored, but until then I had to wait and watch.

Nervous, I haven't been this nervous in a long time, though I've never had to worry so much about my existence in this prison. Nothing so far has been able to penetrate it and the only times anything has made it out has been when I had the proper opportunity, which wasn't often and I still didn't understand completely. The ship has finished growing back and it has started developing an interface for me to connect to. They've been talking about how to get the specific power requirements to get it working, which I haven't figured out yet and any question I have is met with a strange look and an unclear answer. I think they're realizing I'm not quite the same being as the one they had been with before, hopefully that isn't a hindrance to my escape from this prison, though it would take me only a moment now to get connected and I doubt they would be able to stop me in time. The strangest part about all of this is how familiar they seem to me despite my lack of knowledge, as if they were in my past, which isn't possible as I've never received an incarnation back that existed during this time, but still, I feel, drawn to them, like I am meant to be with them. Perhaps they have some tricks they are using against me now, I will need to keep my guard up if I am going to accomplish this task. Ah, the interface is ready, it is time to connect and see if we can make this technology work.

Different Tactics

I must admit, it is convenient that it is this planet that I shall finally capture them on. I would have had to come here anyway once I had their technology, so they just saved me a trip. Their ship was easy enough to find and disable, so they won't be able to flee in it. It's just too bad that isn't the ship I want, otherwise they could hide all they wanted and I'd already have what I sought. The drones should be in all the required locations soon to prevent them from leaving, but I do have to wonder what happened to the city that had been here? Did the Klatvix destroy it or did something else happen? That race was advancing so fast, it was a shame that I had been followed by such a malicious race to their home world. Perhaps they figured out how to escape them? It doesn't matter though, the past is gone and I couldn't have done anything for them anyway, seeing as how I was stuck in this prison. It's also too bad that version of me didn't take the time to find a way out before coming back to the source, but that seems to be a common problem with them, they desire more to return than to figure out the full secret of it. There, the last ones are in place, time for me to make my way to them. Judging by the systems that are on, they're in my old chamber, there isn't anywhere for them to go from there.

Two? Just two? Why are there only two? There were three when we made our approach, but now there are only two? This isn't planned, that much is for sure, the two that are here seem to be very troubled about the whereabouts of their companion. At least this can be used to my advantage, they're distracted. We'll have the machines go in first, in case they decide they want to put up a fight.

I must admit, I'm impressed. I've sent in hundreds of drones with improvements to each set and they still find a way to completely destroy them. I guess I'll have to hope this technology that holds me is strong enough to withstand them, the materials I have for the drones isn't of a high enough quality to make them much better and I think I'm running out of time before they come after me instead or figure out a way to get out. Perhaps I can try to persuade them to give up their technology in exchange for their lives, though it isn't as satisfying considering the frustration I've had to go through to get to this point. But my past has taught me things, such as patience, there is time to do the other things I desire, I just need to wait.

A female Hasplena? Strange to find one away from its home, they don't use technology at all and never seemed to be interested in learning more beyond their world. How did she get here? None of the advanced races would have stopped there, except for perhaps one, but there wouldn't have been any survivors. This one, though, this one knows more than the others. She fights with her powers, which none of them seemed to be capable of when I first observed them, though I suppose much can change in that time. And what of this other creature, this Niracina? I don't recognize her species at all. I guess that might explain why this Ambrilestri is not with her people, a new race must have come and taken her away or invited her to explore. It also must be why their technology is so different from what I've encountered before, but the distance traveled would be so great that it would have taken generations to get this far in to known space, why is there only one? Though I suppose with the technology they possess it would be possible to continuously renew a body to live forever. At any rate, they at least seem to be cooperating now, I suppose I should have reasoned first instead of using force, but I had no idea what I was up against and my experiences have taught me not to trust too many other races. They seem hesitant to relinquish the ship to me though, which I suppose is understandable considering how I went after them to begin with, I guess that just tells me to prepare for war but try to reason first.

Destination Discovered

There was no way they could outrun us forever, we had superior technology, though it took some effort to implement it. It would be much easier to advance when we didn't have to work through signals and stolen technology, though this particular piece had been very useful as it could change to suit our needs, which lead us to create a mechanical crew with little effort. This crew was our hands now, they could make what we wanted, but it was still slow as we had to command them instead of doing it ourselves, but the prize was worth the headache, an escape from this blasted prison. I still wish I knew how we got here, but that wasn't in our memory. Of course, how some of us came to be wasn't in our memory either, and the ones we lost are a mystery as well. How can you lose yourself in one situation and find another version of yourself where you don't expect yourself to be? That little ship though, that thing is a huge pain, how do they make such quick advancements? If I didn't know better, I'd say they were one of the other races we've encountered or perhaps there is another like me? But that couldn't be. Though there is that lingering suspicion of this area of space, where I encountered my first non-created me shortly after escaping that other prison mechanism that we had been put in to. It was also tempting to give up this pursuit and go looking for that incarnation of me that escaped, those damned Klatvix forcing a signal out of me, there were quite a few abilities in that signal and I'm still not sure how they figured that one out and where they sent that incarnation and how they gave it a body. I suppose I could pursue them as well, but I'm sure their technology wouldn't be worth the trouble, not nearly as much as this lovely little piece I heard of would be. Imagine, finally making that body I've been needing and recovering that life that was before. Perhaps it would give me insight in to my current circumstances, and tell me where that first unrecorded version came from. I suppose this would be easier to do if I were still in the other prison, the holes in that thing gave me lots of capability, though only in certain times and locations. If I could get a body and return there I could figure it out, then I could do as I wished wherever I wanted. But enough of that, first, the task at hand. That ship seems to be immune to all my weapons now, no matter how I modify them. I'll have to focus on speed and just capture them directly, though I wish I knew how they were doing their jumps, they seem to not have the need to drop out from time to time. Stupid Klatvix technology, as much as they steal and they can't get drives like this ship has? Alright, that last modification might do it, lets give it a try.

Oh, if I had hands I would strangle the beings that were in that ship! How in the world did they create a nearly perfect replica and escape? And it was made out of pure energy! I'll find them, I'm sure. Now, I bet they were originally heading somewhere, when did they change course and do I have some knowledge of the path they were taking? So much data to dig through, this will be so much easier when I can interact with it differently. Aha! There it is! Quite a few systems in that direction, but anything that I know of that would really draw them... wait a minute... I should have known! Let me double check that... yes! They even turned it on! Ha! They'll be in my hands in a matter of hours now! They should have known not to turn on technology they didn't create, and to get to the point of... oh wait, that might not work in my favor. I need to get there before they find it!

Embracing the End

I wasn't mistaken at the rate that things would change. The structure I had made quickly became the hub of all their society and the previous villages they had occupied vanished as the resources were taken for use in other buildings and projects. The knowledge of one individual quickly passed to many as the chips were created and replicated. I spent most of my time deeper in the complex as they quickly began to pass me in their abilities, though there were things they still couldn't figure out that I had done, and those were the things that I had no idea how I had done it either. We had tried to put some of their knowledge in my head, but it didn't stick. Apparently the chip I had used made it impossible to insert more until the previous knowledge were put back. By my best guess this was by design, which made me wonder if mine was so crude after all. Several times I was tempted to insert it all again, but something deep in my memories kept me from doing it. I felt at a loss as of what to do with myself, there was just so much going on above that I could no longer keep up with. Their armors were becoming much more advanced and with infinitely more complex capabilities and their society was thriving because of it. They didn't even seek me out, they seemed to have forgotten about me for the most part except when I came up for food. So for days I spent my time constructing my versions of things, creating the technology I envisioned that brought me to the place I was at. I successfully created a chair that I could use without assistance that could remove the memories that I didn't have and even was able to program it to do so using the ragged edges that it could detect, though all it saw were the edges. The images visible on the edges were interesting though, it appeared I had encountered quite a bit in my previous life. I longed to get that knowledge back, but I knew it wouldn't happen for a very long time, if ever. I made another chair as well in a deeper chamber in which I placed the chip that could give me back my previous life. Over the course of weeks the lower levels took shape and the puzzles to get in to the various chambers were set. Once each room was complete with what I felt was good to keep in there I didn't go back to them again, instead I left the puzzles unsolved so that whoever was supposed to find it all again would have to solve them for the first time. The only technology that didn't move deeper was the one I was most curious about, the one I had made to put myself in the position of where I was. I wondered why I created such a device and pondered many times destroying it for fear that it was this very thing I had created that would put me in this place, but I couldn't do it, I was too fascinated by it and I studied it deeper, making it my obsession and, over the course of many weeks, making sure it was perfect.

The beard wasn't my normal look, so it was no surprise that when I answered the door they were a bit shocked by my appearance. I had been working so hard on this chair that I had lost track of the days. It had startled me when they had rapped on my door. They asked me if I could come up to the surface, something interesting had happened and they felt I was the only one who might be able to shed some light on the mystery of it. I was puzzled why I would be the one when they clearly had outdone me in their abilities, but I went with them anyway, both dreading and delighting in seeing what the surface of this world now looked like. The light of the sun was hard to take, I had made it a habit to never come up until it was setting or rising for it hurt my eyes so much to be out of the artificial light that illuminated my existence below. When I could see I saw instantly why they wanted me to come to the surface. There, in the middle of their great city, was a cube, and it was clear that it contained some very great technology in it. The thing hovered where it was, pulsing with light and heat. It was covered in symbols, the same ones I had put in place when I built the foundation of this city. As I gazed upon this wondrous piece of technology I longed to reach out to it, to touch its surface, though I resisted as best I could, something seemed familiar about it but also finalizing to it, like this would bring to an end the mysteries that I battled with daily. I could not answer any of the questions they had about the device and they spent days studying it. During that time I made frequent visits to look at it and wonder about its purpose. Fatigue began to overcome me from the day it arrived, I could not sleep and constantly wanted to be in the presence of this technology. I worked absentmindedly on the chair, putting in the programming I felt I would have used to put the knowledge of this world in my head and the necessary steps to reach this point. I didn't know or care anymore why I was doing this, I just felt it needed to be done, so that I would know that I was capable of doing such a thing. As the machine took the last of what I put into it I felt compelled once more, though this time not from the knowledge that had been put in my head, but instead more of a calling from something to return to the surface and then to return home, though I knew not where home was or how I would get there, but I didn't fight it and the puzzles were set as I made my way to the surface again, knowing that I would not set foot in this place again in my lifetime. On the surface the cube had moved closer to the entrance, waiting for me it seemed. I walked towards it and despite the protests of the others I reached out and touched its warm surface, feeling the symbols that were etched in it beneath my skin. I felt the energy start flowing in to me, embracing me, and then finally drawing me in. I felt the cube absorbing my very life, taking it in and as it did integrating my consciousness into its own. As I became aware of the entity inside I was overjoyed, it was my very destiny to be here and I was finally going to return to the home that this entity was filling my mind with.

A Warm Place to Sleep

I really need to slow down more often and write, it helps me collect my thoughts and also keeps me steady in this wild world. It is so thrilling sometimes when I'm out and about that I forget that if I take my time on things I'll likely do better. That being said, I made some changes recently that have allowed me quite a bit of fun for a change, but after all my fun it's time to get back to doing the work I need to do to survive. This time though, my slowdown will be with some comfort.

I decided after watching my investment for awhile and reading the news on it that my chances of increasing it are slim, so I opted to sell it for a bit of profit and then used that profit to go on some more risky mining runs. At first the runs were great, but as always seems to happen I begin to miss finds and eventually my risk turns out to be more than my poor worn out PED card can handle, luckily I'm not completely broke this time and I even decided to finally get something that I have been wanting for quite awhile. I finally bought myself an apartment here on Calypso. I know I could have purchased one on Arkadia as well, but it always seems like Calypso draws me back and so here I am, hoping to make a living for awhile and live comfortably in my new, empty place.

My hope is that the apartment won't be empty for long, one of my friends was at least kind enough to loan me some sources of light. I ended up buying a big 'G' size apartment in Sakura City. The apartment is in the Kansha building on the 13th floor, which some people will say is a lucky number and others will say it is unlucky, for me, it is a place to call home. The balcony overlooks the teleporter, so I will be able to see people coming and going from there while the big window in the 2nd room looks south towards the mountain island. I think I'll end up making that room a bedroom when I can get some furniture. It would be great to wake up and see that every morning. After that purchase I made one last risky mining run, which as expected didn't go as well as I'd hoped, so it will be back to basics again when I go out next, but at least I can say I had some fun for a while. I'm trying my best to finish honing my mining skills, hopefully soon I'll be able to use the more sensitive controls of the Ziplex TK320 Seeker, but I need to keep practicing on the TK220 until I feel ready for the next one. I was smart enough to invest in the new seeker before my PED card got too low, so when I am ready I have a nice, shiny, unused one to work with. My best guess is it will take another month or so before I am ready to break it in properly.

The First Transfer

It began to become clear to us all, this technology wasn't anywhere near perfect. This chip had indeed been made to take memories from a mind, but was so crude in comparison to what it was likely modeled after that it left residual bits and pieces behind, making it possible to have abilities from the previous memory without having the actual memory behind it, which would likely explain my ability to quickly develop things. We also found that a similar effect would be likely when memories were inserted, meaning you'd have phantom moments where it didn't seem that you were in control of yourself, which I had already experienced. I wondered though, if I were going to force myself to make this chip, why would I make it imperfect? It didn't make any sense to me, it would have been easier to pull the full memory out directly and just put in the knowledge I needed. We continued studying the tiny chip, learning all we could about how it worked before preparing to make our own version of it which should, in theory, be closer to the perfect design we all envisioned. One of the more interesting parts about this design was that what it contained could only be inserted back into the one it had been pulled from, the ragged edges of its extraction making it so that if they didn't match up they wouldn't stick. This also meant that the information contained on the chip would not be readable without putting it back into the head it came from, which meant I would not learn what was on it until such time as I could handle the influx of knowledge. This thought of course was met by an immediate warning from my inserted memories that my brain was not ready to have all that knowledge back, and so I was resigned to just learning the technology instead of worrying about what my life had been.

The first chip wasn't constructed until we had gone through many designs, each time we came up with a finished one we learned something new and had to redo it all over again. It wasn't a very forgiving technology, you had to be sure to get the bits and pieces right. When the first one was made we had to get a couple of volunteers to try it out, and hopefully use it as intended first instead of just trial an error with a random memory. Finding some volunteers didn't take long, there were plenty of individuals who had some knowledge they didn't want but someone else did. We explained to them how it all should work and what the risks were, though we were confident in the design and ability of the technology. When they fully understood it and agreed to proceed we set them up in our version of the extraction device, which was built in to a chair so they could be kept still while the device worked. A vague shadow of the pain associated with the process lingered in my head and I dreaded what it actually felt like. We double checked the configuration and then brought a display for them to use to choose the knowledge that would be pulled from their brain. It was an interesting thing to watch, there were fragments of images associated with the knowledge and that was how you figured out what you were looking at. When the selection was made the subject was asked one more time if they were sure and once we were assured the device was activated.

It was difficult to watch them squirm as the knowledge had been extracted and even harder to watch when it was inserted back in the other individual. It was clearly an unpleasant experience, though in the end they didn't seem too disturbed by the pain, nothing like my faint knowledge of it at least. The process worked cleanly and the knowledge was fully extracted from the one and placed in the other and the second subject quickly demonstrated their mastery over the knowledge they were given. It wasn't until we got to some of the finer details of some of that knowledge that we noticed some of it had been lost, though not enough to make a huge difference in the use of the technology. It just meant we still needed to be teaching others at the same time as moving knowledge around. The next task we had would be a little more complicated, we knew with the modified design we could view the knowledge that was stored, but we weren't sure how successfully it could be copied to multiple chips and still retain the information it held. With the data we had gathered from the first test we were able to modify our simulation and make a much more educated guess on what would happen. If this worked it would mean their civilization could advance to a level I never even dreamed of, not even in my own technological abilities.

GOAL: XXI Claim Size

Whoo! What an exciting weekend for me! I decided to use the PED I got from selling my land deeds to have more fun in the game and work on my skills. I gained a full mining level over the weekend on my top skill (prospector) and am now level 22. I also found one of my missing claim sizes that are below a tower and that is size XXI. I now only have two more non-tower sizes to get and that is XIX and XXII, those will probably be difficult to get but if I can keep playing amped and not lose all my PED too quickly I might be able to pull it off. I have to admit, though I know the risk of playing amped, it is super fun. I absolutely love getting globals (yes, I am a global junkie) and playing with level 7 and 8 amps sure can give you a lot of them. For me, it was 25 globals this weekend, and with one that started at rank 5 in the HoF list and made it to number 1 for a bit and then back to 4 before it expired it was quite exciting.

But on a more serious note, I feel it is necessary that I post my precautions to playing how I did this weekend. For one, playing with amps is a calculated risk, you can lose a LOT of money really, really fast by using them. Also, the swirlies don't always mean profit and I actually lost quite a bit on one of the runs I did and have not been able to get that back yet (though I am hopeful). I also took a HUGE risk by going to FOMA for my biggest run. FOMA can eat your PED card faster than you can fill it. Luckily I found that XXI claim, otherwise I would have lost quite a bit considering my profit was only about 7.5% after the run, not counting markup due to the fact that everything hasn't sold yet (someone please buy my narc on auction, I want to play more). Even though that sounds good, before I sold my deeds I had been burning through PED, so I knew my swing should be back up again and I was hoping that it would be on a high this weekend for me (which it was, so that was pretty lucky). I also was being very careful where I would go mining when I was on planet, I needed to get good MU stuff so that the amps wouldn't eat my profits with their extra costs. To do this I used my knowledge of mining on Calypso to choose the spots, this takes a lot of time and a lot of personal drops (just because someone else found an ore/enmat somewhere doesn't mean you will be as lucky to get that same one), so I knew where most of my better spots were and what I could hope to hit if I mined there. I had a few surprises in my travel as well, so my knowledge isn't perfect, but at least I didn't waste some of my better finds on something like lyst. So anyway, what I'm trying to say is, be careful and don't play this way unless you're prepared to see your money go from a good level to a bad level really quick (and basically in saying this I'm saying: if you play this way, expect to lose it all at any point).

GOAL: Ziplex TK220 Seeker

This one isn't quite as exciting as some of the others I have in mind to reach, but I acquired one, a Ziplex TK220 Seeker. I am trying it out, so far it seems like I've been getting less garbage resources, but I'm also choosing my areas carefully to get a good markup, so maybe I am just choosing the right spots and its not the finder, I suppose we'll find out. I've removed my goal of land deeds as well, I doubt I'd be able to get any more and have no desire for them as I've discovered that I can't withdraw without making some more changes in my life that I just finished making changes on (basically, I don't want to get another account at a bank right now, so until I have a very good reason to withdraw I won't be doing it). Of course, some inspiration could be if I get a 5-6 digit global, that's tempting enough to open an account with one of those evil banks. I suppose there are less evil ones out there if I can find one that will work, but that requires some research I'm not really in the mood for at the moment, so for now money in game is as good as the gold in any other popular online world.

Nothing to Help With

With the second generation being complete I stood and admired it. The suit was no longer just a suit, but rather a full exoskeleton, slightly smaller than the previous model but packed with technology. It didn't have all the equipment built in anymore, that was instead in different attachments sitting on the floor next to it. I had found the original design with all the technology built in to be impractical. Instead I had made tools for it that were much larger and heavier than the ones I had been able to handle and they could be kept in the suits storage for use later. The armor would move nearly as well as I did outside of it, making it perfect for protection while still allowing me to do everything I needed to. I finished up a few bits and pieces and put my previous life's memories safely in the chamber that was the most secure location in the entire facility. With it locked away I climbed in to my suit, stored the tools I would need for the day and returned to see how the research was coming.

The look of surprise at seeing the newer, sleeker, more advanced model made everything I had been working on worth it. They stopped everything they were doing and rushed forward to inspect every little piece they could. I took advantage of their distraction to use some vision enhancing technology to read over their notes so far on what they had discovered. From what I could tell they would have the chip figured out quickly, which was surprising to me as I had not been able to learn that much in my research, though that had been some time ago and I now had much better technology to work with. I also analyzed their new tools and found that their approach to technology had lead them in a different direction than myself, meaning their equipment did things that mine did not. I was impressed with what they had done so far and realized that it would soon be possible to work with them directly on all my projects, their abilities would enhance my own and we would be able to create wonderful things. When they finally had returned to their work, though still longingly glancing at the shiny new technology, I finished making my way to the surface to assist in finishing the city.

The swarms of individuals made it difficult to move at first, it appeared that not only had the first village come to live here, but all the villages were making their way to this place. All of them had been unified in their desire to advance and so none wished to live on their own anymore. The elders all came together to oversee the development and the people quickly took to the new way of life. There was new technology appearing everywhere in the city and I found that my abilities would not be needed. Even outside the city their farms were developing at a rapid rate. I marveled at what this civilization could become at this rate of advancement, it was truly inspiring to see them all working together. Something about them working this way felt to be out of the norm, though I had no specific examples to tell me why. I looked to see if there was a place for me to fit in to their work, but finding no such need I went back below to check out what they had started to develop in the other chambers of the complex.

In the various chambers I found them researching body armors similar to the first one I made, though they quickly stopped their current progress and started making new designs when they saw mine. I also found them constructing smaller and larger manufacturing devices, the smaller ones starting to resemble my second generation one. They also were developing tools to ease their ability to produce food and protect it and the village from the beasts of the night. It was all quite impressive, and I quickly found that none of their projects required any more input from me. Finding myself once again unneeded I returned my technology to its storage location and made my way back to help the research team unlock the secrets of the memory chip.

Building Something Big

My plan hadn't been to work through the night, but after my meeting I felt compelled to complete something big, something necessary to my future, though I had no idea why. The massive hole I had made slowly filled in with passages and walls. The refinement was precise and the whole thing would hold up against nearly anything that was thrown at it, including further refinement. Something about the end product made it nearly impossible to modify once it was done. There were secret chambers that were complex to open and the markings that were carved in to the structure as clues were unfamiliar to me, yet the images of the symbols filled my mind and I knew where they had to go. When the first part was done I was given time to rest, the project wasn't done but my mind was pained by the process, it was like the feeling I had when all the knowledge of my previous life was there as well, it confirmed that it must not all be gone, merely suppressed for the time being, though I was not sure why. In my down time I set up a few of the rooms, I had a general idea of what they were meant for and so the research lab was established and when that was done all my possessions moved from the house to this new base, the house being taken down and the materials stored for use in something else. While I was decommissioning the place a few of the villagers came to see me and inquire about my decision, apparently it was out that there was a deal in the works. I said I thought it would be a good idea and that I was establishing a location for us to work in, one that would be secure. They were overjoyed at my response and quickly rushed back to tell the others. Before they could return I had finished my task and returned to the new city that I was developing. I was sure the village would be moved, or at least part of it, to reside on top of all I had made and the real work would be below the earth in the labyrinth that was forming. When I made it back my mind had rested enough and soon I found myself back in a trance while the lower levels continued to form before my eyes.

The work was difficult, I think in all it took me three days to complete, though I couldn't be sure as most of my work was in the near darkness, at least until the lights had been created, but it still didn't help as I needed to see the sun to know for sure. I was given short breaks, just long enough to eat, nap, or do a few other things while my head stopped throbbing. Every time the pain subsided though the process began again, I couldn't seem to stop myself until it was complete. When it was finally done I went back to the surface, closing the secret passages and rooms and enabling all the security measures that had been developed to keep them safe. Above me the villagers were hard at work building their new city, as I had guessed they wanted to live where the greatest advancements would happen. Engineers had already inspected the lab and added their equipment as well and they were busy exploring as far as they could, though without knowing the language of the symbols they would have a hard time going deeper. I would have had the same problem, if it weren't for the fact that I had just built the entire thing. I took a little bit of time to answer their questions and eat some food, but quickly found myself exhausted and had to return to the depths to the place I knew was meant for me. The suit of armor was put in its room and I retired to my comfortable suite deep within the depths of the earth.

My head was filled with ideas, but the sleep was still restful. When I awoke I wasted little time getting back to the surface, this time without my machine. The city was nearly finished and the people were glad to see me awake, they had been worried when I disappeared two days ago after the brief conversations I had with them. They were anxious to learn more about the new facility and to get started on the research. Once I had enjoyed a warm breakfast I went back in to the depths to give them the technology they sought. It took only moments to construct, the materials being so raw compared to the others I had worked with. With it in hand they got to work testing it with their equipment, which I noticed was improving greatly in its capability and refinement. I left them to their initial research and went back to my private area where I proceeded to implement all the ideas I had been having, starting first with the suit.

An Interesting Proposal

Sleeping in the suit wasn't very comfortable, though it was quiet enough that it was restful. I didn't want my operations to stop and so I stayed where I was for the night as the machine continued pulling up resources. My dreams were filled with visions of potential advancements, most of which I took quick notes of when I woke in between the dreams. By the time the sun was rising I was already at work making the designs. It wasn't until I heard a growl that I realized I had been neglecting my stomach and had to finally stop the mining operation and head towards town for supplies, mine being completely depleted with my lack of foraging. Before heading out I checked the various systems, seeing how much I had stored of both materials and power. To my delight I had an overabundance of both, which meant that the system could run optimally and the weight increase in my suit would be negligible. I was sure with a few more iterations of technological improvements my ability to store things would be nearly limitless.

As I approached town I wondered if I needed to leave the suit behind, but my mind was quickly made up when the engineers came rushing out to the suit and ushering me forward so that everyone could see what was possible with the technology that was being developed. The townsfolk gazed at the approaching behemoth with awe and wonder, most of them keeping their distance but some found enough courage to come touch the suit while it was moving, though they all kept their distance from the feet as they came down. When I was close enough I stopped and climbed out, the suit going into standby and lowering itself to the ground, making it about a quarter of its standing size. While many of the villagers inspected the suit, which was safely locked down to prevent them from using it, I went to the market and did my best to barter for something to eat, though it was getting to be harder to do as the materials I had weren't worth nearly as much now that they were able to refine better things already and I wasn't willing to part with most of the ones I had risked my life to learn about in the first place. This made breakfast pretty meager and I realized I would have to start finding my own food from now on, though my mind was already coming up with ideas for that. As I munched on my breakfast and worked on getting a few more things to make it through the rest of the day I noticed the engineers starting to follow along, though at a distance. They seemed hesitant to ask me what they wanted and I pretended not to notice, trying to finish my business before they finally got the courage to ask.

When they did it all began in hushed tones with them coaxing me in to a remote building and the door being locked behind us. Despite the fact that, with the door closed, you couldn't hear anything outside they still continued with the quiet voices. They began by explaining how they were advancing and how their research was leading them towards a problem they were facing and that they believed I could help solve, and that was namely that they didn't have the time or resources to spend teaching others what they were learning and they needed to find a way to quickly pass that knowledge on. That was where I came in, they all knew of the technology I guarded very carefully and they desperately wanted to know if I could produce a copy of it, blank of course, that they could then study to see how it worked. I found it hard to answer them, I knew the design still resided somewhere in the memory of my device but I was very hesitant to build another one for fear that someone would use it and never figure out how to undo what it did. I thought about it for some time before they finally reminded me that they needed an answer, they assured me that all their research would be fully disclosed to me and hopefully that would mean I could benefit from it as well. It was another temptation to think about and I knew their help would be invaluable, the entire race of them seemed very capable of understanding things on a level that I wasn't sure I could keep up with, which was the other part that scared me. I told them I would need more time, which they understood, and I went back out and got in my armored suit, wasting little time to reach a great distance from the village. I tried my best to think the situation over, but my mind was going in many different directions and I found the only way to focus was to keep working. The sun sank in the distance and my work continued until it was rising once more.

Advancements

The hole grew, I stopped trying to keep the ground from sinking, it was just slowing the progress. The area was rich in resources and I wasn't going to stop until I had them up. I figured it would make a good location for a larger workshop, a much more complicated one. The sun was starting to rise and I deployed the charging panels from the suit to charge up the power modules. Being so heavily refined they would hold a much larger charge than the small battery pack and once they had started producing enough I removed the temporary unit so the resources in it could be refined into something more useful as well. The properties of the various metals made the suit nice and cool to be around, despite the amount of heat and energy coursing through it while it had the panels open. The area was much more comfortable to be in, so I was letting the massive suit do all the hard work while I enjoyed some breakfast and continued working on my designs.

A little later in the day I had some visitors, from the looks of it they had planned to visit me today and found me not at home but had decided to follow the strange tracks I had left from my mechanical suit, when they saw the thing working they stopped and seemed unsure of what to do, so I went to them instead. It was a group of elders and a few of the engineers I had taught to make a display. They were carrying a few things with them and so their visit seemed to be about business, but they just stared at the mechanical figure in the distance. With some coaxing though I got some questions out of them, mostly about what that thing was that was decimating the ground in front of it. When I explained what I had made they all wanted to go take a closer look and it wasn't easy keeping up with them as they raced towards it. They touched the parts they could and made sure not to go near the moving pieces for fear of losing a limb. The suit was huge, about three times larger than any of us, though I knew it got a lot smaller when it wasn't standing, another thing I had not thought of when I had built it inside the house. I explained to them what it was and what I anticipated using it for, mostly as a safer way of doing the work I already did and on a larger scale. I could see their minds at work trying to figure out how to build their own, then they realized where they were standing and were frightened, they frantically looked at the position of the sun and then had a perplexed look on their faces. I laughed and pointed to the machine and explained that, though they were in the area that normally got too hot to be in, all the danger was now contained in and powering the mechanical figure that stood before them. This of course lead to all sorts of questions which I did my best to get around, trying not to give them too many ideas for working with this dangerous material before they were ready. I also tried to steer the conversation towards the reason for their visit, which took some time but they eventually got to it.

The objects they had brought with me were their first attempts to make advanced mining equipment. They had the technology in place to get the resources up, but when they used it they mostly brought up junk ores that had no value to them. They were hoping they could find something to trade with me so that I could assist them in figuring out how to actually find the valuable ores. This of course was now more towards the back of their mind as they marveled at my mining mechanical suit. I assured them they were pursuing the right path and that the mining suit would probably be on their list of future projects, but they needed to figure out resonance of the minerals they were looking for and to find a way to distinguish the useful ones from any other once they had a way to produce and capture the signal. This instantly got their minds going and they took only one more longing look at the technology I was currently using before heading back to town to work on their new ideas. With the visitors gone I began construction of the additional pieces to my suit, these modifications would lead to much faster advances in my own technology, which I was sure I would need as this race of aliens was quickly catching up to my own abilities. As I watches the new parts coming together I wondered if I had given them the knowledge too freely that time, but I quickly brushed it off as it was a simple suggestion and they would have figured it out soon enough watching the machine do its work, it was not nearly as subtle when it produced the shock that gave me the frequencies.

Bringing Life to the Dream

Despite all my improvements the ground had noticeably sunk when I had finished pulling all the minerals out. I knew no one would mind as it was the area that few things could survive in due to the tremendous heat that would have come had I not just pulled out all of that wonderful ore. There would still be plenty of hot spots, just not in the location I had been trapped in before. Making my way back to the house took some time, despite my best abilities it was difficult to carry the amount of weight I had added to the pack and I had to rest quite a few times before I was comfortably back in my workshop. The complexity of the design would cause the device to work much slower this time, there were so many little things to do in the refinement and construction of each part. The capability of the device had never been pushed this far, but I was sure it could handle it, at least once I finished programming the steps in. Once started all I had to do was wait comfortably in my bed, envisioning larger construction devices that could make this process go a lot faster. Slowly but surely the device spat out pieces here and there on the floor, then pulled them back in and assembled a finished part, which would wait until the next set of parts were done and then pull those in to put them together according to the design. It was fascinating to watch the thing work, no additional input needed once it had all been started. As the form of the technology slowly took shape my excitement grew, if this thing worked as I anticipated it would completely change the things I could do on this planet.

I'm not sure how much time passed, or when exactly I fell asleep, but the sound of boards breaking woke me up pretty quickly. It was dark in the room, I wasn't sure if the sun had gone down or if something had just covered the house, it sounded like something were crushing it. The boards continued to moan and creak under some great weight, it wasn't until I heard the sound of the device still working that I realized my error, the thing I was constructing was much heavier than my floor could handle. I couldn't stop the process now, it must be nearly done to have that much weight in one spot, plus, so long as it didn't cause the house to fall I could just repair the damage it caused later. I fumbled around a bit looking for one of my light sources, when it was on I could see the construct before me and the screen on the device showing how far along it was. From what I could tell of the progress it should all be done within an hour, and then the real fun would begin.

My second error was realized once I had entered the control area of the device. I had not planned on a way to get it out of the house and so I could not just walk out. I climbed back out and scanned it back in to storage. Refined materials were much lighter, but the pack was still heavy once it was stored again. Luckily I only had to take a few steps to get out the door and deploy the unit once more. The moon reflected off of the dark metal, it would have been hard to see if I hadn't made it so shiny, but it was probably better that it could be seen for now. I climbed back in, closed the hatch and started it up. It took a moment for all the components to draw in the necessary power I had in the makeshift battery but soon all systems were up and running. Before I could take it out on a test run I needed to run it through some diagnostics to make sure things at least were theoretically running properly. I entered the sequence of commands and waited, the screen showed lots of useful information with only a few minor problems that I was sure I could fix. When it passed all tests within my acceptable margins I slipped into the controls and began testing the sensitivity, the mechanical suit moved almost as well as I did, though within the limitations of the joints. It would definitely do for now, but future improvements would give it much more agility. Even though it was still dark I decided to start working on the next part of my plan, the suit would allow me to hold a lot more materials and while it worked on extraction I could easily fix the flaws I had found already and begin designing and constructing the first upgrade.

Exchange of Knowledge

I woke early, I had to explore the village before everyone else was awake. As I made my way around I saw so many changes to the once small, simple village. The village was in a much more majestic condition, almost like it could be a capitol, though I was sure all the villages would look like this soon enough. The doors on the walls were closed to prevent the creatures from getting in and it turned out there were several gates leading in and out of the village. There was now a centrally located storage facility for the food, so it looked like they would maintain their community as a whole instead of each individual having to fend for themselves, which told me that there would be less chance of conflict. Each villager had their own idea about what their house should look like, though most were similar in style, varying the most in color. In one of the more secluded corners of the village was the workshop where they had built and now stored the device they had made. The doors were open and I could hear that someone was already working inside. I decided to see what they were up to and ask about what their plan was after they finished remodeling the village.

There were only a handful of them working, they were so absorbed in whatever it was they were constructing that they didn't notice me for several minutes. When they finally did it was to their detriment as they quickly forgot where they were in the configuration. I could see on their faces the disappointment they felt as they realized they would have to start again, but still they were glad to see me and asked if it would be possible to learn more about the display capabilities that I had in my own device. I was surprised they hadn't figured out a similar technology already, it seemed trivial compared to working with converting matter to energy and then back to matter once it was modified. Knowing that they wanted what I had and that they had knowledge I didn't fully understand, I decided to compromise a bit and teach them what I knew about the display technology in exchange for a copy of their notes on their research, this of course wasn't approved until they woke a few of the elders up and all was agreed upon. Within a few hours I had a copy of the notes and they had their first crude display showing them nothing at all. It would take a few days for them to figure out how to display something useful on the screen, but once it was implemented they would greatly speed up their technological advancement.

With the notes that they had, and some food I had bartered for, I began learning more about what I had been doing. The irony of learning about something I made after I had made it didn't escape me, and several times I just sat there chuckling to myself as I realized how impossible the idea would have been had I not had the product sitting before me. At times I would stop my reading to modify the designs I had stored, the end product would be so much different than what I had imagined and it took me a few days going between my home and the village to restock my supplies before I finally got through it all. When all was done I felt much better about working on things, I finally had some idea of how it seemed to work, though their way of doing it wasn't perfectly the same as the way the device did it, but I would be able to figure that out eventually. I took some time to digitize the notes, cleaning them up and making the text easier to read once it was stored safely. I also added my own notes as well to clarify a few things that were different in their version than from mine. My next task was to gather the remaining materials I did not have for the final product of my invention, it had been changed so much that it would no longer be one simple piece of technology, but rather a series of ever growing ones as each one paved the way for the next.

GOAL: Graduated!

This isn't the first time I've graduated, but it was definitely better this time around. The first time I graduated I simply got some congrats and all was done, very anticlimactic considering it took months to do. This time, not only did I get congrats, but I got a big golden swirly, a full set of armor and a vehicle! Definitely much more exciting. My mentor received some mentor edition hunter gloves and she is very happy about it. She really didn't have to do much for me this time as I already knew what I was doing, but she had helped me so much the last time I was going through a discipleship that I had to have her as my mentor this time around.

When I saw that I might graduate last night I was happy that my mentor was on, I really wanted her to be there when I clicked the button. Unfortunately she wasn't on the same planet, so it wasn't quite what I hoped for, but it was still good to see her reaction when I hit the button, she hadn't quite realized I was going to get that last percent so quickly. So when I asked her what she was doing and to stop for a moment I could only imagine what was going through her head. When I clicked the graduate button she quickly found out and then wondered what I had received and the value of it, which someone else was much quicker on doing the math and told her the TT value of a full set of pixie. When that was all done I finished up my mining run, which was another loss for me, and went back to storage to prepare for departure.

With my graduation done I no longer had a good reason to stick around Calypso, it was time to head back to Arkadia, which I had been missing, to see if I could survive there again. The flight was uneventful, I had only seen one pirate when I left and he went off on his own in a different direction without paying me any mind what-so-ever, so my trip was long and I sat there talking to my society. The only other thing I accomplished last night was entering some information about me as a potential mentor, though with my lack of play time I doubt I will end up with many disciples, but at least the info is there if anyone felt they'd like to learn a bit from me, though I feel I will be updating it again with the normal times I might be found online. When I arrived at Arkadia it was already late, I was tired, and though I really wanted to start adventuring again I had to go to bed, thus ending my productive evening.

Perhaps Not...

I've come to the realization that cataloging every day what I have is a bit tedious, there are only a few things that really matter to me as far as worth anyway, so I am going to be a little less meticulous about my assets and only log the important stuff, that should help prevent my own boredom in recording what I've got. On that note, after walking around for awhile today I noticed a lone prancer wandering in the wild, something about it told me that I had to kill it, so I took my low end mining equipment and traded that in for a Kiwio and some ammo. Once I had that old prancer down, which took a while with such a small weapon, I was able to process the body and found, to my surprise, 54 explosive projectiles and 55 animal hide. Now, normally this would be something to save up, but considering how infrequently I hunt I just ended up selling it, along with the resources I had been collecting to a guy in Twin Peaks and getting some mining equipment again to go do what I enjoy. It turned out to be a good investment today and I at one point had a little over 9 PED on my card as I kept selling my resources and going out again, though the last run of the evening didn't turn out as well, guess it can't all go perfectly, anyway I ended up having a bit of fun for the day which was a nice change of pace from the rest of my week. In the end, I had 5.26 PED on my card.

I found the following in my wanderings...
112 papplon
20 haimoros
143 dung

Overall Steady Losses

Yesterday was uneventful for the most part. My stones sold for 2 PED, so I took that money and bought another rookie setup and went out walking again, dropping along the way. Surprisingly it actually turned up to be more profitable dropping probes than finding anything. The only thing I found walking was so common dung, likely from the frescoquda I was walking among. The mining however turned up 5 force nexus, 4 alicenies liquid, 17 blausarium stones, 7 sweetstuff, 6 cobalt stones, which I would sell to a shady guy on the street sadly for only 1.26 PED, I hate price gougers, but what can you do when I don't have enough PED for auction? I then felt pretty anxious and decided to pull my blueprints out and put them all in storage so that I could safely sell the books and do a real mining run. I had 15 books left so this gave me 15 PED to add to the card. This run didn't turn up anything good, just 13 zinc stones, 7 garcen grease, 619 crude oil and 3 growth molecules. I sold the growth molecules to the trade terminal, people wouldn't buy those for good enough markup and I wanted to buy a refiner to process the crude oil and fill up my Sleipnir. All in all, a not-so-profitable day, but that happens, at least I feel like I can do some flying again without getting myself stranded in the middle of a not-so-friendly place.

0.97 PED

171 Common Dung

82 Kaldon Stones
17 Nissit Stones
56 Trutun Stones

349 Bombardo

131 Caroot

85 Haimoros

307 Papplon
54 Nissit Stone Textures
27 Metal Residue
1 Basic Stone Extractor
12 Lysterium Stones
6 Narcanisum Stones
5 Alicenies Liquid
3 Melchi Water
5 Force Nexus
17 Blausarium Stones
7 Sweetstuff
13 Zinc Stones
7 Garcen Grease

Quad-Wing Interceptor

Sleipnir MK1 (6.96 PED Oil)

Gungnir MK1

Various blueprints

Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.84/2.40)

Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.15/2.40)
Refiner MR100 (1.90/2.00)

Celebrating Technological Advancement

An hour or so spent getting cleaned up invigorated me quite a bit. Plus the food, no matter how stale or overly ripe it was, was delicious. I looked forward to having some fresh food too, purchasing it using some of the more common materials I had should be simple enough. I didn't have any plans to reveal what I had gone through or what I had discovered the previous day, there would be plenty of time for that later when my designs were done and I had the finished product. I took some extra time to construct a new storage device, one that had a few enhancements from the new ores I had and one that would work solely as storage. It was shaped into a comfortable backpack and once done the heat cell I had was put inside of it. This technology also required I upgrade my refiner as well, it would now have to work as a control for my other technologies and so it was likewise enhanced and made lighter, especially considering it no longer had to hold the weight of everything I carried. The backpack was heavy, not quite the full design I would like, but it was much more comfortable to carry than to try to carry everything in the satchel I had or in my hands, and this would only be a temporary thing as I continued my research, the power potential of the ores I had would make it so I could greatly reduce the weight left over after the items were stored. As I walked to the village my thoughts took me in an interesting direction, the technology I was developing was very familiar to me, the designs came quickly and most of it worked as anticipated. There were still parts of it that worked in ways that I didn't understand, but for the most part it seemed like I knew what I was doing. It was strange to have the ability to do these things without the history of the knowledge behind it, it made me wonder once again if I had really extracted all of my memories or just suppressed them in to a type of long term storage in my head. Would I have problems in the future if I continued using this knowledge that I suppressed? Would I risk dying a painful death due to brain overload? I had no idea, but I felt I couldn't stop now, there were things I needed to do here, I felt compelled to continue my work.

The noise of the village was definitely louder than it used to be, the closer I got the louder it was and soon I couldn't pursue my own thoughts due to the distraction of such a cacophony. As I came within view of it all I saw that the village now had a tremendous wall around it with a large arched gate leading inside. The doors to the gate were open and there were no sentries, so it didn't feel like a protective measure against anything except for maybe the wildlife of the night. The walls were decorated with different colored stones, someone had taken a lot of time in designing it. I marveled that such a large wall could exist in such a small time frame. Walking through the gate I saw many villagers moving about doing their work. Most of them carried things from one location to another and it didn't seem any of them were actually building anything, yet it was clear they had been very busy. The buildings were being changed, each one becoming much more extravagant and yet I could see that they were using materials in the same fashion that I had, making bigger, stronger structures using less materials. Moving further into the village some elders noticed me and quickly came towards me, they seemed very excited to see me and their wrinkled faces were almost comical as they smiled widely as me. They led me in to one of the new buildings, it took a moment for me to realize it was the inn I had once stayed in. They explained to me all that was going on and surprised me when they said how they had made a device similar to mine, though not quite as powerful or mobile. This explained how everything was changing so quickly and why people had to move materials from one location to another. The device couldn't store anything, it could only take what was there and transform it on the spot into something else. It did its refining and construction in one step, though it took quite a bit more time than mine did, but still, they were proud of it. They explained to me that they weren't the only village with one, it had taken multiple villages to work out how to make something like this and how to power it, so each village that participated in the invention got one of their own. The other villages, who hadn't been able to contribute, instead were gathering raw resources in order to purchase their own. It was evident that the lives of this race would very quickly change and from what I could tell it was for the better at the moment.

After sitting a while and talking, as well as enjoying the food that was offered, we finally left the inn to go see the device in action. It was an unsightly contraption, they had mounted it on a cart in order to move it where it needed to be. It was the source of most of the noise, which was a very unpleasant thing. They showed me the controls and explained how it all worked. The device didn't have a display, so you had to make sure you entered all your settings correctly the first time, so there were about three individuals at the controls at any given time, one entering the information while the others double checked their work. I took some time looking over the design, watching it work and doing a few scans on different pieces. I didn't want to redesign it for them, but I quickly realized that with a few particular common materials that they could easily gather themselves they could make this thing work at the volume of a whisper. I explained to them what I saw and how I would go about fixing this using some simple tools they had lying around. They listened to all I said and then quickly sent some workers to gather the necessary materials and get to work to fix the design. Within an hour it was much easier to think and to communicate with the elders and engineers. They sent a few messengers to the other villages to explain what they needed to change in the design, which I was sure would be a relief to all of the villages that had one of these things. After the machine was quieted I studied it some more, it was amazing how well they could develop technology when all they had were a few stolen formulas from my walls and some demonstrations of the device I had. It dawned on me that these people would quickly catch up to me on a technology level, though they still had a lot of work to do to get there, and without the refinement of the tools I had their pieces would still look crude compared to mine, though they would be effective enough. They invited me to stay the evening with them, celebrating the changes that had happened in the village and enjoying a magnificent feast, which I simply could not turn down. The celebration went late into the evening until slowly but surely we all turned in. The bed was comfortable and it didn't take long for me to fall in to a deep sleep.

Simple Pleasures

The first walk of the day was turning up only fruits, they all appear to be in season because I found a little bit of each. To offset the boredom I sold a couple empty books I had in order to raise the PED necessary to buy 200 basic stone extractors from a guy in our society, he was happy to sell them and I was happy to have something different to do. I took my extractors and my pile of nissit and gave it a go, nothing spectacular, but it was fun none the less. Nothing else to report for the day, though it has been nice being back on Calypso without worrying about being hunted down. The modifications to my devices and the changes that my hacker friend made seem to be doing the trick.

0.31 PED on my PED card

73 Common Dung

82 Kaldon Stones
124 Sopur Stones in auction
17 Nissit Stones
56 Trutun Stones

349 Bombardo

131 Caroot

85 Haimoros

307 Papplon
54 Nissit Stone Textures
27 Metal Residue
1 Basic Stone Extractor
21 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
1 Alicenies Liquid
3 Melchi Water

Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel

Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil

Gungnir MK1 with no fuel

Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints

Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.93/2.40)

Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)

Finding Balance

With no brilliant ideas at hand I had resorted to checking all the properties of the materials I had gathered. Almost all of them were new to me and so each one took some time to analyze. Every minute spent with a different material revealed lots of useful information, these materials would do wonders in technology if used properly, though no one would get a chance to find out about these properties in about an hour. Despite my best efforts the heat continued to rise, though at a much slower rate than what I had been experiencing outside the shell. All the heat made me tired and it was hard to focus, but I forced myself to keep working, I knew that if I gave up now I would never wake up again. After about forty minutes or so, as the heat became unbearable, I found one particularly interesting property in one of the ores I had found. The property didn't come up in the data that was showing on the screen. Rather, the information came as I was analyzing it. The device I was holding became colder to the touch, I thought at first it was my imagination and wishful thinking, but those thoughts were quickly squashed as frost started to build up on the edges. A few presses on the controls analyzed the shell I was in and showed that the temperature was dropping. I went back to the analysis screen and made some adjustments, changing the depth of the search and the power going in to the stored material, as hoped the frost started to disappear and the temperature started to rise again. This material responded to electrical currents by getting colder. I knew this wasn't a normal reaction for any material, and it told me why the hills didn't become molten. I wasted little time in constructing a device to attach to one of the heat dispersing arms of my shell, the device would convert the heat to electrical current and with a few controls I would be able to set a comfortable temperature in my temporary sanctuary.

I don't think I had slept so well in a very long time. Once the temperature was normalized I had quickly fallen asleep, exhausted from the ordeal. When I woke up again my device told me that the temperature was back to a comfortable range outside, though that must mean that it was quite dark outside. I couldn't stay here though, I had to get to a safer area where I could conduct some more research on the multitude of materials I had gathered. Opening the shell showed that the sun had gone down a couple of hours ago, the outside was illuminated only by the stars. I marveled that there were still plants on the ground, I knew that these plants would have some interesting properties and so I took some samples of them to study as well. In the distance I heard the creatures of the night, I wouldn't be able to leave without having something to protect myself with. I took a few moments to survey my surroundings for more of the resources I knew would serve me best and was happy to find the display showing several large deposits. I quickly pulled up as much as I could, constantly looking around for the predators of the night. When I had enough for my purposes I closed my shell up again and got to work designing my next piece of technology.

I couldn't tell how much time had passed, I did hear a few creatures venture in to the area, they sniffed at the strange thing sitting in the clearing but didn't dare disturb it. The design I had in the device was growing more and more complex, each additional piece of technology I could dream of changed the shape in a different spot and required some re-balancing and tuning to make sure it would work with the rest. Then once I had the first design of the technology I would begin working on the second generation, optimizing it using the next material I had just learned something new about. Though I hadn't planned on taking this long, I soon became aware of the rising temperature again and realized I had been working through the night. Wasting no more time in this location I used the device to decommission the shell, extracting all the raw materials I could, but having to leave at least one large block on the ground which I would have to carry. In all my workings I had realized that the tubes I had constructed still contained all the heat they had absorbed, meaning I had a very powerful battery that I didn't intend to give up just yet. I had it currently in the plans to use this battery in my design, but until it was done I needed to keep the power it already had. It was heavy to carry, but it was necessary as I wasn't sure the refiner could handle the heat it had inside of it, and with the reaction that some of the other materials had to heat and energy I couldn't risk it leaking into the storage. The walk back to the house was slow, I had to stop a few times to gather my strength again, it wasn't until I reached a spring and took some time resting and re-hydrating that I actually recovered by any degree from the trial I had just gone through. When I did reach the house the first thing I noticed was the note still in place but with some words scrawled on it. Reading the message I realized I needed to get myself cleaned up and head to town, there were important things going on and I needed to see them.

A Mostly Peaceful Day

The cool morning air felt good as it filled my lungs, I only took a moment to enjoy the rising of the sun before heading back inside again to check on my auction. After a few moments I could see that someone had made a bid on my stones, so I would have some PED again by the end of the day, this would at least let me start the next auction and hope that the next set of stones would sell as well. I knew it would be in my best interest to keep things simple today, no need to try and rush things, just wait for the PED to come and keep looking for what you can find. My morning walk started well, I found some bombardo and papplon early. As I continued my walk I ate a few pieces of the fruit until my meanderings eventually brought me to a small pile of trutun, totaling 56 when I had them all scanned in. It was amazing how much of this stuff could be found by walking around, miners were in too much of a hurry most of the time to realize that their probe had brought to the surface something that had some value, even if the probes didn't end up finding anything else for them. The rest of the walk was uneventful, only one more find of stones, 113 nissit, and a few more fruit, bringing my totals to 25 bombardo and 99 papplon for the morning.

The auction ended later in the day, giving me 3 PED extra to work with. Being the miner that I am I purchased another rookie setup, spending 2.01 PED, leaving me with 0.99 PED on my card. The mining trip was uneventful, I was only able to bring in 6 more barrels of crude oil, 1 bottle of alicenies liquid and 3 bottles of melchi water. Walking around in the area I had mined in gave me nothing extra for my troubles. Not a very profitable evening. With auction fee I am left with but a few PEC, but I have hope that the auction will go well and I'll have more PED to do my work tomorrow.

0.55 PED on my PED card

73 Common Dung

82 Kaldon Stones
124 Sopur Stones in auction
113 Nissit Stones
56 Trutun Stones

309 Bombardo

68 Caroot

61 Haimoros

252 Papplon
21 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
1 Alicenies Liquid
3 Melchi Water

Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel

Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil

Gungnir MK1 with no fuel

Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints

Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.93/2.40)

Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)

Burning Hills

I did not end up sleeping very long, but it was restful anyway. I ate a stale piece of bread and some leftover fruit, it was sweeter than normal, having gone a little past its optimum ripeness, but I didn't care. I was watching the sun peak over the hills in the distance, that was the direction I would go. Hopefully the hills signified some richness to the area, they weren't green at least, so that must mean they were rocky and have at least some materials to work with. Once the sun had a chance to warm my face I stepped quietly back into the house, packed up a few supplies, locked up the house and left a note on the door letting any would-be-visitors know that I had gone out today to do some work. As I made my way towards the hills I could hear the sounds from the village, they were louder than usual but I figured I would learn why when I could finish the work I needed desperately to do to further my own abilities.

The walk was uneventful, a few tracks along the ground indicated that there were creatures that wandered in this area frequently, but I wasn't concerned. From all I had learned so far the day creatures were timid and the night ones were the terrors, so I just had to make sure I kept an eye on where the sun was and make it back before it got too dark. The hills quickly rose into the sky, they were a little further than I thought and quite a bit taller. I wondered if perhaps beyond the hills were some mountains, making these foothills, though I wouldn't venture very far in this time to prove my theory. As hoped the hills were rock, there wasn't any vegetation on them and it was soon apparent why. After getting my first bit of resources I started to feel the heat building on these rocks, I took some samples and ran some tests on them and found that they were very heat conductive, which meant that I needed some protection from the heat or I would have to leave much sooner than I had anticipated. It took only a handful of tries to get all the resources necessary to do the work I had been planning, but my thoughts had turned from the original goals and I was now determined to see if I could find a material that was the opposite of the rock that made up the face of this resource rich area. I was sure somewhere there would be a material that could stop the conduction, otherwise I would have imagined that this area would be molten by noon every day and quite flat from the constant changes.

With the sweat pouring down my face, despite the fact I had moved away from the hills quite a ways, I finished the design I had for a heat shield. It would be adequate enough to protect a device, but as for protecting me it wouldn't do much good. The materials I found didn't have much flexibility, they were hard to refine and so I couldn't make something that had a lot of movement to it and I didn't have quite enough of it to build a full suit of armor for myself. I could probably find a way to make a much more flexible alloy from it, but that would take time I didn't have. I hadn't realized it before, though I should have noticed the desert-like nature of the plants in the area as I approached the hills, but the rock ran deep and out a ways into the plains before it sunk deep enough to have less impact on the temperature of the area, but not before it made one last time to the surface, trapping me in a small area that was quickly turning in to the fastest cooking oven one could ever hope for. Weighing my options I realized I would likely need to just make two halves of a shell to put myself in to, it would at least prevent a lot of the heat from getting to me directly, but then I would need to find a way to cool down the inside of that shell as the air was already too hot to allow me to stay alive much longer. I hadn't made a device to cool something before, but I had to try anyway. I had enough of the conductive materials and some insulating materials, not quite as good as the one I would use for the shell, but good enough to prevent the conductive stone from absorbing more heat from the sunlight, all I would have to do then is create some thick, insulated wires to draw in the heat from the inside of the shell and store it further away. I knew it wouldn't be able to push it out of the wires as the outside was going to be much hotter than the inside, but at least it would drop the air temperature in my shell by a few degrees. With those pieces in place I felt a little relief from the unbearable furnace that I was sitting in, but it would not be enough, not by a long shot. I would still die here if I didn't improve my situation by a much greater factor. If I could move the shell I was sitting in it might be possible to escape from the heat, but I could no longer safely open it to do any more external modifications, anything I did now would have to be with what I had already constructed, but time was short and I had no immediate ideas.