The Wealth of the Earth

Competition has been fierce. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and it doesn't get much sweeter when resources are in such high demand. I don't normally see many people, but the evidence of their passing is there. So many miniature holes in the ground slowly closing themselves back up. It's amazing that there is any plant life left with all the probes we've sent forth, but the planet recovers. Luckily the technology does its best to help, which is why the holes close up pretty well after we've done our surveying. In a rare instance, as I was out, I saw a green dot appear on my radar, it quickly adjusted course and came towards me, another curious individual who just can't go about their own business. As they ran past me they didn't say a word, just kept running and dropped a set of probes right in my path. A bit rude I thought, but at least they were going a different direction than I was, though it did fill me with dread, typically if someone was in the same area as me they would find what I was looking for, I decided to keep on though, maybe today would be my day to find it.

It didn't take long after that dot had passed from my radars range that I hit something, it wasn't much, but at least I was still getting something. Shortly after however I hit something a bit nicer, seeing that IX on the screen made me smile. I would be able to live off that, at least long enough to look for another. After I had the resource up I continued on, finding another smaller claim and then, to my surprise, another IX appeared on the display. I hardly ever found two such lovely finds in a run, especially when I couldn't afford an amp to improve my chances and especially so close together. I happily pulled up that resource and proceeded on my course. I didn't expect much to happen after this, I had made profit already and was pretty happy. Another small find showed on my screen and shortly after that an XII, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't remember a run so good as to get three finds of such a size in such a short time. At this point I was actually laughing at my luck and how I had thought that I would get nothing after seeing the other miner out and about where I had been. I continued on, and though I didn't find any more finds with that lovely X to mark the spot, I did get one more find qualifying as VII on the finder. It wasn't as spectacular but I was happy about it. After that run I decided it was in my best interest to take a break for the evening and get some much deserved rest. My dreams, I knew, would be filled with glorious images of my future discoveries of the wealth of the earth.

Disorder Before Dinner

It didn't take long to finish refining the materials, somewhere in the options I had was one that told the device to pull in all the materials that were the same as the one I targeted. With all of them properly refined I pulled them all in to the device and once again brought up my plans for the pavilion. The device quickly adjusted the design for me using the higher quality materials and with one last press of a button and a few moments for the device to do its thing I had a sturdy pavilion before me that I could use as a shelter for additional materials and a place to work. By this time it was starting to get late, so I gathered what was left of the resources I had and started storing them safely under the roof of this new structure. As I was busy with this the being that had passed by before came through again and this time stopped and stared with wonder at the thing that now existed in the middle of the woods. When he could gather himself once more he asked where in the world this had come from and how I had built it so quickly. I explained to him as best I could how the tool I was holding had the ability to take resources, refine them, design things with them and then produce the end result quickly. Once he heard this he rushed off, not asking any more questions and it took a moment to realize he was about to tell the elders what I had just said which would mean a whole new line of questioning was in store for this evening. I finished organizing everything as quickly as I could and followed in the same path he had taken towards the village.

As I approached I could already hear the raised voices of those discussing what had been said about my doings for the day and tried my best to slip quickly and quietly into the building I was staying in, however I wasn't able to do this unobserved and though I made it in I was followed by a swarm of beings as well. Before I could even take my place at the table there were questions being thrown at me from all directions and I just sat there and smirked as there was no way I could make out any individual's question from another and waited until they could compose themselves and ask in a more orderly fashion all that they wanted to know. Lucky for me the food had already been laid out and I was able to eat quite a bit before they realized I was waiting for them to restore order to their group. Once they were successful in this endeavor they dismissed the rest of the villagers and the elders sat down at the table to join me in the meal and began asking me all the questions they had about what this device could do and how I had figured it out so quickly.

The conversation went well into the evening and included some demonstrations of what I had learned. I could see in the looks on their faces that they greatly desired to learn how this worked and to reproduce it for themselves, which I was sure we would eventually get to, but for now with just the one device to work from I still had much work to do to learn how it all functioned. As they slowly trickled out a few of them took the things I had made with them, I was sure some of them would use them at home and with some of the questions I got I was sure to see other pieces being sold or bartered in the market the following day. By the time I was able to get to my room it was very late and, having not slept much the previous night, I was exhausted. I did however have the clarity of mind long enough to make a small change to the door of my room and modified it to have a lock and key that would help keep the tools I had safe. I was sure someone would notice before I woke up and have much to say about this security measure, but I figured they would understand my position given that I didn't know everything about their culture yet and simply wanted to ensure that my only connections to my past were kept safe.

Modifying the Handheld

Using some of the resources I had gathered for further modifying my handheld wasn't the easiest decision to make. In order to create a more durable and useful device required a few of the more precious materials I had found, but I figured it would be worth it in the end and it would also give me some new capabilities in working with my equipment. One of the parts I had added was a wireless link so that I could connect to any of my tools without having to actually plug it in, which would help me with another change in that I didn't want to carry the device in my hands anymore and redesigned the shell of it to go on my wrist, allowing me more freedom to do other things in between mining drops. Modifying the tools wasn't too hard either, I had already changed them so much already that I knew exactly where I wanted to place the new component. A few other changes I made to it would soon allow me to communicate once again with those people who I knew still on Calypso, but I had to make sure the signal wasn't traceable, otherwise I could have other problems added to my task of surviving on a new planet.

Once I had the device completely modified and all my security pieces in place I connected the device back to the communications network. It took a few additional tweaks to the programming, but eventually I was able to get connected using whatever alias I desired to use, which meant that even if they started to catch on with one alias I would be able to change it quickly and continue along in my own business. I knew that if anyone caught on to what I did I would be in trouble, but it would be worth it so that I could continue figuring out what it all had meant when every one and every thing showed up all those months ago. I wasted little time in getting back in contact with some of my closer friends and what I learned from them was very valuable to me. Apparently they had been questioned about my whereabouts, to which they denied knowing anything and even when they could contact me they never knew where I was. I also learned that they indeed had thought I was dead, which gave me an advantage in knowing that they shouldn't be actively looking for me. I then informed them that they still wouldn't be able to locate me and I needed to keep it that way, both for their sake and my own. But I also asked them to keep their ears open in case they started hearing anything more about the situation. When all was set I sent them the code modification they would need to put into their device in order to find my current alias. They asked if this wouldn't pose a problem if their device were compromised to which I replied that I had already made plans to make the change necessary to destroy the ability from my end and that I was fairly sure I would be safe. With the task completed and friends informed I continued exploring the ruins and looking for resources. There was a large demand and I didn't want to miss out on my chance to make a bit of profit.

The Discovery of Refining

Morning just never seems to come early enough, sleep wasn't something I had a lot of during the night but when the sun came up and I heard movement I quickly emerged from my room and partook of breakfast. Once again I surprised my hosts in showing up so soon, and I also missed most of those that would have come to visit me. In fact, as the first of the elders started to arrive I was just finishing up and packing some food for later, I had no plan to return quickly once I made it out into the country side in my search for materials and understanding. As I started to make my way towards the door a few of them started walking with me, inquiring as to where I was going, to which I replied that I had started learning about the tools I had and needed to get outside of the village in order to continue my research, but that I would return before the evening meal and at that time I would be more willing to have further discussions with them. The look on their faces as I said this told me they were amused at my enthusiasm and they didn't delay me further from my mission for the day.

Once outside the village I wasted little time moving out of sight, I didn't want any of them following me if I could help it as I needed to be able to focus on the task and work on understanding on a deeper level how this technology worked. In a nearby woods I found a clearing and started gathering up some bits and pieces of wood, I wasn't sure if I would need bigger pieces or not, but I figured I'd see if it could handle scraps first. Once I had what I figured would be enough to make a small roofed structure I pressed the button that pulled in all the materials. Then, using the interface, I began manipulating what I had to work with into a shape that I desired, unfortunately as I finished the design I started seeing some messages that indicated that this structure couldn't be completed. My attempt to force it didn't work and eventually I found a menu that indicated that I was missing some materials necessary in the construction, it didn't give me anything specific but rather informed me that I needed something a bit harder to go with the scrap I had gathered in order to make the structure stable. With that I found a large rock to see if that would be acceptable and once it was scanned in the error went away and a confirmation screen came up. Before hitting the construct button I once again went to the menu and found a section that would give me some details regarding this structure. I was surprised to find the amount of information available, such as how well the structure would hold up in different conditions and how much force it would take to destroy it. Going deeper into the various pieces of it I could find the weak points and strong points of my design, which made me realize where I could improve it. I continued gathering different resources and trying different combinations to improve the design until eventually I had something that I thought would hold up pretty well. Unfortunately when I had this design I realized I had wandered quite a bit from my spot and the resources I had gathered were making the device quite heavy. I decided to leave some of the materials behind and take what I could handle back to the site, then come back for what I had to leave. It ended up taking a few trips to get it all there comfortably and when I had finished it looked to be just a little past noon and so I took a break to eat before I continued.

While I ate what I had brought I picked up a small stone with the device and with one hand I kept playing with the options until, to my surprise, I found an option to refine the material. Looking at the information regarding the starting material and the end result showed me that it would get rid of the garbage parts of the material, leaving me with a stronger substance to work with and also making it much lighter. I confirmed the process and a very tiny brick of the material appeared before me. Checking it against the other rocks in the area it was clearly superior in quality for a building material and I wondered if I needed to once again redesign the pavilion I was working on. I decided it wouldn't hurt to try and gathered up my materials again, though the option to refine was not there. Perplexed a bit about it I emptied it again and scanned in just a single object. To my delight the option was once again there, but if it could only refine one object at a time I would have a long day ahead of me. As I pondered this idea I heard a noise behind me and turned around to see one of the villagers coming into the clearing. He seemed equally shocked when he saw me, clearly he hadn't been looking for me and never expected to encounter anyone out here in the woods. After a moment we made introductions to one another and he asked what I was doing with the pile of junk I had in front of me. He listened intently until I finished and once my story was finished he asked one simple question that I was surprised I hadn't though of. He asked if the device could only handle one type of material at a time when it was improving it. I wasted no time in answering and quickly scanned in a whole pile of rocks that I had planned to use, sure enough the refine option was still there. He just smiled at my delight in the discovery and quietly excused himself to return to the task he had.

Getting Through the Basics

The first few days were pretty easy compared to Calypso. They were very organized in their approach to introducing you to the planet, though listening to some of the lectures was a bit boring due to the fact that I had been living on a planet that wasn't Earth for quite some time now. The basic equipment they let us take a look at was adequate, though nothing spectacular compared to what I had been handling before, luckily I had a few of the tools I brought with me when I flew to this planet and since I had already modified them a bit it would save me some work making sure I could remain anonymous on this planet as well. I didn't have any problems syncing my handheld device with their network either, they had made it fairly open for us due to all the changes in technology on the various planets we were coming from. Mine, surprisingly, looked very outdated from the ones I saw and so I determined I would need to work on it a bit more to make it look a little newer and have all the features I needed. After finishing all the courses they had for the new arrivals I wasted little time getting out of the facility and starting the process of living off the land, well, at least as much as any of us can. There were many new types of resources I hadn't seen before and some that were very familiar. The technology they utilized on this planet was harder to hack, which meant that most of it was not repairable, but it would do when I had need of it, for now I was good with the equipment that I had.

After a few days of learning I had already picked out a handful of favorite spots, though I couldn't help but want to wander here. The ruins scattered all around were marvelous to behold, they held secrets that I couldn't wait to learn about, though they would not let us look for any artifacts yet, they were, however, making preparations to provide training so that we could soon. I had high hopes of helping find new technologies in the ancient ruins and hoped to figure out the history of this planet. I wondered how the Arkadians, who had made such a thing as The Signal, could have lost to the Oratan, we had clearly found a way to survive at least this long, but perhaps there was something we were missing and the full onslaught hadn't happened yet. I also wondered where the ships were and why the Oratan that remained here didn't seem to have any vehicles or ships to get them around. This troubled me a bit as well, if these were just the remnant of what had been here before, would we soon have another war on our hands when their ships arrived? The robots had been enough before, but these creatures seemed just as dangerous. I knew eventually I would have to do some more training in weapons, but for now I would just take my time learning about this planet, worst case would be I'd have to learn the hard way, but I was used to that.

Mining here was much like it was there, there was a lot of time to think about things. I took some of this time that I had to continue trying to look into what happened and where the time went, but all I could see was that for a while there were postings with a bounty on my head, though always for me to be alive, not that I could have died if they shot me anyway, and then they started to fade into the background, no news of my capture, a few people inquiring for an update on the bounty status but in the end the final word was: "Bounty Canceled", which made me assume that they thought me dead. But why would they think that? Clearly they must have been able to at least somewhat follow the trail of my jump, most people can't really move around much without being at least partially tracked. I suppose it was possible that when the chip had been damaged they lost that capability, but it seemed unlikely. I even looked through the logs on my device, but it seemed that there was no gap in them, one day I was looking into things and then the next day according to the logs I had escaped from my captors. I had even had to force the thing to sync up briefly with a network to get the correct date and time, which then really threw things through a loop, but at least now I know when it is. I keep wondering what happened and the only thought I have that makes any sense to me so far is that somehow the surge that went through the chip and fried it somehow also bent time and threw me forward almost a year. It didn't seem likely, and I recalled many stories that existed in our history that fancied this would be possible, but it still seemed strange that it could really happen. Then of course that leads me to think that if I can jump forward, could I also jump back? And what implications would there be if this were possible? It also makes me wonder what exactly our brains are capable of, if we can do this with technology magnifying our natural abilities then would it be possible that with the right modifications and practice I could master the ability to travel not only the space around me but the time that the space existed? These thoughts were distracting, and because of them I had almost missed a very good find, so once I caught it and realized how much I would have missed out on I quickly moved on from this thought process, determined that if I wanted to visit it again I would have to wait until I was resting.

Understanding the Tools

The nap refreshed me greatly, though when I awoke I found myself very hungry. Luckily it seemed someone had thought of this as well and had left a small plate of fruits in my room while I had been sleeping. I grabbed some of the fruit and began eating as I started moving a few pieces of furniture around the room, I needed to make the room function as my research area for now as it would be too difficult to work with everyone looking over my shoulder. I was sure I would find a place more suited to the study I would need to do later when the creatures had grown accustomed to my presence, but for now there was no time to wait for that. I felt an urgency to start understanding this before any more of my memory might be given a chance to fade. During my nap I had dreams of technology that I assumed was familiar, at least was when I had the former knowledge. It gave me hopes that I hadn't removed the knowledge, but rather had suppressed it until such a time as I could handle it once more. My first task in all of this wasn't to understand how it worked specifically, but rather to figure out how to use it again as that knowledge had started to slip away as well.

The furniture hadn't been difficult to arrange, only a few items needed to be moved to one wall and the table moved into their place, the space was adequate and I began fiddling with the controls on the devices. It was clear that one was to go on my head and so I didn't mess with that one for fear of removing more of what I knew so far, the other one was simple in appearance and as the dials were moved around a light emanated from the top of it, though it contained nothing, I thought it strange until I tried a few other things that caused the table suddenly to disappear, letting all my other belongings fall to the ground, luckily they didn't break. I was quite started with the loss of my work space and it took a moment before I looked at the device in my hands again. There, in the projection of light, was the outline of the table. I also noticed that the device was quite a bit heavier now. I turned some of the dials and watched with intense interest as the table changed shapes and information was listed at the side indicating how much resource would remain if I went with this design. I was confused for a bit and hesitated to confirm anything, instead looking for the option to abort. Once I found it I just hoped I'd get my table back. Selecting the option I was relieved when the table returned to its spot, I quickly picked up my belongings and set them down again. I was determined to play some more with this device, but I needed something less important to play with. My choice was one of the smaller tables that I had placed against the wall. It took a moment to work out how I had picked up the table before, but once I did I wasted little time playing with the various options until I had turned the displayed design from a small table to a small crate, once confirmed the object placed itself on the floor in front of me, and in my pacing during the process I nearly tripped over it when it appeared. Along side it were a few small pieces of left over wood and some sort of sticky residue. I decided I needed to store this residue and so took the vessel that the food had been sitting on and quickly turned it into a bowl instead. With these materials gathered and placed in my new crate I decided it was time to get some more materials to work with.

I hadn't realized how much time had passed, and to my discouragement when I came from my room it was very dark outside and only a handful of the beings were even awake. They seemed startled that I had come out of my room so late and asked with hesitation if I needed anything. At this I replied that I hadn't realized the hour and excused myself back to my room, though not without picking up some fruit that was still sitting on the table from the meal I imagined I had missed. My guess was that they saw how tired I was and didn't wish to bother me for the rest of the day. I appreciated that they did this for me and planned to spend more time outside my room tomorrow, for now I had a few more hours in me to continue studying the tools I had and then, hopefully, tomorrow I would be able to gather more things to modify.

NEWS: Multiple Story Lines

Well, as I have now started it, I guess I better make sure everyone understands. I now have two story lines going, one where I am once again without my memories and another where I have my memories, but only as far as when I had left Calypso in the first story line. I do plan to make this all work together, but to make it easy on you there are different tags on the posts. Posts with the story tag pertain to the fictional story and ones with a planet name pertain to what I have going on in my game life. I am sure I will do my best to keep you all thoroughly confused in this, but it will be great fun for me. Anyway, happy reading as this expands into much more than a simple linear story. :)