Factory of the Magical Variety

by Conglomerate


Chapter 8: Luxurious 'Flight'

Now don't get me wrong, I knew I didn't have the resources necessary to fly indefinitely, but I could glide. I wasn't capable of fabricating any propellers, but I could strap a few rocket boosters to a glider. That could actually take me quite far.

Even better was the fact that I found Erudite, I verified it first of course. With Erudite I could fabricate another cabin, which allowed me to be a bit more risky, since I'd have a fall back now. But it wasn't like I had infinite cabins either, I only had enough Erudite to make three more, so three more lives I guess.

Another problem though, Even though I had enough Oleite to fabricate the wings of the glider, I did not have enough for the rocket boosters. I'd have to get more, and to get more I'd most likely need Zecora's help. Zecora might not want to help me though, she seemed pretty upset after having to cross the lake and back six times.

So Zecora was off the table, that means there was only one other option I could think of, building a bridge. I knew I had enough Plumbite for the task, with the newfound veins of it of course. Fibrewood wasn't a problem either, considering I lived in a forest.

Building infrastructure wasn't something I did a lot, there wasn't much of a need for it when you could either fly or enter a build beam. Since none of those were available to me, I had to build a bridge.

Not having proper storage sucked, I'll tell you that much. Fabricators normally communicated with storages on their circuit to get the proper materials to them. Since I didn't have that, I had to manually deposit each material into the fabricator. Making one hundred blocks that way was not fun.

Transporting said blocks wasn't too hard though, just pile them onto my tech until it was a giant, moving cube. I did have to fell a few trees to pass through though. I wasn't exactly trying to stay hidden, but I wasn't trying to parade around anyway, despite my now large tech passing through.

Eventually making it to the lake, I laid down the first anchor blocks of the bridge, then started work. Fortunately the lake was small enough to where I didn't have to construct any supports, unless I wanted to drive something very heavy across. The great thing about techs were that most block's connections were stronger than the actual block, that's why large techs don't just crumble under their own weight or wobble in the slightest.

The bridge was now done, and I was able to harvest as much Oleite as I could carry, more than enough for the rocket boosters. I'm also sure that Zecora would enjoy this bridge as well, though I wasn't too sure on how much Oleite she actually used.

Back at base, I safely stored the Oleite in a larger tub before heading back out for my next material. At the base of the mountain there was barely enough Carbite to fill my collectors, I'd have to find a way to the top to get more later. Luckily I was working on that solution right now.

With everything needed for the rocket boosters, I set to work designing the glider. You couldn't just slap wings on any tech and expect it to fly, you needed a delicate balance of weight, lift, and thrust. I didn't have much thrust, so I'd have to compensate with lift and weight. Making lightweight techs wasn't easy, but in the end I ended up with a new cabin, a single gun, three structure blocks, three wheels, of course a radar, and finally the rocket boosters.

With the glider done, I had to test it. Using another power granted to prospectors, I switched between the cabins, effectively giving me complete control over the glider, while leaving the other tech 'lifeless' and still. I never get tired of doing that, being able to freely switch to whatever tech you want is great.

Slowly piloting the glider out of the base, I realized I couldn't fit up the ramp, my wingspan was too wide. I couldn't really take off from inside the ravine either. Well, techs are nothing if not adaptable, so I detached my wings and reattached them straight up on top of the glider, kinda like a butterfly folding it's wings.

Up at the top of the ravine, I probably had enough space to take off, even if not I could just angle the rocket boosters straight up. Of course I'd have to realign them mid-flight, but that wasn't impossible. I wanted to go up higher though, to give myself the best chance at success. The highest point nearby would have to be one of the ruin's spires, it would be a real pain to navigate the glider up there, but it would be worth it.

I was interrupted though, a single blue icon appeared on my radar, quickly making it's way towards me as several red icons appeared behind it.

Of all the times to not have speakers on my tech, it had to be during an emergency. Getting ready for anything, I 'unfolded' my wings, and maneuvered my tech to be facing the incoming icons. Not a moment later Zecora burst through the trees in a full gallop, a few moments later about seven of those wooden creatures also slipped out of the treeline.

There was no way the glider could take on seven of those things, and while I wasn't worried about replacing the glider, I couldn't replace Zecora. Seeing as I had a bit more time before the chase made it to me, I quickly realigned the boosters straight up. It looks like I was taking off straight from the ground after all.

Zecora looked at my glider and quickly decided to run towards it instead of across the bridge, the creatures soon followed.

I didn't have anyway to communicate to Zecora at all. All I could do was hope she followed along my plan, it was simple really. Propel yourself into the air, then preform a complex maneuver and begin flying away. A flawless plan.

Zecora made it just in range of my tech, and then I did something I have never done before. I picked up a living being in my manipulation field. It wasn't easy, most living things are oddly shaped, floppy, and mostly didn't want to be picked up. Zecora's metal bands helped though by providing a sort of rigidity for me to hold onto.

The entire process of picking her up and setting her on my tech took about two seconds. By the end Zecora looked incredibly confused and disoriented(I couldn't really stop her from flipping around much). With her on top of the tech, and the creatures quickly closing in, I fired up the boosters.

Ascending that fast couldn't have been good for Zecora, but it was either that or the creatures chasing her. Before we even stopped going up, I was already realigning the boosters.

By the time the wings caught air and we started gliding, I had already realigned the rest of the boosters, and due to their ability to self-refuel, all three were ready to fire again. I didn't want to risk Zecora falling off though, so I only fired one.

Gaining a bit of altitude, I alternated the three boosters, giving the glider more height. This wouldn't last forever though, the recharge rate of the boosters made it impossible to stay in the air forever with only three of them. I would have to find a natural way to ascend if we wanted to stay up for more than a minute.

I wouldn't be having such luck though, as soon enough the tops of the trees were grazing my wheels. Blasting all three boosters at once, I gained a bit more altitude, but it wasn't enough. We'd have to land soon.

Looking ahead, the edge of the forest was in front of us, and after that lay the empty fields, an ideal landing spot. It would definitely be close, and I really didn't want to crash, I could tell Zecora didn't either.

The treetops brushed up against my wheel again, and the boosters were still recharging. This was going to be real close, but we were almost there, just need to clear a few more trees.

Just then, a particularly thick branch caught one of my wheels, forcing the glider into a nosedive and stopping any momentum we had. Zecora flew off the top, somewhere into the trees, I just hope they were more forgiving to her than me. I seemed to hit every branch on the way down, decimating the wings and heavily damaging the cabin. One of the downsides of being lightweight, no armor.

I finally cleared the last branch and ended up in a freefall straight down. It didn't last long, and for the third time this week my tech fell from a great height. This time however, it did not survive, the cabin was smashed into the ground, completely destroying it as the rest of the glider forced its relatively hefty weight onto it, crumpling it further.

Snapping back into control of the other tech, I raced out of the base and up the ramp. The creatures were no longer there, and that worried me, either they tried to follow the glider, or they gave up the chase. I really hoped for the latter. Zipping past the trees I eventually made it to the crash site, thankfully there weren't any of the creatures there. The glider was almost completely destroyed, only the tail wings survived, but that wasn't important.

Driving past the wrecked tech, I made it to the border of the forest, where I could see a metal band laying on the ground, one of Zecora's.

"ZECORA." I said through the speakers,

No answer.

"ZECORA." I said again, increasing the volume.

A groan game from a nearby bush, a striped leg poking out of the top. Thankfully it wasn't a thorny bush, but it wasn't a soft bush either. Looking into it, I could see Zecora, nothing looked broken, but then again I didn't know the morphology of Zecora's species either.

"ARE. YOU. OK." I had the speakers say.

"Never better," she said, clearly dazed.

"ARE. YOU. OK." I asked again.

Zecora shook her head, then answered "I am fine, thankfully I did not land in a pine,"

"CAN. YOU. WALK." I asked.

Zecora flopped out of the bush, landing on her side, then tried to get up. She winced a bit as she put weight on one of her front legs, then tried to walk. She winced and fell over, landing on side again.

"Apparently not, I am not as fine as I first thought." She said.

"VERY. WELL. THEN." I said, shuffling the blocks on my tech around to form a small basin. I then picked her up in my manipulation field and set her down gently inside.

Once inside, she reared up and propped her front legs onto the outside of the basin. This let her see out of it easier.

"TO. YOUR. HOUSE. THEN." I said, starting to drive.

"Yes, please," Zecora said.

Before heading straight back though, I went over to the glider crash site. Looking it over, there wasn't much to salvage, only two tail wings and a single block, the rest was all destroyed. Zecora looked over at the crash site, looking a bit horrified.

"To have survived that, is no easy feat." She complimented.

"TECHNICALLY. I. DIDN'T." I said, lifting up what remained of the glider's cabin. It was crushed to nearly half it's original size, the glass was shattered and there was mud, leaves, and twigs smushed into every crack, dent, and tear. Zecora looked at it, horrified, before speaking up once more.

"You really are a strange metal construct Teck." She said, before falling quiet.

After reattaching the salvaged blocks to my tech, I started driving back to Zecora's house.

To Be Continued...