Prospector! A new, resource rich planet has been discovered. Preparing for launch.
Planet 8953 Prime Type: Terrestrial Resource Rank: S Size: Medium Environment: Habitable Inhabitants: TBD...
Prep the drop pod, send down your tech, prepare for resource extraction, compete with other prospectors, and most importantly, make loads of money.
This story is going to be based off a combination of some of my favorite games "Terratech" and "Factorio". There may be some other large references too.
Three hills form a small, serene, and quiet landscape, a group of trees lay on top of one hill, another displays several large boulders, while the last one has a large yellow crystal poking up through the ground. The silence doesn't last though, as a slight rumbling in the distance gradually grows in intensity. Eventually, a large yellow machine crests the hill with trees, tearing them down as it's large sawblades and excavators loudly start up. The small chunks of wood and sap from the trees float up into the air by and unseen force and fly over to the back of the machine, being stored on a glowing blue grid.
Once finished decimating the trees on the hill the machine's massive tracks and wheels start up again. Moving over to the hill with the boulders, several glinting with an blue, metallic mineral, the machine starts up its equipment once again, intent on harvesting everything. Suddenly, gunfire erupts from the now empty hill, bullets fly across the small valley and impact the large machine, causing several smaller parts to fall off. Appearing now on the hill is a smaller, grey machine outfitted with several machine guns on top, it races across the valley and gets in close to the yellow machine, firing its guns the entire time.
The large yellow machine starts up double time and turns to aim its gigantic excavating equipment against the approaching machine. Seeing the charge, the grey machine easily maneuvers around and continues to fire upon the yellow machine, managing to break off a couple wheels and several plates of armor. The yellow machine, with quite a bit more armor to give, attempts to charge the smaller machine once again, this time grazing it and causing a huge piece of armor plating and structure to be destroyed.
Quick on the retreat, the grey machine disengages and backs up to a distance, ready to fire. It doesn't get the chance though as several missiles impact its side, tearing it apart and leaving it in pieces atop the hill. Zooming up above, a red white and blue machine flies above with wings and a propeller, it's missile battery reloading. Realizing it is now severely outmatched, the yellow machine attempts to flee the area while the flying machine slowly comes around for another run.
Suddenly, the flying machine veers off in an attempt to dodge an incoming missile. It isn't quick enough however, as the missile strikes it clear in the center, causing it to crash land through the yellow crystal atop the third hill, shattering it. Looking across the missile's smoke trail, another massive machine appears in its wake, this time however it appears to be an amalgamation of materials from all three previous machines, it isn't complete chaos though, as there is an obvious method to its design. It was armed to the metaphorical teeth, and the amalgamation quickly begins firing upon the yellow machine, tearing it to pieces in mere moments. With all its mobility options lost, the yellow machine can do nothing but simply sit and wait for its cabin to be destroyed.
With all three lesser machines clearly destroyed, the amalgamation sets down some sort of machine in the center of the battlefield. This device lifts up a grey sphere, several beams coming from the side, charging it in some way. The grey sphere implodes into black, somehow contained by the device, and several long and thin black tendrils reach out from the sphere. They fan out and begin touching the left over armor and structure materials from all three destroyed machines, lifting them up and dragging them back towards the sphere. If one looked closely enough, they could see the scrap and materials being compressed and stretched as they enter the sphere, somehow being transported elsewhere.
Then, without any warning, five red marks appear around the hills, surrounding the amalgamation and its device while it was still picking up the scrap. The marks slowly get brighter and brighter as the amalgamation quickly picks up the device and attempts to escape the small valley. It isn't quick enough however as five machines slam down, creating a small earthquake while surrounding the amalgamation.
Immediately the ground shifts, and all the machines stop in as large cracks start to form in the center of the valley. Really panicking now, the amalgamation attempts to force its way through the surrounding machines, but its back wheels sink lower into the ground as the whole valley begins to also sink. The other machines flee down the hills leaving the amalgamation stuck in the center as the ground continues to tremble. A moment later all structural integrity is lost as the valley collapses, revealing a large sinkhole underneath.
Hitting the bottom of the hole, the amalgamation sustains huge damage, knocking loose the device and forcing the grey sphere out of its containment. The malfunctioning sensors didn't appear to pick up on the problem, and the beams start back up again and begin attempting to charge the sphere. Just when it appears to be finished charging, another piece of machinery falls on top of the sphere, cracking it. This single piece appeared to be a vanity piece, in the shape of a roast turkey.
The immediate surrounding area is enveloped in a large, black sphere, including the amalgamation. When the sphere dissipates, nothing is left except a single, grey block.
What the hell happened? I remember fighting off those techs, then I set down my SCU and started collecting my spoils. Then I go ambushed, the resulting impact opened up a sinkhole and then... Ah crap, there goes my SCU, of course it had to be my most expensive item, that thing was probably worth more than this entire tech I'm in right now. Well, now what?
I took a look at my surroundings for the first time, my tech was very damaged, but my cabin was fine for the most part. I also appeared to be in a cave, and at the moment my tech was completely immobile, so using the powers given to all prospectors I summoned forth the build beam... except nothing happened. Uh oh, I must be out of reach from the satellite, welp, looks like I'm doing this the old fashioned way.
Using the glorious manipulation powers from my cabin, I methodically re-attached my wheels that were scattered around the ground. I then realized another major problem, I only had nine wheels, NINE WHEELS! This is just great, I don't have access to my build beam, and now I have an odd number of wheels. Well time to get some from my inventory... Oh great, looks like I'm too far away from my storage as well. Well, if all else fails, just switch to another tech on standby, I open up my navigation menu and once again am shut down. This is great, no SCU, no inventory, and no other techs. Now would be a good time to panic.
After about ten minutes, I finally calmed down enough and decided to actually do something about my predicament. Good news is that if I'm far enough away to be unable to access anything, that means there aren't likely to be enemy techs around for the same reason. Bad news is I'm an unknown distance away from safety, and I'm in a semi-vulnerable state with an odd number of several blocks. I guess I'm going to do what I did when I first started prospecting, I then attached the ninth wheel to the top of my tech.
Now that I'm mobile, I guess it'd be a good time to take inventory. In the immediate area I had enough blocks for a medium size tech, one shield generator and two repair bubbles, one solar panel, five batteries, a single small drill, a very small amount of weapons, my mobile refinery, several small collectors, and finally... a fabricator? That was odd, I don't remember putting a fabricator on my tech, maybe one of the ones I was harvesting had one? Well, it was a valuable resource none the less, it means I could definitely build more without inventory access.
I quickly assembled a small base, it's not like I'm just going to take my most valuable items out into the unknown, though not having access to power made it that much harder to defend. Still, it would work for now, and I still had to find a way out of this cave. So, by shedding any unnecessary blocks and attaching all the guns onto my tech, I made my way out of the dead end I was apparently in. Perhaps I didn't need power to easily defend this, after all it was in a great position, it only having one entrance and all. However further down the cave I came across what was quite possibly the most important discovery of my career, a massive crystal of Harmonite, one of the rarest, and most expensive resources known. This chunk alone could bring me all the way up to the top, I could make my own corporation, not have to get licenses from others, I wouldn't even have to go prospecting ever again!
Provided I could obtain it first. I couldn't just mine it, there was absolutely no way I had the proper equipment to either mine or refine it. That meant I can't sell it or even build with it yet. So for the moment, I was just stuck with it here in my new home. First things first though, I have to hide this, make sure it's protected from anyone or anything, my entire career and even life were worth less than this thing. I headed back to my valuables and took down all the extra blocks, then I made it back to the crystal and erected a shabby but secure wall to both protect and obscure it.
With that in place I decided it was high time to find a place for my solar panel, continuing up the cave, it didn't take long to find the exit. I was not expecting what awaited me outside in the slightest, I appeared to be in the middle of a ravine, and on top of said ravine, I saw trees, lots of trees. The other side surprised me even more though, castle ruins. Let me break it down for you, on planets, plant life is rare, animals are about the same rarity as plants if not a little more, as they tend to coexist, what's even more rare, is sapient life. I was lucky enough to have ancient ruins on the previous planet, which I now knew I was no longer on, I mean come on, being too far to access anything and the differences in trees and ruins.
How I ended up on another planet I had no idea, but SCU technology can get very strange sometimes. There were more problems than just being on a different planet though, building spacefaring techs wasn't impossible, but it wasn't very easy either. The main problem I had was surviving, the problem with most fauna bearing planets was that they tended to have some hostile types, I wasn't doubting the capabilities of my current tech, but I have yet to see the local animals either. I had no idea what to expect with this new world.
Meanwhile
It wasn't everyday you get to ride in a sky chariot, it was an excited opportunity for most. But Twilight wasn't enjoying this ride in the slightest, there were more important things to worry about. She was just barely listening to Spike as he was talking, only hearing the end of his conversation.
"...and make some friends." Finished Spike.
This is gonna be a looong night. Twilight thought to herself.
With everything back in the cave as secure as I could make it, I decided to explore the ravine I was situated in. I could see a small pathway/ramp out of the ravine that my current tech was too big to drive up, I'd have to shuffle around a few blocks if I wanted to fit up there. Moving on, one side of the valley had a small vein of Plumbite, glad to know I can fabricate a simple blocks without venturing far. On the other side of the ravine, there was a large landslide, a bit too steep to drive up with just wheels, but some of the rocks were small enough to move with my tech, something for a later date.
Having thoroughly explored my immediate surroundings, I realized that if I wanted to fabricate some more blocks, I'd need some Fibrewood chunks, so I had to make it up to those trees. Reassembling my tech to be a bit smaller, having the drill on front and the collectors at the back, I drove up the pathway and reached the top of the ravine. The trees were massive, I would only have to harvest about two to completely fill up my collectors, that was nice. Using only a small drill on trees certainly took a while though, before when I needed Fibron, I'd always just gun down a group of trees with a wall of guns, always faster and easier.
There wasn't as much Rubber Jelly in these trees, but there was enough for a tenth wheel, that was a relief. With my collectors saturated with Fibrewood, I had to head back down to my base in order to actually make something with it. Before I could make it back to the pathway though, I was stopped by a low growling noise. Turning my tech around I saw about five creatures that seemed to be made of Fibrewood? That was interesting, I wasn't certain that they posed a threat, but it never hurt to be cautious. I only had about five guns on me, it should be enough, these creatures were just a bit bigger than a standard GSO block.
The five creatures vs the five of my guns, the only problem was that it was really hard to aim at more than one targets at the same time, knowing this, I fired as soon as they got in range. They reacted quick however, four of them dashed to get to my tech, the first one being obliterated by my guns, falling apart into Fibrewood, Rubber Jelly, and some green fluid I didn't recognize. The next creature fell to my guns, the last three having finally made it to my tech, they immediately starting tearing at the armor plating, not getting very far but still damaging it. Using my tech's superior size, I drove over and crushed one of the creatures while locking on to the next, quickly ending it leaving only one left. Seeing that it could not defeat me, the final creature stopped it's assault and ran back into the forest.
I now had more Fibrewood than I know what to do with, I certainly couldn't carry it all, so I left it in a neat pile to pick up later. The mystery green fluid had quickly seeped into the ground and was no longer accessible, so I left that too. Driving back down the pathway, I made it to the entrance of the cave and started heading back towards my impromptu base to begin fabricating more blocks. Not having conveyor belts sucks, I'll tell you that much, having to manually move each piece of material to the fabricator sucked. In the end though, I had some more blocks to build with, and my tenth wheel.
I could finally gain back some symmetry! It wasn't like the rest of my tech was very symmetrical, I had to shuck off a few blocks from the different companies because I could not find a way to evenly incorporate them into my design. I was very lucky to find a way to get three different licenses(not to mention very illegal), it allowed me access to the best of all three, GSO, Venture, and Geocorp all had their strengths and weaknesses, and I had access to all of them. There were a couple other companies to gain as well, though I haven't found a way to get a Hawkeye license, and there was no way I was spending that much on a Better Future license, they really didn't have anything I wanted anyway.
It was then when I realized my next problem, I only had a GSO Fabricator, so I had no way of reproducing any of the other companies blocks. Well shit, maybe I could try to reverse engineer another Fabricator once I make one, I loved being able to fly. Of course GSO had flying equipment, but Venture was just so much better at it, they were faster and did more damage. I moved this problem off to the side though, there wasn't much I could do about it until I made my second Fabricator.
Having reassembled my tech once again, leaving all the excess blocks I didn't need at the moment off to the side, I realized my defenses were still very pitiful. I'd have to fix that, but to make power generation and storage, shield and repair bubbles, and weapons I would need a lot of resources, stuff that I did not have nor knew where to find it. Ugghh it was always so much easier to just buy things straight from the station, no wonder other techs hated crafting their own equipment.
First things first, I had to make a Component Factory, to make that I needed Rodite, Carbite, and Oleite Jelly, some of the more rarer materials, and none of them are typically found in a forest. However I wasn't on planet 8953 anymore, I could very well find all of those in this very forest or nearby. So with new found vigor, I made my way back to the top of the ravine, with trees so dense however, my tech could not properly fit through the gaps, and not wanting to anger anymore hostile creatures, I had to downsize.
Making a smaller tech when coming from a larger one always was hard, you have so much you want to keep, from wheels to size to equipment. However keeping all that was not an option, I shaved off a majority of my tech until I only had six wheels, three guns, my trusty radar, a couple of collectors, some lights, and enough blocks to cover my cabin. Hoping I wouldn't run into anything too dangerous, I drove into the trees, the lights flicking on to help see through the dark interior.
There wasn't too much to see, nothing appeared on my radar, and I didn't find anything too interesting, at least until I was about to head back due to the setting sun. Something peaked my interest. What looked like a tree that was carved out and lit up, I could see an obvious door and window, this had me both excited and scared. For one thing, sapient life could help me, very much so, but it could also be very dangerous, should they find me undesirable and try to destroy me. Realizing my day's worth of searching brought up none of the materials I needed, I drove closer to the house, which was a bit larger than my tech.
I was not hoping to make any enemies, so I kept my guns lowered, but ready just in case. It wasn't easy to see inside from just the window, however from what I could see were many pots and urns capped off with lids. There wasn't any words on these urns, however there were pictures drawn on. It wasn't easy to make out, but on one urn was a depiction of a bright green dust, another depicted chunks of a black substance, and the final one depicted a dark red liquid. Just my luck! This random dwelling in the middle of the forest held just what I needed, I would have to ask for it though, I wasn't just going to steal it! I did not need to be making enemies just yet.
Hoping to catch the owner of the house and ask nicely for their materials, the sun finally went below the horizon, causing the whole forest to suddenly get a lot darker, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention, I shut off my lights and laid in wait. I didn't know how long the nights lasted on this planet, hopefully not too long.
It had been several hours, still waiting at the house, but nothing came or went. The night had been going on for a bit, long enough for me to look up at the moon, which had reached its zenith about an hour ago, and hadn't moved since. There must be some really strange celestial mechanics for this planet's moon to do that. I do wonder how long this night was going to last, not being able to see really affected how most prospectors operated. Even most lights weren't enough to warrant action during the night, I really only went out if it was truly necessary.
Just then and there, my radar picked up an entity, being just on the edge of my radar, I couldn't actually see it due to the thick foliage. Not knowing what to expect, I readied my guns, but not turning on my lights, staying hidden was pretty important to me at the moment. A moment passes, and the unknown entity began to make its way towards my tech, quite fast actually, seemingly not impeded by the trees.
Now slightly visible from the trees, I could see a faint, purple mist swirling towards me, zipping through the trees, and eventually settling down right in front of my tech. This strange purple mist started swirling and lashing violently, forming a miniature tornado, said tornado gave way to a jet black creature, which posed dramatically. It silently looked over my tech, which I made sure to not move in the slightest, hoping to appear inactive or inanimate, something told me not to attract this creature's attention.
"What a strange metal construct," It spoke, pausing for a moment, closely inspecting my tech, from the wheels, to the shut off lights, to the guns up top, and finally to the mini drill on the front. It continued, "Perhaps this could be useful, it could possibly drive off those annoying ponies,"
Ponies? Like the horse? And did it want to use my tech? I had no idea if this thing could control it/me, coming from spooky purple mist certainly didn't help. I waited a bit, the black creature finished inspecting my tech, reared up, enveloped itself into the purple mist, and began to approach my tech.
Not wanting to be controlled in any manner, I quickly started everything up, lights and all in an attempt to scare the mist off. It stopped, pausing for a moment before swirling back to it's black form. It looked back up in surprise at me, before speaking once again.
"It is autonomous? But I sense no lifeforce from this construct," It said, mainly to itself. "Golemancy must have progressed in my time imprisoned,"
This thing was imprisoned? Definitely not something I want to be associated with, quickly backing up, and making a mark on where this house was, I sped off, attempting to leave this thing's presence. It stood for a moment, before transforming back into mist and beginning to chase after me. Thankfully, my tech was faster than the mist, but because of all the trees, I could not outrun it directly, so it slowly started gaining ground.
Panic quickly rising, I turned my guns toward the mist and fired, the loud popping of the weak rifles echoed throughout the forest. The mist stopped, not directly affected by the bullets, but instead seemingly appalled that it was attacked, it redoubled it's efforts to catch up to my tech, quickly gaining ground with speed.
There wasn't much I could do, I didn't want to lead it to my undefended base, but I also couldn't outrun it, I had no options but to hope to communicate with it, it had spoken before after all. I stopped, letting the mist catch up, and hoping that it didn't immediately attack me. Fortunately, it didn't, it stopped in front of my tech and once again transformed into the black creature, it looked angry.
"You dare attack me?" it questioned, "Do you not know who I am?"
Man of all the times to not have speakers on my tech, they usually aren't essential, I personally never include them in my designs, I've learned that most other techs who install speakers simply don't care what you have to say. God I hate Big Pete. That aside, not being able to properly communicate was a huge problem, one that I completely forgot about when waiting by the dwelling. How was I going to get out of this situation now?
Due to my lack of response, the creature continued, "No matter, it seems you will be of use after all, your speed and that weapon you used against me shall be quite the method of disposing those annoying little whelps."
The creature once again transformed into mist, I would've ran again, but that wouldn't have accomplished anything, all I had left was to hope that it couldn't control or kill me. The mist quickly enveloped me, attempting to seep into my tech's blocks, then I had an idea. As I was lifted into the air slightly by the mist, I disconnected all the blocks on my tech, shutting off the light in the cabin, and attempted to play dead.
The mist stopped trying to invade my tech, and dropped it, causing the whole thing to fall apart as none of the connection points were activated, effectively making it look like my tech died. The mist coalesced back into the creature again, it looked over my "corpse" and huffed.
"What a waste... however there is no time to figure this out, I still have business to attend to." The creature then turned to leave, but paused. "Perhaps you were of some use after all,"
With that, the creature somehow lifted up one of my guns, bringing it to it's side, and walking away into the foliage, disappearing into the night. I didn't reactivate my cabin for at least an hour, I mean what else did I have to do? I was a little pissed at the loss of one of my precious guns, however I'd rather have my freedom and/or life.
With my cabin pointed directly upwards, I noticed that the moon still has not moved, I began to wonder exactly how it stopped moving, that should have caused drastic consequences to the environment, even if this happens often. I still have no idea how this planets day-night cycle even works.
Another hour of waiting yields nothing, no mysterious creatures looking to use me, and no movement from the moon. Having felt like I waited enough time, I reassembled my tech, still mad about not having one of my guns, I wanted to make sure I made it back to base with at least something worthwhile. I drove back to the dwelling, this time however, the lights were on, I was happy once again until a horrifying realization dawned upon me. What if that creature lived here? Would it try to control me again? I quickly shot down that idea, the doorway was too short for the black creature to actually fit into, and while I don't doubt that the mist could fit, it seems redundant to have a doorway you can't use in your own home.
Steeling myself, I drove up to the dwelling once again, only problem was, I still couldn't communicate, nor did I have a way of knocking on the door. Not wanting to scare off the owner of the resources I very much so needed, I had to find some way to communicate. I couldn't do charades, as fun as that might be, it's kind of hard to do when you only have wheels and blocks. Defeated in this endeavor, I decided to make my way back to my base, having a new task in mind before the Component Factory. Communication.
Looking through what the Fabricator was capable of making, nothing good was coming up, the best thing I found for communication was a series of colored lights I could make, but I wasn't about to spend a bunch of resources on something sub-par. There had to be more right?
I then remembered something, Fabricators were calibrated to the resources of the planet, they always omit fabrications that include materials that aren't available on the planet. The problem I had was that my Fabricator was calibrated for the previous planet, and while I knew there was Plumbite, Fibrewood, Oleite, Carbite, and Rodite, I haven't seen any of the other resources. I couldn't just recalibrate the Fabricator either, it requires a planetary scan, something that wasn't possible without a satellite.
I was stuck with manually ticking each resource option, and there were a lot, so I began by only ticking the most common resources, things like Cuprite and Stannite. With those selected, I was able to see a large amount of items added to the fabrication list, a quick search through revealed multiple duplicates of some fabrications, while also revealing others, like speakers! Once I fabricated some speakers, I'd have to ask how the person who lived in the tree where they got their resources, I could always use more.
Speakers did require that I obtain some Cuprite, though I knew what it was, I had no idea where to find it. With nothing else to do I made my way back out to the ravine in search of some Cuprite. It was still night, much to my dismay, but then something extraordinary happened, a bright flash of light emanated from the ruins above the ravine, coming from said flash, a bright rainbow arced up above only to come back down inside the ruins. Quite the spectacle I must admit, what surprised me more though, was that after several moments, the moon started moving, and when it went past the horizon the sun rose, bringing with it glorious sunlight.
What the heck it going on? Moving entire celestial bodies like that can't be easy, unless that's not really a star, but some smaller moon-like object that also provided light. Never the less, light was still light, and light meant power with solar panels, which I knew I had. Quickly entering the base once more, I retrieved the solar panel and batteries, coming back out I set up a quick power station. The batteries filled up, though rather slowly due to the lack of generation.
Now that I had power, I could finally repair some of the damaged blocks I have, I could also finally equip my tech with shields, not that two batteries would last long in a battle, but any protection was better than no protection. What I really wanted to do now, was investigate that flash of light from the ruins earlier, and with my newfound protection I felt like I was ready to take on some stronger entities.
New problem, the only entrance to the ruins was a simple rope bridge, that was somehow repaired during last night's adventure. I wonder if whoever repaired it was friendly or not, but there was no hope of getting my tech across it. I might be able to do it with just my cabin, but I had no other techs to refer back to should this cabin get destroyed, no way am I risking that.
New solution, I could always build my own bridge, I now had access to anchor blocks, with enough time and resources I could definitely create my own pathway to the ruins, but a project for another time. Right now I had to find some Cuprite, and making sure to check everywhere, I went on the same exact path I went on the day before. While driving, I noticed something a bit unsettling though, my tire tracks were still there. That was to be expected though, there wasn't much grass to bounce back up after being driven on after all, but still unsettling that I could be tracked by hostile forces.
Still though, I was able to find a rock saturated with Cuprite, quickly mining it yielded a couple chunks of it, along with an obvious vein underneath, something to come back to later. Now that I had what I needed, I made my way back as quick as I could, the ability to finally communicate drove me to drive faster, my tech racing through the trees.
In hindsight, maybe that wasn't the best idea, I quickly figured that out as my small tech nearly crashed into a large creature up ahead. It was actually about the same size as my tech, which was a little worrying, I certainly hoped it wasn't hostile. The creature turned around, looked my tech up and down, sniffed it, seemingly didn't find anything worth attacking, and continued on.
What a relief, I wouldn't have to fight another creature, that one sure looked like it could put up a fight. With that out of the way however, I made it the rest of the way to the base. Back inside, I took the Cuprite ore I had acquired and deposited it into the refinery, out came a simple plate of Cuprite, very nice. Looking back at the Fabrication requirements, I actually needed Cuprite wire to make some speakers, and I couldn't make Cuprite wire without the Component Factory either.
I hate being stuck in loops like this, need one thing to get another thing, but you need the second thing to get the first thing. This was going nowhere, what could I do? I couldn't just make Cuprite wire by myself... right? How else would I get it? Taking stock of what I had, I had to try and craft Cuprite wire with wheels, blocks, and guns.
Simple enough. If it was even possible.
To start, I had a row of wheels up against each other in an attempt to flatten out the Cuprite plate a bit, it worked alright, but left dents in the shape of the tire's tracks in the sheet. Next I set up a crude rolling machine, and attempted to work the sheet into a roll, that barely worked, the texture of the tires still not help in the slightest. I went through this process of rolling it out, then rolling it up lengthwise until I had a decent but mangled "Cuprite wire" I just hoped the Fabricator accepted this.
In it went, along with some Plumbite and Fibrewood. The Fabricator began the fabrication process easily enough, but then it started shaking, like really shaking, enough to worry me that it might explode, however a moment later, a speaker literally flew out of the output, leaving a trail of smoke and nearly being destroyed by impacting against the wall, on the opposite side of the cave. Not much of a problem however, as I quickly placed it into the repair bubble until it was good as new, which it kind of was already.
Attaching it to my tech, I had to test it out, only to stumble onto a problem, the speaker was incredibly low quality, the sound it produced was garbled, and it could only "say" 5 set programs, thankfully I could get it to speak words, but it wasn't easy to understand. It was then that I realized that I might not speak the same language as these people, though that black one did speak in a language I could understand, that didn't mean that the others will too.
Seeing as how I wouldn't know until I tried, I really had to think on what to get the speaker to say. I eventually decided on a simple "hello", "yes", and "no" along with "communication options limited" and finally "Need materials from you". Very simple, but also hard to understand, this wasn't going to be easy.
Slowly rolling up to the dwelling, I couldn't really tell if anyone was inside, the daylight didn't warrant lights to be on, and I couldn't see much from my limited viewpoint. Guess I'd have to get their attention somehow.
"H.E.L.L.O." the speaker said, in a monotonous tone. I waited for a response. None came, so I upped the volume on the speaker and tried again, "H.E.L.L.O." This time, a response did come from inside, a shuffling and strange footsteps lead up to the door. As it opened I heard a voice.
"Who could it be at my door? What are you looking for?" said the mystery person, who I could now tell was female.
"C.O.M.M.U.N.I.C.A.T.I.O.N. O.P.T.I.O.N.S. L.I.M.I.T.E.D." the speaker outputted, "N.E.E.D. M.A.T.E.R.I.A.L.S. F.R.O.M. Y.O.U."
With the door fully opened I could see a person similar in morphology to the black creature, quadrupedal, hooved, but lacked to other features, suck as wings and a horn, or it's slightly imposing stature. As it looked at my tech, I could tell it didn't know how to react, I mean a large, unknown entity comes to your door with limited vocabulary asking you for something, what would you do?
After a moment, I had the speaker say "H.E.L.L.O." again. This seemed to jolt a response out of the person.
"A strange metal construct, though it seems you are down on your luck." said the person
"Y.E.S." I got the speaker to say, I'm glad this person understood my predicament, though I was unsure if they were willing to help.
"It also seems you need materials from me, why could that be?" the person asked.
Oh boy, here we go, this is where it gets difficult. I had the speaker repeat the phrases. "C.O.M.M.U.N.I.C.A.T.I.O.N. O.P.T.I.O.N.S. L.I.M.I.T.E.D." "N.E.E.D. M.A.T.E.R.I.A.L.S. F.R.O.M. Y.O.U."
The person paused for a moment, before realizing what I meant.
"Would these materials help you communicate? I'd hate for that to be anything's fate." the person responded.
"Y.E.S." came from the speaker.
"Then I would assume you'd know the names? Could you tell me for what you came?" asked the person.
Two questions this time, I answered the first with a "Y.E.S.", then the second with a "N.O." and a "C.O.M.M.U.N.I.C.A.T.I.O.N. O.P.T.I.O.N.S. L.I.M.I.T.E.D."
The person thought for a moment, then said, "My inventory is quite vast, showing it all wouldn't be very fast. Would you like me to show you, so you could pick one or two?"
"Y.E.S."
That was a problem, the person only thought I needed one or two things, I had no way to communicate that I actually needed three things, and I don't want to take more than she is willing to give.
"This is going to take awhile, luckily I'm not doing anything else worthwhile," said the person as they headed back inside.
Going through all of her inventory was a pain, she'd bring out two things at once, then I'd either say yes or no if it was what I needed. The reason it took a while though was that she started on the opposite side of her house than the materials I needed were, but eventually I had the three things I needed, and was able to successfully communicate that I had what I needed.
"Those ingredients are quite rare, I hope that later you can share," the person said.
"Y.E.S." was all I could say, I did mean to repay her, but I didn't have the capabilities to tell her that I was probably going to use all of it, hopefully I can go where she got them and both repay her and replenish my own stock.
Finally having the materials I needed, I quickly drove off to the base, this time being careful to where I was heading. I eventually made it back and started work on the Component Factory, I could finally fabricate some better stuff.
Back at base, I brought the resources I had just acquired towards the refinery, I had no idea of the refinement level on them, so just to be safe, I loaded them up. It turned out that all three had to be refined, so with that in place, and the accidental shattering of one of the urns, I now had the three components needed to fabricate the Component Factory.
Quickly loading everything into the Fabricator, out came the Component Factory, now I could make some higher quality stuff, first things first I made some actual Cuprite wire, and created some higher quality speakers. They didn't sound garbled and I was able to "talk" semi-fluidly with them, there was about a second delay.
Now that I had everything I needed to actually start building a functioning base, I realized my next problem, a very limited amount of resources. Sure there was enough Fibrewood available, but there was only that small vein of Plumbite in the ravine, and that piece of Cuprite I found out in the forest. If I wanted to create better stuff, I'd need the materials to build it. Thankfully I knew someone who knew where to get some, and with that, I headed back out of the ravine and to the striped person's house.
Arriving at the house, and with better functioning speakers, they still weren't the best, all GSO blocks weren't, but it was good enough to hold a conversation.
"HELLO" came a much more clear voice, still monotone however.
"Back so soon I see, have you already come to repay me?" said the voice, from behind me actually, I didn't even notice them on my radar.
"UNFORTUNATELY. NOT. I. DON'T. KNOW. WHERE. TO. FIND. MORE. MATERIALS. THIS. IS. PART. OF. THE. REASON. I. AM. HERE."
"It seems you have fixed your issue, but what have you come here to do?" asked the person,
"SEVERAL. THINGS. FIRST. TO. FIND. OUT. WHERE. I. CAN. GET. MORE. MATERIALS. SECOND. TO. ESTABLISH. RELATIONS. WITH. LOCALS. THIRD. TO. SAY. THANK. YOU." I had the speaker say.
"You are quite welcome, and I may be able to help you and then some. You could come with me, to repay me the materials three. If society is what you want to be apart, then with me you can start." said the person.
An interesting response, which just left one burning question, why? Why would anyone want to associate with the likes of me? I had a fairly good idea that techs and their technology weren't available here, so why isn't this person afraid? Scratch that, they weren't afraid when I first arrived either. I wonder why. So I asked.
"WHY. ASSOCIATE. WITH. ME. I. AM. A. STRANGER." I sort of asked, the speaker not being able to make it sound like a question.
"Because you are like me, a stranger to these lands, for I have not seen the likes of you anywhere else." said the person.
Like her? A stranger to these lands? That made some sense, this meant that they probably weren't the best person to gather information from, but it's not like I had any other options.
"I also saw you last night, you gave me quite the fright." admitted the person, I really should get their name.
Apparently I did scare her, but she seemed to have gotten over it in the time it took for me to actually establish contact. Now though, I had another question to "ask".
"WHAT. IS. YOUR. NAME." I said through the speaker.
"My name is Zecora, might I ask yours?" said Zecora.
I had to think on that one, I haven't used a name in a long time, no other person really asked, always calling me "kid" or something. The last time I used it was probably when I first signed up to be a prospector, all that time ago. But did I really want to use that one? I really didn't identify with it since I became a prospector, only really famous prospectors used names, that or people that used their techs for gladiator style battle. I could always come up with a new one, I would need to go by something since I'm alone in this world. I decided after a bit and answered.
"MY. NAME. IS. TECK." came from the speaker.
"Very well Teck, then let us begin our trek. You still have to repay me after all." said Zecora.
We're going already? I mean I had nothing else to do, I guess going to find resources was what I intended to do either way, just with Zecora. Maybe I could learn about the other people on this planet, if only a little bit. With access to a larger power, like a government, I could get the resources I need to get home, or at least contact it. Not that I'd tell them much about my situation, at least until I got some proper footing. I didn't need techs raining down in an attempt to make a quick buck on this planet. Even though there were laws that protected planets with intelligent life, the corporations had more power of the law, and would take any chance they could to make more money.
I did not want to condemn this planet to that fate, so I came up with a new goal, establish rough planetary control before either being discovered or contacting the Federation. I suddenly thought of six-legged horses, but quickly lost that thought. I didn't like the idea of squatting, it wasn't illegal, but it didn't feel right anyway, but in order to protect this planet and it's inhabitants, I'd have to accomplish the monumental task of making enough money to buy this planet, and to build a planetary defense system.
Getting enough money was easy, mainly due to the chunk of Harmonite I found, I could probably buy several planets with that. The next task was a bit difficult though, getting enough resources to build a planetary defense system was not easy. It was entirely dependent on the size of the planet and it's resource rank, two things that I did not know.
I didn't even know If I had a time limit or not, I had no idea how far away I was from Federation space, and if this planet is discovered before I'm ready, then I lose everything. Even if I did manage to sell the Harmonite when the planet gets discovered, there wouldn't be enough time to even process the sale much less the deeds to the planet before it gets swarmed by prospectors.
My grim thinking was interrupted by Zecora jumping up onto my tech with some equipment of her own, tapping the top two times.
"Let us embark." She said, ready to go out and gather.
What have I gotten myself into? And why was Zecora so friendly with me?
Apparently my tech was quite a bit faster than Zecora could even run, much less navigate the forest. Zecora took full advantage of this, mainly by riding on top of the tech. Even being a smaller tech, Zecora had a lot of leg room, I guess her species was actually pretty small. Of course, I only had Zecora as a reference, I had no idea if she was average or not, something I did not want to bring up with her.
We weren't just driving aimlessly either, Zecora made sure to guide my direction by telling me. After about an hour of travel, most likely half a day for Zecora by herself. We made it to the first area Zecora wanted to go to, we were pretty deep into the forest, but even in the dark, I could see the bright green seams coming out of the ground. There wasn't much Rodite, but there was certainly enough for a couple fabrications, and more than enough for Zecora.
Zecora was especially impressed with my drill, being able to break the rock quickly and effectively extracting the precious material underneath. I filled up one of my three collectors with Rodite, while Zecora filled up one of her urns she brought with.
"You are most helpful, normally this journey takes all day," she said.
"YOU. HAVE. BEEN. A. GREAT. HELP. TOO. I. NEED. THESE. RESOURCES. AS. WELL." I had the speaker say,
"It looks like we are done here, let us make haste to the next location," Zecora concluded, hopping back onto the top of my tech.
The next drive took a bit longer, eventually leading out of the forest to the base of a mountain. At said base was what looked like a rockslide, and quite a few of the rocks showed streaks of black, if not entirely black themselves. Looking up at the top of the mountain, I could see larger veins of Carbite, but at the moment they were inaccessible, so the pile at the base would have to do for now.
Having filled up on Carbite, Zecora struck up a conversation on the drive to the next location.
"What do you even use these items for? I only need some, but you take much more." She asked
"THESE. MATERIALS. ARE. ESSENTIAL. FOR. ADVANCED. FABRICATION." I answered.
"I admit they have their use, but could you be a bit less obtuse?" She asked,
"IT. ALLOWS. ME. TO. BETTER. MYSELF. AND. HOME." I had the speaker explain.
"Perhaps you could share some of that with me, I could use an upgrade of my tree," Zecora said,
"UNFORTUNATELY. NOT. THE. LAW. FORBIDS. SHARING. TECHNOLOGY. TO. UNKOWN. OR. PRIMITIVE. ENTITIES. UNLESS. PLANETARY. OWNER. ALLOWS. IT." I explained.
Princess Luna held the strange metal object in her magic, closely inspecting it. When purified by the Elements of Harmony, not much was left of Nightmare Moon, just pieces of her armor which were pretty much worthless, a shame really, and this strange grey object. Luna wasn't sure what it was, but for some reason Nightmare Moon had it, so it was her job to find out what it was, faint memories of it being a weapon rose from the back of her mind. Perhaps that was why Nightmare Moon took it, but where did she get it?
"Primitive?!" Zecora said, both looking shocked and upset. She didn't continue the conversation.
The rest of the drive continued quietly, having decided to drive around the forest instead of through it proved to be much faster in the end. We ended up at a small lake, and in the center of the lake laid an small island. Apparently there was a small reservoir of Oleite on that island, there was just one problem though. My tech wasn't water capable, sure it was waterproof, but driving underwater was not an option, I'd get stuck in the mud, or not be able to get traction due to my "lightweightedness" from being underwater.
Of all the times to not have a hovercraft/plane. With my explanation to Zecora, she didn't like the idea of taking more than one trip, but with my extra help with the other two resources, she was willing to do it. With my third collector filled with Oleite, and a thoroughly drenched zebra on top of my tech, we started the drive home. It was mostly uneventful, except when we made a detour around a patch of blue flowers, not knowing why, I asked Zecora.
"ARE. THE. BLUE. FLOWERS. DANGEROUS. ARE. THEY. CORROSIVE." I 'asked' still not being able to sound it like a question.
"No, but their poison plays a mean joke on any that pass through, best to avoid the flowers of blue." Zecora answered.
I guess Zecora thought I could be affected by poison. Well, I was immune to conventional poisons, unless they were corrosive, but there were some strange happenings in this world. Best not test my luck with something stupid like that.
Arriving back at Zecora's house, she thanked me for my work, and repaying her what I took earlier, and said goodbye. With that taken care of, and not wanting to bother her anymore today, I headed back to base. Once there I realized another problem I had, I had nowhere to store my newly gained resources. Sure Carbite and Rodite were solid, that was easy enough, but Oleite wasn't, I couldn't just leave it on the floor. Coming up with a quick solution, I used some extra blocks to create a makeshift tub, which I promptly filled with the Oleite. Problem solved, for now.
My lack of proper storage brought another problem to my attention, namely the lack of two resources which I would have loved to see during the drives. I noticed I didn't see any Luxite or Titanite, two very essential resources for some fabrications, either they were rarer on this planet, or they simply didn't occur on this planet. A worrying thought, Luxite was easy enough to find, just look for random light sources when it's dark out. Titanite though, wasn't as easy, I'd have to keep a look out for any blue ores or metals.
Perhaps I could look underground? I mean minerals on the surface was great, but that's just scratching the surface, literally. I'd have to set up a large drill tech though, something that I couldn't really do with just GSO equipment. It was then I realized that If I found enough Titanite, I would have enough for a Geocorp Fabricator. Of course I'd need one to make one, but maybe I can trick my GSO Fabricator into making one. All Fabricator's used the same process right?
Something for another time however, right now, I'd need to find Titanite in the first place if I wanted to start mining for some. Now where could I found a bluish metal nearby...
A small breeze blew over a pile of blue armor shreds sitting on a stone tiled floor
I'd have to keep looking, but for now, it was getting dark. The best time to find Luxite was when it was dark, I'd get to searching right away.
By this point, I had already seen a large portion of the immediate area in the forest, along with the pathways to the Rodite, Carbite, and Oleite locations. Having not seen Luxite in any of these locations, there were only a couple of places I could check, and one was right on top of my base.
The previous problem persisted though, I really wanted to bring more than just my cabin, even if it was semi-combat capable. I didn't exactly have enough Plumbite to create a whole new bridge though either, there simply wasn't enough in the ravine to fund that project.
How else would I get up there? It's not like I could just climb the side of the ravine right? Right? And with that, I quickly brought out two anchors, and started slowly 'climbing' my way up the wall of the ravine. It took a while, of course I could only really ascend about a block's height with every turn, but I eventually made it to the top, tech and all.
Now getting a closer look at the ruins, I could see just about how old they were. Crumbling stone walls and large growths of moss and vines showed their age, I'd date it at around seven hundred years. Checking my radar for any entities, none came up, so into the ruins I went.
I immediately got stuck, it was clear that these ruins were built with techs not in mind, something that made itself very obvious on the first interior doorway. No matter, a quick shuffle of blocks yielded a thinner, but longer tech that was more importantly free from it's confines.
The ruins weren't that hard to navigate either, with having almost constant access to the sky, and a view of other parts of the ruins, I was able to keep track of where I was pretty easily. I couldn't find anything really too useful in the ruins, the only part that was interesting was the library, It had definitely seen better days though, and I wasn't too sure if it's information was accurate either. Another project for a later date I suppose.
My journey finally ended in a large room, there were large windows and intricate stone pillars. It definitely looked like a scuffle was had here, clear energy weapon marks were scattered throughout the room, but what caught my attention most, was a small pile of blue metal shavings.
Looking closely, I couldn't tell if it was Titanite or not, but I definitely recognized who it belonged too. I wasn't sure if the black creature was still around, I mean I wouldn't just leave my armor around. As worried as I was about upsetting that creature more, I could tell the shreds haven't been moved in a while, there was a small coating of dust on them.
Wanting to get out of there quickly, I collected all the shreds, there was enough for about an ingot, by my standards at least. Would the refinery be able to refine these shreds? That was something to test at least. If this really was Titanite, then at least it was available on this planet, even if it was rare.
Seeing nothing else of importance in the ruins, I headed back out to the where I had 'climbed' up. I sat there for a bit, wondering how I was going to get back down. Descending with anchors seemed like the best idea, but before I could get them off of my tech, the ground shifted beneath me.
For the second time this week, my tech impacted the ground from a relatively high position. Once again sustaining heavy damage, several blocks were outright destroyed, three wheels were gone as well. Luckily I still had spares from downsizing. That was the worst of it, thankfully the rest of the damage was undoable with my repair bubble.
Looking up, I could tell that the cliff above me was not the most stable, evident by the large chunk that was now down here with me. Something else was visible though, with a piece of the cliff gone, I could see a large vein of Plumbite, showing me that the ravine was probably saturated with it, just most of the surface ore had been harvested. I mean I was just underneath some old ruins, they had to get their resources from somewhere. Even with GSO grade drills I could harvest more plumbite, that was good, I wouldn't have to ration it out anymore.
Saving the Plumbite for later, I drove my damaged tech back to base, I still had to find out if what I had was Titanite, and to actually repair my tech instead of talking about it. A quick repair later, I loaded the shreds of metal into the refinery, though it took a while, it did eventually spit out a blue ingot. The ingot was classified as Titanite! That was great, I could actually fabricate more things, I just needed to find out where to get more.
A quest for another time, I still had defenses to build, I wasn't just going to expose myself without protection and a backup plan. Based on Zecora's first reaction to me, I had a feeling that most of the people of this world would react similarly. I'd have to ask Zecora for advise when dealing with the locals.
It was still night however, and while I knew I didn't need sleep(Thank you tech technology), It was safe to assume that Zecora did. So with the rest of my free time for the night, I once again headed out of the base in search of Luxite.
My rough search of the forest didn't turn up anything useful, there was another seam of Cuprite however, I made note of that. The empty field next to the forest obviously didn't hold anything either. I barely had enough darkness left in the night to properly search the next place, a flat stretch of dirt, with some stones placed around it.
This area didn't hold anything too interesting, but after circling around a bit, there was a soft glow coming from my tire tracks. I didn't have anything to dig through the dirt, my small drill wasn't made for soft materials, so I couldn't exactly excavate with that. The best option I could come up with was to simply drive over, anchor myself, then proceed to 'dig' with my tires. A very slow process that eventually lead to an uncovered crystal.
This crystal however, wasn't Luxite, it glowed slightly, but it wasn't yellow, it was green. In my search for Luxite, I might've found Erudite, I still had to identify it after all. Erudite had it's uses though, I could fabricate a proper defense AI, something for both my base and the planet when it came to that. Maybe I could use it to upgrade my speakers? A better speaking voice would be nice.
I uncovered as much of the crystal as possible, only able to fill three slots. I would have to mark this area down as a potential resource location, that made six so far. With sunrise approaching fast, I'd lost my easy way of finding Luxite, of course I could still search during the day, but it was just easier during the night.
Wanting to make something more of this trip than just the possible Erudite, I continued my journey in search of resources, I still needed to find Titanite and Luxite. Not to mention Ignite and Celestite, some essential resources for any tech capable of sustained flight.
After about an hour of driving, I came across something very interesting in some fields, train tracks. I knew what trains were, they were excellent at repeated trips to and from, they could hold a lot of resources, and not much could stop them. That gave me some ideas, with the resource zones being rather far away from each other and the base, I'd have to create some way to transport the materials. Trains seemed like a good way to go, at least until I could create flying convoys.
My drive didn't yield anything else new however, and not wanting to travel too far away from base yet, I headed back. By now I could start automation on a couple things, mainly harvesting resources, especially if the crystal I got was Erudite. Programing a simple tech to harvest a single resource wasn't hard. The main problem was though, if I wanted to start fabricating higher tier components, I'd need a Dongle, and to make a Dongle, I'd need Luxite.
Another impasse, perhaps I could substitute Luxite with something else, Cuprite sure had it's fair share of uses, maybe I could find a different resource to supplement Luxite. I'd have to keep searching, I wasn't going anywhere without more advanced fabrication. But my tech on its own couldn't cover much ground, I'd need to build something faster, something that could see a lot, something that could explore new lands easier, something... that could fly...
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.
The ride to Zecora's house was silent, except for the whirring of my wheels and the brushing of the foliage against my tech. Zecora sat in the tech's basin, probably lost in thought, I couldn't really tell facial expressions just yet. It was only when I arrived at the house that she spoke up.
"I must thank you for the save, I was sure I'd meet and early grave." She paused, before continuing, "I would like to know more about you, like how of you there are two?"
I thought about what I should reveal, I was certain that Zecora wouldn't use any of my vulnerabilities against me. That didn't stop the information from getting to those who would though, I had no idea how many people Zecora was in contact with. Though from what little I did know about her, not much. Thinking of how to word it in a way she might understand, I answered.
"THIS. 'BODY'. YOU. COULD. SAY. IS. ENTIRELY. REPLACABLE." I paused to replicate the end of a sentence, "I. CAN. BUILD. MORE. THAN. ONE. TO. USE."
"Very interesting, I assume this technique you won't be sharing?" She asked
"CORRECT." I answered.
Not really wanting to pick up Zecora again, I opened the side of the basin by moving a block. Carefully making her way down, making sure to not put weight on her injured leg, Zecora got off my tech.
"It seems that I am out of commission, would you help me on my missions?" She asked.
I thought about that, should I help her more? It would cost me time, but not necessarily resources. There was also the added bonus of Zecora's increased debt to me, and having an ally was always a plus.
"I. WILL. HELP. WHERE. I. CAN." I answered,
"Then you can do what I can't, can you go and collect plants?" She asked,
That was a problem, sure I my manipulation field could hold up blocks and resources, I guess people too. But it wasn't very fine tuned, I couldn't really pick herbs or leaves without uprooting the whole plant. That would be okay in the short term, but continued damage to the plants would make them unavailable long term.
"I'LL. SEE. WHAT. I. CAN. DO." I paused again, "ARE. YOU. OKAY. HERE. ON. YOUR. OWN." I sort of asked.
"I will be fine, now go collect what's on this list of mine," she said, passing over a small piece of parchment, several images of leaves and roots on it.
I couldn't read the language, but the images were fairly descriptive. The problem now was figuring out how to properly collect it, maybe there was something I could fabricate.
Zecora limped back into her house, so I drove back to base to see what I could do. At the base, one thing did stick out a bit, something called an "inserter", an interesting block that used mechanical movement to interact with resources. Mechanical movement wasn't too common with techs, as a majority of it is filled by manipulation fields. Some companies like Geocorp do use mechanical movement, mainly to move their drills in a sweeping path.
Said inserter was only made of Plumbite, using both gears and plates. After fabricating it, I attached the base of it to my tech. It's "arm" was nicely folded up into the size of a standard block, but after experimenting with it, I could reach out about two blocks away. It's claw was large enough to pick up an standard ingot or something smaller. It's movement was a bit jerky, but there was enough control to move it about 160° vertically, and a full 360° radially.
I attached it to the front of my tech, giving it full range of movement. This should allow me to interact with finer materials, specifically the plants Zecora tasked me to find. I should find some way to upgrade it though, those jerky movements didn't help much, and it was rather slow. Better than nothing at least.
Venturing out of the base, I slowly made my way through the forest, keeping a look out for any of the plants on the list. In only a short amount of time I had picked up a majority of the herbs on the list, the only thing left was what looked like the roots of some kind of plant. Something that I couldn't find easily.
After another hour of searching, I still couldn't find any of the roots. I'd have to go back without them, hopefully Zecora won't need them too soon. Thankfully I had gathered everything else, I had a single unit of each plant in my collectors, probably more than enough for what Zecora needed. With that I started heading back.
To say she was surprised with my haul was an understatement, I guess she forgot just how much I tend to collect for myself. She was incredibly thankful, though a little disappointed at not having the roots. Thankfully they weren't essential, and the large amount of everything else I had gathered should last her for a long time.
With that concluded, I had other work to do. The glider tech crashing reminded me of an issue, I had to craft each replacement block I'd lost. Normally I got a majority of my blocks off of other techs, since there aren't any around, I'd have to make my own.
I still had a decent supply of Plumbite, and a near limitless supply of Fibrewood, so common blocks weren't an issue. But more expensive blocks were, the wings weren't that expensive, but the cabin was. I only had a limited supply of Erudite, and while I knew where more was, I couldn't access it without difficulty.
I still had two chunks of Erudite left, and my most recent "death" reminded me that if I "died" here, it would probably be permanent. With that thought in mind, I quickly fabricated two more cabins, just in case. I could always get more Erudite later, but my cabins could get destroyed at any time.
I still needed to explore more, I still needed Titanite, and I still needed Luxite. Eventually I'd even need Ignite and Celestite too, launching something into space without those was nearly impossible. I'd definitely have to ask Zecora if she knew where to get any of these materials.
Maybe I would ask, she wasn't going anywhere far anytime soon, and without those materials I'm a bit stuck too. There was one problem though, while our language might be the same, our words for certain things probably weren't. I hadn't heard what Zecora called Rodite, Carbite, or Oleite, but it certainly didn't sound like something she would say. There was only one way to find out though.
Grabbing some Rodite, Oleite, Carbite, and the ingot of Titanite in my collectors, I headed back to Zecora's home in search of answers. The path I took was starting to look a little worn, there were obvious tire tracks in the ground now, and countless broken vegetation along the path showed its repeated usage. Hopefully nothing unsavory found me soon, I could probably fight off one of those larger creatures from earlier, but I had no idea what else might be here.
It didn't take long to reach Zecora's house, and with a knock on the door from my inserter, Zecora came out. She had splinted her leg since the last time I saw her, she removed all the bands around it and I could see a yellow mixture coving most of it as well. She looked up at my tech and smiled.
"What is it my friend, do you need more errands?" She joked,
"NO. ZECORA. I. HAVE. SOME. QUESTIONS." I said.
"I hope I have some answers, now what is the matter?" She asked.
"I'M. LOOKING. FOR. SPECIFIC. MATERIALS. I. ALSO. WANT. TO. KNOW. THEIR. NAMES." I said, pulling the resources out to set on the ground. "I. CALL. THIS. ONE. RODITE. THIS. ONE. OLEITE. THIS. ONE. CARBITE. AND. THIS. ONE. TITANITE. I. AM. LOOKING. FOR. MORE. TITANITE. AS. WELL. AS. SOMETHING. CALLED. LUXITE."
Zecora looked at the selection of resources, before speaking up.
"I see, then let me tell you, the common names for these here are Acid Stone, Red Oil, Blast Coal, and Cobalt. At least that's what I know them as."
Those names were rather fitting, at least I knew what to ask for when looking for Titanite. There was still more to ask though.
"THANK. YOU. BUT. DO. YOU. KNOW. WHERE. I. CAN. FIND. COBALT." I asked,
"Unfortunately not, Cobalt is rather rare, I wouldn't know where to find it." Zecora answered.
That was a little disappointing, but there was still one last thing to find out.
"I. ALSO. WANT. TO. ASK. ABOUT. ONE. MORE. RESOURCE. A. YELLOW. COLORED. CRYSTAL. THAT. EMITS. LIGHT. I. CALL. IT. LUXITE. WOULD. YOU. KNOW. WHERE. TO. FIND. IT." I asked.
"Luxite? That sounds like Sunstone, but you wouldn't find any here. However you can find it on high mountains, if you can climb that high." Zecora answered.
"THANK. YOU. I. WILL. BE. LEAVING. SOON. TO. GO. GATHER. SOME." I said, picking up the resources.
"Before you go, there are some things you should know. Most ponies are scared of me, there's no saying what they would think of thee. If you are traveling by way of fly, just know there are pegasi, so try to keep out an eye."
Pegasi? I guess that makes some sense, both Zecora and the black creature looked equine in nature. While I didn't get a good look at the black creature, I did see a horn, so maybe unicorns existed too? An interesting thought, I wonder how their social Hierarchy functioned?
"GOODBYE. FOR. NOW. I'LL. LET. YOU. KNOW. WHEN. I. LEAVE." I concluded, turning to drive back I still had work to do.
"Goodbye as well," Zecora said, retreating back into her house.
Now that I knew the location of what might be Luxite, I had to prepare to go get some. Of course there weren't any mountains visible from the forest floor, but I was certain I could spot some from the ruin's vantage point. I still had to rebuild the glider though, and I had a new piece of infrastructure to build too, a radio tower. I'd need to know where my base was at all times if I'm going to be traveling far.
I also made the habit of calling each resources by it's unrefined name, this makes it easier to understand, but know that most recipes do call for the refined version.
Building a radio tower wasn't too hard, I could even hide it in one the spires on the ruins. The only real challenge was getting up high enough to build it, but repeated jumps with rocket boosters worked just fine. Soon enough it was complete, only rising a little bit out of the spire.
With the glider rebuilt, now with a collector and speakers on it, there was just one last thing I needed to do before I departed. Fabricating two radios, I attached them to my glider and headed out to Zecora's house.
It was a little hard to navigate the forest in the glider, I should've just left it at the base, but I was already at Zecora's house. A knock on the door with the inserter alerted her of my presence. I spoke up when she stepped out.
"I. AM. DEPARTING. SOON. TAKE. THIS. YOU. CAN. USE. IT. TO. CONTACT. ME. IF. THERE. IS. AN. EMERGENCY." Came out of the speakers. I passed over the second radio.
"Thank you," was all she said, putting the radio on her back, "I hope you do return soon, you are quite the boon."
"IT. SHOULDN'T. TAKE. LONG. TO. RETURN." I said, before turning to leave again.
Zecora nodded, then entered her house again, closing the door. With that out of the way, I began the treacherous process of navigating the forest with wings again.
Having finally made it to the ravine, I could easily scale the gap with my wings and boosters. Now all that was left was to ascend the spire, something that took a bit of time. My tech could barely fit into the stairwell.
With everything cleared for takeoff, I looked to spot the nearest mountain. There were actually two nearby, one looked desolate, while the other appeared to have a large city built into the side. It was a pretty easy choice on which mountain to go to, mainly because civilization meant that nearby resources were already taken, and I had no idea how they would react to me. To mount desolate it is then.
This time nothing interrupted my takeoff, no radar icons, no radio calls. I guess it was all clear.
Firing the boosters once more, I initiated takeoff, this time with a bit more height. I realigned the boosters once again and fired them, gaining some more altitude and speed.
Now gliding over the trees, with no danger of clipping a branch, I began the flight over to the mountain. Of course I'd have to land somewhere, I wasn't that high up, but it was the speed of travel that made it worth it.
I still had a bit of height by the time I reached the edge of the forest, now over some plains, I couldn't see that much of interest. I would have to land soon though, a large hill seemed like a good spot. Banking over to it, I landed relatively gently on the hill, waited for my boosters to recharge, then took off once more.
I had to land several times over the journey, the only notable things I saw were another pair of train tracks, and a far off town. No mineral seams or large crystals poking out of the ground. Either it was picked clean, or most of the mineral deposits were underground. A worrying thought.
After about an hour of gliding, I made it to the base of the mountain. Here comes the best part though, I didn't even need to scale the mountain! I could just boost up there with the boosters, ah the wonders of being flight capable.
At the summit of the mountain, I was disappointed to not find any obvious outcroppings of crystal. I did find something interesting though, the mouth to a large cave was on the on the side with a small plateau extending out.
Driving up to the cave, it was wide enough for me to enter without "folding" my wings. Quickly checking my surroundings to make sure there wasn't anything dangerous, I entered the cave. The immediate inside wasn't anything to look at, but further in was what really got my attention. A massive pile of gems, jewels, Auruite, and many other trinkets lay in the center of the cave. I didn't have that much of a use for Auruite, besides some electronic equipment, but there were so many different kinds of gems. Maybe some of them could be what I'm looking for.
A quick inspection yielded no Ignite or Celestite, that made sense, those gems were some of the rarest resources anywhere. But there was some yellow gems, and some even emitted light. Those were obvious tells for Luxite, I had finally found some, but there wasn't too much either, it must be pretty rare then.
Only having one collector didn't help, I was only able to gather five chunks of Luxite, enough for some things, but not everything. I'd have to make the journey back here later with more collectors, provided I could fit them on the glider.
Looking around the rest of the cave, there wasn't anything else of interest, I did recognize some Erudite in the pile, but I already knew where to get some. I did notice a large amount of Auruite coins however, and while they weren't valuable to me, they could definitely be worth something in this world.
I then realized something, was I stealing right now? While normally I would steal, especially against other techs. There weren't any other prospectors on this world. So either this was abandoned, evident by the lack of signs of life, or this was someone else's stuff. I thought about it for a while, there weren't any signs of living arrangements, there wasn't anything stopping me from entering the cave, and there were no warning signs I recognized.
I decided I really needed this Luxite, and that I'd repay the original owner if they existed. I exited the cave with the Luxite. Looking at my radar, I could see what direction I'd need to travel to make it back to base. The best part though, was that this mountain was pretty high up, so I could actually glide most of the way back.
Preparing to launch, I made sure the Luxite was secure in my collector, it should hold while flying, Collectors had pretty good grip. It was turning night however, and the glow of the Luxite was very visible, I wondered if I should actually fly at night. Being more visible and all, but being back at base sooner meant the sooner I could actually upgrade some stuff with this Luxite.
I fired the boosters, launching my glider up into the air once more. The sunset behind me as I glided back towards the base.
I was able to stay in the air much longer this time, able to make most of the journey due to my original height and some great updrafts I found. I still had to land before I made it all the way back though, and I didn't want a repeat of last time when taking off from the forest floor. I drove the rest of the way when I made it to the edge of the forest.
In hindsight, carrying a small beacon through some possibly dangerous territory at night probably wasn't the best idea. I soon found my tech being chased by those wooden creatures again. I had folded my wings when I entered the forest earlier though, so I wasn't terribly handicapped. The wooden creatures were about the same speed as my tech though, especially with only three wheels.
I certainly didn't have the firepower to take them on, though I did take out one or two with my sporadic firing. All I could do was attempt to outrun them back to base, where I could safely switch back to my more combat ready tech. It was then I drove across one of my many "pathways" through the forest, with tire tracks and broken foliage, it allowed me to maintain a constant speed as well, making it harder for the creatures to follow.
I made it to the small clearing, and quickly drove down the ramp. The creatures stopped however, apparently they learned that the other tech dwelled around here. At least I didn't have to fight them, killing anything else besides other techs always made me feel bad. I had to do what I had to do though, my survival was pretty important to me.
Making it back inside, I switched to my original tech, transferred over the Luxite. I didn't have much, so I had to carefully go over what to make with it. First things first was the Advanced Dongle, with it I was able to fabricate more complex components, and with complex components, I could upgrade a couple of my things.
Next up was a fuel tank, which would allow me to glide longer, possibly even maintain flight. That was up for debate though. With only one chunk of Luxite left, I decided to make a COIL laser, while it did less damage than the machine guns, it was an energy weapon, able to damage more types of materials than just bullets.
I realized I had to be careful not to lose anymore guns, I only had the one on the glider, the three on my main tech, and the brand new laser I just made. I couldn't make anymore right now because I didn't have enough Titanite, but I could make some with more Luxite, and not just lasers either.
When I go get more Luxite, things would get explosive...
"Ah'm tellin you Twi, I saw somethin fly outa the Everfree, somethin big." Applejack said.
"Applejack, calm down, are you sure it wasn't just somepony flying about?" Twilight asked.
"Ah know what ah saw Twi, it was too big to be a pony, that's for sure." Applejack explained.
"Ok, tell me what it looked like." Twilight said.
"Well, it was grey, with a few red marks on it, ah could see it had five wings, two large ones up front, and two smaller ones at the back, with another smaller one on the top." Applejack described.
"That's very interesting, what would you say it's body shape was?" Twilight asked.
"That's the thing Twi, it was square, like a cart or somethin with wings attached, it even looked to be made of metal, though for some reason it was on fire while it was flying." Applejack continued to explain.
"A flying metal cart? That's on fire?" Twilight paused to think, "Did it have any wheels?"
"It did! How did you know?" Applejack questioned.
"Rainbow came by yesterday with a similar story, only that she saw a large grey object with wheels rolling across a field." Said Twilight.
"Do ya think they could be related at all?" Applejack asked.
"It's possible, but not every strange happening in the area is related Applejack." Twilight explained, before continuing, "Though Rarity did report wheel tracks in her favorite gem collecting spot, this is shaping up to be an interesting mystery."
"Ah just hope it ain't dangerous, somethin like that could... well I don't know what it could do, ah just have a gut feelin it ain't good." Said Applejack
"Don't worry too much about it Applejack, but if you do see it again make sure to-" Twilight was cut off.
"You got a letter from the Princess, Twilight" Spike announced, handing said letter over to her.
"Thank you Spike, lets see," Twilight opened the letter and started reading it, "Oh that's not good... A dragon has taken up residence in a nearby mountain?... We'll have to cut this talk short Applejack, would you help me get the rest of the girls?"
"Sure thing pardner," She replied, taking off through the door.
If only I had a Venture Fabricator, I'd be able to Fabricate a propeller, then I could fly forever. But I didn't have one, just the GSO Fabricator, so I was stuck with limited flight until I could find some Ignite and Celestite.
It wasn't so bad though, with the recent fuel tank addition, I could burn my boosters for longer, allowing longer flight time. I used this to my full advantage when going back to get more Luxite in the morning. One great big problem appeared though, a huge cloud of smoke emanated from the newly dubbed Luxite Mountain, that wasn't good.
While the majority of techs are fireproof, I did not want to burn off the Rubber tires I had, nor did I want to test my tech's heat resistance. I really needed the Luxite though, I could finally get a proper base down with it, instead of throwing my resources everywhere. Besides, it looked like the smoke was only coming from a local section from the mountain.
I only had to land two times with the new fuel tank, I was glad I could be in the air for longer, it made my trips shorter. Reaching the base of the mountain, I could see that the smoke came from near the top, it was black smoke too, meaning a heavy fuel was burning, that meant greater heat.
I had to see exactly where the fire was though, I could probably avoid it entirely. I could just glide away anyway. I fired the boosters again, ascending the mountain. I made it to the top in almost one go, but had to stop to recharge my boosters. I was getting real curious about just what was burning, last time I was here there wasn't anything that crude to burn. Perhaps the cave did have an owner after all, but just what were they burning and why?
I ascended the rest of the way up, and was now able to see the smoke coming directly from the cave. I just hope whoever lived there would accept me repaying them later, I can't exactly give back the Luxite I borrowed. Well, maybe if I had made a Scrapper, but I hadn't so there.
I drove into the cave, thankfully the smoke rose to the top and I was still able to see. Deeper in though, the angle of the morning sun and smoke created a very dark environment. I only had the lights of my cabin to see in front of me. I still couldn't see any light from a fire, that meant that it was at least under control, whoever was keeping it.
My lights barely pierced the darkness and smoke, which had gotten lower the further I made it into the cave, just in front of me I could see the beginning of the pile of valuables. A breeze blew past me, so strong it nearly lifted my tech due to the wings. Whoever was keeping this fire sure had some good ventilation.
"HELLO." I made myself known to whoever was inside.
No answer, I'm getting real tired of having to repeat myself like this.
"HELLO." I had the speakers say, once again raising the volume.
Still no answer.
"HELLO." I said, max volume, it rung throughout the cave.
That got a reaction, something shifted on top of the pile of trinkets, something large. The breeze came again, this time backwards, as if something was inhaling. That was when I realized my mistake.
Large pile of valuables, no living commodities, lots of smoke, high up on a mountain, and a large form. I didn't know mythology that well, but I was fairly certain I wasn't dealing with a regular person just burning something. Through all my prospecting adventures throughout the galaxy, this was the first time I came across a dragon.
Of course, dragons or dragonlike creatures existed on other planets, and a majority of the time they were apex predators. Something you never wanted to deal with underequipped, something I very much was right now. I was fairly certain I couldn't just glide away either, with this cave being on top of a mountain, this dragon definitely had wings.
Not knowing the airspeed velocity of an unladen dragon(Neither Equestrian nor Zebrican). I didn't want to risk trying to outrun it. The only option I saw right now was diplomacy, something that depended entirely on the intelligence level of the dragon.
A large yellow eye opened up in front of me, almost glowing. It quickly dilated in my cabins light, then the entire head moved up, revealing it's long neck, covered in red scales. It didn't look too menacing, but it didn't look cuddly either. It looked directly at my tech, then behind it as it noticed the tire tracks. Then it spoke.
"So, you're the one who stole my Sunstones," it boomed.
"CORRECT." was all I managed to say, if nervousness translated into the speaker, it would be unintelligible.
"And you've come back for more?" it asked.
"ALSO. CORRECT." I had the speakers say.
"Then tell me, why shouldn't I kill you right now?" it asked.
"BECAUSE. I. AM. WILLING. TO. REPAY. YOU." I said, almost glad techs couldn't show emotion.
It raised an eyebrow, still looking down at me, it spoke again.
"With what, more Sunstones? it asked.
"UNFORTUNATELY. NOT. I. USED. THEM. ALREADY. I. DO. HAVE. OTHER. MATERIALS. THOUGH." I said.
It smiled a wicked smile, before speaking again.
"What could you offer me instead of Sunstones? They are my favorite after all."
It really was a shame I didn't learn this world's name for Erudite, maybe it would think it was also a valuable gem? I didn't have a good idea on the rarity of most gems in this world. Perhaps there was someone I could ask about that.
Rarity sneezed, she really should dust this closet later. For now though, where was that fabulous helmet?
"I. HAVE. A. GREEN. GEM. CALLED. ERUDITE. IT. IS. VERY. VALUABLE. TO. ME. AT. LEAST." I spoke up
"Hmm, green really isn't my color, anything else?" it asked, smirk still on its face.
I though for a moment, what else did I have that was relatively rare? And could I gain more Luxite from this dragon with anything else? I guess there was one thing I had that might do the trick. I'd just have to go with it I suppose.
"I. HAVE. AN. INGOT. OF. COBALT. TO. OFFER. BUT. I. STILL. NEED. MORE. SUNSTONE." I offered.
The dragon looked at me, obviously surprised, it quickly regained its smirk however.
"That will do nicely, I'll even give you some more Sunstone for it," it said.
I feel like I just made a horrible mistake, I probably really just underestimated the actual value of Titanite. I wasn't in a position to bargain though, so I just have to go with it.
"VERY. WELL. I. SHALL. GO. RETRIEVE. THE. COBALT. PLEASE. GATHER. UP. SOME. SUNSTONE." I said, turning around to leave.
"You'd better be back, or I will destroy you," was all it said as I left the cave.
That was terrifying, I wasn't too worried about dying, I still had my original tech and that extra cabin. No, it was making a powerful enemy that spooked me, from what I could tell, I couldn't fight the dragon yet. I doubt that bullets would do anything good, and I only had the one laser weapon. I was glad to get out of this engagement with the glider still intact.
There wasn't much I could do, I either lost my Titanite ingot, or lose everything. I fired up the boosters, and launched off the side of the mountain. Heading back to the base.
"There it is!" shouted Applejack, pointing her hoof to the sky.
"There what is?" asked Twilight, also looking up.
"The thingy I was telling you about, the flying metal object!" Applejack said, still looking up.
"Where?" Twilight asked,
"Consarn it, it just flew into the smoke," Applejack looked down,
"OOOO, did you see a UFO?" said Pinkie, bouncing up and down.
I didn't have much time, a few hours at least. I made it back to the base in one go, the smoke apparently was really good at keeping my glider up. Landing in the clearing, I drove down the ramp and into my base. I don't know why, but I wanted to delay this as much as possible, so I spent an extra thirty minutes just doing random things, from needlessly reorganizing my materials pile, to creating strange works of art out of the extra blocks from other companies I had.
Eventually, I had to come to terms with myself. I grabbed the Titanite ingot, and headed back out. I drove back up to the top of the ravine, ready to take off. But before I could, I saw a blue icon appear on my radar, this time not running.
Coming through the trees, Zecora still had a bit of a limp, but it looked like it was healing. She walked up to the glider, looking it over before finally resting her eyes on the Titanite.
"What are you doing with the Cobalt?" she asked.
"I. MADE. A. DEAL. WITH. A. DRAGON." I answered
Zecora looked surprised, before speaking up again.
"I didn't take your for a risk taker, do you wish to meet your maker?" She sort of joked.
"I. DIDN'T. HAVE. A. CHOICE." was all I said in return.
"I hope you survive, I'd much rather see you alive." She said, before turning back into the forest.
Not really wanting to navigate the ruins again, I launched from the clearing. With the added fuel tank it was actually viable, I'd have to make a more stops though. Right now I didn't really care about that. I fired my boosters.
I tried really hard to make the trip last longer, but the smoky mountain came into view all too soon. Getting one last stop in I fired my boosters once again and headed for the base of it.
With the dragon finally gone, the six ponies could've sworn they heard it cursing under its breath that it was missing out on a cobalt ingot.
Everything started to settle down a bit, Fluttershy landed, and Rainbow took off. The smoke started to clear and the ponies started talking about what just happened.
"That was amazing Fluttershy!"
"I didn't know you could do that!"
"Can you teach me please!"
"This calls for a party!"
The cheering was interrupted though, as an odd sound came from the cliff. Not a moment later, a large form flew past the cliff, soaring above the ponies before gliding down and landing near the cave entrance.
Fearing the dragon returning, the ponies quickly hid behind a rock, which did little to hide all six of them. The form didn't appear to notice them however, it just entered the cave. Silence soon returned to the group, Applejack was the first to speak up.
"That was it Twilight!" She whispered harshly.
"What? The metal thing?" Twilight asked
"Yes! But what is it doing here?" Applejack asked.
"Maybe it's friendly?" Pinkie said, not whispering in the slightest.
"We don't know that!" said Twilight.
"Well it did notice us, it completely ignored us too!" said Pinkie.
"What do you mean? It didn't even look over here." Twilight asked.
"Well duhhh, it's because it doesn't have eyes Twilight. But it can still see everything..." Pinkie said, her eyes going in opposite directions while her head turned a full 360°. "That, and it's got a radar."
"Pinkie, that's creepy, also what's a radar?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know..." Pinkie replied, giggling.
A few moments later, the form exited the cave, with four yellow gemstones and one blue cube floating on it's back.
"That dragon had Sunstones?!" Rarity gushed, nearly fainting.
"Yeah, and that thing is taking them for itself" piped up Rainbow Dash
"Is that... a block of Cobalt?!" Twilight said, also gushing.
"Cobalt!!!" All the rest of the ponies shouted in unison.
"That dragon had Cobalt too!?" Rarity said, actually fainting this time.
"No it didn't, that thing had it when it arrived, but where did it get so much?" Twilight said.
"Maybe it was going to trade with the dragon? But now that it's gone it just took whatever it needed?" Fluttershy whispered.
"Four chunks of Sunstone for that much Cobalt? Either it doesn't know the value of Cobalt, or the dragon caught it in a bad position." Twilight deducted.
"YOU. KNOW. I. CAN. HEAR. YOU. RIGHT." came from the entity, scaring all the ponies again.
"What are you doing here?" Applejack was the first to speak, taking up a defensive stance.
"TAKING. WHAT. I. NEED." was all it said as it aligned itself with the cliff.
"Wait-" was all Twilight said before great bouts of flame erupted from the entity, propelling it off the cliff and up into the air.
While most of the smoke had dissipated, there was still enough to effectively hide the entity as it flew away. All six ponies just stood there in silence.
"You'd better put that in the report to Princess Celestia," Twilight heard somepony say, she wasn't sure who though.
I got some more Luxite, and I got to keep my Titanite! What a great outcome, I was not expecting that the dragon would be forced to leave. It probably had something to do with those ponies I saw, I wonder exactly how they did it?
It was confusing, obviously they had some way to deal with the dragon, be it weapons or wits, but I could tell they were scared of me. It didn't make much sense, if they could deal with the dragon, why didn't they think they could deal with me? I guess techs were unknown in this world, and they didn't know what I was capable of. That made more sense, I was certainly capable of a lot.
That was behind me now, I had the Luxite, so I had things to fabricate. The dragon was a big reminder that diplomacy wasn't always going to be the answer, I felt that I was teetering on the edge of destruction the entire time I was with it. I'd need to fabricate more powerful weapons if I was going to be in anymore situations like that.
Thankfully having Luxite allowed me to do just that, and not just lasers either. With the stronger properties of Luxite-Plumbite alloy, I could create stronger weapons, namely, a cannon. Now this cannon in particular wasn't very powerful, not by a longshot, it being the first in its class and all, but it was certainly powerful enough to warrant fabricating it.
I could definitely do some damage with it, but that didn't mean I'd be using it all the time, I did not want to cause any unwanted collateral damage. Right now it was a last resort.
Equipping it onto my original tech, making sure its safety was on, I was once again short on Luxite. If I wanted to create proper storage for my materials, I'd need even more. The only problem was that the dragon's pile did not have a lot of it, sure there was some, but now that I'd taken more than half of its stock, there wasn't much left. There was also the added problem of it being under pony control, and given by their triumph over the dragon, I didn't really want to go back either.
Perhaps now was the time to finally reveal myself to the ponies, they certainly could help me a lot. I still wasn't entirely prepared though, my base was lack luster, and my resources were thin. Going in unprepared could cost me everything. I'd only go to the ponies unprepared if the situation was extremely dire, which it wasn't right now.
I guess I'd go have to find more Luxite somewhere else. There was a small mountain range visible from the dragon's mountain, I'll search there first. I'd have to upgrade my glider first, for it was underequipped for such a long journey, not to mention combat.
Firstly, I made it wider, this allowed me to fit another collector on the back, and another tail wing to give me more control in the air. The fuel tank then fit nicely next the the collectors, and the boosters were subsequently fitted on the sides and bottom. The radar was put on top, along with the radio. At the very front, I put on the COIL laser and the Cannon, while a bit heavy, it shouldn't affect flight that much. I'd definitely have to land more often however, at least until I could make another fuel tank.
I once more drove out of the base and into the ravine, then up the ramp lead to the clearing. My now larger glider would definitely have trouble navigating the ruins again, so I'd have to launch from the forest floor again. I should clear the trees, the math checked out.
My take off was interrupted again though, this time not by Zecora, but by a single red icon appearing on my radar. It wasn't moving very fast, but it was making it's way to the clearing. Not knowing what to expect, I took the cannon off safety, if possible, I'd like to fire a warning shot first.
A few moments later, one of the larger creatures I've run into earlier pushed out of the tree line, but it wasn't alone. There were two 'cubs' you could say following it. They most likely didn't appear on my radar do to their proximity to the apparent parent.
Last time I ran into one of these things, it ignored me, but I knew that most animals were extremely protective of their young, and usually did not appreciate anything getting close to them. I didn't move my tech, while it may be larger in volume, I was certain that it didn't outweigh the creature. I wanted to appear as unalive as possible.
Apparently my tech was pretty interesting to the cubs, as both bounded away from their parent towards me. It wasn't like I could keep completely still either, as both weapon's autotargeting systems locked onto the cubs, while the radar continued to spin around trying to pick up signals. Of course I didn't fire on the cubs, there was no reason, but the parent did see my techs slight movements.
It gave a small roar, and the cubs stopped and immediately ran back towards their parent. It stood up high, menacingly as it shielded its cubs behind it. I did not want to provoke this thing, so I backed up my tech. This calmed the creature a bit, but it still watched my tech the entire time as it started backing up into the forest.
Disappearing into the foliage, I watched the radar as they slowly moved out of range. With that distraction out of the way, I was ready to take off again.
I fired the boosters once more, soaring into the air, I was getting pretty used to gliding like this. I barely made it past the forest edge however, even with the fuel tank. I'd have to make a lot more stops than last time, but I'd have to make less trips overall. The pros outweighed the cons.
I eventually made it to the dragon's mountain, hoping to maybe collect a few more chunks of Luxite, I was severely disappointed. The place was swarming with activity, from what I could see there were several ponies standing around, wearing some sort of golden armor. What disappointed me even more was the several carts being loaded with everything from the massive pile. I guess I wasn't fast enough to get more from here, and I didn't really want to raid the caravan either.
Not being able to launch of the mountain either sucked. I had to start from the ground, meaning it would take a lot more trips to make it to the mountain range in the distance. This time, the journey did turn up something interesting.
A massive stone field lay before me, I could see a lot of rocks, most probably held ore. I wasn't able to take a closer look however, there was a fence around the whole area, and a small set of buildings to the side, probably a mining town. I would have to check this out later, when or if I got permission.
The rest of the glide to the mountain range was short, and it was obvious that these mountains weren't as tall as the dragon's mountain. It was still a good idea to check them out at least. Launching up again I started gliding to the first mountain.
There wasn't much, a few trees and some rocks. Cracking open a few yielded nothing, so I launched over to the next mountain.
This one actually held some Cuprite deposits, I didn't really need any right now, but I kept this mountain in mind in case I ran out in the forest. I launched over to the next mountain.
This mountain held nothing either, just some trees and dirt. I launched to the final mountain in the range.
The fourth mountain didn't have much upon first inspection, but further investigation revealed a well worn trail down it. Obviously there was some reason to climb this mountain if there was a trail, so I looked around again. There were some odd mounds of dirt methodically placed around the mountain top, and upon closer inspection they were obviously made by something.
I drove over one and 'dug' at it with my wheel, spraying dirt everywhere. Something else flew out thanks to my wheel, it was like a small stone. Driving over to it, and closely inspecting it, it was a very small piece of Luxite, so small, it wouldn't even be worth it to dig up every mound.
Why was this here? and why was it buried? It was almost like this small piece of Luxite was like a seed.
Well... it wasn't like growing crystals was impossible, and Luxite did grow in sunlight, I guess whoever 'planted' these here wanted to cultivate some Luxite? An interesting idea, it would take a while though, that's why not many people did it. I certainly didn't have time for it, maybe I could speed up the process?
If I could focus the sunlight somehow, I could grow Luxite quite a bit faster than it would normally be able to grow. That would have to be something to test later however. I carefully placed the Luxite 'seed' back on top of the mound, it wasn't like I could just dig it a new hole. I turned to head back, it was getting dark.
I had a new project for now, growing my own Luxite. There was a bit of a problem though, I didn't have access to glass for lenses or something reflective for mirrors. I would have to find something like that to focus sunlight into a Luxite 'seed'. Maybe I could find another resource for it. Who knows.
Princess Celestia read the report from Twilight, the friendship lesson was to be expected, and she was glad Twilight was able to convince the dragon to leave. But the mysterious metal entity detailed in the report confused her. This unkown third party had apparently made a deal with the dragon, it was trading a rather large block of Cobalt for some Sunstone chunks.
Any merchant worth their salt would say that was a terrible trade, Cobalt was one of the most valuable and rare resources in Equestria. Just where did this thing get so much?
"Sister, your old armor was made of Cobalt right?" Celestia asked Luna,
"Yes it was, it was a shame that the Elements of Harmony destroyed it along with Nightmare Moon though." Luna answered.
"But I remember seeing it there on the floor? Along with that strange grey object. It did not look destroyed." Celestia asked, confused.
"It was not entirely destroyed, sister, but the magic from the Elements of Harmony permanently altered the structural integrity of the armor, making it more brittle than a chicken egg. No amount of forging it would have fixed it, you would have to find a way to reassemble its entire structure. Not even I could fix it with magic." Luna explained,
"Oh, that is a bit disappointing" Celestia paused, "What about this metal entity? If it had that much Cobalt, we should know of it right? You are one of the main suppliers of Cobalt after all sister."
"That I am, but it has been a thousand years since I have distributed any, I have no idea how much is in circulation now." Luna answered.
"A mystery for another time then," Celestia concluded, filing away the report.
Just putting a chunk of Luxite in direct sunlight would work, but it would probably take upwards of several months to a year for it to grow to a usable size, even then crystals don't just grow from nothing. From what I understood, the top of a Luxite crystal catches sunlight, it then travels down the crystal and into the ground. This causes a reaction to take place, the heat from the sun causes a chemical reaction that produces Luxite from common elements in the ground. The new Luxite crystal pushes up and out of the ground 'growing' the crystal as a whole.
The reason Luxite was so rare here was either from two things, either the mineral content in the soil wasn't very saturated, or the sunlight from the smaller sun wasn't enough to sustain proper growth, or a combination of the two. The first reason was hard to fix, but the second reason was much easier to fix, especially when I get glass and/or mirrors. Since I've learned that Luxite here grows on top of mountains, it was pretty obvious that it was latter reason why they weren't very common.
I still needed a way to get glass and mirrors, glass was the easiest, just a simple refinement of some silicate, such as quartz or sand, and I could fabricate a large lens. Mirrors were a bit harder though, they required some sort of reflective material, be it metal, liquid, or something else. Plumbia might work, but I'd have to polish it quite a bit, if I couldn't find anything else that was better, I'd just have to work with that.
With those two things on my gather list, I left the base, this time with my original tech, swapping around a couple of commodities first. I now had the cannon, laser gun, and radio on my tech. I would search the forest first for any of these materials, but I wasn't counting on it. I mean, how likely was it that I'd find a chunk of quartz or some other silicate in the middle of the forest?
I found a large chunk of quartz in the middle of the forest.
It wasn't just sticking out of the ground though, but it wasn't very hidden either. After drilling out a couple of chunks, I had enough for one or two large lenses. Next up was some sort of mirror material.
Argentite was a good material, but I haven't found any trace of it since I got here, neither did I find any Cinnabar for Mercury. I guess polished Plumbia was what I was going with, as much work as that would be. It really was a shame that the Fabricator couldn't just fabricate polished Plumbia. I'd have to do it manually.
I had a large collection of Plumbia sheets infront of my tech, using a makeshift sander using a wheel with an inserter, I sanded the plates as best I could. I didn't have the finest sanding equipment, but it should do. I made sure to pour plenty of water across it while I sanded/grinded. Eventually I was left with plenty of mostly reflective plates.
These would have to do, the best part was though, was I could protect them from tarnishing with more glass. With all the materials needed, I set to work building a "greenhouse" for Luxite. In the center of it, I placed a Luxite chunk in the dirt, driving it further down with my techs weight. Next I placed a convex lens above it so that direct sunlight would converge directly on the crystal. Then, I placed mirrors around the crystal, so that indirect sunlight would still be reflected back into the crystal.
It looked like a telescope pointing straight at the sun, but it should work pretty well. By my calculations, I should be able to grow a single Luxite chunk every week, still slow, but much faster than any other method I could think of. There was just one problem though, the chamber also worked in reverse, so any light the Luxite emitted converged into a spotlight pointed straight into the sky. To fix this, I simply made a cover for it during the night, problem solved.
I only had two Luxite chunks to 'plant' and while I could break them up into more, smaller chunks, it would take longer for all those chunks to grow. I still needed the Luxite fast, and this was the fastest option, I only needed to wait a week. Besides, when I get more Luxite, I could plant more Luxite, as long as I had enough mirrors and lenses, I could produce Luxite very fast with the little space I had.
Speaking of space, in order to get full range of the sun, I had to place the Luxite chambers in the clearing above the ravine, a little obvious, but it's not like I had much of a choice. Besides, my tire tracks were everywhere anyway, if I was going to be found, then I was going to be found.
Since just waiting for the Luxite to grow wasn't a good idea, I had a lot of free time to do other things. I could go visit Zecora, I haven't seen her in like a day. It was getting dark however, so I placed the covers on the LGCs(Luxite Growing Chambers).
I didn't have much else to do, I guess I could fortify my base. I had enough Plumbite and Fibrewood to at least seal off the cave and add a door, maybe even fill out the floor.
I spent most of the night building my base, towards the end I had a decent supply of Plumbite, enough to use for other projects. I could always just repurpose the floor or walls anyway, thanks to the versatility of standard blocks. I could make a massive tech right now, I could always make larger wheels. I didn't really have the resources to equip it though, I could only make Lasers and cannons right now, guns were out of the question, I'd need more Titanite.
I also didn't have the resources to make shield bubbles, though I could make repair bubbles and batteries. I then realized I could have outfitted my techs with at least a repair bubble and batteries all this time. I can't believe I forgot about that. Quickly fabricating a few, I only needed one repair bubble for each tech, but I wanted to outfit the entrance with repair bubbles too, it would certainly make it harder to breach.
Another problem presented itself though, repair bubbles consumed energy, all the time. Sure I had enough batteries to store loads of energy, but I only had one solar panel. The only other source of energy I could fabricate was simple combustion energy, I'd have to refuel the generators whenever the batteries got too low.
Well, one solution leads to another problem I guess. I now had about three furnace generators in my base, I only had to refuel them about once a day. Unless something decided to attack my base that is, but that wasn't too likely. The repair bubbles were a little obvious though, they didn't exactly shine brightly, but they were pretty visible in the dark.
It was getting really hard to conceal myself now, I guess I could try contacting the ponies now, I was certainly in a position that could warrant it. It didn't really matter if I got discovered first either, as long as I didn't show hostile intentions I should be fine. I hope.
I still wanted to wait a bit though, at least until the first batch of Luxite was done. There was still so much more to prepare for. I also needed to stock up on Erudite, while most of the other resources were easy to get. Erudite was by far the most difficult due to it's distance and my lack of digging equipment.
With nothing else to do, I headed towards the Erudite zone. There were several things I could try, I could blast the Erudite out of the ground using my cannon. I could do some sick donuts in my tech. I could try to angle my small drill to try and dig the dirt. I could also simply hope for the Erudite to miraculously surface and allow me to collect it.
Sadly, no Erudite magically flew up through the ground into the air. There was really only one option that was the best, something I had been meaning to try. Detaching my drill from the front of my tech, I placed it into the claw of the inserter. It didn't exactly connect, but it did hold it steady. Of course, I couldn't just start drilling, it had no power, I didn't have a way to connect it to the tech's power supply.
With no way to do that yet, I was stuck with options one and two, the "fun" ones. Donuts in a six wheeled tech weren't easy, but it did cover or uncover a lot of ground, I got a couple pieces of Erudite out of that. I couldn't really go deeper with the donuts though, so with nothing else to lose, I simply fired the cannon into the dirt.
A loud explosion sounded out, scaring several birds out of a nearby tree. A spray of dirt and stone erupted from the impact, flying everywhere. When the dust and smoke cleared, I was left with three more pieces of Erudite, only slightly charred.
With enough Erudite to last a bit, I headed back. One thought came up though, if I could farm Luxite, what's stopping me from growing other crystals. I'd just need to find out how they grew and give them the perfect environment for it. A project for another time however, because I just realized I let off an loud explosion relatively close to a residential area.
I wanted to see what I could make with Erudite, while I had enough cabins, and I couldn't make any A.I. modules yet, a multitude of new recipes were revealed to me. Looking through both the Component Factory and the Fabricator, I could make some advanced circuit boards from Erudite and plenty of Cuprite wire.
These advanced circuit boards could be used to increase the effectiveness of a lot of different things. Mainly accessory blocks, I could add them to my collectors so they could hold a bit more. Or I could add them to my Radar for added range and distinct icons for certain things. I also could add them to my lights, allowing them to change color. I could even add them to my speakers so I could have a much clearer voice, something I immediately did.
With the new circuit board installed, the speakers were able to output a much smoother voice, it still sounded a bit robotic, but I could actually change the pitch to make it sound like different voices. I could even to an extent mimic sounds and other voices, though you could clearly tell it came from my speakers.
I found I could also upgrade my inserter, it no longer had such jerky movements and actually moved a bit faster. I only had enough Erudite for five circuit boards, so I made three to upgrade my inserter, my speaker, and my radar, the most important things to upgrade.
There was still no way to transfer power to the end of the inserter however, but I could see I could fabricate an even higher tier circuit board later on with the right dongle.
I also found I could fabricate large motors, able to rotate whole techs like a rotating anchor, only free to move whenever. I could make something like a giant inserter or something. It was pretty cool.
With my now upgraded equipment, I could communicate better, I could manipulate better, and I could even identify things better. You could say I was a bit excited, maybe a lot excited, but definitely not super excited, that was too much. Please ignore my driving around in circles for about five minutes.
Normally techs don't get this 'advanced', there really isn't any need. I had the need for it though, so I get to add more to my tech than ever thought before. It was great, I had to show someone, luckily I knew of a certain zebra.
Driving out into the morning sun, I made my way to Zecora's home. It didn't take long, the path even more well worn than before. It looked like every time I drove through, the forest would yield a little more, creating a clear path for me to traverse with ease.
Arriving at the house, I knocked on the door with my inserter, much faster than I was able too before. Zecora was inside thankfully, she opened the door and looked out at my tech. She smiled before speaking.
"Hello Teck, how was your trek? She asked.
"Just fine Zecora, though I have something to show you." I said in a new voice, no longer monotone, but sounding robotic, it was smoother as well.
Zecora looked surprised, then smiled again.
"I assume you are showing me your voice? Is this a time for rejoice?" Zecora asked.
"Indeed it is Zecora, though I have done more than just upgrade my voice" I said, waving my inserter around.
"My my, that seems rather sly, though I did not know you were a guy." Zecora commented.
"Who said I have to be male?" I said, pitching the voice up so it sounded more feminine.
Zecora looked surprised again, then she spoke up again.
"What else can you do? This is very different from what I once knew." She asked.
"That is because I can convey emotion to an extent," I said, accurately mimicking Zecora's voice, it still sounded robotic though.
"Emotion can be a powerful tool, though I take it you are no fool." Zecora said.
"Yes, I know how it can affect communication." I said, going completely monotone.
"Well, what's next? I would like some context" Zecora asked.
"I would like to get into contact with the ponies, can you help me with that?" I asked.
Zecora looked uncertain before speaking again.
"I am the wrong person to ask, I am not up for the task. Most ponies don't take kindly to outsiders, they fear the unknown." Zecora answered.
"I see, well thank you anyway, I'll just have to find some other way to get on their good side" I said, before continuing "It's great to be able to talk to you semi-normally, goodbye for now Zecora"
"Goodbye Teck, I wish you luck" Zecora said.
I turned to leave, disappointed, turns out I was right about Zecora not having very many contacts. Looks like I was doing this solo, at least I had a semi-defensible position right now. I would like to prepare more though, Zecora's words didn't give me much hope for a successful meeting.
At least the Luxite was growing, I'd be able to do more with it. It was then that I realized I had forgotten to take the night covers off. Not wanting to spend another moment waiting for Luxite, I raced back to the base.
Thankfully it was still in the early morning, there wasn't much sunlight making it into the chamber's anyway. I could see a little growth on the crystals though, that was good. At least some things were looking up. Back at base I refueled the generators and took a look at what I still needed to do.
I still needed to find a source of Titanite, and I needed to find some Ignite and Celestite or good substitutes if I wanted to be fully operational. Titanite must exist somewhere on this world right? I mean I had an ingot of it and Zecora knew what it was, so it had to come from somewhere.
The only solution to my resource problems was to travel further. Most of the environment I'd explored so far was either grassland, forest, or mountain. While Titanite could be found in those, Ignite and Celestite couldn't. Ignite was similar to Luxite, though was more volatile and emitted heat instead of light. Most of the time it is found in dry, arid places, like a desert or mesa.
Celestite though, was a more of an anomaly, it wasn't similar to any of the other crystals. All I knew what that it had anti-gravitational properties, and could be found in biomes devoid of life. Maybe organic compounds interrupted it's growth? I'd have to find a desolate wasteland if I wanted to find Celestite.
With three new tasks ahead of me, I had to travel further, longer, and faster than I have before. With the Luxite growing though, I could make another fuel tank, allowing me to do such things. I would have to go on quite the Venture...
Venture Company was all about taking risks, they loved to fly, race, and fight. Why exactly they started prospecting I do not know, what I do know however was that they made great flying techs, something that I used to use to my full advantage.
There was a problem though, I didn't have a Venture brand Fabricator with me. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting here right now talking about it, I'd be flying around with cheap but effective propellers.
What made Venture so much better than GSO was that they devised a way to sustain flight without the use of Ignite or Celestite. By using simple engineering they were able to come up with a very weak propeller. Of course they had more powerful propellers that could propel larger aircrafts, but that wasn't important right now.
What was important was that I had devised a way to get a Venture Fabricator, it was certainly a risk, but sort of necessary one. If I wanted to travel far relatively unnoticed, I'd have to stay in the air.
My plan was to trick the GSO Fabricator into fabricating a Venture one, don't ask me about the specifics, as I hadn't defined them yet. I didn't need much to craft a Venture Fabricator, I had all the resources I needed. Now it was time to actually craft the thing.
Thinking back to the last time I forced the Fabricator to fabricate with something it didn't like, I quickly fabricated another GSO Fabricator just in case.
With everything ready, I loaded up the Fabricator with the correct materials and components, and set it to craft a "GSO Fabricator".
At first nothing happened, then it started shaking, then it started shaking even harder, harder than the time I used bootleg Cuprite wire. Then it stopped, I thought it was done, but nothing came out the other end. Just what had happened in there?
Then it exploded, violently.
Thankfully I always have a block in front of my cabin, most of the time. A large piece of shrapnel decimated the small drill on the front, and embedded itself partway into the block in front of my cabin. I'm glad I had the foresight to make another Fabricator.
In the smoking crater however, was a heavily damaged Venture brand Fabricator, of course it's color palette like GSO, but it was the same design all Venture Fabricators used. Repairing it in a repair bubble, I anchored it down on the floor and opened up the menu, expecting to see only GSO items.
To my surprise it actually listed Venture items and blocks, that was great! I could finally fabricate some decent aircraft. I set right to work on designing a new plane, this time not just a glider.
I could even fabricate a Venture cabin, though less durable and accessible than GSO, they certainly were fast. I couldn't fabricate standard Venture blocks however, as they required Titanite, but there were plenty of other cool things I could craft.
I started with new wings, being more lightweight and streamlined, Venture wings were superior to GSO ones. Next I fabricated some Venture wheels, while not as strong, they were a lot faster that GSO, making them better for taking off. Then I fabricated a Venture cabin, not only was it faster than GSO, it was more aerodynamic, essential for planes.
Finally, I fabricated a small propeller, it didn't provide much thrust, but I could keep it on the entire time, something I couldn't do with boosters. There wasn't much else I could make in the form of utility, so I looked to see what weapons I could make. I definitely couldn't make everything, but there were some things that warranted investigation.
I could fabricate some Hail Fire rifles, medium range automatic fire rifles that did well in most situations. I could also fabricate the Oozee SMG, a stupidly high rate of fire gun that unloads bullets downrange. The last thing worth fabricating wasn't very popular with techs. The Reaper X1 Flamethrower, it wasn't very effective against other techs, being mostly fireproof and all, but I wasn't up against other techs, I was dealing with organic beings.
Who wouldn't want a flamethrower anyway? They are completely awesome, I guess that's why Venture designed them. Of course I wasn't just going to go around burning things, but flames were a good deterrent for most beings. Besides, flamethrowers were no longer on the banned weapons list now, I could use them whenever I wanted.
I had to make a couple of trips to the resource locations, I needed a lot to fabricate all I needed. I was beginning to notice some depletion though, there wasn't much Rodite left on the surface, and the well of Oleite wasn't as full as it used to be. Something to look out for in the future, I'd need to find more resource locations.
There was still plenty of Cuprite, I hadn't had much of a use for it. There was still Plumbite in the walls, even though I couldn't access it. There was still plenty of Carbite left on top of the cliff too, so it wasn't like I was completely out of resources. Still, I'd have to cut down on consumption until I found more.
With everything needed, I went to designing my new plane, it was a shame I couldn't fabricate any Venture blocks, they were extremely lightweight and flexible, perfect for aircraft. I was stuck with GSO, rigid and a bit heavier, I wouldn't be able to add much else to this plane than the necessities.
It was barely even able to lift off with the one propeller, that was not a good sign, it even kept listing off to the side even when it was evenly balanced. I'd need more power, thankfully that was possible with the addition of another propeller, now I had one on each side.
With the added propeller, I could actually add a few more accessories, but not much. I stuck with the radar, radio, and speakers, the most essential. I was even able to replace a part of the main body with a collector, allowing me to collect resources while out and about. If I had the resources I could definitely design this better, but right now I only had the one ingot of Titanite, so that was out of the question.
The plane was done, and now I could fly uninterrupted, I could travel farther faster and more clandestinely. I just needed a place to go. I've been East and West a bit, with Dragon's peak to the West and the Erudite field to the East. I hadn't been North of South however, perhaps I'd find something new?
I wasn't sure exactly where I was on the globe, but if I travel North or South a lot it would either get hotter or colder, depending on what hemisphere I'm in. The first thing I'd want to find was Celestite, with it I could create more shield bubbles, a strong but energy costly defense.
I'd be able to upgrade the dongle on the Component Factory again. That would allow me access to the most powerful components yet, I could create some powerful blocks with those. I didn't have Celestite yet though, best save the imaginary salivating at the mouth until I actually got some.
With my new tasks in order, I drove my new plane out of my base. I made it to the top of the ravine and was about to take off.
It seems like I'd never get to take off without an interruption anymore, as a certain blue icon appeared on my radar. I knew who it was though, thanks to my radar's upgrade.
Zecora soon walked out of the tree line, it was a little odd seeing her this late, it was getting pretty dark out. None the less she still walked up to my tech.
"Zecora, you have an impeccable sense of timing, this is like the third time you've stopped me from leaving." I said, feigning annoyance. "Do you want to come with?"
"I will not be flying anytime soon, though something interesting has happened this afternoon." Zecora said, grimacing a bit.
"Interesting how? If you came to tell me this late I assume it's pretty important." I asked
"Indeed it is. I have made friends with the ponies, allow me to explain..." Zecora started telling me all about how she went into their village earlier today, and the adventures that a little kid caused. It was interesting to say the least.
"At the spa, there was a mare named Twilight, she asked for my insight. She wanted to know if I knew of you, I told her that I do. I even said you wanted to meet with her, but I didn't tell her where you were." She finished.
"Thank you Zecora, I'd prefer to meet these ponies on my own terms. Is there a place for us to meet?" I asked.
"I did set something up, though it is rather abrupt. She agreed to tomorrow at noon, at my place is this opportune." Zecora said.
"Thank you Zecora, I'll be there. This is more important that flying right now." I said
Zecora nodded, then said her goodbyes and left.
Now I had a chance to meet with the ponies, apparently one of them was named Twilight. It was a bit of an odd name, I always thought it was weird to be named an object or thing. Though it's not like it's very uncommon, I've met Suzie Vroom.
Dear Princess Celestia,
My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; it's the contents of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S. To follow up on the report on the dragon, I have managed to arrange a meeting with the mystery third party, I hope to learn what their goals are and why they are here. I will report to you my findings in this endeavor.
It was a long night, I had carefully gone over everything I wanted to say, from what I wanted to reveal, to my requests. I didn't want to go around saying I was going to save the world willy nilly, that wasn't a good idea. I did want to speak to the head of government though, through them I could get support and access to essential resources.
I could also possibly gleam information from this "Twilight", if she was asking about me, then she must have seen me at one point or another. She was probably one of the ponies at Dragon's peak, which meant she had the capabilities to deal with dragons. I'd have to get on her good side.
The sun rose, but I still had time to prepare, I still had to replace my drill, and I could stock up on any extra resources. I wasn't too anxious, this could go three ways, good, bad, or neutral.
The good meant I go into contact with the government, allowing me to get support and resources for my cause, a best case scenario.
The bad meant I somehow made an enemy of the ponies, I would have to go into hiding and defend myself from any attacks. The worst case scenario.
The neutral way was I got into contact with the ponies, but wasn't able to get into contact with the government, or they didn't want to help. I would be on my own, but uninterrupted. An ok option.
By the time I had finished stocking up, It was nearly noon, so I started to head to Zecora's house. I was a little nervous, but the pony wanted to meet with me, and Zecora would be there as well.
I arrived at the house, apparently early as neither Zecora or the pony I was supposed to meet were there. Checking the position of the sun, it was pretty much directly above me. Maybe they were late?
I didn't have to wait long, as both walked out from the trees together. I recognized the purple unicorn from the mountain, I guess her name was Twilight. Lets get this started.
"Hello, you must be Twilight." I said in as much of a cheerful manner I could
"Oh!" She looked surprised, "You weren't who I was suspecting. Do you happen to know somepony similar to you who could fly?"
What was that saying? Keep your friends close but your enemies closer? Well, I didn't intend to make Twilight my enemy, but we weren't friends yet either. Lets hope Zecora plays along.
"Yes I do know of that person. I know them pretty well." I answered.
Zecora looked confused for a moment, then nodded in understanding. I guess she knew what I was playing at.
"Are they available? I'd like to ask them some questions." Twilight asked, sitting down on the ground.
"Unfortunately not, though I think I can answer a few of them. I could also relay any questions I can't answer to them" I answered again. "Shoot"
"Well, uh... I guess my first question is what exactly are you?" Twilight asked.
"That's a bit rude, but if you must know, we are called 'Techs'" I answered, feigning annoyance.
"Alright then." Twilight shied back a bit, before continuing, "What are you doing here?"
"Surviving I guess, it hasn't been too hard." I answered.
"Surviving? Are you supposed to be here?" Twilight asked.
"Not really, I don't know the exacts on how we got here." I answered. SCU's weren't my specialty after all, I had no idea how this had happened.
"Do you have a name?" Twilight asked.
"Yes I do, it's Tecka, and the other one it Tecker." I made up a variation on my name already.
"Are you like brother and sister or something?" Twilight asked.
"You could say that..." I intentionally trailed off.
"Ok then, why did you want to meet with me?" Twilight asked.
"Well, not you exactly, just ponies in general, but you seem like the right person to meet with. As to why, we need help, surviving is easy enough, but doing what we actually need to do isn't possible right now." I answered.
"What do you need help with?" She asked.
"Resources mainly, it's hard to construct something when you don't know the locations of the resources necessary. Or the common names for it." I answered.
"Common names? Do you speak a different language?" Twilight asked.
"I can speak plenty of languages, what I meant though was that my people have different names for things than your people do." I explained.
"Like how you say 'people', and we say 'ponies'?" Twilight asked, thinking back to my choice of words.
"Exactly" I said.
"Can you describe what you're looking for?" Twilight asked.
"Yes I can, we're looking for a dense metal that's blue in color and very resistant. I believe it's called Cobalt." I answered.
"I remember seeing 'Tecker' carrying some, is that not enough? It was quite a lot." Twilight asked, still amazed at how much 'Tecker' had.
"No, it isn't, we need a lot more." I explained.
"How much more? And where did you even find that much?" Twilight asked. She must really want to know where I got so much.
"A lot more, and Tecker didn't tell me where he found it." I lied. I didn't want Twilight to know I 'stole' it.
"Oh... Any other resources that you need?" Twilight asked, dissappointed.
"Yes, one is a blue crystal that has strange affects on gravity around it. The other is an orange crystal that provides heat." I described.
"I don't know too much about crystals, but I do know somepony who does, maybe they could help you with that?" Twilight said, thinking about what she knew.
"That would be most helpful." I replied. An expert in the field would definitely be helpful.
"Are there any questions you have for me?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, I do have questions. First, do you find my appearance scary?" I asked. I wanted to know exactly what other ponies thought of me.
"It's a little intimidating, but not necessarily scary." Twilight said.
"Do you have any way for me to get into contact with your government?"
"Yes, I do. Why would you want that though?" Twilight asked, confused.
"I guess you could say I'm an ambassador. There are some things I'd like to discuss." I said. I mean, it wasn't a total lie, I don't have the qualifications, but I was the first contact.
"I could arrange a meeting for you, if you'd like." Twilight said.
"I would like that very much, thank you." I replied.
"Do you have any more questions?" Twilight asked.
"No, I do not. Thank you for meeting with me." I said, concluded.
"No problem, I'm sure we could become good friends." Twilight said, standing up to leave.
"Friends huh? Alright then." I replied, guess I'm adding another one to the list.
Twilight paused for a moment, looking at my tech, then spoke up again.
"I do have one more question." Twilight said,
"Go ahead." I replied
"What are those things on top of you?" Twilight asked.
"You mean these?" I asked, gesturing to my guns with the inserter.
Twilight nodded.
"Do you recognize them?" I asked
"I have actually, somepony named Nightmare Moon had one of them." Twilight said.
"Is this 'Nightmare Moon' a tall dark pony with blue armor?" I asked
"Yes, how did you know?" Twilight asked, surprised that I knew of them.
"She stole one of these from me, she wasn't very nice." I explained, recounting my encounter with her.
"What do they do?" Twilight asked, curious about their purpose.
"They're weapons." I said simply.
"WEAPONS?!" Twilight shouted.
"Yes, weapons, I use them to defend myself." I explained further
"How do they work?" Twilight asked nervously,
"They launch projectiles." I said
"Care to demonstrate?" Twilight asked.
"No." I said, there was still some things I would like to keep hidden.
"Ok, well... I'll see what I can do about getting you an audience with the crown." Twilight said
"The crown? So you have a monarchy?" I asked.
"Actually it's a diarchy." Twilight explained
"So what, a King and a Queen?" I asked.
"No, two princesses, and they're sisters." Twilight said
"Interesting." I said, I wonder how much control they had over the country
"What form of government do you have?" Twilight asked.
"We have a Federation, it works out alright." I explained,
"Interesting, does it have a name?" Twilight asked.
"I don't remember the official name, but most people just call it 'The Federation'" I said, I actually did remember the official name, but 'The Galactic Federation' would've blown my cover.
"Where is it located?" Twilight asked.
Another difficult question, how could I answer this without revealing I'm not of this world? Maybe I could do a half truth.
"In comparison to here? I don't really know, I don't recognize any of the landmarks, what is this country called anyway?" I asked
"Equestria." was all Twilight said.
"Can't say I've heard of it, it's possible the Federation is on the other side of the globe." I said, knowing full well it was a lot farther away than that.
"That doesn't sound good, not much is known about places that far away." Twilight said.
Looks like I got lucky, this world doesn't have global communication yet.
"Are there others like you?" Twilight asked
"There are a lot like me, though most aren't so sociable." I answered.
"Like Tecker?" Twilight asked.
"Well, he can be a little blunt." I lied. I just bought myself a get out of conversation free card when I'm in the plane, nice.
"This has been very informative Tecka, but I do have to go. I'll let you know how long it'll take for you to receive an audience when I get back. For now, goodbye." Twilight said, starting to leave.
"Thank you Twilight, goodbye for now." I said, not really moving.
With that, Twilight left. Leaving me and Zecora alone.
"Why did you lie? She asked, clearly wanting an explanation.
"There are some things I'd like to keep hidden, I'm sure you have your fair share of secrets as well. Don't think I didn't see that tattoo underneath those bands." I said.
Zecora looked baffled, then checked her bands to make sure they were covering her leg.
"Touché, congratulations on conversing without dismay." She said.
"Thank you for setting this up Zecora, I am in your debt." I didn't enjoy saying that, being in debt was not a good thing. Especially in the Federation, but this was between friends, so I'm sure it was fine.
"Consider it payment, for saving my life." was all she said.
"Well I'll be off then, there are still things to do." I said, turning to leave.
Zecora nodded, and headed back into the forest, probably to go gather some herbs. I still had things to do though, but my flight was delayed, at least until I got an answer back from Twilight. Looks like it's back to waiting...
Lets just say the week passed, there wasn't anything too exiting, the Luxite finished growing, and I heard back from the Twilight pony. Apparently the Princesses were very busy, the had to deal with nobles and country maintenance. The closest slot I could fit into was a month away.
It wasn't so bad though, It gave me plenty of time to explore and if I stressed enough that it was an emergency, I could possibly get my meeting earlier. It wasn't that much of an emergency, at least I thought it wasn't. I was fairly sure that I was far from Federation space, I didn't have any star charts to prove it, but I didn't recognize any of the constellations, so I was at least several Lightyears away. Very much a traversable distance, but there were most likely a lot of planets to prospect before this one, I had some time.
I met with the Rarity pony, and she provided her crystal insight. She didn't know of Celestite, but she had heard of Ignite, which was apparently called Fire Topaz. It was uncommon, but it could be found down South, way into the desert. I'd have to really look for it though, most obvious outcrops had been mined already, Ignite sure had its uses.
The desert was far though, about three days for a train ride, maybe a day for my plane. I could fly over whenever I wanted, but spending two or more days there just to collect five Ignite shards. wasn't something that I wanted to do. If I was going to go collect Ignite, I wanted to collect a lot, so I'd have to figure something out.
Not having access to my inventory sucked. If I did have it, I could've just packed up my fabrication station and fly over to the desert. Then I could set everything up, refine a bunch of Ignite, fabricate some storage blocks, then stick them into my inventory and fly home.
But I didn't have that, so I'd have to be careful with how I did it. They best idea I had was similar to what I'd do with my inventory, only when I made the storage blocks, I'd replace some of the structure of my plane with them. With the Venture Fabricator, I could make lighter weight ones, even if they didn't store as much. I'd be able to fit some more collectors on my plane as well. I would stuff it full of Ignite.
The only problem was moving the Fabricator and Refinery, I had to take them on the plane with me, but there wasn't any good place to fit them on. They were big, bulky, and messed with both the plane's balance and aerodynamics. If only I had better propellers, I could make a larger plane.
To make larger propellers though, I'd need Ignite, another loop, I'd need Ignite to get Ignite. Fortunately I was able to get some, just not much. I could replace another block on the plane with a collector though, that allowed me ten pieces of Ignite, and hey, maybe I could find a way to grow Ignite too.
First I needed to refit the plane, I added another collector and placed a small drill on it, in case I needed to break open some sturdy rocks. Next was to inform Zecora that I was leaving, and to tell that to any'pony' who came searching for me that I was away for a few days.
With everything in order, I was ready to head off into the desert.
This time I wasn't interrupted before takeoff, so I started without any delay. I would be flying for a long time, almost an entire day by my estimates. I didn't need to take any breaks, except maybe to cool down the propellers, but they were usually alright with air cooling.
I was able to fly much higher too, with constant thrust I wasn't just stuck to gliding below the clouds. I was much less visible this high up, I wasn't certain how high a Pegasus could fly, but there came a point where you were just too high up to breathe. Something I didn't need to worry about, of course my dinky little engines couldn't function that high, but that was soon to be solved.
My trip was very boring, some clouds here, another cloud there, hey look a tree the size of a pebble. Normally when I had free time I could spend it doing something, but there wasn't much to do up here, and flying like this didn't take much focus either.
I ended up just thinking about the future. In a month I would be meeting with a "Princess Celestia" who was apparently the head of government. During that meeting, I will reveal my plea for help in my endeavors. If I get desperate enough I will reveal my extra terrestrial nature.
I wasn't sure about revealing it right away, mainly because I had no idea what their reaction would be, and also I had an unhealthy habit of keeping secrets of potentially useful information. I don't know why I do it, maybe to keep an edge over everyone else, but if push came to shove, I'd reveal it. This planet, or more importantly what it held was very important to me.
After several hours of flying, the sun started to go down, and the ground below me shifted from bright green to greenish yellow, a sign of a more arid climate. I wasn't just in the desert yet, but I was getting close. Hopefully I could find some Ignite soon, I didn't want to stay away from base too long.
There wasn't else much to think about during my flight, maybe why I was doing this? If I could pull off this whole plan without fail, I'll be one of the most successful and famous prospectors out there. I would hardly have to pilot a tech again with all the money I could make from this world. And there were the friendships too.
Zecora wasn't my first friend, I've had friends before. Not like Mike, he was a business partner. My friendships usually didn't last however, prospecting was challenging work, and if you weren't up for it, you would fail. That's what happened to most of my friends, they simply quit the business and we lost touch.
There was that one time though, where one of my longer friendships ended in a bitter battle, all over a simple miscount of profits. I could never go back to them, especially since I accidently killed them. They didn't tell me they were out of cabins, I still regret it to this day.
It wasn't the first time I've killed before, accidents happen all the time, especially in the prospecting business. I've destroyed so many cabins of other techs, it was statistically impossible for me not to have directly caused another prospector's death. I didn't like to think about it.
The next few hours were silent, nothing but the annoying noise of the propellers, they sounded like a large wind up toy, and there were two of them. The terrain beneath me turned to a yellowish orange, there wasn't anymore obvious plant life, a sure sign I was above a desert. Banking around, I descended slowly, making sure to check out the landscape for any signs of Ignite.
I landed the plane on a relatively flat stretch of land, it wasn't all sand, I was on a mesa, perfect.
My immediate surroundings didn't hold anything of interest, but I was in prime Ignite country, I'd just have to keep searching. I didn't know how far away I was from civilization, so I wasn't sure what direction to keep travelling in. I decided to keep going South, following a dirt road.
Flying low this time, I kept a keen lookout for anything resembling Ignite, it would be easy to see in the dark. I did come across an abandoned mining town, it was worn down and falling apart. Probably because whatever they were mining ran out, hopefully it wasn't Ignite. Venturing further South, the dirt road ended, there was even an abandoned cart on it.
It looked torn to shreds, hopefully by the weather, if there was anything dangerous here I didn't want to stick around to find out. I kept going in the cool night air.
Continuing South, I spotted something orange against the dark yellow sands. It was, in fact, Ignite, though a very small outcropping of it, only enough for one good chunk. I continued South.
The yellow sands eventually turned to a dull grey, with large cracks in the surface. Not quite like the salt flats from the previous world, but pretty close. I spotted several dead trees. That wasn't good, something made this land uninhabitable. That many trees didn't just grow in a desert.
Ignite didn't grow very well in this climate either, so I stuck to the border between the desert and wasteland. A bit of dread setting in.
Continuing on, I spotted a larger crystal of Ignite in the sand, quickly driving over to it, I placed the drill on front of the plane. Drilling into it yielded several chunks of Ignite, several of them clinking when they landed on the sand.
Wait a minute, clinking on sand? That wasn't normal. Looking closely, there was nothing in or underneath the sand to warrant such a sound, just what had caused it?
Just then, my radar showed a hostile, right behind me, I don't know how it got close without the radar catching it, but it did. I didn't really need to turn the tech around to see it, but if I wanted a clear shot, I needed to move the tail wing out of the way. I turned the tech around.
What stood before me was strange to say the least. It was large, black, though not like 'Nightmare Moon', this thing had a glossy, green look to it, making it more visible in the dark. It was obviously an insectoid, I could see large pincers and antenna on it's 'head' It was covered in chitin, I could also see elytra on it's back. Only four legs however, dotted with holes, probably to reduce weight.
We both stood still for a moment, before it hissed, and spit a green glob at my tech. I backed up, but not before it grazed one of my wings, quickly eating through the material while igniting into green flame.
I fired back, I only had the one gun, plus the two weaker ones on my cabin though. It was enough however, as the bullets impacted it's side, cracking the carapace and knocking it to its side.
It screeched, a shrill echoing noise pierced the silence that once resided over the area.
Just then, hundreds of red icons appeared on the edges of my radar. Looking around I could see a lot of black shapes in the distance, almost hidden against the night sky. I must have stumbled upon a hive of these things, and I couldn't fly away either, the acid or fire or acid-fire had eaten through the rest of the wing, permanently disabling it.
I could still drive at least, so shedding the other wing to take away any lift I had, I started driving back North, towards the least dense part of the swarm.
A cacophony of hisses, clicks, and screeches sounded around my tech, several bolts of acid-fire flew past my tech. My tech drove faster than they could run, but they could also fly, which was much faster.
Starting up the propellers, I gained extra speed as I made a break for the edge of the swarm, which was now closing in on me at all directions. Firing directly in front of me, I tried to clear a path through the insectoids, but there were just too many.
Thankfully, none of them wanted to be run over by my tech, but they still spat acid-fire at me, which hit. My two front wheels popped, and I was no longer able to drive away, just forced to lay there, immobile.
Swiveling the gun around, I fired at the most dense part of the swarm, downing several of them before those around me spit acid-fire at the gun, destroying it.
Since the gun was right above my cabin, a lot of the acid-fire rained down onto it, eating through the hull and dissolving the glass. It was destroyed.
So much for getting Ignite I guess, the original tech powered back up as I took control. Next time, I'm bringing the flamethrower...
Losing expensive items sucked. Not only did I lose the whole plane, I also lost the upgraded speakers. While not too hard to fabricate again, it was the Erudite that was expensive. I still didn't have a good way of obtaining it, it wasn't like I could just make an Auto Miner either, those needed Titanite, more than what I had. I was a bit pissed.
Besides, Auto Miners were really only good on highly saturated veins of material, I'd pull up mostly rock and dirt before I got to any Erudite. If only I had some Geocorp excavators, those things could move earth like it was nothing. Sadly, those costed a lot of Titanite too.
Thankfully I still had some Erudite left, well, one Erudite left. I was still able to speak "normally" but I still needed more Erudite, it was like my lifeblood. I was left with only one other option to get some, I had to ask for help. I didn't know how much Zecora knew about mining, but I did know someone who knew a lot about gems, probably enough to know where and how to get them too.
There was a problem though, it wasn't like I could just roll into town. Even though Rarity had seen me, other ponies hadn't. There's no telling how they'd react. I could probably go get Zecora to fetch her, but that felt like I was asking her too much. I guess I'd just have to wait around until the next opportunity to ask her for help.
In the meantime, I could always try more donuts and explosives to get more. At least I could get some before probably having to pay for it. I headed out of the base, making a detour to Zecora's so I could tell her I was back. She was surprised to see me back so early, but saddened to hear I was destroyed again.
I caught her muttering about my bad luck with flying, but I didn't comment on it. I had things to do.
It was still early morning, last night's 'fight' was still fresh on my mind, I wanted to burn something. I normally didn't hold anger for anything, but I loathe insectoids. I've had several bad run ins with them on several different planets, and since learned that fire usually works best. Those Fire ants were a real problem though.
It was especially bad that they were 'guarding' an essential resource from me. From what I could tell, those insectoids were the reason why there was more Ignite around that area, it's too dangerous to mine it. I'd really have to gear up when I went back to try again.
One thing was for certain however, I was not driving there, a three day trip just to get there was too much, not to mention I would probably run into something or another that might cause problems. Flying really was the best option, but first I had to rebuild the plane.
It was just then that a large colorful ball rolled from out of the trees, straight at my tech. It wasn't rolling very fast, but it was about as large as my tech. Unable to maneuver out of the way, the large ball smashed into my tech, it didn't do much damage, nor move my tech, meaning it was relatively light.
What happened next though confused me, this giant ball 'dissolved' into a pile, like the bindings that held it together simply just disappeared, not too unlike a tech. The pieces that made it up however were still moving, like each piece was alive in some way.
Turns out they were alive, as most of them simply sprouted wings and began buzzing around my tech. They made no obvious signs of attack, but they didn't fly away either.
Now you may be thinking, why hadn't I destroyed these insufferable little insectoids? Well it's obvious, they haven't inconvenienced me at all, so I had no quarrel with them.
That all changed when a wave of purple energy washed over the area, causing all the little buggers to pause mid air.
The swarm immediately encapsulated my tech, buzzing around it and landing on it. Several of the insectoids attempted to pierce through some of the blocks, and while successfully damaging them, the repair bubble I had recently installed quickly patched up the holes.
Repair bubbles don't last forever though, my battery was quickly draining, I'd have to deal with these things before it ran out. Quickly turning back, I drove through the forest back towards my base, it was a little hard to see through the swarm, but it lagged behind enough to get a clear enough view.
Firing my guns didn't do much, they were just too small and agile, and I'd only hit one at a time. With my battery half empty, I made it back to the clearing. I drove down the ramp, into the ravine, and quickly switched the the extra cabin I had left inside the base.
I wasn't just going to unload a bunch of hostiles into my base you know. Quickly building a small tech, only 4 wheels and two blocks, I attached the flamethrower as well as a full battery. Driving out of the base, I attached the full battery too the swarmed tech, giving it more power.
Since my new tech wasn't noticed yet, I was free to get into a good position. I unleashed flames all over my tech, vaporizing any of the bugs around it. Thankfully it didn't take much to put them down, I wouldn't have to damage my tech too much trying to take care of these things.
Sensing the danger, the swarm broke off into several smaller swarms, scattering around the inside of the ravine. They didn't appear to be capable of flying out of it though, perfect.
I drove the weaker tech back into the base, but not before attaching the flamethrower to the my original one. Switching to the larger tech, I began methodically searching out the swarms and burning them, making sure none survived.
After about five minutes of doing this, there were none left flying, I wasn't sure if there were any left alive however, so I went around torching the piles of bodies again. Just to be sure, it wasn't like I was enjoying myself or anything. Ok maybe just a little.
With everything taken care of, I still had my quest to obtain more Erudite. The best option I could think of using the resources available to me, was to fabricate the largest wheels I could, and then simply attempt to dig with those. Thankfully GSO allowed some large wheels, and while nothing compared to Venture's Titan Truck Wheel, the Muddy Dog Wheel will serve my purposes well.
With my tech now effectively a tractor, I traveled to the Erudite zone. It didn't take too long, larger wheels doesn't mean slower speed after all.
I simply got to work, just driving back and forth with as little traction as possible. Dirt and stones sprayed everywhere, but so did a lot of Erudite. After about an hour of 'excavating', I had seven Erudite chunks, enough for now.
The bad thing about larger wheels however, was they were big, clunky, and left huge tracks. Something I didn't really want to do, I wasn't really left with a choice however, so I just drove home. Hopefully no-one follows my tracks too much, at least the first ones I've made were beginning to clear up.
With Erudite once again in my possession, I was able to craft more circuit boards. I would've liked to craft some simple A.I.'s but an essential piece of any A.I. is Celestite, for some reason. Since I didn't have any, I was forced to do most things manually.
What really sucked was that I wasn't able to guard my base, with a simple A.I. I could just set it up to defend against hostiles. Right now I was only capable of a regenerating wall, which was still pretty powerful, but easily breachable with a powerful enough attack.
I couldn't get any Celestite right now however, so there was no point in anticipating what I could do with it. There was something I could get though, but I'd have to prepare for it. Whether they like it or not, I'm going to get some Ignite, and to do that, I'd need a bigger plane.
Even though they were only small propellers, they still costed a lot of Oleite to make, especially since I was making four of them. it was enough to almost completely drain the well of Oleite. Thankfully some of it had filled back up since the last time I collected, but I had no idea how large the reservoir actually was. Hopefully enough for me to not have to worry about it any time soon.
The new plane design was bigger, with tipped wings this time, they allowed it more control in the air. I also made space for more collectors, I definitely wanted to carry as much as possible. I could also fit it with a repair bubble and batteries, an essential if I wanted to stay in a fight.
I wasn't sure how effective the repair bubble would be against the acid-fire, but it would probably be enough to not lose a wing. I wasn't just going on the defensive either. The tipped wings actually had attachment points on the bottoms, allowing me to fit weapons underneath, I also put the Oozee SMG underneath, it wouldn't get a full range of motion, but it meant my front was the most deadly.
I also fitted the flamethrower on top, while it would affect the aerodynamics a little bit, it also had a full range of motion, able to spew flames in any direction.
Armed to the metaphorical teeth, this plane was ready to fly, I also made sure to protect the cabin more, even if I lost a bit of the streamlined shape.
With four propellers, this plane was faster than the last one, but not by much. I would be able to make the journey with probably a few hours to spare now, not much of an improvement, but a welcome one.
I still had time to make my journey, I really only spent one day flying and recovering, giving me more than enough time to attempt it again.
Lining up the plane in the clearing, I started all four propellers, made sure my batteries were charged, checked my radar, and took off.
The sun was high in the sky while I flew, maybe a little bit after noon, I wasn't too sure, I didn't have a clock.
The flight was boring to say the least, having made it before there wasn't much new, and there wasn't much to think about either.
The whole point of the trip was to get some Ignite, revenge was only a secondary objective. Besides, I was sure I didn't have enough firepower to take on the whole hive.
After several hours of flying, I reached the desert again, I didn't land this time, just followed my previous path, right to the border.
I wasn't exactly at my 'death' location, but I was close. I could see several small outcroppings of Ignite, but I wasn't just going to land and mine them just yet. I had to do something first.
It didn't take long to find the remains of the plane. Not much remained, but the mostly white object with charred black spots on it easily stood out against the desert sands. There wasn't anything salvageable.
I landed nearby, but kept the propellers running, I wanted to be able to take off on a moments notice. I mentally kicked myself for not bringing an upgraded radar, the extra power and distance would really help right now. There wasn't much I could do about that now though.
I wanted to fight, but I also didn't want to lose this tech either, so for now I would just grab as much Ignite as possible and go. In and out, only pausing to defend myself.
The Ignite outcroppings were a bit of distance apart from each other, but clearly visible. I could traverse the distance in a few seconds. I kept my weapons ready the entire time.
Deathly silence resided over the entire desert, no wind, no chittering, even the winding of my propellers and wheels quickly drowned out in the silence. A small sense of dread came over me.
Obviously these things were adapted to the desert right? Or at least the wasteland, that meant they must've had some way to camouflaged themselves. Black really stood out in the light.
Everything remained silent though, no movement in the sand, and nothing appearing on my radar. I hadn't actually entered the wasteland yet, maybe that's why I wasn't attacked? Maybe I set off some sort of alarm when I crossed the border.
I didn't know exactly how most insects worked, I think they use hormones or something. I had reached the first outcropping of Ignite, when I realized something, something bad.
I had forgotten to bring a drill, while I could still 'mine' the crystal, I'd have to do it with my guns, something that was quite a bit louder than a drill. I'd have to be fast.
A red icon appeared on the edge of my radar, before quickly going out again. I snapped to attention, aiming all of my guns in the icon's direction, nothing moved. I couldn't see over the dune however, and my radar range expanded past it. I was not in a good position.
Turning back, I quickly gunned down the Ignite outcrop, dropping several usable chunks. Quickly setting them in my collectors, I took off.
Several red icons appeared on my radar, and looking down, I could see some black shapes in the sand. I wondered if these things even realized I could fly, I hadn't really flown when I first met them. Maybe they didn't even think I was the same being. If they could think at all.
Banking back around, I dove towards the next Ignite outcrop. Preemptively firing my guns, I destroyed it and landed. Once again more Ignite was set in my collectors, I took off once more.
Even more red icons appeared on the radar, and even more black shapes appeared in the sand. Several of them firing acid-fire bolts up at my plane. None of them hit, but they were getting more aggressive.
These 'hit and run' tactics continued for a bit, I'd spot and outcrop, fly over to it, dive down and collect it then take off again. Every time the insectoids retaliated, either they didn't like me harvesting their Ignite, or something else.
I didn't underestimate these thing's intelligence, they attempted to set a trap at the next outcrop, I could see the sand shifting around it, and a green hue appeared in the sand, but I just flew over it.
This continued to the point where my collectors were almost full, but these insectoids had lain a trap at every nearby outcrop. I debated whether or not I should be greedy, when I realized I had yet to shoot at one of these things.
They were no longer camouflaging themselves, with hundreds of them trailing behind my plane while several stood still ahead of it. Being insects, their wings weren't used for speed, but for mobility. Mine were used for speed, so none of them could catch up to me.
Circling around, I gave one last look for any more un-trapped outcrops when several hundred of the insectoids flew up ahead of my flight path, almost acting like mines in the air.
They didn't predict my maneuverability though, as the tipped wings provided enough steering to completely avoid their wall of bodies. They probably wouldn't make that mistake again.
Realizing it was time I left, I started a new course back North, only for an even larger 'minefield' to fly up. It wasn't just only in front of me either, more flew up from the sides and several flew up from the back. Effectively surrounding me.
I started gaining altitude, but so did they, there wouldn't be enough time to clear the wall, so I had to tear through it.
Bullets filled the air in front of me as all of my guns began firing, several insectoids were shot out of the sky in the onslaught I unleashed. The flamethrower spewing flame at anything too close.
Several bolts of acid-fire flew around me, some impacting my plane, the repair bubble did it's job though, and prevented me from losing any parts. I continued to shoot my way through the swarm.
There was one disadvantage to loading a tech with guns however, recoil. While I didn't have an overwhelming amount of guns, the combined recoil was enough to slow my plane down. Not enough to stop flying, but reducing it's speed to the point where the back of the swarm could catch up.
I still hadn't broken through the front however, so I was at a race against the insects to escape from their grasp. There were still several insectoids in front of the plane, they were quickly gunned down however, and the path North was clear.
Angling all the guns backwards, and careful not to shoot myself, I used their recoil to my advantage and sped up. With the added bonus of eviscerating several of the insectoids in the process. I had escaped.
There was a problem though, I only gathered so much Ignite, I'd have to get more sometime. When I did though, they'd be ready for me.
"My queen, another ponycraft has stolen from us."
"Another one? Did you destroy it?"
"No, it has escaped our defenses."
"How?!"
"It flew faster than the last one, it also had more weapons, several guards and soldiers were killed."
"THOSE PONIES DARE!?"
"There was something odd about this one though,"
"WHAT IS IT?!"
"It didn't fall for any of our traps, it even kept a lookout for us."
"THIS MEANS?!"
"They must have built it specifically to steal from us."
A slam echoed throughout the chamber, the walls shook a little bit. Something was not happy.
"Those ponies invade our lands, steal our resources, and build crafts specifically to fight us. Well, two can play at that game, lets see how the ponies enjoy being invaded themselves..."
Laughter sounds out throughout the chamber, soon a cacophony of chittering joins in.
I had successfully escaped the grasp of the insectoids. Now I had several chunks of Ignite, about twelve, enough to fabricate some items, but I'd need more soon.
That was a thought for another time however, I was just glad to finally have some Ignite to work with. The flight home took a while though, plenty of time for me to think about what to make.
First things first, I'd make some better propellers, the Seraphim Nose Propeller was a great upgrade, not much bigger and a lot more thrust to give. I would be able to fly faster and higher with one of them. The Zero Propeller was also good, with a fully encased blade, it held many attachment points with a more streamlined structure. It didn't provide as much thrust however, an interesting choice.
I wanted my plane to be more defensible though, so I chose to fabricate some Zero Propellers, it already flew faster than with the Pinwheels propellers, but not as fast with the Seraphim Propellers.
Next up, with the Ignite I could fabricate the next upgrade for the Component Factory, allowing me to make some high tier stuff, full on A.I. cores and Nuclear Explosives. Of course, I couldn't fabricate half of them without Celestite, but I could fabricate the components necessary for some powerful weapons.
I could create the GSO's Big Bertha Cannon, able to punch through almost anything, while also packing a mean explosion. Shield Bubbles didn't even stand a chance against it. I would have to wait though, it required a lot of Luxite to Fabricate.
Next up was Venture's Rapid Cannon, not as powerful as the Big Bertha, or even it's downgrades, but it shot and aimed faster, a good tradeoff.
Finally, was Venture's Sonic Lance, it wasn't very good at piercing defenses, but boy could it launch stuff. This thing packed enough power to catapult several tons a good distance. It could also be deafening if set to the right frequency.
I didn't need any of these weapons right now, at least I didn't think I did, at least nothing I fabricated was really permanent either. With just a simple Scrapper, I could completely undo any fabrication I made. Boy do I love advanced technology, not much waste products.
I was looking at what else I could do with the Ignite, when I saw I could make even more advanced circuit boards. This time, the paths diverged, one path used Ignite, and focused on power over efficiency. The other path used Celestite, and focused on accuracy and finesse.
Using some Erudite, I made an Ignite Circuit. Testing it had some interesting results. It didn't affect the speakers much, just allowing me to use a louder volume. The radar's distance extended quite a bit, but I couldn't use advanced detection or icons. Finally, the Inserter became powerful enough to punch through a standard block, and be able to crush a piece of Plumbite ore. It regained a bit of it's jerkiness however, though I could probably use it to dig.
I was excited to see how the Celestite Circuit would upgrade my items, there were definitely some uses I could think of having.
I still didn't have Celestite though, but I did finally have working 'shovel'. By gripping a large plate of Plumbite, I could use the Ignite boosted Inserter to dig into the ground. It was pretty effective actually, but the Plumbite could not handle the stress for long, the shovel head broke after digging around for a bit.
I was definitely able to excavate Erudite better, but it still wasn't the best. With this new found ability, I went straight to the Erudite fields to gather more. You can never be too careful after all. I stocked up on some Plumbite plates, carrying them on the back of my tech.
The short drive over was uneventful, but what lay before me at the fields was quite the sight.
A multitude of piles made of loose dirt sporadically littered the fields. They weren't there last time, so something must have made them, and recently too. None of the dirt was settled.
Driving closer to inspect the piles, I learned that these piles were probably made by some sort of subterranean creature.
How I learned this you might ask? Well it's simple really, the immense weight of my tech was enough to buckle the supports in the cave system below.
All of my wheels sunk into the ground, I was unable to drive out of the pit as it rumbled and shook. It started sinking into the ground, not unlike the first time I fell. Then everything stopped, and I thought I wouldn't sink any lower.
Then the whole area around me collapsed, I didn't fall too far this time, but it wasn't a short distance either. Thankfully my tech was upright, so the wheel's suspension took the brunt of the fall.
My tech was now inside a cave system, it looked dugout, with claw marks evident all along the walls and floor. Sunlight streaked in through the brand new skylight I had just unintentionally installed. It certainly helped with visibility, and I was able to see some old rusted minecarts, tracks, and support beams.
None of it had any dust on it, well, no old dust. The cave-in produced quite a lot of it. This equipment must have been just brought here. Despite it being rusted.
Looking around again, I switched on my tech's lights as I drove out of the pile of rocks and dirt. There wasn't much around, though it looked like several chunks of stone were pulled out of the walls. Just what exactly was going on around here?
I had to find some way out, the only problem was there I didn't see any exits the size of my tech, except for the one I just made. I couldn't just go straight up though, not yet at least. I'd have to either find myself an exit, or make one.
It was clear something had passed through earlier, evident by the paw prints in the dirt. The strange thing though, was that they were too far apart to be quadrupedal, and there weren't any other prints in the dirt either.
Some sort of bipedal canine or feline? An interesting discovery. Hopefully I could converse with them, they at least had enough intelligence to use primitive mining equipment.
Many of the tunnels were too small for my tech, I wasn't able to move around much either. It looked like I had to do some downsizing if I wanted to explore these caves.
Quickly shedding extra blocks, I was left with the bare bones of a tech. Cabin, drill, gun, battery, repair bubble, radar, speakers, and a couple of blocks. I had to leave behind the inserter, I couldn't really fit it onto my tech in a useful way. I really hope these things didn't attack on sight.
To protect my extra blocks, I assembled a quick wall out of all the standard blocks and loaded everything else behind it. It wasn't anchored to the ground, but it did weigh a bit, enough where I was sure nothing would move it much.
I started down one of the many tunnels of this cavern, I didn't really know which way to go, so I just chose the most well worn tunnel. There was a lot of foot traffic down this path, it would be a good place to start.
I didn't have that much light, only the ones from my cabin, but the enclosed space allowed those lights to reveal a great much. The cave ahead split, but the prints did not, I continued to follow them.
Eventually, light came from the end of the tunnel, driving up to it, it revealed a large room. Inside the room were several grated doors, like prison cells. I could see makeshift beds with several piles of belongings next to them. These must be the living quarters, they were very run down.
There was only one other thing in this room, a single form on one of the beds, unmoving. Getting closer, I could see it was definitely dog-like, also bipedal, and had several dirty bandages wrapped around it's body. It must've been injured somehow, and was now recovering. But where were all the others?
The dog was asleep, and while I could wake it, I didn't really want to. Then again, this thing was in no position to fight me, the best time to talk to something.
"Hey, wake up," Was all I said.
It grumbled, and shifted a bit on it's bed. I tried again.
"Get up, I've got some questions for you." I said.
It opened it's eyes, it groaned as the lights from my cabin irritated them. These dogs must be a bit sensitive to light.
"Go away." It said, in a gravely voice.
"Not until you answer my questions." I reiterated.
The dog finally looked over to my tech, and it's eyes widened, it would've jumped out of bed if it could. It almost did actually, but just fell on it's side and almost fell out of the bed. It must've landed on something painful, because it whimpered a bit.
"Intruder!" it said after taking a moment to recover, "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for a way out mostly." I simply said, "And maybe getting some crystals while I'm here."
It's eyes narrowed, "You steal from us? Big mistake for you."
"No, not steal, trade perhaps, I'd like to see if you have anything I want, and I'll tell you what I have to trade." I explained in a neutral tone.
"Trade? Not many trade..." It trailed off, before it realized something, "You are still intruder! How did you get here?"
"I accidentally caused a cave in, apparently I was too heavy." I explained.
"Cave in bad, cause many problems. You cannot get out?" It asked, looking a bit confused.
"I fell straight down, I cannot climb the wall either, can you help?" I replied.
"I get Alpha, follow me," It said, slowly getting out of bed and grabbing a makeshift crutch/walking stick.
I was surprised on how much it trusted me, I guess even though it had bad grammar, it wasn't dumb, or at least smart enough to see reason.
I followed it down a different cave, it didn't walk very fast, and let out a few grunts of pain as it hobbled along. After a few minutes of walking, we entered a different room.
This room wasn't as large, and I could see several support pillars dotted around. There were a lot more dogs in this room, just sort of milling about. There lay a trail of dogs pulling carts to and from a section of tunnels. It looked like they were still building/digging this place, no wonder I didn't find them before.
"How long have you been here?" I asked the dog.
"Arrived here five days ago. Started digging two days ago." The dog answered.
All this in only two days? That was... well I didn't have an accurate comparison. For me, if I had the right gear, I could probably get this whole thing done in a couple of hours. Still, two days was a pretty short time. These dogs must be good diggers.
"How did you get injured?" I asked.
The dog looked at my tech, even with the wheels it was just a bit shorter than the dog. It seemed to think for a bit before answering.
"Cave in." Was all it said.
"Were you the only one hurt?" I asked
"Only one to 'survive'." it said, looking down.
"Oh, sorry." I replied.
The dog didn't respond, we continued down another cave, leaving the unfinished room. After a couple more minutes of walking, I was lead into a much larger room this time with 'ornate' pillars if you could call them that. They had designs and patterns that were haphazardly scratched into them. They each held small gems and torches in holders, it definitely gave an odd aesthetic.
It certainly wasn't a throne room, there was no chair. It was definitely more 'lavish' than the rest of the cave system though, the floor and walls were smoothed over, and there was a set of wooden furniture on one side of the room. A more stable looking bed lay on the other side, with actual covers on it, one looked like it was made of hide.
Sitting on one of the wooden chairs was another dog, this one was clearly the alpha. It as standing a bit taller than all the others and wearing a red jacket with a lot of gems in it's pockets. It was conversing with two other dogs, also wearing jackets, maybe they were the seconds in command?
The injured dog barked, albeit a weak one. It still got the alpha's attention though, and all three looked over, and immediately noticed the large green bubble around us. The injured one probably didn't notice it, I mean he was inside it since the moment he woke up.
"What are you?" The one with the red jacket spoke up.
"Why are you here?" The next one asked.
"Who are you?" The final one asked.
They all got into defensive stances, as if expecting me to attack.
"I mean you no harm, I'm just looking for a way out." I said back to the trio.
"Why you here Scruff? You injured." One of them said.
"Thing woke me up, also wanted trade." the now named Scruff replied.
"Trade? For what, Thing?" Another asked.
"I have a name you know, it's Tecka. And I wanted to take a look at what you have, to see if you have anything I want." I said. Might as well ride this 'multiple' techs lie for as long as possible.
"Tell us what you have first." The first one said,
"Very well, to start, I have some Sunstones, though not many, I also have Fire Topaz, also not much. I do have some green gems from around here as well." I listed, not knowing the common name for Erudite.
All their eyes widened as I listed my inventory, they huddled together and whispered to each other. Finally, they broke their huddle and looked back at me.
"Sunstone is valuable yes, Fire Topaz even more. We don't want your Earth Jade, we get it here." One of them said.
Earth Jade huh? Makes some sense, it does come from the ground, though I guess they haven't discovered the utility of it yet. They must simply use it for decoration, I could use that to my advantage.
It made sense Sunstone was valuable to them, in this world it could only be found at the top of mountains, not the most easiest places to get to, even if you could tunnel under the ground.
The Fire Topaz was valuable too, considering it's 'guardians' and the fact you can't really tunnel under sand made it a good bargaining tool, if I wanted to give it up however. There was also that chunk of Quartz I found in the forest, though it probably wasn't very valuable due to how common it was.
Since I had a relatively infinite supply of Luxite given time, though the mineral content of the soil would deplete eventually. I was ready to trade some, though I wanted to make sure I had enough for myself first. The next batch would be ready in a couple of days too, so I might just trade with that.
There was one problem though, I didn't know if they had anything I wanted to have.
"Alright then, what do you have? I'm not just giving you anything for free." I said with sass.
"We show you hoard, you like what you see." Was all they said, beckoning me to follow them.
With nothing else to lose, I followed the trio of dogs down another cave, leaving behind Scruff, who I assume went back to his bed. It wasn't a very long walk, I guess the Alpha wanted his treasures close to his chamber.
The next room revealed a large pile of gems, and some debatably precious metals. It wasn't anywhere near the size of the dragon's pile, but it pretty large. Looking closely, I could see a majority of it was Erudite, or Earth Jade. Most of the rest of it was simply useless gems that only looked good.
There was something interesting though, in the large pile of minerals, there was a large diamond, about a standard chunk size.
Now diamonds certainly had their uses, their high durability allowed them to be on par with Titanite, the only drawback was you couldn't shape them easily. But diamonds weren't just used for their strength, they could also be used in optics, with a much higher melting point than simple glass, they could be used to focus high powered lasers. Something I could see myself doing.
I didn't need it right now, I didn't even have a powerful laser to focus yet, nor was there enough to fabricate anything durable. It was nice to know that it was here though, I could definitely see myself using this later.
"I'm liking this diamond, though I do not need it now. Keep it around, and I just might trade you for it later." I told the dogs.
They looked a little disappointed, though they were excited at possibly getting Sunstone or Fire Topaz in exchange for a diamond.
"We understand, we hope you trade soon." One of them said.
"One more thing too," I said "I'm still currently trapped down here, do you think you could help me out?"
"But you can fit out exit?" Another said, confused.
"I brought a lot of stuff with me, that will not fit out the exit, I need help getting it out." I explained.
"Fine, we help you, then you trade soon, we want gems." The Alpha said.
"Thank you, let me show you where my stuff is." And with that, I headed back through the caves, sparsely remembering which way we had come, and lead the dogs back to my stuff.
They looked at the 'wall' with interest, until I pulled it apart revealing all of my belongings. Nodding to each other, they called out several dogs with carts and loaded them up with my parts. We then all headed toward the exit.
It was good to have a trading partner, even if they only had one thing I wanted, though I could probably trade for some more Erudite if I needed more. That was much easier than trying to dig it out myself, for now.
I would keep these dogs in mind, they were certainly helpful, and they kept their word, an uncommon practice where I'm from. I was ready to fight my way out the entire time, even though I only had one gun ready.
I rebuilt my tech, and headed back to the base, prepared to make some upgrades.
I feel I came out of that dog fiasco pretty well, with everything intact and potential trade partners. Right now I was in a good place, except for not having Titanite or Celestite, I would have to fix that soon.
I then realized something, I've definitely made some enemies in this world, enemies that have the capabilities to destroy me. No insectoids, no dragons, and no ponies came to attack me yet, and I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. I need to do something about that.
I wasn't in a good position to go on the offensive, I really didn't want to just keep wasting resources getting destroyed again and again. My patience will be my power in this situation however, if my enemies gave me time to prepare then prepare I will. First things first was to finish the base, with only the floor done on the inside, I got to work filling out the rest of the inside.
I also wanted to upgrade the door however, but I didn't have any Titanite to armor it, at least I could thicken it with more blocks. And the repair bubbles work pretty well too, though I haven't had anything try to breach the door yet. I'd like to keep it that way.
There wasn't much else for me to do, I still had about two weeks until I got to meet with the Princess, I didn't need to go out to gather resources, and the Luxite was growing just fine. I'll put the next batch in the ground too, so I could double my output later.
There was one more thing for me to work on, logistics, while I could fly pretty much anywhere, I couldn't carry that much. If I wanted to transport a large amount of goods at once, I would have to build something new. Luckily, I already had an idea for that, trains.
This world had trains, and trains used tracks. Since I could make trains, I could use their tracks. Of course, I didn't know the train schedules of the ponies, and I did not want to cause a head on collision. This would be something to discuss with the Princess probably.
In the meantime, I could always experiment, I needed to go out and measure those tracks I saw so I can make sure my trains fit them. Then I could just build my own set right here and test out different designs. A solid plan for now.
The closest tracks I knew of were the ones I found while gliding a while back. I would head there first.
It didn't take long, especially with the plane. I made just in time to see a train go by. It was definitely a primitive train, it probably used a steam engine. My tech could probably outpace it, even on the rough terrain, and the trains I could make would be even faster, since they were on relatively flat tracks.
That was good, as long as I had a train schedule, I could dodge other trains. If I explained that to the Princess, maybe they'd allow me to use the tracks whenever I wanted. Something to look forward to.
I got the measurement of the tracks and was a little disappointed, the tracks were just a bit too wide for me to build a train with standard blocks. No big deal, the Fabricator could handle specific requests rather easily, if only a bit slower.
I could also just design a new block type, a specific block that was capable of both fitting on the tracks, while also being able to connect with other blocks. I wasn't a professional designer though, and it would have to be a stronger block that used axles to roll on the track and support a car, not an easy feat.
I was certain I would need to design it using Titanite, it's strength easily being able to handle the stress, but I just might be able to do it without it. It would definitely be harder.
I flew back to base, thinking about how I would design the block, and name it. For now it would just be called a "Train Foundation", rather fitting I guess.
Designing new blocks was not easy, especially if they have a specific purpose. Decoration blocks are the easiest, and Structure blocks are easy too, but wheel blocks weren't. Of course, I didn't have to make every train car capable of moving on it's own, but it was easier to design one Train Foundation than two.
I started by building a simple loop of track made of Plumbite and Fibrewood. I would need someplace to test it right? Next was a general train car, as I needed something to actually stress the TF with, it was just a large block of standard GSO blocks. Simple enough.
Now to the actual design, I started with four wheels, each without the Rubber tire, then made two axle sets. I took those axle sets and set them on a frame with suspension. There were two motors housed inside the frame, one for each set. Next I put a another axle on top of the frame, allowing it to rotate underneath the train while also holding it up.
The first design collapsed, the Plumbite wasn't enough to hold it together, it needed more supports in the frame. My decision for four wheels per TF was a good one, as it was just about able to handle the weight of the car. The motors worked fine, they were able to provide enough acceleration to get the train moving fast, which revealed another problem.
The TFs were not able to handle turns, the inertia of the train almost sheared off the frame from the wheels, more supports necessary.
After about an hour of trial and error, the design was finally able to hold up to the standards I needed. This would have been so much easier with more Luxite and Titanite, but what's done is done. I made sure to save the TF's design in the Fabricator, so I could make more whenever I wanted.
They weren't cheap though, the motors required Carbite and Oleite, and while there wasn't any Rubber, there was a lot of Plumbite and Fibrewood making up the supports. The whole contraption was about the size of four GSO standard blocks in a 2x2 pattern, if only a little taller due to the suspension. The only connection point on it was on the axle at the top.
With the TF done, I had enough fabricated to get one car on the tracks, so I had a bit of fun just going in circles at top speed, which was a lot. Then I had an idea. A crazy idea. An idea that would probably be the greatest idea I've ever had.
I fabricated another Ignite Circuit, then took the one I already had and installed both onto the TFs.
You wanna know what flying into the side of a ravine at Mach one feels like? Not much, considering I can't really feel pain, but it wasn't fun to destroy my train car, thankfully both Ignite Circuits survived, as well as the cabin. I definitely won't be doing that again, there was no reason I would ever travel at that speed again.
Once I was finished cleaning up, I decided it was time to design different train cars. I'd need all sorts of ones, for storage, or utility, combat, or just to house my cabin. Since my trains would be part autonomous, I also made room for an A.I. cabin in the cars, though I couldn't make any just yet.
With the trains done, all I needed was approval from the Princess to use the tracks, then I could just hook up those lines to my base, and I could travel using trains. There was one flaw I saw though, having the lines hooked up to my base would allow other trains to follow them.
That shouldn't be an issue however, I might get royal approval, and trains don't just go down random tracks they aren't supposed to.
I wouldn't start laying tracks just yet though, I still had one hurdle to clear before I made myself public.
Next up was to meet with the Princess in two weeks.
The two weeks passed, with the first batch of Luxite being 'replanted' I now had four grown, with four more almost done. There wasn't much space left in the clearing though, I couldn't place too many more chambers, so my production will be limited for now.
I could always clear more trees, but because of the hostile fauna, I was a little wary. I didn't doubt that I could take care of the wooden creatures, and maybe one of the larger ones, but destruction of territory tends to bring out the apex predators. Something I wasn't sure I had met yet, considering I've 'faced' a dragon.
I didn't have to worry about that right now though, I had a audience with the Princess. I still had about two hours until the meeting, and I wondered what the Princess would be like. From what I know, she has a sister, and they both rule the nation, but I'm only meeting one right now. I wonder what Twilight's relation to the Princess was, she seemed to be familiar with them.
I was waiting around the edge of the forest, almost completely disarmed. Twilight knew I carried weapons, so she probably informed the Princess, and if I didn't have any, it would show my honorable nature. Of course I still had a single gun hidden in the middle of my tech, I wasn't just going to go into any meeting unarmed. I would only use it if necessary though.
Apparently arriving early was not something only I did, as Twilight herself was seen walking down the path to the edge of the forest. Twilight saw my tech, and hurried over, she was wearing some bags on her back, I was wondering what she might be carrying when she spoke up.
"Hello, I'm surprised to see you here so early." She greeted.
"I don't have much else to do right now. Hello by the way." I replied.
"Are you nervous about meeting the Princess?" Twilight asked, a small smirk on her face.
"A little, and I have a question. Why is the Princess coming out here, isn't there a better spot to meet?" I asked, relatively confused.
Twilight looked at me strangely, then she laughed.
"The Princess isn't coming to meet us, we're going to meet her. I've arranged transport to bring us to her court." She explained.
"We're going to meet her? But how? I don't see any vehicles nearby, nor can I fly." I lied.
"Don't worry about it, there is a team of Pegasi coming to airlift you up to Canterlot." Twilight answered. She thought for a moment then asked, "Can't Tecker carry you?"
"No, he can't, and Canterlot? Where is that? Also I'm going to get airlifted?" I asked, really confused.
"It's over there on the mountain side, you can see it from here." Twilight gestured with her leg towards the mountain with the city on it.
So Canterlot was what that city was called, I remember seeing it when looking for Luxite. I guess I chose right to not go there first. There's no telling what would've happened. Then there was the idea of being airlifted, it wasn't new to me, but techs don't really need to do it with access to inventories, moving large objects or pieces of resources could sometimes warrant it though.
I wasn't so sure of being airlifted myself, as I seem to have a track record of falling in this tech, and while I wasn't superstitious, the facts were still there. I chose not to bring this up with Twilight however, as it would just make her ask more questions.
"Who is Princess Celestia anyway? All I know is that she has a sister and rules this nation. What can you tell me about her?"
Twilight perked up upon hearing this, and then proceeded to go on an incredibly long tangent detailing all about the princess. This went on for a while, I was able to get a few questions in too. By the end of the rant, I was able to learn quite a bit.
Apparently Princess Celestia was the one that moved the small sun around the planet, and her sister Luna moved the Moon. That wasn't too far fetched, I mean I had my manipulation field, and Celestia wasn't moving an actual star, but moving something that large would take a lot of energy. I should definitely be wary of the Princesses.
I also learned a bit about who this Celestia was, she was a kind, benevolent leader that was apparently immortal and had lived for over a thousand years. Also not too far fetched, while most living things cannot live forever, with enough energy you could set back the 'age limit' for some lifeforms.
What was strange though was that Celestia was older than I was, with an unknown age beyond a thousand years. I had only been prospecting for about two hundred eighteen years, and had lived a full life before I became a prospector too. I definitely have more questions to ask this Princess Celestia now.
The fact that she was kind was good, I'd be able to make my plea for help and probably get some support from it. Being the leader of the nation, I'm sure they had information I could use, though I might have to pay for it. I'll have to make my own money though, something I was very much used to doing.
After about thirty minutes of ranting, Twilight was interrupted by something flying over.
What appeared to be a golden chariot descended down from the sky, being pulled by what looked like two Pegasus ponies. After a moment, a large platform also appeared, being pulled by a large group of Pegasi, that was definitely for me, it was safe to assume that they had been informed of my size and weight.
The entourage landed close by, and Twilight walked over to meet them, I stayed put as the platform was lowered to the ground. Most of the Pegasi didn't pay any mind to my tech, they probably assumed I was inanimate, and they were just transporting a heavy vehicle or something.
I didn't want to complicate things, so I just drove onto the platform, surprising a few of them. They didn't hesitate though, and quickly secured the ropes onto my tech. Then they each grabbed the ropes for the platform, then lifted it up.
I could tell they were struggling a bit, they must not have to deal with such heavy loads all the time. They should be glad I'm not using heavy blocks, there is no way they could lift me up if I had the heavy plating of Hawkeye or the dense structure of a Geocorp block.
With me up in the air, Twilight soon entered the chariot and they took off, quickly catching up and then leading the group.
After about an hour of flight time, the 'docks' if you could call them that of Canterlot came into view. A large space was cleared for my tech and as we landed quite a few onlookers nearby appeared to be very interested in my tech.
Canterlot was pretty large, it was hard to gauge the size of it at a distance, but right at the edge I could see how many buildings there were. Fortunately, the roads were wide enough for my tech, and there wouldn't be any complications with driving to the castle.
Unfortunately, I had just come from the forest, and I wasn't able to clean my tech on the ride over, so a lot of loose foliage fell off and I left several tracks of mud in the street. The streets were once nearly pearly white, not anymore. It wasn't like I could do anything about it, I'd just have to explain that to the Princess.
I was escorted by a large amount of white ponies wearing gold armor. Almost exactly like the ones I saw at the dragon's mountain. A lot of ponies gawked at my tech, seeing something large and unknown being escorted through the streets must be pretty interesting to them. I didn't pay it too much mind, once again, there was nothing I could do about it.
It wasn't a long drive from the docks to the castle, it would've been a lot faster if I could drive at full speed. I was surprised to see the gates of the castle were large enough to fit my tech. Thankfully most of the mud had been cleared off in my drive, so I wasn't getting it all over the castle... much.
Hopefully this Princess Celestia really was kind, I was in a really bad situation. Tracking mud all throughout her castle was not a nice thing to do, I really hope she'd understand if I explained myself.
Now in the castle proper, there was a large red carpet leading to a large set of double doors. Looking around, I could see a majority of the castle was made of Marble inlaid with Auruite. An interesting aesthetic to say the least, I didn't mind it though.
The double doors were opened by two guards, and Twilight took the lead, leading me through to the other side.
Inside was absolutely a throne room, with several stained glass windows with images depicting ponies in action. Some even looked like Twilight, which was very interesting. The red carpet continued all the way to a large throne, which stood even taller thanks to the staircase leading up to it.
But there, sitting on the throne, I could only assume was Princess Celestia. A large white pony similar in stature to 'Nightmare Moon' with a flowing multicolor mane and tail. I could see some regalia adorning her, and I could clearly see both a horn and wings.
No wonder she was the head of the country, with a form like that who could stand against her? Not to mention the power to manipulate the mini-sun.
Standing next to her, was a slightly smaller pony, with a deep blue coat and flowing mane that heavily reminded me of Nightmare Moon, I could assume this was Princess Luna. I haven't heard too much about her, just that she controlled the moon and was the sister of Princess Celestia.
I wonder if she has any relation to Nightmare Moon, they do look very similar.
The double doors closed behind us, and Twilight bowed. I didn't really have any way of greeting, so I just stood still for now.
Princess Celestia had a small smile on her face, while Princess Luna looked confused, almost as if trying to remember something. She was staring at my tech, but didn't speak up. Celestia did though.
"Twilight, my faithful student, I assume this is the ambassador you wrote to me about?" She asked, her voice smooth and unwavering.
Twilight was her student? That was surprising, no wonder she was able to get into contact with the Princess so fast. But what exactly was she learning?
"Yes she is Princess Celestia, this is Tecka. Please say hello." Twilight said to both me and Princess Celestia.
"Hello Princess Celestia." I greeted
Princess Celestia's expression didn't change, but she did pause for a bit.
"Your voice comes out remarkably well for being inside a carriage." She commented.
Thankfully I actually had to 'write' what I was saying before I say it or else I would've laughed right then and there.
"You misunderstand Princess Celestia, I am not in this tech, I am this tech." I politely explained.
This time Princess Celestia's expression did change, her smile faltering for a bit, but she quickly recovered.
"I hear you are an ambassador, from which country do you hail?" She asked, changing the subject.
"I come from The Federation, unfortunately I do not know where it is in relation to Equestria just yet," I answered truthfully, I really didn't know how far away I was.
"You are an ambassador yet you do not know where your country is?" Blurted out Princess Luna, she quickly snapped her mouth shut with a look from Princess Celestia however.
"It is indeed strange, you travelled all the way here and you do not know the location of your own country. How is that possible?" Celestia asked,
"That is because I did not travel here on purpose, I arrived here due to a mishap and I haven't seen a world map yet, though I assume it's on the other side of the world. I've never heard of Equestria before." I lied once again. I was glad I wasn't able to show body language, or else I probably would've messed it up.
"How unfortunate, do tell, how would an ambassador arrive here by incident?" Celestia asked with a bit of suspicion
"Technically, I'm not qualified to be an ambassador, but right now I am the only one available. I come here to ask for your help in returning home, then you can speak with a proper ambassador." I answered.
Twilight looked at me, a little confused by my words, but didn't speak up.
"So you are not a real ambassador. You lie to us and expect us to help you?" Princess Luna spoke up again,
"Sister!" Princess Celestia harshly whispered to her, Luna quickly shrank back down. "Please excuse my sister, however I do believe we can help you. We can provide maps and transport, though it depends on how far away this 'Federation' is"
"Maps would be helpful, but transportation is not required. While I may not be an ambassador, I am adept at fabrication, I only request the knowledge to obtain the resources necessary for transportation." I explained to the Princesses.
"Very well, we shall provide maps for you. We also need to know what resources you need." Celestia said.
"Thank you, as for what materials I need, there are only two missing. The first is Cobalt, I am in need of a great amount of it. The second I call Celestite, it is a blue crystal that affects gravity around it." I detailed to the Princesses.
Luna choked, before getting a big smile on her face when she heard me say Cobalt. She didn't say anything though.
Celestia pretended not to notice Luna's outburst, and thought for a moment.
"You will have to talk to my sister about Cobalt, but this 'Celestite' sounds familiar, despite it's name. I have heard stories of a similar crystal up north in the frozen wastes, though nopony has been up there for generations. Is that all you need?" Celestia asked me.
"Yes, everything else I have taken care of. Even the information to their whereabouts is invaluable, thank you." I said, greatly happy I haven't had to pay anything yet.
This time Luna spoke up, without getting shushed by Celestia.
"You said you needed Cobalt?" She asked, almost giddy.
"Yes, I do. Do you happen to know where I can find some?" I asked, a little wary of her attitude.
Luna's smile got even wider, it was starting to creep me out.
"I do, but getting Cobalt is going cost you..." She said in a sing song voice.
Of course, 'never expect everything for free' Mike once said,
"Very well, can you at least tell me where to get it? And how much it'll cost?" I asked.
Luna hummed happily, muttering something about not doing this for a thousand years.
"I will have to talk to my sister about the price, but as for the location... There is a reason you have to get it through me..." Luna giggled, "You can only find Cobalt... on the moon!" She was nearly laughing now.
"Luna! Be more considerate, Tecka here is stuck in Equestria without Cobalt, give her some leniency!" Celestia scolded Luna.
Luna's smile immediately disappeared, and she muttered a quick sorry before turning to leave.
"I will talk with her later about that, just know that we can not give you Cobalt for free either way, we will find out how you can pay for it later. For now, your top priority should be getting home, we can discuss relations with the Federation with an actual ambassador later. Now though, our allotted meeting time is coming to an end, if you wish to speak with us again speak with my student Twilight Sparkle, though you will most certainly have to wait, we are very busy after all." Celestia said to me, gesturing to Twilight.
"Thank you for meeting with me, and thank you for helping me to return home." I said, turning to leave.
Twilight, although not getting to speak much, also smiled. She made sure to collect the maps provided in her bags. Then we both left the throne room.
That definitely could've gone worse, I wasn't worried about getting Cobalt, especially since I now know the location of Celestite. With it, travelling to the moon can be done with ease, the only problem is re-entry into the atmosphere. Titanite is essential for the heat shielding, and I couldn't just go up and fabricate my own heat shield because Fabricators and Refineries don't work in the vacuum.
I'd have to buy enough Titanite to fabricate a heatshield, then I could just go get Titanite whenever I needed, completely subverting the cost. For now though, I'll just do what I've been doing for the past two hundred years, gathering resources and selling them. This time not for profit, but for Titanite.
"Sister! I can harvest Cobalt once more!" Luna was nearly jumping with joy, "It is not often I get to do this!"
"Before you do anything Luna, I need to set some restrictions." Celestia interrupted, "I know you haven't done this in a thousand years, but times have changed. With no supply of Cobalt, it has become more expensive, and more sought after. If you are to harvest more Cobalt, you have to limit yourself, even if it is to help somepony get home. There are many that would jump at the opportunity to obtain Cobalt, and I do not mean buying it. Do not think I do not want you to sell it, this income would be great for the treasury, but you need to know the risks if word of this gets out." Celestia explained to Luna.
"Understood, but I know what I am doing, Celestia. Many sought after Cobalt a thousand years ago too, I will be careful in dealing it out. One more thing, how much are we going to sell it for?" Luna asked.
"I have not checked the most recent price, but from what I do know, a kilogram of Cobalt would cost around three thousand bits." Celestia detailed.
Luna did a double take, and took a moment to recollect herself.
"Things must have really changed in my absence, either the value of a bit has gone down, or Cobalt has become that rare." Luna though out loud.
"A combination of both, dear sister. We will see how this Tecka will accomplish this goal. I do hope she can do it, she did say she had the other resources taken care of." Celestia said, looking forward
With the meeting over, I was once again airlifted back to the edge of the forest. I could tell Twilight had more questions for me, but she couldn't really ask them in the middle of our flight.
When we landed, Twilight immediately trotted up to my tech, she didn't waste any time in questioning me.
"Why did you tell me you were an ambassador?" She asked, looking a bit miffed.
"I said you could call me one, not that I was one. I'm the most qualified to be one right now, even if I'm not properly trained." I said, explaining my mistake.
Twilight huffed a bit, but continued.
"Did you get to talk about everything you wanted to?"
...
Damn, I had forgotten about the trains.
"I did." I lied once more.
Bringing up the trains probably would've blown my cover anyway, besides, they weren't that essential yet, I still had some progress to make. I'd have to bring that up next time I spoke to the Princesses.
"Thank you Twilight, for setting up this meeting, it has been a great help. I'll be sure to let you know when I need to meet with the Princesses again." I brought up.
"Anything for a friend, but I must go for now, I still have duties to attend, and I'm sure you do as well. Goodbye." Twilight concluded, she turned to leave
Again with the 'friends', it wasn't like I didn't want to be friends with Twilight, but I didn't feel like we should be friends yet. I hadn't done anything for Twilight, I suppose I'd have to repay her later to keep this friendship going.
With that out of the way, I made my way back to the base. I had only been gone for about four or five hours, so I wasn't expecting anything big to have happened.
Fortunately, nothing happened while I was away, and I was free to work on my next project. Gathering Celestite.
Princess Celestia had said there was a crystal up in the frozen wastes that matched my description of Celestite. Though she didn't say it's rarity, I could assume it wasn't very common. I had a lead to follow now, so I'd capitalize on it right away.
I'd have to prepare a bit though, while techs were mostly immune to extreme temperatures, they had their limits. Based on the environments I've encountered, I'd say the coldest it got on this planet was somewhere around -50° C, well within the limits of most techs.
I would have to be careful though, batteries drained faster in the cold, and the firing mechanism for most guns tended to freeze if the humidity was high. I probably couldn't bring the flame thrower either, its fuel lines would freeze.
There was also the problem of the propellers freezing, while it would be fine in the air, I would have to keep them running on the ground to prevent them from freezing all together.
With all that in mind, I reoutfitted the plane, removing most of the guns, I added the one laser weapon I had. I made sure to add an extra battery, and to bring a heating coil incase anything froze. It might not even be a bad idea to have the coil running all the time to counter the power drain effect the cold had. I wasn't to sure on the exacts however, so I would have to see for myself.
The plane was finished, with the heating coil safely held in one of the collectors. I was ready to head North, this time remembering to bring a drill to mine with. I got ready to take off.
It seems my track record of being interrupted right before takeoff would get another mark, as two icons made their way onto the radar, both blue.
Killing the engines, I waited impatiently as both Zecora and Twilight entered the clearing, Twilight looked a little frantic before she spotted the plane. Quickly running over she shouted.
"Hey! You haven't seen Tecka around have you?" came from Twilight.
She didn't recognize me? Oh right, I'm controlling the plane right now, which means I'm Tecker. Hopefully the speakers could do a good job at replicating Tecker's 'voice'.
"NO. I. HAVE. NOT." I managed to accurately say.
"Well, can you give these to her? I forgot to give them to her when we said goodbye," Twilight said as she pulled out several maps from her bags. "I guess you could take them too, they were meant for both of you." She quickly tacked on.
"THANK. YOU." I said as I took them in my manipulation field, surprising Twilight quite a bit.
"You can use magic?" She nearly shouted.
Oh boy, so they called it magic. I didn't like that word too much, it was just used to define something that you don't know how it works. Like how a lot of techs say Celestite is magic, even though several scientific studies have proven it affects gravity by it's odd magnetic field caused by the interlocking molecules it's made of.
"YES." I simply responded, avoiding going on a tangent right then and there,
"Ok... Do you know where Tecka is?" Twilight asked
"NO." I responded dryly.
"Well next time you see her, could you tell her I would like to speak with her some time again?" Twilight asked, smiling a bit.
"SURE." Was all I said.
Twilight frowned a bit, but didn't say anything as both she and Zecora said their goodbyes and turned to leave.
Waiting until they both left the edge of my radar, I went back down and stashed the maps to look at later, right now I had to travel North.
I took off once again, this time towards Canterlot, I avoided it by a large margin however, I still wasn't sure about just appearing above a city.
I had no idea how long I'd be flying, but it was probably going to take a lot longer than a day, I was still in a pretty warm climate. I was in for a long flight due North.
After about a day of flying, I came across a large cloud, much larger than any cloud I've ever seen. The strangest part was that the sky around it was completely clear.
I decided not to go in for a closer look when I saw many flying specks around the cloud. I couldn't really tell what they were, but they were obviously alive, and there were a lot of them too. Best to stay clear of that, I continued flying.
The climate was starting to change, there were more coniferous trees dotting the landscape, and the grass became more sparse, a clear sign of colder temperatures. I was getting closer, there was still a large amount of life however, which meant there wouldn't be any Celestite.
Some power had drained from my batteries, and I made sure to shut off any unnecessary power consuming blocks to save as much as possible.
After about two and a half days of flying, I was above a tundra, it was however, no wasteland, especially because it was in the middle of Summer turning Autumn. It looked like it had snowed recently, though the sunshine had melted a majority of it, allowing dying blades of grass to peak through. I wouldn't find any Celestite here, I had to keep going.
It was turning to night on the third day when I spotted a mountain range further North, it was obvious that most of it was made of ice. A large Aurora illuminated them, showing their transparent qualities, it would be near impossible for life to exist there, that would be my first landing spot.
An hour later, I had flown all the way to the mountain range, and was looking for a good place to land. There wasn't a lot of flat spaces suitable for landing, so I had to make do with a shallow slope along one of the mountains.
Coming in for a landing, I severely overestimated the traction I'd get on ice, and began to slide down the rest of the slope. Putting everything I had into stopping, I was able to slow the plane enough to not fall off the cliff that awaited at the end of the 'runway'. I should've fabricated some tracks.
The plane was barely hanging over the edge, I still had all three wheels on the ground, but I had to be careful not to slip further down. It was a real shame I didn't bring any anchor blocks, I could just anchor to the ice and be done with it.
I didn't have those at the moment, so I was stuck figuring out some other way to traverse the slippery slope.
Then things got worse. The Aurora above stopped emitting light, shrouding the whole area in darkness, it wasn't impossible to see, but it wasn't easy either. Looking up, the cause of the Aurora ending was obvious, large storm clouds loomed above, completely covering all the light that the Aurora produced.
It started snowing, the first few flakes landing around and on my tech, those that landed on the engines melted at the residual heat. I took the heating coil and attached it to my batteries, making sure to check the power levels, I had about a half charge left.
I began to slowly back up, the slow movements gave better traction as the plane began to edge away from the cliff. The wind picked up, and it started snowing even harder, I kept my wings in the downward position, to stop the plane from lifting off again.
Just then, lightning struck the ice above me, sending a shower of ice chunks down upon the tech, a large bout of steam rising from the struck area. The chunks weren't enough to damage my tech, but lightning was. I really needed to get down.
Another bolt struck higher up, another barrage of small ice chunks impacted my tech. A large crack sounded out, and a large chunk of ice broke off from the mountain side, it started falling down.
It wasn't going to hit my tech thankfully, but it did hit he slope behind me, blocking off my path down the mountain. That wasn't the only thing it did however, the combined weight of my tech and the force from the impact had weakened the cliff I was residing upon.
The cliff didn't crumble, but it did shear off the mountain side, somehow keeping upright as my tech was forced down with it. Wind and snow rushed by and I forced the wings back up in an attempt to take off from this impromptu sled.
The plane managed to lift off of the cliff, and was immediately struck by lightning. Power surged throughout the tech, blowing out several lightbulbs and overcharging the batteries, they would've exploded if they were at full charge. The surge of power locked the mechanisms in the wings, forcing the tech to glide slowly down into a snow drift.
With a large Phooomf, a plane shaped hole appeared in the large pile of snow, which quickly collapsed and covered itself up. Snow flooded the engines, forcing them to shut down, as the falling cliff face then hit another large outcrop of ice, causing a multitude of large ice chunks to rain down onto the snow drift, covering it in ice.
I couldn't move the tech at all, the immense weight above it and loose snow all around it anchored it into once place, there was nothing I could do. However, the heating coil did what it did best, and heated up the area around it, melting some of the snow around it.
With some of the snow gone, something was visible in one of the large ice chunks. Inside, was a blue crystal that glowed softly, and though I couldn't tell, I assumed that this ice chunk would be lighter than the rest. This was due to the large chunk of Celestite residing in said chunk, visible to me, but just out of reach.
The storm raged on, piling more and more snow and ice chunks on top of me as more lightning struck the mountains above. The heating coil gave out as the remaining charge in the batteries dissipated, leaving me stuck under several tons of ice and snow. I wouldn't be getting out of here for a while
The tech was relatively unharmed, only a bit scratched an dented from the ice chunks, it was only buried under a lot of ice and snow. There was nothing else I could do, I had to abandon it for now. I would definitely come back for it later though, when I was ready to make the journey again.
I shut the tech down, and switched control all the way back to the original tech in the forest. So much for getting Celestite, next time I was going to be more prepared.
I knew the resource wells I had found wouldn't last forever, but I was amazed at how fast they depleted. Sure getting destroyed and rebuilding will do that, but I was sure they would last longer. Thankfully there was just enough to rebuild the propellers, but little else.
The Oleite well was now completely empty, there was none residing in the divot and none was bubbling up either. That meant the reservoir was either depleted, or it didn't have enough pressure to force the rest above ground.
The Rodite are wasn't faring much better either, all the surface deposits were used up, leaving only small traces of dust and the seams underground.
It wasn't all bad, the Carbite location still had a lot to give, but even I could tell it wouldn't last much longer, about half of the field of ore had been harvested. There was still a lot left, but I would have to get searching and soon.
There was one problem, my attempts at searching had come up blank, every time I went out flying I didn't spot any. But then again, I wasn't really paying attention for those specific resources, I'd have to check again.
Right now I'll stick with what I know, Oleite pockets tend to appear close to each other, so there might be another reservoir nearby. Any Oleite floating in the lake would give it away, so I'd search there first.
There was still Rodite as well, though it was all underground, which brought another problem. I still didn't have a way to mine under the ground.
For things like Oleite and Rodite, a simple Auto Miner could be used to extract any resources just under the surface. But Auto Miners need Titanite, which I now had to pay for. I still didn't have the cost, but assuming it's rarity, it was going to cost a lot.
I would probably be selling resources to afford Titanite, or just outright trade for it. The only problem was that I only resources I had plenty of were Plumbite, Fibrewood, and Rubber Jelly. Things like Erudite, Ignite, and Luxite might sell for more, but they were rarer and about as essential as Titanite.
I could fabricate some more expensive components, however I didn't own this world just yet, and if it was found out that I distributed technology to an unknown party, the Federation would have my metaphorical head. I simply couldn't make money off of advanced components.
That didn't mean I was completely out of options, I could refine everything to raise it's price. Simply selling raw resources was not a good idea, so I could make a bit more money than I normally could. It helped that I could grow Luxite, it would definitely make more money if I had higher production.
There were a few things I needed to look into, first was figuring out how to grow the other crystals. Ignite was the priority, as I could always dig or trade for more Erudite. I was not going back to the desert any time soon. I'd have to figure out how to grow it on my own.
The second was to find some Oleite and Rodite on the surface though, and that was an issue. The thing about crystals is that they grew in specific conditions, conditions that are easy to spot. The common metals like Plumbite and I guess Cuprite as well were abundant pretty much anywhere. Resources like Titanite and Carbite were a bit less common as they form deep within the crust of a planet, and normally don't breach the surface often.
Rodite and Oleite are different though, they both don't have an environment they naturally occur in, seeing as they are both fossilized resources, it really depends on what the environment was millions of years ago. So really Oleite and Rodite could appear anywhere, and seeing as Zecora had uses for them, there had to be more available.
The main question was where? Simply because they occurred in a forest here didn't mean they occurred in forests everywhere. To find Oleite and Rodite, you had to search everywhere, so that's what I had to do.
I was able to rebuild the plane for the most part, and cannibalizing some extra batteries and a repair bubble from the base, it was similar in design to the one that was now frozen up north. I made sure to hook it up with an upgraded radar, as I would be flying a bit low.
I didn't arm it to the teeth like last time, but I did bring some guns, I didn't want to fight anything, but I will defend myself. I made sure to equip it with lots of collectors, I needed to bring as much back as possible right now.
Looking at the maps I had been given, I could tell they weren't to complete scale. I couldn't read the language written on them either, but it was pretty obvious that the only things written down were names. I made a very rough image of the maps to overlay the radar so I could track my progress.
Taking flight, I knew I wouldn't find anything in the immediate area, I had frequented it too much to not notice anything. Starting to the West, I began a simple search pattern of searching a small piece of the map before moving to the next. I made sure to avoid any towns and fly low.
The first few pieces held some deposits of Plumbite, and others Cuprite, there was even another outcropping of Carbite, though it was very small. I didn't see any Oleite or Rodite yet though, so I kept searching. I made sure to mark whatever I saw on my map.
After a long time of searching, I found what I was looking for. In one place there were several seams of Oleite that dotted around a field close to some hills. In another, the telltale green color of Rodite was visible running down the slope of a large mountain. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be an inactive Volcano.
They were both quite far from the base, so I'd definitely want to run a train route to each of them later, but I would have to wait until I could ask the Princess to build tracks. I'm sure they'd love free labor and infrastructure, it might even take off from the cost of Titanite.
There was something else of interest as well. Far away from base and at the edge of my search area was a medium size plateau. The reason it peaked my interest was that train tracks lead to it, but they looked very old, they probably couldn't even support a regular train, much less one of my high speed trains.
Plateau's were one of my favorite places to build, easily defendable from all locations, and most techs can't scale the steep slopes. There wasn't anything on it, not even a trace of something old that was gone. I marked this location on the map I had, maybe something useful was hidden there.
In the meantime, I had found what I was looking for, and had loaded up on as much as my tech could carry. I would definitely be back soon, considering my track record for destruction. Not to mention that these resources could potentially sell for a bit as well. I would have to check that when I got back.
The flight back to base was uneventful, but when I got back, I found Twilight waiting for me at the top of the ravine. She looked up at the incoming plane and got up from sitting.
There was a problem though, I hadn't attached any speakers to the plane just yet, so I wasn't able to communicate with her. Thankfully, I could just use 'Tecker' as a scapegoat, and simply just landed behind her and went down the ramp.
Being as quick as possible, I switched back to the original tech, and went back outside to confront Twilight. She looked very annoyed when I made it up to the top.
"That Tecker sure isn't very nice," she commented, "at least you're here."
"He told me you were outside, how long have you been waiting?" I asked.
"Only a few minutes, but there is an important reason I'm here" Twilight answered.
"What, pray tell, might that be?" I curiously asked.
"The Princesses have sent somepony over to help figure out your 'payment' for your Cobalt. They didn't want to enter the forest however, so they should be waiting by the edge." Twilight explained to me.
"Very well then, let me grab a few things that should help." I replied, turning back to go get some things from my base.
"Be quick, I'm not sure how much longer they are going to wait." Twilight called back.
Moving into the base, I made sure to grab two of every resource I was willing to sell/trade. Some Fibrewood, Plumbite, Rodite, Oleite, Rubber jelly, and Luxite. Making sure to refine half of them. I put them into my collectors, and headed back out.
Twilight nodded as I came back up, and we both travelled to the forest edge. It was a bit of a long walk, considering Twilight was walking, but we eventually made it to the edge. There waiting on a blanket on the ground was another pony. They looked simple enough, no wings or horn, a brown coat and black mane.
Twilight walked up to the pony and introduced us.
"Tecka, this is Filthy Rich. Filthy Rich, this is Tecka." She started.
"Hello," was all I said,
"Good afternoon," this 'Filthy Rich' said, quite an odd name.
"I've heard your here to help me with my expenses?" I asked Filthy Rich.
"Indeed I am, though I haven't been told exactly what you are buying." Filthy Rich said.
"I have been hoping to buy Cobalt, and quite a lot at that," I explained.
"Cobalt huh? That's a lot of money, how are you looking to pay?" he asked.
"Most likely through trade, I have other resources I can sell, I have brought a couple." I replied.
"Care to show me?"
I then proceeded to show Filthy Rich all of my 'merchandise'. After he took a look at each resource, both refined and not, he gave his final verdict.
"This refined wood is odd, it probably wouldn't sell for much, but wood in general will. The Blast Coal is valuable, but not in high demand, Rubber is always useful and will sell for a lot. This Acid Stone you have looks like it'll have it's fair share of uses, though it isn't very known. The Red Oil you have is very valuable, there are lots looking to buy it. The iron you have is useful, but not very valuable. This Sunstone however, is probably the most expensive thing you have, to get chunks this large and finely cut is really rare, you could make quite the amount with these.
All in All, I'd say around six or seven Sunstone chunks like these could buy you an ingot of Cobalt of your standard. Your looking at twenty units of Red Oil, or thirty units of Acid Stone. You could probably exchange ten Blast Coal for Cobalt if you found a buyer, and you'd need around a hundred pieces of Iron and double that for wood. Rubber however, you could probably exchange around fifty bricks of it.
Keep in mind these are very rough calculations based on what you've shown me, so the prices will probably change. How much Cobalt are you looking to buy anyway?" Filthy Rich finished.
Doing some quick math in my mind, I came up with a rough estimate, just enough to fabricate a very small shield.
"About fifty ingots of my standard," I said.
Both Filthy Rich and Twilight gawked at how much I was needing, I was a bit surprised too. The amount of resources I'd have to sell in order to get that much was staggering. I could probably harvest this entire forest and still not have enough. I was not happy.
Well, no time like the present, I should probably start with upgrading my Luxite growing capabilities. Then move on to building a large harvesting tech. If only I had access to Geocorp, this would be so much easier.
The rest of the meeting was relatively simple, we discussed selling and buying to simply just trading the resources for Titanite. My best option was to sell what I had for their currency, called 'bits', and then buy the Titanite with that. There was a problem however, bits were physical currency, and I'd have to store them somewhere.
I've never had to make a vault before, but without inventory access there was a need for a secure place to store my valuables. It was simple enough, just a thick box of blocks with a thick door, inlaid with repair bubbles and some extra batteries. I could keep all my money in there for now.
There was another problem, bits were small, they were very hard to handle, especially with only one inserter. It wasn't very easy to count them either. However collectors made it very easy, with their specific size and weight restrictions, we figured out that each collector could hold 128 bits in one space. That made it a lot easier.
The last thing discussed was how I was actually going to distribute the resources I gathered, and considering I'm not a pony, I would probably have to have a 'middle-man' of sorts to sell for me. Thankfully due to the Princesses' orders, I wouldn't have to pay anyone to do that for me.
With everything set up, I was able to finally start gathering. To start, I had built a new tech, this one was outfitted with larger wheels, a wall of drills up front, and a massive storage basin in the back. Since I didn't have enough Luxite to outfit the tech with collectors, I simply had one just deposit all of it's resources into the basin. As long as everything was solid, it should work.
The tech was massive, easily rising up to the same height of the trees, it took a lot of blocks to build, so I wanted to defend it nicely. I equipped it with any extra gun I had, and made sure to fill it with repair bubbles. Just in case.
There was really only one resource I could harvest with this thing right now, and that was Fibrewood. I was still a little worried about being attacked, but I was sure that nothing would want to mess with this monster of a tech. It was a good thing I assembled it up in the clearing too, as it would have never fit up the ramp in the first place
Starting up the drills, I began driving into the forest. Trees fell all around, their resources quickly being picked up and deposited into the basin. A multitude of small animals such as birds and rodents began fleeing as more trees fell around. The tech continued on into the forest, decimating all in it's path.
It had only been a few minutes when the basin filled up, so I headed back. One glaring problem presented itself to me when I made it back, I really didn't have a way to process the materials effectively. I only had the one Refinery, and while it worked fast enough, I couldn't expand or even automate the process without using a bunch of Luxite.
First I needed something to receive all the materials in my basin, that costed Luxite. Then I needed something to filter out the Fibrewood from the Rubber Jelly, that costed Luxite. Then I needed something to drop the Rubber bricks and Fibrewood into their 'storage containers' or just piles on the ground, that costed Luxite. Lastly, I need some way to actually transport the materials to each location, surprise surprise, that costed Luxite.
Thankfully, some had grown by now, so I could at least filter off the Rubber, refine it, then drop it. I didn't have enough to filter off the Fibrewood, so I just hooked up the furnace generators right to it, in an attempt to burn off the extra. It would work, for now, I definitely needed more Luxite if I was going to build a proper factory.
I emptied the basin by the receiver, and returned to harvest more trees. This time, those wooden creatures appeared, and I was glad I had equipped the tech with guns, I quickly dispatched them, collecting their Fibrewood and Rubber jelly.
This continued for the rest of the day. I'd harvest trees until my basin was full, then return and unload it. I had situated my Refinery to drop off all the Rubber bricks into the ravine, and a sizable pile was now formed at the bottom. The extra Fibrewood had helped power the base too, but Furnace generators burned slowly, so there was still a lot of Fibrewood in a huge jumble at the top of the ravine.
The base's batteries were full, so there was not point in just burning more Fibrewood, so I just pushed it all together into a large pile. I couldn't tell exactly how much there was, but it was probably enough enough to buy some Titanite. There was more than enough Rubber however, I could probably buy two or three ingots with that.
Of course, I wasn't just going to sell all of it, I still needed some to fabricate blocks. Right now, my priority was tracks, they would allow me to rescue my plane from the frozen wastes.
While I wanted to fabricate some GSO tracks, as they had better durability, I was still lacking in Luxite. So I was forced to go with Venture track, it would certainly be faster, but it wont be able to carry as much or take much damage. I was lucky to have harvested so much Fibrewood, as it was the main material for tracks. They also took a lot of Oleite, something I would have to go gather, and that would take time.
I evolved a sort of schedule, over the next few weeks, I would start some days harvesting the forest, unload onto the Refinery, then fly over to collect Oleite or Rodite. Then I would come back and sell some Rubber. By the end of it, I had amassed quite the collection of Bits. About halfway to my goal
But everything didn't go too smoothly, after harvesting about a fifth of the forest, multiple 'raids' would happen at my base, where several of the wooden creatures would attempt to breach my defenses and destroy my factory. I still didn't have a guard A.I. so I had to fend them off each time by myself.
They started learning my schedule as well, making sure to focus their attacks when I flew off to go gather resources. I had taken to making my schedule completely random to counteract this, some days flying early in the morning, or not at all.
Selling things wasn't as easy either, I was in a very localized economy, which meant my market was easily swayed by supply and demand. Once I had flooded it with Rubber, I wasn't able to sell anymore for a good price, forcing me to switch to selling a different resource.
It wasn't all bad though, I had finished the new plane, it was ready to go gather Celestite and recover the frozen one. With a larger body, more engines, tracks instead of wheels, and insulated electronics and batteries, it was ready to brave the coldest of weathers.
I couldn't just leave for a week however, the raids were becoming more and more frequent, and if I left for too long, I wouldn't come back to anything. I had to stop the raids somehow, luckily I knew someone who knew the forest well.
Travelling to Zecora's house was a lot faster now, considering a large swath of forest had been cleared. There was still quite a bit of forest in the way though, and I think Zecora preferred it that way. Her house being a tree and all. I should probably leave a piece of forest left, even if it was hard to navigate.
She only had one thing to say,
"The wolves will defend their home, to stop them the forest you will have to comb. Though you will have to do it alone, for your actions I do not condone."
She pointed in the vague direction of the wolves' origin.
It made sense, destroying their origin to stop the raids, and now I knew the general location for it. I headed back, making sure to gear up as much as possible, this might be a tough fight. I equipped my one shield bubble, and loaded the tech with guns, including the flame thrower.
I headed off, intending to end the raids once and for all.
I could tell I was getting close, after about an hour of searching, I was attacked by the wolves, which couldn't even get close enough to touch the shield bubble. I made sure to move in the direction they came from. The attacks became more frequent and frantic, with wolves just charging out of the bushes towards my tech in an attempt to stop it.
I eventually made it to a small clearing, inside it was a decaying tree. It glowed green and it's bark was turned black by decay, not fire. Dripping from the tree was the green fluid that also came from the wolves. Speaking of wolves, they were everywhere.
They formed a semicircle around the tree to protect it, there were also much larger wolves, some even larger than my tech. That wouldn't be a problem however, they were all made of wood.
I torched the whole place, the wooden wolves caught surprisingly well, and it all went up in flames as wolves frantically ran around on fire. The larger wolves were a bit more resistant, but that didn't stop them from being torn apart by the multitude of guns I had brought with.
The decaying tree appeared to screech in agony as flames rose along the outside, it's pitch black bark turning a bit lighter as all the material burned into ash and charcoal. The mysterious green fluid dried up along the tree, leaving brownish-green streaks dotting the now burned husk. It was dead for sure.
All at once, the remaining wolves shuddered and whimpered, then one by one they broke apart in the flames.
It was a wonder that none of the other trees caught fire, the decay must have produced something extremely flammable, or the other trees were rather wet. I didn't really know, or care, I was just glad that I had stopped the raids.
Now I could finally leave for a longer period of time, perfect for me to actually go get some Celestite and recover the other plane. I still needed a lot of money for Titanite, but I may have found another solution that could help with that. I needed Celestite to actually test it out however.
I was ready to try and gather Celestite again. I had built a plane capable of navigating the extreme cold, and I had taken care of the forest raids against my base. I was free to leave whenever I wanted.
Making sure my base was secure, including the vault, I headed out towards the now much larger clearing in the forest. A lot of the flora that previously existed here was dying. Where there was once flowers, brambles, and bushes was now something much more like a grassland.
Grass had overtaken a lot of the land due to the absence of trees, it hadn't taken over everything though, my constant movements in techs had made sure of that. Obvious dirt roads ran seemingly randomly across the field, with deep imprints from tires going over regularly.
The new tracks on the plane weren't much better, being wider, it crushed more of the grass. Repeated use of tracks would definitely destroy the area, leaving it a barren stretch of dirt.
That was off topic however, right now it was time to take flight once more. Checking everything once again, I made sure the plane was ready for the arctic conditions.
Being a larger plane, it would no doubt fly a bit slower than the previous one. To counteract this, I had spent more resources to fabricate some more propellers, I should make the trip in the same amount of time now.
I took off, ready for the two to three day journey ahead of me. Once again passing Canterlot, I reminded myself that I should actually buy some Titanite when I got back. I had something I wanted to try, and I had enough money that I could try experimenting.
I passed by the large cloud again, this time there seemed to be even more activity, but as much as I wanted to find out, I didn't want to risk losing another plane.
Just then, a loud boom echoed out from the giant cloud. A large shockwave and arcing rainbow appeared from the cloud.
The shockwave nearly stalled my tech as it passed over, which greatly worried me. It wasn't easy to break the sound barrier, especially if you didn't know the composition of the atmosphere. Something over in that cloud had done it, which meant it could travel faster than I could.
I gave the giant cloud an extra large margin as I passed it.
The rest of the trip actually took longer than I thought, it was either due to different winds or just the larger plane. I made it to the Frozen mountains in about four days. This time, it was day, and there were no storm clouds in the distance, perfect.
I landed on the same slope I had found last time, and because of the tracks, I was able to stop about halfway down the slope rather than at the end of it. The large chunk that fell off last time made it a bit shorter, but that wasn't a problem.
Looking around, there were no Celestite outcroppings just sticking out of the ice, which made sense. With snow falling and nothing to melt it, there really wasn't going to be anything around here besides snow and ice. Everything else was underneath, like the plane.
Down the mountainside, there was no obvious indication that the plane was anywhere near, it was too far buried and the environment had smoothed over all the snow and ice. I could tell where it was on the radar however, I just couldn't tell how far down it was.
Flying down, the snow was hard and solid, it must've been frozen together after melting a bit in the sun. It was able to support the weight of my plane.
I couldn't really see the frozen plane, but a little indicator was visible telling me it was directly below me, and judging by it's distance, it was pretty far down.
That was a problem, I didn't have a way to drill a hole large enough or straight down to reach the plane, so it was still stuck down there for the moment.
I did know one thing however, the ice was saturated with Celestite chunks, enough that they were visible a few meters deep. I did my best to brush away the snow from the ice wall, it wasn't very effective but it was good enough to get a view inside it.
Frozen in the ice, were a couple of small chunks of Celestite, and further back was a large outcrop of it. I still only had the small drill however, so it would take forever to actually drill through the Ice, especially if I wanted to get the whole plane through.
There was one solution, it was the fact that I brought the cannon. Explosive mining at the bottom of an avalanche prone zone was a risky thing, but it was the only option right now, and I really wanted the Celestite.
To start, I simply drilled a small hole in the Ice wall, flew back as far as I could go, and simply aimed for the hole. The first shot missed, and the explosion rang throughout the area. Nothing fell, and that raised my confidence, it looked like the mountainside was a lot more stable than I thought.
I fired again, this time blowing a large chunk of ice out of the wall. I continued to do this until the hole was now deep enough to reach the first chunk.
Reassembling the tech so it could fit into the hole, I drove in and drilled out the chunk. It came out remarkably well, and I now held my first chunk of Celestite on this world. There was still a bit of ice between me and the next chunk, and a lot more ice until the outcropping, so I would have to continue breaking my way through.
The next chunk was easy enough to get, but the real problems started when I moved onto the outcropping. Apparently the hole was now too deep, as a large crack started forming above the entrance, a huge chunk of ice threatening to fall down over the entrance.
The solution to this was easy enough, just build my own support with some leftover blocks. I actually did bring an anchor block, so it was a lot more effective than just leaning a pillar up against the entrance. Just to be safe, I fired from the outside to test whether or not it would work.
The roof shifted a little, but that was only because it wasn't entirely on the pillar, now it was. It looked like it would hold for now.
Continuing to mine, I eventually made it to the large outcrop, and once again driving the tech down the tunnel, I began drilling. The outcrop was pretty big, and was able to yield a lot of Celestite, almost completely filling my collectors.
The ceiling then started to crack, then several chunks of ice came loose. The anti-gravity properties of the Celestite must have been keeping this mine from collapsing, and now that I just broke a large field into a bunch of smaller fields, It wasn't enough to support the ceiling.
Racing out of the cave, I just barely made it out before the whole thing collapsed. I didn't have enough time to recover though, as the collapse caused a chain reaction to occur. A large chunk of the mountain up above crumbled off, creating a deadly avalanche.
I don't think I've ever assembled a tech as fast as I did right there, in an instant, the plane was rebuilt, and I started to take off. By now, the smaller chunks of ice had begun raining down onto my tech, thankfully the repair bubble I had installed did its thing, so nothing was too damaged.
The plane was picking up speed, but so was the incoming avalanche, I needed to take off and get above it before I got buried, again. Larger chunks started impacting around the tech as the avalanche fell closer, the plane was almost fast enough to lift off, it would be close.
A particularly large chunk of ice seemed to be rolling right towards my tech, it was quickly catching up to it.
The plane took off, and the large chunk of ice just barely clipped the wheel I had in the back, it was only a little jolt, I quickly recovered, and gained altitude. I had successfully dodged an avalanche.
With the Celestite firm in my collectors, I began the three to four day long journey back home. It was unfortunate that I wasn't able to recover the other plane, but at least it wasn't destroyed. I would have to come back for it sometime later, probably when I had access to Geocorp.
For now, I had the Celestite, so I could finally go to the moon, and get Titanite without having to buy it. First I had to actually buy some though, I still needed it to get up there. But I wasn't so sure I needed it to go down anymore, there was something I wanted to try.
The trip back was uneventful, I gave the large cloud another wide berth, and made it home with the Celestite. I wanted to get fabricating right away, but I only had so much of it, so I'd have to decide what to make and what not to make.
The unfortunate thing was that while I could use a Scrapper to get back the materials from any block. I could not use it to 'unmake' components, so anything that used Celestite components I had to really think about. Unfortunately, there wasn't much that just used pure Celestite, but I could fabricate an A.I. for the base, which I immediately did.
Celestite was mainly useful for two things, anti-gravity fields, which were essential for shields and space travel, and A.I.s which were also essential for space travel.
To do what I wanted to try, I needed a collection satellite, which is used by all prospectors. This wouldn't just be a normal collection satellite though, it would also have a delivery cannon on it, so it could move resources from one place to another.
My plan was to put a base on the moon and have a delivery cannon fire Titanite from the moon, into orbit around the planet. There, the collection satellite will collect the Titanite, then use its delivery cannon to fire it back down to my base. Of course, it would have to wait until it gets into the right position first, but that was easy.
Now you may be thinking, don't you need a heat shield to enter the atmosphere? Well you're right, but heatshields are made of Titanite, so it shouldn't be a problem. If I could pull this off, I wouldn't have to spend another couple of weeks harvesting more resources to sell.
There were four stages to my plan. First, I needed to get the materials for the satellite, and the moon base up into orbit, easy enough. Then, I would build the satellite with programming to seek out Titanite, and also to launch it back to the planet at a certain location, not as easy.
Next, I would travel to the moon with the rest of the materials, easy. Then I would have to build up a moon base with a delivery cannon specifically aimed so that the Titanite will remain in orbit, not very easy. Finally, I would switch techs and build a receiving platform for the Titanite to land on, easy. No heatshield required, though I would still need Titanite.
Designing the satellite was easy, especially since a majority of its programming was already made. For the actually body however, I would need a few things. I needed solar panels, batteries, shields, a delivery cannon, conveyors, a silo, collectors, and an A.I. cabin. Maybe even a radio tower, but that was mostly optional, though it would certainly be helpful.
The only things that were really a problem was the solar panels, delivery cannon, silos, and conveyors. The delivery cannon just need Titanite, while the conveyors and silo just needed Luxite, both easy enough to get. For solar panels however, I needed Ignite, and while I some left over, I wasn't sure there was enough for both the satellite and moon base.
I really didn't want to go back to get more just yet, but I knew I would have to eventually. For now, I'll just see if I can do it without any more Ignite. Some more Luxite had grown during my trip, which gave me enough to at least finish the satellite.
The design for the moon base was relatively simple, just a platform with a receiver, another silo, some conveyors, another delivery cannon, and everything needed for shielding as well as a wireless charger for the mining tech.
Since techs could operate in the vacuum, although somewhat limited, I could simply just switch to the satellite or moon base whenever I needed more Titanite. All in all, it was a really effective plan, I just had to get it done.
First things first. I needed Titanite for the delivery cannons, it was as good a time as any to cash out. Thankfully the Princesses had made it so I could just order Titanite whenever I wanted. I just had to pay Filthy Rich, and it would arrive by train a few days later for me to pick up.
Having to wait longer for Titanite wasn't a bad thing either. It would allow more Luxite to grow, and allow me to properly design the satellite and base.
With the order placed, I went right to work on designing and building the space tech. I decided to go with rocket propulsion, while a bit outdated, it was certainly faster and more cost efficient than motion engines. I still needed to conserve my Celestite.
Rocket fuel was simple enough, it was actually a combination of Rodite, Carbite, and Oleite, something that I'd have to gather more of to get enough. The larger plane made short work of that.
To start, I built a large platform in which to launch the rocket, and started from the ground up.
Large rocket engines sat on the platform, above them was a large fuel tank filled with the semi-solid rocket fuel. Above that was the payload housing, able to fit both the folded up satellite, moon base, and a rover in its cargo. Above that was the cabin of the rocket, with both a regular cabin, and a housing for a Seed A.I. which would guide the rocket into the correct position. Along the whole rocket were fins and adjustment thrusters, which would allow advanced movement in the vacuum.
Next up was to actually program the satellite, which only required a little modification to its source code. Instead of firing resources back to the Federation, it would track the Titanite Receiver I would build and only fire at it when ready. Its collection programming didn't need to be changed at all.
Then there was the moon base, which was relatively simple except for one thing, getting the Titanite to stay in orbit once fired. I had to find a way to get the perfect angle from the moon to the planet in order for that to happen, luckily, I had advanced A.I.s on my side, so it wouldn't be too hard. I would have to add a few motors to the build so it could adjust the cannon whenever necessary.
All I had to do now was wait, the Titanite should be arriving soon enough, and I needed more time for the Luxite. Other than that, everything else was complete.
Waiting sucks when you have nothing else to do, I harvested a bit more of the forest, and flew to collect more resources, but after all that, there wasn't else much to do.
There was one last thing I did before the Luxite finished. I flew back to the plateau I had seen earlier and investigated closer.
It was solid, mostly made of volcanic rock, there weren't any useful resources on it, but some plant life. It was a very suitable spot for a base, if the chunk of Harmonite wasn't in the cave, I would definitely base here.
After a long wait, everything was ready to launch. I was a bit unsure about how long it would take, but I was certain it wouldn't take that long, which is why I chose to go right at sundown. Hopefully the moon would be right above when I made it into orbit, as I did not want to wait to catch up to it.
Everything was checked away, base was secure, Zecora was informed, and the launch pad was clear, so was the weather, everything was perfect. I started an unnecessary countdown.
3 2 1
Launch!
The powerful engines below blasted into action as large flames shot out of them. The whole rocket lurched, and began to rise faster and faster. It wouldn't take too long, as it should really only take around five minutes to escape the atmosphere, at least based on the calculations made by the rocket's A.I.
All the ponies at the Grand Galloping Gala turned to look at the great spectacle coming from the far off Everfree forest. A great point of light continued to raise higher and higher, leaving a large smoke trail. The whole thing was accented by the setting sun.
Everypony was speechless, even Princess Celestia stopped setting the sun for a moment to look at this grand display.
After about a minute or too of everypony gawking, the shining object raised above the higher clouds and disappeared above them. Only glimpses of it could be seen as it continued to fly higher and higher, breaking all known records for high flying.
The whole gala stood still, and after several minutes, the festivities slowly continued, though a little bit less enthusiastic due to the strange event that had just transpired.
The calculations were a bit off, as it took about twice as long to finally escape the atmosphere. When I did escape the atmosphere though, I was able to see just how large the planet was.
It was pretty large, based on how long the horizon stretched and the time it took to get up here. Though the resource value was pretty low, based on my explorations around the continent.
Speaking of continents, the one I just came from, 'Equestria' appeared to be the largest. It started at the North pole and made it all the way down into the Southern hemisphere, but not the South pole. It was decently large too, it took up a majority of the view down below, but an ocean was visible on both sides.
Towards the edge of my view, I could see the start of another continent. It was brownish and looked to have many mountains, probably volcanic.
Due to the time of my launch, the moon was fully visible from my location, it was a lot closer than I originally thought, and therefore was smaller than once thought.
Starting the second phase, I detached the folded up satellite and began to construct it. It didn't take long to finish it, and it was now up and running, I made sure to leave an extra cabin inside so I could take control when I needed. Using some small thrusters, I made sure that the satellite would stay in orbit.
Now for the long part, travelling to the moon. Thankfully it wouldn't take as long as I thought, but it would still take some time to traverse the distance.
The journey would take a few hours at most, and I wouldn't just be beelining it straight to the moon either. I made sure to predict its path and aim towards that direction.
After the hours passed, I was now close enough to the moon that I didn't have to worry about missing it, it took up a large part of my view. I began the landing procedures, and enclosed on the moon.
Luna spat out her tea as a jolt rocked her body, and she nearly knocked the tea tray off the table nearby. She gasped loudly as she felt an odd sensation. Celestia quickly took notice.
"Sister, are you alright?" she asked.
"Unnghh, I am feeling the most... peculiar sensation," Luna answered, shaking a bit.
"I told you not to eat that much cake sister, nopony can eat that much." Celestia scolded.
"Except for you" Luna mumbled under her breath, she shivered a bit.
"What was that?" Celestia asked, looking a bit annoyed.
"Nothing at all sister," Luna quickly said, before jolting once more, "Besides, this is not a stomach ache, it is concentrated more on my connection to the moon, I can feel it at the base of my horn and neck. What could that mean?"
"You do not think it has anything to do with that flying light, do you?" Celestia asked, looking at her sister worriedly.
"It is possible, but this feels like... It feels like..." Luna trailed off.
"It feels like what sister?" Celestia was getting really worried now.
"LIKE THERE IS SOMETHING ON THE MOON!" Luna exclaimed, surprising Celestia.
"On the moon? How is that possible?" Celestia asked
"I do not know, but whatever it is, it is moving around quite a bit." Luna answered, "I am going to take a look,"
Luna's eyes closed, then opened again revealing them to be glowing white, her pupils were still visible, but had an obvious sheen around them as she began looking around.
I had just finished anchoring the moon base, it now had everything ready, including the delivery cannon on a motorized arm. It was now able to aim in a full 160° field around it, perfect for getting the Titanite into orbit.
The rover I made was simple enough, just a small thing with tracks, shielding, and batteries. Not to mention a drill and plenty of collectors.
Upon driving around, the gravity difference was obvious, as every time my tech went over a slight slope, it lifted off the ground for a second or two.
Another thing was obvious however, there were Titanite seams everywhere, no matter which direction you looked, the tell tale blue veins were visible in almost every rock. It was Titanite paradise for any tech, I was able to gather so much right now, so that's what I did.
After only about twenty minutes of mining, I was able to completely fill the silo I had brought along, now all I had to do was build a receiving platform and I would be able to get Titanite whenever I wanted. All I needed to do was simply switch back to a tech down on the surface.
But not before doing some sick jumps in this lower gravity of course, I had to do that.
Luna was speechless, she blinked once more and her eyes returned to normal.
"I do not believe it," she started.
"What is it sister, anything to worry about?" Celestia asked, a little nervous.
"It looked like something eerily similar to Tecka, just moving around on the moon." Luna explained.
"Similar to Tecka? Perhaps we should ask her about this, did you see anything else?" Celestia asked, no longer nervous, but curious.
"Yes, it looked like they harvested a large amount of Cobalt from the surface, it was held in some sort of structure they had built." Luna described.
"Most peculiar, we will definitely discuss this with Tecka, she may be more dangerous than we once thought sister." Her gaze hardening.
Everything was in order, all that was left to do was simply build a platform to receive the Titanite, and then it would be sent down.
I couldn't just use a resource receiver though, as there was no way it could catch a chunk of Titanite from orbit. The destructive power of something like that hitting the ground... could actually be pretty useful.
There may be some merit to using the satellite to attack things, though orbital strikes are heavily frowned upon by almost all prospectors. Still, if it really came down to it, I could always just send a Titanite chunk down onto anything I wanted.
Back to the receiver though, it's design was simple enough. A large platform to hold the mechanism and an array of 'catching' fields that would slow the chunk down until it stopped. It even communicated with the satellite so that it was even more accurate. It was also wide enough to account for deviations in the Titanite's trajectory too, but not all of them.
It had to be super accurate, or else a chunk of Titanite traveling faster than terminal velocity would impact the area around it, not a good thing. All I had to do now was actually build it.
Before I was able to even begin clearing a space for it, a blue indicator appeared on my radar, it's shape told me it was Twilight, and she was walking pretty fast.
A moment later, she nearly galloped out of the trees, quickly dashing towards my tech as soon as she spotted it.
"Tecka! Tecka! Princess Celestia has requested an audience with you!" She shouted from across the clearing.
Turning to 'face' her, I waited until she made it within a good speaking distance of my tech.
"Oh? When is this meeting? Do you know what it might be about?" I asked, genuinely curious,
Twilight paused to catch her breath, then spoke up again.
"I don't know, but it's effective immediately, the transport is already on it's way!" She exclaimed.
That was strange, could my recent escapades have caused that much of a disturbance? I mean, flying a rocket is certainly eye-catching, but I don't think I did anything wrong. I would've expected a meeting in time, but one that was happening right now made me a bit nervous.
"How long until the transport gets here?" I asked
"Probably ten minutes or so. You must be really lucky to get an audience so fast." Twilight commented.
"Right," was all I said, "There is something I have to do real quick,"
I drove back down into the ravine, gathering specific resources. This meeting was out of the blue, and was really suspicious, I had no reason to distrust the Princesses, but then again, I've been burned for misplacing it before. I wanted a security measure.
I looked through all the weapons I had available, which was pretty much all of them, to an extent. I had to find something non-lethal in case things went South during this meeting. Of course, I wouldn't just be barging in guns blazing, but having a backup plan really helps.
The only thing that was close to non-lethal was the sonic lance, which would probably be the most effective against organic beings anyway. I would definitely tone it down though, I would not be using this to kill or maim.
After about five minutes, I had successfully hidden the large weapon within the bowels of my tech. With just the simple movement of one block, it would uncover it, allowing it to fire. I also made sure to recharge my batteries, just in case.
Driving back out, Twilight was pacing back and forth on top of the ravine, looking a bit frantic.
"There you are! We have to go now! I just saw the transport fly overhead!" she shouted down.
I reluctantly began picking up speed, and began driving to the forest's edge where I was picked up last time. Twilight followed behind as well, but was quickly outpaced by my tech. Sighing internally, I stopped and let Twilight get on, before speeding off once more.
Upon making it to the forest edge, I could see the team of Pegasi that were supposed to be airlifting me, along with a squad of guards. There was no chariot for Twilight though.
Speaking of Twilight, she looked rather frazzled from the quick trip in the forest, with several twigs and leaves in her hair. She hopped down and trotted up to the guards.
"Excuse me, is there a chariot for me to ride in?" she asked.
"The individual known as 'Tecka' is the only one being transported today, please keep your distance ma'am" The guard stated clearly.
Twilight looked shocked, but didn't press the issue, she just mumbled a bit and backed off.
I simply just drove onto the platform, and was quickly secured, with probably more ropes than necessary. All of this was making me uneasy. No Twilight, a squad of guards, and an emergency meeting with the Princess. This was all leading to something bad happening. We soon took off.
Only the sound of wings permeated the air during the trip, and after an hour or so of flying, Canterlot came into view. It was a pretty cloudy day, with a grey sky that darkened the whole area, it wasn't raining, but it looked like it could start at any moment.
The platform landed at the dock, this time, there were no bystanders, it was completely empty. After being unstrapped, another squad of guards came to help escort me to the castle once again. The stark white of the castle almost blending in with the light grey clouds behind it.
There were no other ponies outside besides the guards, even the castle entrance was empty. I was led down the same path I took last time, everything was much more quite however, no conversations of ponies nearby, no ambience of nature, nothing. Something was definitely going on, and not just the weather either.
The large doors of the throne room loomed before me, and a large amount of guards were stationed around it. The two squads escorting me nodded to the ones at the door, and it began to open.
The large room looked the exact same as it did before, but this time there was no beams of light shining through the windows. If it got any darker, they would probably have to start using artificial lighting.
Princess Celestia and Luna stood at the throne, not sitting on it. Celestia was expressionless, while Luna looked a bit confused.
"Hello Tecka, we have some questions for you, you would do best by answering truthfully." Celestia said coldly, skipping introductions.
"Very well then, I'll do my best to answer," I said, not liking where this was going.
"First, have you lied to us about anything?" Celestia asked, her gaze solely on my tech
"No," I answered.
"Do you have anything to do with the flying light seen last night?"
"Yes," I said, of course they saw the rocket, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to be so flashy.
"What was its purpose?" Celestia demanded
"It was a form of transport" I admitted
"Was?" Celestia asked,
"It was a one way trip," I explained
"What was it transporting?"
"Mining equipment,"
Luna fidgeted a bit, but kept silent.
"Where was this equipment going?"
I hesitated a bit, before answering
"To the moon"
Luna shifted a bit more, and looked a bit upset. She kept silent though. Celestia's gaze hardened.
"So you intended to steal from my sister and me?" she more stated rather than asked.
"Not intentionally, I assumed the moon was unowned."
This time Luna did speak up.
"UNOWNED! I am the PRINCESS OF THE MOON! What gives you the right to take what's mine?" She shouted
"Do you have proof of ownership?" I asked, intentionally sounding a bit smug
Luna stomped her hoof, earning her a glare from Celestia, though she didn't back down.
"I move it through the sky! My connection to the moon is mine and mine alone, it gives me the right to use it how I please!"
"Do you have the deed?" I asked
Luna looked mad.
"I do not need a deed for the moon!"
Celestia quickly interrupted, probably to stop Luna from going too far.
"That is beside the point, Tecka. We didn't call you here to argue about mining on the moon. There are still some things we need to know." She said, defusing the situation, Luna still looked a bit mad.
"What do you need to know?" I asked
"How did you travel to the moon? The record for highest flying is not even close to that height." Celestia said
"I cannot tell you, the Federation forbids distribution of technological advancements, I'm sorry." I explained
Celestia looked a bit miffed, but kept her cool.
"Can you tell me about this Federation?" She asked,
"The Federation is a government formed from several species, in the past it used the unique developments from each of the species to conquer a large amount of land. Now however, large corporations hold more power than the government, they used their immense profits to take control of the Federation, and now everything costs money," I deadpanned,
Celestia took in that information slowly, going over everything I just said, she asked another question.
"What is your role in the Federation?"
"I am a prospector, I scout out new lands to find resources to send back to the Federation and allow it to grow, it makes me quite a lot of money." I explained
Celestia thought for a bit.
"You are a very good liar Tecka," She stated.
"Excuse me?" I said, baffled.
"You say this 'Federation' is very large and expanding, yet in all my time I have never heard of anything like that on this world. You were able to say those things without pause or flaw, it is impossible to know if you are speaking the truth unless we know all of the facts." Celestia explained, a bit smug.
"You think I'm lying? I may not be giving the full truth, but I am not lying." I said coolly.
"Then why have I not heard of this 'Federation' before? Explain to me that you are not lying." Celestia demanded.
"You want the truth? Then I'll give you the truth. You haven't heard of the Federation because it doesn't exist on this planet. It's full name is the 'Galactic Federation', and it spans multiple star systems. I prospect new planets, and right now, I'm trying to save this one." I explained.
Celestia's gaze hardened,
"You are not from this world?" She asked coldly, ignoring the rest of my explanation.
"No I am not," I said.
The whole room suddenly got darker, as if the sun had moved out of the way. Celestia's horned glowed as she took a step down the throne.
"You are not the first off-worlder to come here," she spat,
"Sister, what do you mean by that?" Luna asked,
She was ignored as Celestia took another step, her horn glowing brighter as my entire tech was lifted off the ground.
"Your kind bring nothing but misery and destruction, I should have never allowed you to roam free." She said,
"Sister?" Luna tried again
The grip I was in began to constrict, and my entire tech started to get crushed under the immense power of Celestia. The repair bubble did it's job however, and managed to keep the tech together. It wouldn't last forever though, once the battery ran out, I would be crushed.
Ever so slowly, I carefully removed the block covering the sonic lance, and immediately fired.
A visible shockwave of sound emitted from the front of my tech, knocking both Celestia and Luna back. Several stained glass windows shattered. With her concentration broken, my tech dropped back onto the floor, and I tried to speed off.
Celestia recovered quickly though, and this time shot a few blasts towards my tech. Some missed, but those that hit completely destroyed the blocks they hit, not even giving the repair bubble time to repair. I had to escape.
Seeing no other option, I drove towards one of the stained glass windows, quickly reorienting the sonic lance, I turned it into a makeshift booster.
Firing it once more had my tech launching into the air, and then sailing through the stained glass window. There was a long drop below me, as I apparently picked one of the windows that overlooked a garden. It was at this point where the batteries ran out, and my repair bubble shut down.
Once again, my tech fell down several stories. Thankfully, a large piece of hedge cushioned my fall a bit, preventing anything from being outright destroyed.
Moving all the wheels a fast as I could, I slowly inched my way off of the hedge, and then sped off into the maze, nearly hitting a strange statue.
It was at this point that hundreds of guards appeared from the castle, the Pegasi taking flight in an attempt to catch up to my tech. I had to find a way out of this castle and soon.
The maze proved to be more advantageous for me than the ponies, as the ground restricted ones were forced to follow the walls, while I could just drive right through them. My radar certainly helped, it allowed me to dodge larger groups heading my direction, but I knew I couldn't keep this up.
Driving back towards the main gate, I crashed through the outer maze wall and was now out in the open courtyard. The gate was visible from my location, but it looked like the ponies were prepared for that, as they began to close the gate.
I drove as fast as I could towards the gate, and a small hail of arrows and energy bolts struck the ground around me. Whether they meant to damage or delay me I couldn't tell. The doors continued to close, and it was getting to the point where I was actually unsure if I'd make it.
Then I stopped, a yellow glow surrounding my tech and once more lifting it off the ground, the wheels spinning uselessly below.
Looking around, I could see Celestia standing there, she looked really mad, and I could see a small amount of blood coming from one ear. I reoriented the sonic lance once more, but wasn't able to fire as a bolt of energy knocked it off, destroying it.
Celestia brought me closer to her, and looked right at the center of my tech, thankfully my cabin wasn't visible.
"DO NOT THINK YOU COULD ESCAPE SO EASILY." She spoke, a bit loud, probably from the burst ear drum I gave her. "I WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR KIND TO CONTINUE HERE."
This tech was as good as gone, there was no hope of getting out now. Oh well, time to think of an awesome one-liner before Celestia 'killed' me.
"You cannot k...crzzzztt!" The speaker was cut short as it was crushed, along with the rest of my tech.
Switching control back to the plane, I was a bit disappointed at being interrupted, but there were more important things at stake. Celestia had a general idea to where I resided, and Twilight knew exactly where I was. I needed to get up and moving, and fast.
Using the left over large wheels, I created a massive tech capable of holding all the essentials plus some resources and blocks from my base. I couldn't bring everything of course, so I had to leave a lot of standard blocks. I would have to use some anchor blocks to get up the ravine, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Driving back out, I was faced with another large problem. The huge chunk of Harmonite that was rooted to the floor of my base. I had attempted to dig it out before, but it's roots were simply too deep, almost like a tree. In a last ditch effort to secure my immense fortune, I simply tried to push it out using the tech.
The Harmonite seemed to repel my force however, and I wasn't able to move it at all. It was always a gamble with how weird Harmonite behaved, it was almost like it was sentient. There nothing else I could do to move it, so I'd have to leave it behind. The good thing about it though, was that if I couldn't move it, neither could the ponies, so it should be safe for now.
Making it to the top of the ravine, I packed up all the Luxite chambers and began moving towards the one place I knew was secure, the plateau I had found earlier.
My tech plowed through the forest, tearing down trees left and right in my attempt to escape. Right now I didn't care if I left a trail, my main priority was to simply gain distance.
After tearing through the forest, I made it to one of the many fields that surrounded it, which is where I got my next idea. In this field there were train tracks, and I knew that tracks lead to the plateau. Train tracks also didn't leave as much of a trace as tire tracks either.
Quickly setting the Refinery and Fabricator down, I made as many Train Foundations as I could, then began to reassemble the massive tech into a long train. Completely forgoing aerodynamics, I simply piled stuff onto each cart until the weight limit was reached.
Thankfully, I managed to fit everything from the tech onto the train, and I took control of it. As the train began to pick up speed, I could see a large amount of flying objects closing in on the forest, all of them looked to have originated from Canterlot.
By the time I was speeding down the tracks faster than any normal train, the whole swarm of guards had landed in the clearing. I couldn't make out much more, as the train cleared a hill, blocking my sight from the rest of the commotion.
I really hoped I was traveling in the right track, I was hoping that all the tracks were connected, so I chose to travel down the direction closest to the plateau. It would probably take some time to reach my destination however, as it was almost a day's flight away.
I was in a really bad position right now, I had made an enemy of the local government, which meant I would not be getting support from them any more. I had to leave behind my greatest fortune ever, though I was sure in the future I could reacquire it.
As the train traveled down the track at blinding speeds, I realized one thing. It was about to get a lot harder to secure this planet.
Only the rhythmic clacking of my train on the tracks accompanied me as it traveled at a ridiculous speed down said tracks. The environment had long since changed from the familiar temperate grasslands to a now much more arid savannah. The grass was yellow, and trees were sparse, it was far from ideal conditions, but it was what laid ahead that made this area worthwhile.
A plateau, the one that I had scouted out earlier. Even though it was relatively far from any major resources, it was easily defendable, and most likely unheard of, the signs of a forgotten settlement made that apparent. All of that is what made it a perfect candidate for my new base of operations. There was a lot of planning to do, which meant a lot of building too, but I was up for the task, after all, what could possibly go wrong?
