World Factory | HFY Prompt Fic

[TrueGuardian32]

The factory is always humming. Regardless of which factory it is, the gears never go silent, and the belts keep moving. I watched over the production line, keeping an eye on the diagnostics. My exo-suit provided all the information I needed.

"Shekin! The boss wants to see you!" I glance over at the other intern. We were Engineers in training getting some experience from the senior engineer that made this factory. I grimaced. This likely wasn't good news.

I nodded. "Alright. Where is he?"

"Titanium C processing plant. There was a ship there. Military-grade."

I blinked. That was not normal. Typically Boss Derrick only called me when I was in trouble. How did I get in trouble with the military? I shook my head. "Wish me luck."

He nodded, before heading to the solar zone. I engaged the thrusters on my suit, heading straight for the Materials Processing Zone. It took a few minutes to get passed the massive factory lines. It's impressive that Boss Derrick built all of this from scratch only twenty years ago. Technically it was owned by Multimart. But Derrick was their employee sent to start this factory world.

It didn't take me long to find Derrick, and he was talking to some pretty important-looking military types. I hear the tail end of the conversation.

"I assure you, Shekin is one of the best apprentices in the factory, if anyone could handle it, it would be him." Pretty high praises… what is he planning?

I land down, "Greetings Boss. What are you needing." I can't tell if he's smiling or not, we are all wearing engineering and combat suits. We are never without them unless we are in the home rooms.

"Ah, Shekin! You are here! This is Sargeant Carlos and Major Nukimi. They are here to talk to you about a possible job position." Derrick said, enthusiastic as can be. What's surprising here is that I'm the Apprentice that Derrick likes the LEAST. Why would he be recommending me?

"Greetings Sargeant Carlos, Greetings Major Nukimi." I greeted both of them.

"Greetings to you as well Apprentice Shekin. We have a question, how would you like to be a Factory Engineer?" Major Nukimi dropped the bombshell first.

My eyes widened… "Are you joking?"

Sergeant Carlos spoke up. "No, we are not. We are in need of a Factory Engineer that is well trained. We can provide details on the way if you will sign." They then handed me a digital pad. I glanced over it, an NDA, Licensing, Code of Conduct, ah, I see. You can't be affiliated with an existing company. I am the only independent engineering apprentice on this side of space. If Derrick wants that shining badge showing that he is willing to cooperate with the military, I am his best shot. The problem is that if I refuse just to spite Derrick, I might as well not work here anymore. Plus I really do want to be a Factory Engineer. I wonder if I'll be assigned to an abandoned factory or if I will get to build a new factory world.

"Alright, I think I'm fine with these conditions." I signed the documents one by one, before handing the digital pad back. I get an alert on my hud as a copy of them is sent to my email.

"Good! You've got three days to pack. The G.G.H. Second Wind will pick you up. You will be instructed on the way there." Major Nukimi spoke, as they packed up the digital pad.

As they left Derrick spoke. "Congratulations Shekin! You don't have to go to work today. Get packed, enjoy the sights, and visit the orbital habitat if you want!" He then waved the air, and my final check was sent to me. I would no longer be Derricks's apprentice. Well… That's good I guess. No more yelling at me for pointless stuff.

I walked out… and avoided the numerous messy lines of conveyors and chutes. In only a few moments I was no longer an apprentice engineer, and now I was a factory engineer. I engaged my thrusters, going home.


Once in my room, I stripped off the exo-suit. I always feel strange without it on, it's basically a second skin to most people. Including myself. I normally sleep in the thing. I glanced in the mirror. My skin was deeply pale. Most of humanity not in the Sol System doesn't get exposure to the sun. So paleness was extremely common. My hair was grey, almost silver, and my eyes were a deep black. Another side effect of wearing my exo-suit constantly. I don't like looking in the mirror too much. The lights in the homerooms are normally extremely dim in order to not hurt the occupant's eyes. Years of time have caused most of humanity to change from the time they were on Earth. Heh, in the Holovods you could see people with all sorts of skin tones and eye colors. Black, brown, red, yellow, white, and pale. It was fascinating to look at compared to now.

I shrugged off my thoughts as I began to pack. I didn't have much, only a few outfits. I don't really remember my family since they shipped me off to the orbital habitat here. The robot caretakers weren't exactly conversational types. But at least I made a few friends.

I sat down on my bed after I was fully packed, leaving me only with my holopad. Then I began to look through the details of what I had signed.

Most of it was technical speak that I had a hard time understanding but I understood a good portion of it. I was going somewhere classified that I couldn't actually speak of, I would in fact be building a Factory world, I'm not sure what class of factory yet. I can't talk to my friends yet, they are still going about doing their shifts. I shrugged, and swiped the agreement to the side, before starting to play some TerraDefender 5.

—

I sighed as I looked at the ship that came to pick me up.

"Fairwell man! Good luck out there!" The other apprentices gave me encouragement as I hopped onto the transport. The transport would take me to the actual frigate in space. Once aboard the transport, I placed my luggage to the side. Then the lights in the transport dimmed as a lady walked in without an exo-suit on. Which was surprising.

I stood up and greeted her, "Greetings. I am Engineer Shekin."

She grins. "Not yet, you don't have the Exo for that." She then goes to the side, and pulls a display out of the wall, displaying a military-grade Factory Engineer Exo-suit.

I held my breath as I went and brushed over the suit… it was amazing. Everything was heavily advanced and way too expensive. A full-on MGF Exo-Suit. I laughed, "I thought I was going to get the cheap stuff."

She grinned, "Typically that would be the case if you were going to an existing Factory World, but you are going to be building one from scratch. Alone."

I froze at that, the addendum alone meant one thing. Border world. "Am I going to be positioned along the Imperial Chazin races dividing line?"

She shook her head, "Nope, tensions are too high with the Chazin race for any factories to be set up there. You will be heading to the very edge of dark space. We discovered a large rocky world there that has no sun. You will be making a Fortress World there and will be constructing the forces for the Drone Armada."

I blinked, "That is a pretty important task, why is somebody like me getting that position instead of an internal engineer?"

"Surprisingly enough, we are actually out of available engineers." She might as well just have told me that everything I know was a lie and Derrick wasn't an asshat.

"I swear I can actually feel your shock. Regardless, it is not what you think. We do have engineers in training, but none reach the mark of being capable of running a Factory World, You are one of thirteen thousand that have the capabilities, and only thirty were available. We figured we might as well expand using someone from the outer zone, as a way to foster relations and show that we are interested in the outer zone." She replied, cheerfully.

I nodded, "I'm guessing I'll probably have to talk to the press or something?"

"Nope, we got that handled. All you have to do is develop the Factory World."

I sighed, it sounds so simple, yet there had to be complexities beyond the surface that I wasn't privy to. You don't just throw a newly promoted Apprentice Engineer to build a Factory World. I took off my helm. Her eyes widened.

"You are more handsome than I thought for an outer zoner."

I raised my brow. "Racist much?"

"Ah, sorry. The media twists things a bit about the people in the outer zone. Guess I'm not as uninfluenceable as I thought," she replies, flinching.

I shrugged. "Yeah, not sure what Sol Times is on about most of the time. Seem to be determined to paint us as something other than human."

She nodded, before backing up into the doorway. "I'm going to go ahead and let you get changed."

I nodded, before starting to pull apart my Exo. After a few minutes of unbuckling and strapping I had completely changed Exos. I started to glance over what I had access to. Then I whistled. They had given me access to an engineer's dream of blueprints designs and more. I had the designs to build a Ulter Class Super Ship. A drone carrier of that size would be amazing, too bad I'll likely never have the materials for that sort of thing. Without a Solar Extractor, I'll likely never get to build any superclass structures and ships. Sadly I wasn't allowed access to the Mega Class structures or ships. Must be top secret.

"You done in there?"

I started nodding before I realized she couldn't see me. "Yeah, I'm done."

She walked back into the room and then smiled. "Looking good hot stuff. It's about time I give you the actual briefing."

I took a seat. "Figured all these toys would come with a price."

Her grin got wider. "Of course. As I said, you are going to an undeveloped world claimed by us on the edge of the galaxy. Far from the influence of corporations and other galactic powers. Once there you will be working on a Fortress Class Factory World."

Huh, I thought I was done with getting shocked. "Why are we building a Fortress Class world so far from the Inner Zones? If the Terror Groups find out they will be after it like mad, and me!"

"That's why you will have the cover as a basic Industrial World at first. You will be delivering refined materials in a space elevator to a cargo ship for the first few months, however, the number of refined materials requested will lessen and lessen. Using what you have you will be constantly turning this world into a fortress. We want the full thing, Drones, Ships, Planetary Shielding. Everything. You have the designs within the exo-suits archives." She spoke with a serious tone.

I nodded, thinking about it. They are preparing for the relations with the Imperial Chazin race to break down. Not surprising considering the Imperial Chazin are a race of slavers who see themselves as superior to humanity and constantly harass our borders despite the Imperial Family saying that they were not endorsing attacks on our border. That means I wasn't the only one making a fortress-class factory world. Our factories terrify the bordering Galactic Powers, simply because of how much output we could produce. We were an economic powerhouse, even if we didn't have the military power to back it up. Sadly we have yet to produce reliable laser weaponry like the other galactic powers, instead, we went all in on drones.

That way we outnumbered the other powers, with a single droneship that holds thousands of smaller drone fighters we could lay siege to star systems and hold out against any potential invasion. The Imperial Chazin race sees us as valuable slaves due to our industrial capabilities and often tries to attack Factory Worlds in an attempt to get at the Factory Engineers. They have yet to have been able to get an Engineer, but they have grabbed plenty of normal people. Honestly, if I had the capabilities we would have already declared war against the bird bastards.

"Alright, I understand. How long is it going to take for me to get there?"

"Should take you about six months to arrive. You'll be in stasis, so it won't seem like long to you." She replied, writing something on the holopad.

I took a deep breath. Six months? We can go up to one hundred and sixty times the speed of light depending on how long we spent in the travel stream. Six months meant at least several million lightyears away from this factory. How far into dark space were they sending me? I need to start downloading as much entertainment as possible starting right freaking now. I immediately slid over to my holopad and started to look up games.

Her eyes widen slightly "What are you doing?"

"Downloading as much entertainment as I possibly freaking can."

"Why?"

I gave her a deadpan stare, not that she could tell through my Exo. "Because how long do you think it will take for me to get an internet connection built that far in dark space."

She winced. "Oh… Good point. I'll help!" She slid beside me and started to scroll through various movies and games as well.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I grimaced examining the information about the world I was traveling to. It was most definitely a barren world. Very little in terms of resources on the actual world in terms of ore, but it did have a ton of dust around it that contained tons of materials, forming a ring around the world. So I'll have to start with dust collectors before making mining drones to expand to the nearby asteroids. Honestly, this was a horrible spot for a fortress world, even an industrial world.

I had to request quite a few materials. Treeshroom, a mushroom found in the world Xephos Two had similar properties to wood, and would be able to propagate on this world, thus I had to request some of those spores to grow. A fungi farm of Treeshrooms should go a long way in a world like this. Making a world that is capable of supporting life without a star is difficult, but can be done. In a few years, I should be able to make a biosphere.

So first off we need to start with some solar sails, catching material from a ring while not too difficult, is really annoying to filter. We can easily sort magnetic and non-magnetic material from the ring, after that we will have to use scanners to determine the material's properties before properly separating them. I would use vacuum tubes, as they are the cheapest and most effective option, however with a massive lack of natural gasses that would prove to be harder to use, I'll have to use gravity tubes, more expensive and requires a ton more maintenance, but would be more functional until a proper biosphere forms. There isn't much in terms of ice out here though, I'll have to get the ship to tow an ice asteroid there.

I sigh, technically I should be in stasis, but I needed to work on this first, I wasn't going to be dropped in there with absolutely nothing. World Engineers are good, yes, but we are not miracle workers. There is a method to what we do, construct, expand, construct, and expand. The Factory can never stop growing. Currently, this ship is running on a skeleton crew, so I don't have many people to actually talk to. My handler, the girl, is currently in stasis, and everyone else is either a robot or busy. There are a lot of people on this ship, around six hundred crew members, give or take. However, most of those crew members will be in stasis unless they are needed.

I placed my holopad down and looked at the monitor. We hadn't developed glass that could match up to metal plating yet. So instead we used cameras. Safer that way I guess. It's fun to watch the stars fly past in a travel stream. It's the slowest method of FTL in the galaxy so far, despite it being the best FTL type to use for long distances, the acceleration isn't fast enough to match up to something like the Correlians Jumpspace Drive or the Garrants Slipstream drive.

It's amazing how many fictional FTLs were proven to actually exist once we contacted the galactic community. I often research old fiction to see if there were any other theorized types of FTL, one of my favorite theories was slingshot FTL. Our preferred method of travel, the travel stream FTL, was similar to that of a slipspace drive, except that it didn't use a separate dimension or time. No, instead it formed an invisible energy track to the destination you were heading that other travel stream drives could keep using to increase their speed, This allowed us to constantly accelerate to locations without worrying about colliding with anything, as the track turns the ship and everything inside it into a phasic state, as if we were both energy and not energy at the same time. I once had a meteorite go straight through my head once as it phased through the ship. Scared the heck out of me. Regardless, this track would get reinforced with use, and eventually travel from one end of the track to the other will take mere minutes. That is one reason we are constantly linking planets and sending ships back and forth even with nothing on them. To constantly reinforce those tracks to make traveling throughout our sector extremely easy.

Now then, why did other races not use this? Well, it's simple, they didn't think of it. They were afraid that since we knew how to use it, we also knew how to stop it. Will be honest, I would not be surprised if the government knew a way to destroy a travel stream. The military is extremely secretive due to the other alien races in the galaxy.

Ah, it appears I got sidetracked, I grabbed my holopad and continued my research, and expanded my requisition list. They plan on dropping me in a DCB, Drop Construction Base. Similar to that of a drop pod in fiction, they will drop me from orbit in what could possibly be my tomb. I'll have to requisition a fair bit of starting material, iron should be good enough, and cheap enough.

Huh? What's this… Dark Matter Replicator? Let's take a read of this, uh, currently non-functional, in theory, would allow you to turn energy into materials, however in testing the Dark Matter Replicators have not worked, a two million credit reward to whoever gets it to work? Oh, this is the Militaries World Factory bounty board! It would be nice if we could get a Dark Matter Replicator working. There are dozens of blueprints in the comments with [Failed] and [Partial Success] tags on them, let's take a look at the description for one of the partial successes.

-Dark Matter Replicator - Blueprint: Oryn Yeager.

-Details: Despite being functional, the energy input to material output was extremely inconsistent, and would only produce less than a fingernail's worth of material over a period of three weeks. Cost me around three million credits to build this.

So you can only see these experimental untested designs if you are in the military huh? I opened the blueprint and looked over it… before closing it immediately. So many parts. I will research it later, apparently, I need a working knowledge of Dark Theory, Nuclear Physics, and a ton of power. Speaking of power, I should probably requisition a Fusion Reactor. I'm not able to build a solar field here, and I'm not planet-cracking the barren world to make a sun just for power. Can't afford a terrafirma nuke anyways.

Solarmills may be a good option, getting power from gravity is always a fun idea… but the barren world has only 0.3 gs of gravity. Barely more than the gravity of the moon back on earth. So a solar mill would probably not be worth it unless I can make a perpetual motion gravity core it would likely be extremely pointless. However perpetual machines don't really work well. By that I mean they just don't work. Maybe one day we can break the laws of physics and make a functional perpetual machine. It would be very funny. Huh, that was definitely the wrong word to use in that context. I may be suffering from a lack of sleep… Oh, it's been twenty hours since I started preparing. I'll take a nap and resume again in a bit. I glance at the planet details one last time, I really need to stop overestimating distances, it will likely screw me later. Still, I'm not going to do the math for six months of travel stream travel, especially since I have no idea how many tracks have been formed. Good thing I never said aloud that six months was several million lightyears away, I would have been laughed out of this job.

I placed my datapad to the side and attempted to rub my eyes before I realized that I was still wearing the exo-suit, so instead I just open the pad on my wrist and used the misting function to cool down and relax my eyes. I gave a stretch before laying in bed, I'll go into stasis later, I just need to finish all my prep work first, so for now I'll have to deal with normal sleep. At least I won't get jump scared by flying through meteorites and such anymore, we are moving too quickly for me to perceive their existence anymore.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

There was a hiss as the doors to the lounge opened, I had decided to go to one of the various crew lounges on the ship after waking up to continue my work, wanted some more relaxing spots to work at. Staying in one room would be cramping. Regardless, I glance at the door. The person in the exosuit waves before speaking. "I heard that you were still awake handsome."

I shrugged. "Got work to do. Uh… you never actually told me your name?"

"Esty, Esty Greenwell." She replies, heading to grab a nutrient slurry. As she messes with the machine she continues to speak.

"I'm surprised you haven't immediately entered stasis. You know there isn't much to do on the ship during transit right?"

I snorted, "Of course, there are things to do. I got paperwork to fill out. I have to get requisition forms done and commission starting materials and such so I'm not dropped off with no preparation whatsoever."

"Ah, but are you not a Factory Engineer now? The backbone of the Frontier?" She replied, drinking the slurry.

"Yeah, I am. But Factory Engineers cannot create things from nothing. We need a foothold to really get started. The Drisen 4 Factory was a once-in-a-lifetime event where the man had the perfect amount of resources and a garden world to boot to create a Factory. Other Factories on barren or asteroids need a leg up so to speak so they can actually expand.

"Heh, sorry. My knowledge of what you guys actually do is limited, I just know your results."

I shrug. "It's to be expected, most of what we do is secret, although I don't think that was what was originally intended."

She took a seat next to me, "Oh, what was originally intended?"

I shrugged, "The Concept of a World Engineer was done in 2044, when one of the super companies at the time hired a team to make a super factory on Mars, the problem was, they didn't put a limit on what this team could do."

She spoke up, "I know this story. The team kept on expanding the factory, making it possible to do things that originally weren't thought possible, and singlehandedly pushed humanity into an economic golden age."

I nodded. "Correct, at the time this concept was simple, a team would go in and turn a portion of the world into a functional factory. This concept was expanded on later when the first exo-suit was made. This exo-suit would allow people to enter cryogenic sleep and travel great distances without dying from old age. Thus they started by sending the first Factory Engineer to Alpha Centauri. A young woman that would go crazy from isolation, but still build the universe's first-world factory. Alpha Centauri had been completely transformed from a Garden World into a massive factory capable of producing tons of materials with utter ease."

"So why was it not intended?" She said, eyebrows raised.

"The First Contact War. In 2092 we encountered the Troll race, and we were dragged into a massive war. The Trolls had strength, numbers, and a large number of ships. The only reason we were actually able to push them back and stomp them into extinction like we did was the cause of the three world factories we had built at the time. During this time, World Factory engineers changed into a Government and Company secret. Because it was considered a trump card against future possible alien invasions. Before the first contact war? Factory Engineer knowledge was public domain." I replied before taking a sip of grape soda.

She nodded, "That makes sense, the power that Factory Engineers has given us made it possible for us to stand on even footing with the Galactic Community even though they have laser and plasma weaponry leagues above our own."

I nodded. "That and our computer knowledge. Those drones don't program themselves you know. Yet."

"Hey, how do you make the stuff you guys do? Do you have a fabricator on you or something?"

I snort. "Per the moment, Fabricators are fictional. We do everything by hand till we can get some robots to help out."

"You serious?"

I raised my left hand and tapped it, dozens of tools attached to the Exo extended out. "Drills, Cutters, Laser, you know it, we have access to it. Every single part of this exo has a tool for a different job. I know how to forge things from scratch, I know how to make batteries and refined materials from a handful of rocks. I can push the maximum amount of use of almost any material."

"Wait, so those belts on Draco 2, those were made by hand?" She asked in a surprised tone.

I gave a so-so show with my hands. "Kinda, about a tenth of those were personally made by Derrick. Later he made a belt layer. Before then everything was done by hand."

"How long does it take to do that kind of work?"

I thought for a second. "To lay out twenty feet of working belts normally takes around thirty minutes. It took Derrick around a year before he got the factory functional enough to fuel its own expansion. He made machines that would make things easier for him later, belt layers, separators, and scanners for processing materials were constantly used. So eventually the factory started to expand by itself as long as Derrick laid out the blueprints beforehand."

"Impressive, normally your tone with him is derogatory. Why is that?" The glass of the exos visor reflected at me.

I nodded. "His work is impressive, his personality needs work. Although from what I hear that is a normal thing among factory engineers. The isolation can get to you making you meaner and more judging than normal."

"Do you need any help with that?" She asks, pointing to the holopad.

I shake my head no. "I'm actually almost done, this has to be personally done by me. I can't afford to make mistakes."

She nods, before sitting down and opening a video on her holopad. I'm going to take a random guess that she can't actually enter stasis until I do cause she is my handler.

I stretched for a moment, before getting back to filling out the paperwork.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I strapped myself in. Examining the large drop pod and future home for the foreseeable future. I had to say farewell to Etsy. I hadn't talked to any of the other crew on the ship. They had certainly talked with one another though.

"Detaching in three two one."

I felt a rumble as the disconnect happened. I wouldn't know if I landed safely till the harness unhooks itself. The Kinetic Dampeners were really good at their job. The shaking of the drop pod would likely hurt the human brain if not for the kinetic dampeners on the drop pod itself and the kinetic frame of an exosuit. Withstanding the high speed braking was extremely important, as our FTL required us to brake to get to a location. On the forums there had been theories on how to use the time freeze that our stasis provides as a method of space travel. A FTL based on time would be interesting. Unfortunately when I was peering over that forum it appeared that they haven't made progress on that FTL.

My harness came undone, stretching, I got up. My magnetic boots were active, weird. They shouldn't be active, I head over to the computer and then I find out why my mag boots were active.

The Droppod landed upside down. Oh that is going to be such a pain to fix. I glanced at the locations of the Greenhouse pod. The Fusion Reactor wouldn't arrive for another couple days. Meaning I'll have to rely on the Drop pods reactor to power the Factory to start with. Huh… Well, I got my work cut out for me. I should start with material processing for now. I head over to the hatch and head outside. I'll need to make a vacuum chamber later if I want to be able to walk around without having to have this exosuit on constantly. At least the suit can produce air.

I glanced around the barren world. It was completely gray, no distinguishing colors. The ground was more like sand than rock. Glancing upwards I could see the ship in orbit in all its glory. My comms went active.

"This is Captain Kane to Factory Engineer. We will be staying here in orbit for a couple of days to make sure everything is going well. Your requisitions will arrive in two months."

Oh, I was hoping that they would be here sooner. "Understood Captain. I'm going to get started."

I began with heading to the side of the drop pod. It landed upside down which is frustrating, but I can deal with it. I open the side panel, revealing steel plates, copper, and other various materials. It's not a ton, but it is a start. I open up my planner, and register the materials. Barely enough for what I need. Let's start an electromagnet. See if any of the ground can be used as materials.

Not every metal is magnetic though, so there could be metals I won't find with the electromagnet, but I can use it as a way to test things. Next we need a forge and a bar cast. I don't have a ton of material so I have to be frugal, functionality over convenience for now. I should be able to make a coil capable of melting any material in it in seconds. Mix some water up with this sand and I should be able to make some sandstone to make a tube to melt it all in. Alright, I got my plans laid out. I dismiss the planner, before taking the blueprints out on my hud and laying them on the ground. I grabbed some material as the hologram shows itself, and out from my arm comes a blowtorch as my vision dims.

Out on a barren planet in the corner of the universe, a Factory Engineer builds a forge. Heh, sounds like a good joke.

—

Earth, Sol Station #13.

Within an office on the station an argument was brewing.
"What is this Director Draco? Why did you put a Factory Engineer on the border of the Voidspawn!"

The Office of Naval Intelligence Commander Jiral was angry, and for good reason. "If the voidspawn finds out what you've done there will be war! That engineer being a freaking powder keg."

Director Draco stood up, and looked at the screen showing earth. "You make it sound like they weren't already looking for a reason to start a war. I'm just preparing for an eventuality. There hasn't been a single galactic power in this universe that hasn't been hostile to humanity. Sometimes you got to wonder if Dark Forest theory isn't just a theory."

Commander Jiral growled, before regaining composure. "The voidspawn haven't shown any hostile intent. They have been rather accommodating. You're the one abusing their trust."

"The Illuminate Xerite. The Acumene of Dia, The Imperial Chazin race. Every friendly race thus far has shown their true colors, and those we are not in contact with are just too far from Human space to declare hostilities. People have even forgotten that the Imperial Chazin race originally attempted to approach us and act as if they were a peaceful race first. If the Voidspawn turns out similarly, we need to be prepared." Director Draco spoke.

Commander Jiral had calmed down, seeing the reasoning. "What about if war does break out before that factory is built? You would be signing that Factory Engineer to death."

"I suppose, but sometimes for the greater whole, a sacrifice is necessary. He can delay the voidspawn in the event of a war, allowing us to gain precious time to prepare. He had the option to refuse this position after all." Director Draco explained.

"You know well as I do that wasn't the case. You purposefully chose that Engineer cause they had nothing to fall back on, no family, no contacts. If they refused they would have likely lost the ability to become an Engineer. You hadn't offered this position to any other engineer and made a fake excuse of why you wanted him in particular. You wanted him to be your scapegoat." Commander Jiral spoke, disgust radiating off him.

The Director laughed. "You are intelligent as always Commander, but the question is, are you going to put a stop to it?"

There was silence. Before Commander Jiral spoke. "We are going to fucking hell aren't we."

The Director nodded, "Feet First."

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Day 1- Unnamed World

It took a few hours of grinding, drilling, and paving before the first zone was marked and built. I had made the start of the factory out of sandstone and using some scanner tech and the magnet I found a good source of iron dust only a few dozen meters away. Not close enough to cause a processing issue, but close enough to ferry over to here without a problem. I had to make multiple trips to get enough iron to start work on an upgraded forge. I'm melting iron in my current forge just to upgrade the forge again. It mainly works on making it easier to automate. Sand and grit wasn't the easiest material to work with, and separating each mineral from the other was difficult. But yes, various minerals did exist in this world. Which would help in the future.

I sighed, I underestimated just how much work I'd be putting in. It took all day just to get a sand mine up and up the forge slightly. I'll have to do more tomorrow.

Day 2- Unnamed World

I started to produce various bars of different metals, I would be stockpiling until I get enough to expand, four hundred iron bars, two hundred copper bars, and five gold bars is what I need according to the blueprints. I also need to start working on a roller so I can start making more wire. I don't have a lot stockpiled. I did find some aluminum which will go a long way in alloying and using it as a soft metal for drones will work well.

Day 3- Unnamed World

The Ice arrived early. It got towed in by the G.G.H Second Wind. It will make things a lot easier and allow me to start mixing concrete, as well as start working on a biosphere, eventually. That will be in the future.

Day 4- Unnamed World

Gravity tubes are up and running and the sand collectors are now steadily sending sand and grit to the main area. It is sent through several processes that steadily divide everything into its own minerals. This will massively speed up processes. I'll have to work on an industrial forge next as well as a mechanical hammer for larger machine parts.

Day 5- Unnamed World.

I started expanding outwards, the industrial forge will take a few days to complete, but will allow me to automate smelting bars. Regardless I can't let my time be taken up only by smelting bars. I had to lay out blueprints and plan for the expansion. I started to lay out more sandstone. The compressor I built as chugging out sandstone bricks that can be used for foundations.

Day 6- Unnamed World

I started to lay out the framework for the industrial forge. Setting up inputs and outputs. I'm going to have to get a hold of a fuel source. The Industrial Forge will drain too much power. I'm thinking I'll have to start working on a Cold Fusion Reactor as well. Unfortunately, that requires a ton of materials to get working. Might as well lay the blueprints out now, I'll need a Cold Fusion Reactor in the future anyways. I'll need a large amount of nickel for that. Something else to gather I suppose.

Day 7- Unnamed World

I found something.

—

I slid down the sand. I had fallen into the planet. A cavern of some sort? I looked around, where was the light coming from? I hadn't turned on my helmet lights yet. I look around, there is a crevice where the light is coming from, I look over it. There are crystals, and extremely large crystal shards in the walls. But more importantly, there are other things there. Some bug-like creatures. They are eating at the crystals. They are also moving in lines, transporting the crystals. What the hell are those things?

Oh, fuck, one of them saw me… and they are now chittering… and now I need to run. I jump back up from the hole, exiting the caverns. I head back to my drop pod immediately. Using large bounds I head back. I'm not alone down here.

"G.G.H. Second Wind, come in."

"This is Second wind, what's wrong."

"I'm not alone. Bug-like creatures exist underground. Something capable of withstanding zero-g. They are also really big."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yep. I'm going to need some guns."

"We will orbital drop some GOLEMs and turrets immediately. We don't have a marine detachment here. If things go pear-shaped use the drop pod evac chamber and get out of there."

"Sounds good, I'm going to see if I can keep this factory developing."

"Wait, are you crazy? You just said that there are possible hostile giant bugs down there, and you are staying?!"
"I'm a Factory Engineer. The blueprints have been set, and the expansion is planned. This world is turning into a factory if it kills me or not." I replied. Crazed determination in my voice. I was not letting go of my factory world until it was finished. I've got plans!

"Damned crazy engineers. Fine, we will support you the best we can."

Day 8- Unnamed World

A turret perimeter was now in place with GOLEM Bots on patrol as well. The Critters hadn't followed me to the surface. But I can tell that will be temporary. I'll have to plan for them. They won't let me do things uncontested forever. I am also extremely curious about the green crystals. They released a glow and seemed to be growing out of the walls. I need a sample.

Day 9- Unnamed World

I need a ground-penetrating radar. Something to get working on in the future. I wasn't going to hunt down the bugs and kill them off, wasn't sure exactly how hostile or peaceful they were. For all, I know at this point they could be all really friendly and hunky dory. But better safe than sorry. I started making more sandstone slabs to use as foundations for more machinery. I'll go and check the hole more tomorrow.

Day 10- Unnamed World

I have realized that I do not have nearly enough rations, I'll have to start on a greenhouse early. The alien insects do not seem to come to the surface of the world, I checked on the hole that was formed and they had patched it up with chitin. Interesting. I'll start considering the possibility that they may be friendly. Will have to monitor where I dig to make sure I don't dig into their nests. Luckily I will not have to dig as much when I start harvesting the dust ring around the planet.

Day 11- Unnamed World


Forging is finally fully automatic, the sorting of materials isn't yet, but separating copper, iron, and gold grit are fully functional. Aluminum and other minerals have proven slightly more difficult to separate automatically, so I still have to manually process Aluminum. But it has tripled my resource production massively. I have also finally started diving into my entertainment storage. Been reading some nice romance stories. The idea of magic is fun, I wonder if it is possible to make an energy system capable of replicating something like magic. I might try it in the future. I mean I saw engineers trying to make things out of fiction all the time. It might be worth an attempt.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Orbit, G.G.H. Second Wind.


"That is insane." The Captain was looking down at the world, watching the lights representing the Factory. It had only been fifteen days, There was the scare of the unknown alien creatures below the surface, but they haven't been going up to the surface, allowing the expansion of the factory. The expansion was impressive, it was insane to think that a single human could do all that. Factory Engineers were definitely something different.

A man came to the observation room the captain was in. "I suppose it is, But I've seen better. Factory Engineer Sorin was able to make a factory of this size in a week without any starting supplies."

The Captain glanced at the man, both of them were in their exosuit. Visors hiding their faces. "Enlighten me, what kind of world was Factory Engineer Sorin in? Did it have a sun? An atmosphere? Resources that weren't basically large amounts of sand?"

The man gave a small laugh, "Alright alright, I see what you mean. What's funny is that Factory Engineer Shekin isn't a super genius. Just a normal human with a drive to do some insane things."

They were quiet, and then the man spoke again. "I got a message from the Director. It appears our presence is making things tense. With the Void Race. It is time for us to leave."

"What? But we said we would stay here for a while. We should at least wait for his requisitions to arrive."

"They won't be arriving."

The silence was deafening. "How are they going to survive."

"They will have to make do. The Void Race doesn't know that they are there, but they know a ship is here, we have no choice in the matter."

The Captain thought for a moment. "What if we evac them? Say that those spider things overrode the base."

The man took a breath, before speaking. "We should ask them. There is a chance they won't want to leave."

The Captain looked back at the man. "What do you mean? He could lose his life if he stays."

"When someone decides to become a factory engineer they go through very targetted training, to make it short, they are brainwashed. If they consider a Factory as theirs? They will not let it go. You saw an example of that eight days ago, where he refused to leave despite the existence of the bug-like alien creatures. We may not be able to evac them even if we want to."

The Captain shuddered. "I didn't know Factory Engineers went through brainwashing."

The man nodded. "Not many do. Factory Engineers are considered a superweapon, they are mentally trained to resist the loss of their factory, and in the event that they may be captured, they will utterly destroy their own bodies. Remember Losco 2?"

The Captain spoke again. His voice showed disgust. "I didn't realize how little choice Factory Engineers had."

"Factory Engineers were developed to protect humanity, precautions were made to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. They may not be geniuses, but they know how to build, adapt, and conquer. A single Factory Engineer if given enough time to prepare can take down an empire." The man continued, observing the lights on the planet.

The Captain nodded. "I will contact him at least. Ask them what they think."


Day 15

The Gravity Tubes were fully functional and were regularly transporting the resources across the foundry. I started production on railgun turrets and bolts. As well as getting the framework for my first drone, this drone would fly to the ring of the planet and harvest the large number of materials that make up the ring.

Hmm? I am getting called. The Captain!

"Hello, their Captain. Hows are things going up there?" I spoke while plotting out the construction lane to automate collection drone production.

"I have bad news, we have to pull out."

I nodded, and they did say they only had a few days. Makes sense.

"Your requisitions won't be able to arrive as well."

Now that is annoying. "What happened?"

"Politics. Your credits have been returned, but I must ask. Would you like to come with us? This place is a lot more dangerous than we thought."

An Electromagnetic Generator will need to be built in that case, since I won't have access to Fusion till later, oh yeah, got to answer the cap. "I'm good Captain. I got to keep expanding this place. I should be able to make do without the requisitions, will just take a bit longer."

"I really recommend you come with us. It would be best for your safety."

I shook my head no. "I got too many plans by this point, I also need to name my factory! I'm thinking Armament Arms for the name."

The man nodded. He sounded solemn when he spoke. "It was nice knowing you Shekin."

I nodded. "You too Captain. Maybe we will talk again when the factory is finished."

He gave a small laugh. "Maybe."

I watched the ship power up, and rails extend from the top and bottom of the ship, and then it was gone.

My frown changed to a smile as I looked back over my plans. I had a factory to build after all.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Day 20

Development must continue, with the lack of aggression from the space ants I have started to study them, they had blocked off the entrance to the underground, meaning it was bad for some reason, a few sonic detectors and I was able to network the entire underground of the planet and keep things processing, I was able to make a few gravity mills to keep power up since I wasn't getting the supplies I needed. Their functionality didn't really make sense, but it was a constant source of free energy, apparently, they would use the gravity of a star and the planetary body they were on to generate power, however, I didn't have a star, instead, I had a dust ring and a planet. So the solar mills were extremely slow and very weak, but functional. I had to use copper and iron instead of the exotic material that was normally used, but it was working. So I'll take what I can get.

Gravity seems to be the running theme of everything I'm making thus far, I have to structure everything in a certain way, turn the mass, and keep it moving in a certain direction. It wasn't fast, but it worked. I had gravity tubes carrying things around the base, gravitation-based power, and I even started construction on a reactor that would use gravity to start up and generate a large gravitational force. I would surround it with enough gravity mills to generate even more power, had to do a ton of math to make sure I placed it in an area where it wouldn't negatively affect the ants, the planet, or the ring of dust.

I also took a look at the crystals, they were filled with a bioluminescent liquid, and the external crystal had a similar composition to iron. Likely an alternate form of the metal. Smelting it resulted in iron, copper, and quarts. The liquid on the other hand was like a bioslurry, and it was extremely healthy, safe for consumption actually. The crystal converts the minerals in the ground to this liquid in the perfect amount for consumption. It's tasteless, but it doesn't cause a feeling of revulsion. The minerals themselves seem to be self-propagating as long as they have minerals to consume. What is interesting is that it uses an edible liquid version of aluminum to keep its liquid properties. It reminds me a lot of the Argos Races. A race that is a hybrid of moss and rocks.

Unfortunately, our relations with that race soured a long time ago when a Factory Engineer made one of their colonies into a factory. We tried to apologize but they were not having it. We are in a neutral state now at least, we had to flood them with corvettes to get them to back off though. I think it was the second conflict that actually forced us to use most of our industry in a military manner. There were rumors that the only reason that the war stopped was because there were rumors the Illuminate Xerite would step in soon. Which would have been bad for both sides.

I stopped monologuing as I looked across from me, a ant had dug its way into the base, it approached me, and I approached it before it started to touch my armor with the antenna, and I patted it, being careful to not be aggressive. It leaned into my touch, before vibrating slightly, and I started to pet it on the head before it laid on the side, and I kept petting it. Who's the good giant space ant, whose a good giant space ant.

Day 21

Ants can be confirmed not to be hostile. Or at least these ants are. They started to bring me crystals. Not a ton, most of the crystals go underground, but they do bring me one or two. But they require belly rubs and head pats. Which is very… nice. It makes me feel happier than I realized. Didn't know I was developing depression. Normally at least 1 or 2 apprentice engineers would come with a factory engineer. That or they would have an orbital colony they could travel to in order to socialize. I will have to keep researching the ant nest to see exactly how it works, relocating my mining operations was a great idea, as I wouldn't be disturbing the ants' housing. The giant worms, however, are not nice at all. There were definitely hostile and tried to take a bite out of my constructions multiple times. Not edible either, but you could smelt them down into a version of steel. Which massively jumpstarted my factory. I was now hunting the worms for steel. The other parts of the worm could be used in other ways. But the steel flesh was great material, and I wanted more. Giant worms or not, they were materials and I would harvest them.

This is confusing though, there shouldn't be any life on this rock, something here has caused these creatures to evolve here, I am starting to believe this was intentional. There is something artificial about the crystals and the worms, I don't have an ant corpse to study or else I think there would be something wrong with them too. It feels like everything in this world thus far had evolved in a way to harvest materials. The worms converted the dust into steel. The ants harvested crystals that produced iron, copper, and more. The crystals were even edible, even though they were made out of those materials. Something was seriously off here. I suspect that there is even more wildlife on this planet I haven't seen yet, below the surface. My geometric data also shows that this planet used to be twice its size. That dust cloud only contains a fourth of the materials on the surface of the planet. So where is the other fourth? Did it blast off into deep space? Or maybe further? Or… did it get harvested. Something is off about my factory world, and I will get to the bottom of it.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Day 29

Gravity-based tech is slow, efficient, and functional, but slow is the crucial part. On worlds with higher gravity, it isn't much of a problem, but here? It is not just a little problematic. Slowdown absolutely destroys a factory. It turns down the maximum margin of error that a factory has. Every engineer's goal is to have a margin of 20% free resources to dedicate to whichever project they wish to pursue. I had to put 100% of mine into expanding the factory and adding to its process. So how do I improve the process? Hmm, Railguns? Wait, don't discard that idea. While railguns are mainly used as weaponry, they could be repurposed, I have access to a fair amount of magnetic material, and making some electromagnets isn't too hard.

I looked out, examining the factory in its current state. It was a mess, efficient yes, but there were gravity tubes everywhere, and it wasn't uniform at all. If I were to replace the pipe system with electric rail transport I could speed up transportation, give myself room, and massively increase the speed of the factory. If I let it run for a few days it should work nicely. I casually go and stop one of the Ants from eating at the piping. Regardless, I need to accumulate resources so I can make them. Wish I had a better fuel source than the gravity mills. I'd rather not resort to nuclear power, I may know how, but I don't want to deal with a potential nuclear failure. But… I may not have the option, as that is the easiest way to get a massive amount of power in this environment. So where would I put it? Obviously as far away from myself as possible, would have to make it basically in an impenetrable shell, hah, future projects. Regardless I've reached a stopping point. I will have to wait a few days before I can make something new. Everything I have is automatic for now, and the crane is sorting out the materials for me. I need quite a few materials before I can start on the next project.

Day 35


Being bored out of my mind I started to explore the planet, this time I was going armed, I was using a crossbow-based gun, still very strong, and it used cogs to reduce the amount of pressure I needed to reload it. Heh, clockwork technology. You could use clockwork tech to produce enough kinetic motion to get to space, and someone actually succeeded at it once, but it was so complicated and required too much hands-on precision to actually be used in a widespread manner. It was also super slow.

More simple propulsion methods allowed for the same thing to be done in a cheaper and more efficient way. Although I suppose in the long run a spaceship like that is actually cheaper. Since it only requires you to turn the dial constantly for a long enough time, however, if I remember correctly, the entire ship would stall the moment it was being turned. Which would cause its own issues. I wonder if that guy ever managed to fix the problems in the design. I don't really know, that was just something that popped up when I was researching what other engineers have done.


—

"The Void race found out what you did. They are demanding reparations." Commander Jiral spoke, as he barged into Director Draco's room.

The man raised his brow, "The Void race hasn't even touched the Engineer, how do they know?"

"What?"

The Director stood up, "I've had a stealth drone monitoring the Engineers' progress, keeping me updated. Yet not a single ship has entered that planetoid's gravitational pole. So. How does the Void Race know?"

Commander Jiral stopped and thought about it for a moment. Before his eyes lit up, before dread filled his voice, "The walls have ears don't they."

The Director nodded. "We will need to find the leak, there is no telling what else they are leaking to the Void race. Enter an information lockdown, change the encryption on all transmissions, do a thorough check on people who have Level 6 access, and check the people around the ones that have level 6 access. I'll go and talk with the Minister and get things sorted out peacefully with the void race."

"What if they demand the engineer to leave?" Commande Jiral asked.

"Every new model of an Engineers' suit is installed with a bomb. We already know an Engineer will not leave their factory. If we have to, we will just detonate it." The Director spoke.

The Commander stood up and looked out at the screen reflecting the stars over Earth. "We are not killing off an engineer just cause you have a hunch. Especially not one of that quality. They have an S Rank compatibility with the Factory Engineer role. Something you elected to hide from me originally." The Commander glared at the Director.

The man shrugged. "S Ranks are valuable, yes, but Humanities safety takes precedence."

"You mean you hid the fact that he was able to qualify as an S Rank Factory Engineer just because you could use him?" The Commander spoke with anger.

"We already have three other S Ranks. They will be able to carry the weight. A fourth wouldn't have mattered." The Director continued.

"Every single S-Rank Engineer has produced something that would revolutionalize Humanity. Our FTL was designed by an S-Rank Engineer who is fascinated by TRAINS! Do you think I wouldn't be upset about you wasting someone who could produce something game-changing! S Ranks are valued for a REASON. You don't sacrifice an S Rank for some hunch." Commander Jiral anger was almost visible. His armored hand was bending the steel frame of the chair he was next to. Before he breathed out.

Then he continued. "I genuinely hope that the Minister fires you." Before he took a step out of the office and left.

The Director leaned back in his chair and looked at the display on his visor showing the progress of the Engineer. Before sighing and getting up.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Day 36

I needed a better source of food. The crystals, while edible, put a larger amount of minerals in the body than it actually needs, it is edible, but too much of a good thing can turn bad. So how do I fix this? I needed something game-changing, something that will help me in the long term. Huh… I just had an idea.

I went to my forge immediately to put my theory to work. I began extracting liquid from the aluminum and carbon crystal experiments. The liquid aluminum and carbon settled into the sandstone bowls I had made. I started testing by adding an electric current to the liquid. Hmm. It turned into jelly. The state of the liquid changes based on the amount of energy available then. If it has less energy it turns into a liquid, if it has more energy it turns into a solid. This means if I attach a cable to a whole crystal, I should see it generate energy. Let's test this.

Fascinating! I didn't actually know that these crystals had electricity flowing through them. It's quite minor when spaced out the way it is. Not enough to actually shock. More like a potato than anything. However, its state gives me an idea. This is a direct method of replicator technology, transforming energy into matter! Which is insane! A replicator has been the dream of Engineers for decades, yet. I have the answer in the palm of my hand. The creators likely do not even know the gold mine they have been sitting on, using it solely for material extraction. Not to mention, I think I can actually already started thinking of an idea for a replicator. The crystal material while anomalous, doesn't really matter. What matters is the process. If I can nail down the process that the crystals use, I could maybe imitate the process with normal means.

I'm already getting ideas, first, let's make a microscope so I can fully observe this crystal. With any luck, I will develop a life-changing technology.


Day 37
Turns out this isn't as simple as I thought. The process itself wasn't too complicated, it was simple energy manipulation. Well, as simple as energy manipulation could be. It thrived in null spaces, and vacuums. It also needed a base to absorb and convert from. It was infact creating more of the mineral it collected. If it absorbed enough of one kind of mineral it would change color slightly towards the mineral's typical color, which has me wondering why the crystals aren't just black or grey since they have a bunch of mixed minerals. Instead, their default state is a blue glowing crystal. Which is fundamentally strange to me.

Regardless I would have to stop with this for the next two or three days. I've finally accumulated enough plates and wires from my foundries to expand. It was time to make a construction base. Aka it was robot time! I stretched before leaving my lab. I walked along the surface towards my foundry. The stack of plates was similar to piles of credits in my eyes. They would fuel my expansion even more. Once I get a Construction Drone factory up and running I could have them build for me as I lay down more and more blueprints. Of course, I would have watch them to make sure they work. I have to code them all from scratch after all. A neural network should be enough to get this up and running. The factory won't only produce bots though, it would provide me with motherboards, and other advanced technological bases. Everything I needed to make computers. The first thing I'll need to build is either a server base so I can coordinate the bots' actions and an antenna for a local area network. I would need to get a satellite up eventually.

Day 38 to 46

The Ants have gotten more comfortable in my area. Coming up to my base almost daily now. They are seeming built-up affection to me. This is also the safest zone for them on the surface, as the massive worms patrol most of the area outside of my zone. I've been really enjoying hunting down the giant worms recently, they have so many valuable parts for expanding the factory. Sure they are terrifying and highly dangerous, but they are also VALUABLE! That means that even if they are dangerous, I am going to hunt as many as I can.

Annoyingly enough, my power reserves are starting to dip, the construction of the robot facility sucks much more power than my upside-down engineering base can produce, and the gravity mills were not producing nearly enough energy. This place was in a dead system after all. Oh, I found the star of the system! It's nearly invisible to all scanners. Its dead core was in the center of this one-planet system. Nearly invisible to all scanners due to the lack of any heat being produced. But the surface is most definitely made of thick glass now after it had cooled, causing the lights of my base to start reflecting off it. Hmm… I should probably check how much power my lights are draining. I got a bit tired of it being so dark all the time in this area so I built them practically everywhere.

Regardless, if I go to the core of what is left of the star I could harvest the glass and make solar panels! Or not. What the heck would I make solar panels for when I don't even have a sun? Hmm. Regardless there has to be some nuclear material up there, I need to make either a cold fusion reactor or a nuclear reactor. Frankly, despite my wishes for a simple cold fusion reactor, I am starting to think it will be easier to just go nuclear. Despite my premade plans for a fusion reactor. No, stay away from nuclear, if something goes wrong it could destroy the factory. I got no choice but to start construction on a Fusion Reactor. It will likely take me a few days to months to fully program the construction bots, but I can make some simple commands to have a few construction bots bring me the materials as I build the reactor by hand.

Yeah, that is the plan. Hmm, I'm going to need a ton more copper to make the inner tubes of the fusion reactor. I'll worry about it later, I need to go finish up the base of the reactor, lay out some sandstone concrete, and get construction up to standard.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Day 47

The foundation took a day to finally finish the sandstone concrete, it is a rough thing to use. Especially since I can't use water in it and I was relying purely on compression. Although, now that I think about it I could have possibly used the crystal fluid as a binding agent. Hmm, too late now. I will experiment with that in the future. But more importantly, a foundation was in place. One that could be used to build the first fusion reactor to fuel my factory. I would be using liquid metal as a replacement for water, which is highly dangerous, and most definitely not recommended, but my water supply is limited to only a couple dozen bottles. I'm going with mercury as a fuel source. Although I had a couple of other elements I could use, Mercury is what I had the most of to line the inner tube.

— New POV

Edith System - Edith Prime, World Factory

Shen smiled, looking across the data. His factory was built upon a natural garden world. It had tons of silicon and oil beneath the surface, which was used to great effect. The Factory was the lead producer of computer technology across the entire Humanity Alliance space. As such, his political power and leverage were impressive. Most importantly, he was an S Ranked Engineer.

"Poly, what are the survival chances for my junior."

A feminine mechanical voice sounded out, "There is a less than 10% if we take offense to his presence and attack them. An estimated 60% chance of survival and growth if the Factory Engineer is left alone."

A glimmer appeared in his eyes. "Then let's light a fire. Get the void ships to attack. Show the might of the Void Race in one go, shall we?"

"Yes, Creator."

—

Deep within Dark Space, Dozens of drones received a signal and powered their engines. Their creator had issued an order. It must be fulfilled. Railways, appeared in the void, as the standard FTL used by the human race was put into action.

—
Day 48

A feeling of dread spread across my back… Something was threatening my factory. SOMETHING WAS THREATENING MY FACTORY. I must protect it. This feeling wouldn't be so intense if it was something the security sentinels could deal with in fact I'm feeling the danger from the sentinels themself. Where, what is causing it, If I remove wireless access the feeling from the drones disappears.

So, something with wireless capability, but not just wireless. I was still feeling danger even after black boxing the sentinels. The Ants? No, they were still friendly, a couple of them were following me around as I was panicking. It's something farther away. I don't know how much time I have to prepare. I just got this massive feeling of dread. I need a weapon, I need something NOW. What do I have access to?

The Crystals! I have access to them. I need to weaponize them. Somehow. I ran to my lab, and a trail of ants chittered behind me as they saw me moving about. I couldn't do this safely, I don't know how much time I have, but I needed something now. I started by grabbing the crystals, and some uranium from storage. I jury-rigged radiator, something that would launch particles from the uranium at the crystals. The effect was extremely promising, as out the other end a beam of light as a radioactive laser blasted through the wall into the ground, turning it from mixed sand into molten lava. I had a weapon prospect. I just needed to harness it. This weapon was cheap and easy to use.

The Ants were backing from me, still chittering as they watched, but not willing to approach the machine I made. I ground out pieces of uranium, making small projectors, these would project into crystal lenses. Firing more of these beams. I drafted out a frame for a new turret and went to work, constructing my new weapon. I started using cables to connect it to my mainframe as I began to black box everything, locking out all wifi signals, and relying completely on wired. I started to spread these turrets throughout my factory. As I finally attached my twentieth turret. The feeling of dread disappeared, replaced by anger. Something wanted to destroy my factory, the factory I had put my brainpower into, the factory that was growing and accumulating resources day by day.

I need to finish building that Fusion Reactor. Even if it is just a frame. Something was threatening my factory, meaning I had to accelerate my plans. I started to plan out multiple lines, multiple foundries, and blueprints that cluttered my vision as I upgraded my earlier plans, focusing more on speed than long-term efficiency. I needed to grow as quickly as possible. I do not know what that feeling is, I do not know why I trust it so much. But I can not ignore it. I needed an army, I can tell that wireless transmissions are dangerous for some reason, maybe the encryption isn't strong enough? I do not know. What I do know is that I need to prepare. So I will prepare. I slung my crossbow over my shoulder. It was time to hunt for worms.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Day 49

I kept pushing my efforts. The threat of something unknown pressed me to keep improving. I kept building more and more turrets and relied on cables for information transfer instead of wireless transmissions. More messy, but more secure. I was doing three things at once now, in the morning I ate a ration bar, and I would start working on the reactor for about five hours, then after that, I would begin to lay down more sandstone foundation, which I would either use to plan an expansion or as a base for a new Praton Turret, The effect the crystals have when exposed to radiation is quite insane.

Hmm, how should I put this? Whenever a radiation particle touches the crystals at a high enough speed, the kinetic energy transfers to the other side of the crystal, except it also carries a ton of ionized particles, forming an energy beam. I call this effect Praton Launching. The name is just something I thought of, with no particular reference. This is also a massive solution to my energy problem. The base of the fusion reactor I was building had changed. I was going to project the energy generated by this effect into a thermal grid, this grid would constantly absorb the heat and energy generated and power the base. This was both cheaper, and stronger than a normal fusion reactor of the same size. Generating up to seventy thousand megawatts per day. A cold fusion reactor only produces around sixty thousand, and a normal fusion reactor produces around forty thousand. A nuclear reactor on the other hand would only produce around ten to twenty thousand megawatts per day.


The turrets fire up to two thousand megawatts of energy for the small size of the crystals used. Which is enough to fry almost any electronic device if it is delivered in an instant. The only exception would probably be the Golden World Factory, which is the center of the Coalition of Allied Planets communications, mostly due to the amount of armor protecting the servers there.

Heh, now I'm thinking about all the World Factories in the galaxy humanity has managed to build. Most World Factories are the size of a small continent and rarely grow beyond that size. Yet some truly embody the idea of a World Factory. Massive Gigastructures that were formally planets, were completely reconstructed into Factories the size of a world. There were only around fifteen of these planets thus far, but their industrial capabilities are what allow us to be at the same level as opposing empires. It is what forced the peaceful ways that are currently in play. They are the reason World Factory Engineers are so valued, because all World Factory Engineers desired that possibility, converting their entire world into a factory that worked in complete tandem to produce insane quantities of items. One day, this desolate world of mine will turn into one of those factories. My factory will supply Commanders on the frontline with an armada of ships. Preventing anyone with dark intentions toward humanity from making moves.

I had access to a ton of military designs. If there is one thing about military designs, it is that they are designed to be cheap. They were strong sure, a military ship had stronger armor and thicker armor than civilian ships, but their internals? The most advanced device in a C.A.P. ship was the FTL drive. Even the stasis pods were cheaper than civilian ships. Reliable, but cheap. Why am I mentioning this though? Simple. I can build them. I may not be able to build an FTL Travel Stream Drive. But I can make something capable of orbital flight. I haven't looked deep into the military blueprints I've been building until this point. Because there wasn't much of a point. The goal was to build a functioning factory, after all, I figured I'd have some time to prepare before I was attacked. My factory is currently extremely small. Only covers a few miles, and that is because of piping and transport. I need to expand on what I have currently and then start using the military blueprints I have access to I could make mass producible orbital fighters and such. I've already started refining the framework turrets I had already built using the blueprints I had access to fixing many of the issues they would have had.

Once I get the reactor up and running, I'm going to expand the smeltery, and up plate production, so I can make more smelteries, and I will keep doing this until I'm producing a surplus of materials to build with. I am manually building a few fighters as well, hopefully, it goes well.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

By the way, if you haven't already I recommend following me on kick, once I get to 75 followers I will be able to make some supplemental income via streaming which will help me out in the long run. I seem to have more time today so I'll try to get another update out today if possible.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Day 50
The Ants have started to make exits nearby, they seem to have ingeniously made the exits curve around, to keep the atmosphere from leaking out while they exit and enter the factory. They don't bring me as many crystals anymore after a small pile had formed. Although when I start using some they will refill the pile. It is definitely fascinating to watch.
The worms started appearing nearby again, and so I started hunting. What is annoying about them is that they are starting to get bigger. I replaced my clockwork gun with a tension spring gun. It's more powerful but harder to load manually, so I attached an automatic loader to it with a generator attached. It was heavy-ish. Well, as heavy as it could be in a low-gravity environment. So easily manageable.
I looked at the meter on my scanning device. The underground vibrations were growing. I threw a clapper across to where I would jump next. The clapper was a bunch of metal plates that when they landed would constantly clap together for a few seconds, causing vibrations in the sand.
I lined up my tension gun, the tungsten bolt ready to fire, and I waited patiently. Suddenly a massive worm erupted out of the ground swallowing the clapper, these worms were similar to earthworms, meaning you had to hit the clitellum for an instant kill, or they will simply heal after a few days. Luckily I had a very expensive and advanced engineer suit with a hud. Once the worm was halfway out of the ground it slowed, as it began to turn to go back into the earth, leaving the clitellum fully exposed. The bolt launched, sending me skimming across the sand as the recoil hit me. The worm fell over and split apart, the tungsten bolt tore a massive hole in the worm at the splitting point. I smiled, there wasn't a single part of the worm that wasn't valuable to me, the skin was covered with what I have now realized is oil.
The oil allowed for a very important and useful thing to be made, plastic. Polymer-based materials require sources such as natural gases, oil, or plant life. It is integral for producing certain computer components and devices. Cheap as well. It would most definitely be helpful in the long run so I try to store as much of the oil the worms produce as I can.
I started up the loading process for my tension gun as my drones began to pull the parts of the worm to the dissection area, where I would tear it apart and turn it into raw material.

I felt a sense of danger. I followed that sense with my vision, as I stared into the sky, dozens of black ships appeared. The lights of my factory reflect off their hulls. The threat was here, Green beams of energy started launching from my base, attacking the ships. Five ships were hit in the first exchange, and the impacted ships exploded instantly, detonating from the inside. Then the ships returned fire. And despair hit me as I recognized what the attack they used was.
The Rod of God attack, a singular pole launched at a high velocity with a small rocket engine at the back. The impact of the rod would instantly destroy my factory, I had time, only a minute until it impacted, as it starts off pretty slow. But there was nothing I could do to stop it. I ran towards the nearest ant hill.
50 seconds to impact, I jumped into the opening, gripping the sides with my hands as I pulled myself down, I think the ants sensed the danger as well, they were returning underground too. We dived under the surface, going as deep as we could into the tunnels. I started to actually feel the weight as gravity began to increase.
20 seconds to impact. I followed the ants as we pushed deeper into the sand. Danger at our backs, and despair in my mind as I did what every engineer despised, I was abandoning my factory. Leaving it to the mercy of the Rod of God.

10 seconds.
The ants began huddling together. I joined them. They actually held onto me as well.

3… 2… 1…

I blacked out.

—Edith System, Edith Prime, World Factory

A feminine robotic voice echoed out towards Shen, the World Factory engineer of this world.
"Subject: Nick Shekin, Deceased."
Shen didn't talk for a moment. "Too bad, it seems that he didn't live up to expectations," Shen spoke before laughing. "Then again! Who would live up to my expectations, after all? An Emperor can have no comparison!" He waved, showing an image of a factory engulfing the entire milky-way. And in the corner there was a list of names, many of them crossed out, and a new crossed-out name was added to the list. Nick Shekin.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Day ??
Bzzt, bzzt
I groaned as I tried to move, I was buried, and my equipment had most definitely short-circuited. My hud was barely functioning, but luckily life support was still on. I felt something tap the back of my head, I tried to move, as much as I could. The tapping increased a bit, and I felt the sand around my exosuit begin moving. Something was digging me out. After a minute of enormous patience on my part, the person that found me began pulling. I was holding onto something, but I didn't want to let go of it. My vision cleared as I was pulled out of the sand. A massive ant was pulling me, twice the size of a normal space ant. It began digging around me as its antenna touched my hand, and I watched as the rest of the ants were pulled out of the sand.

Unharmed. Each ant was moving around unharmed, none had died from the collapse. I couldn't help but smile. It seems I grew more attached to the ants than I started, they began nuzzling at me. Using their antennas to check my body. Realizing I was unharmed they chittered excitedly. There was an atmosphere here. For a moment, I was happy. We had lived after all! Until depression hit. My factory had been destroyed, and I had abandoned it like a coward. My baby was gone, and couldn't expand anymore. I sat down listless. The excitement of surviving is completely gone.
What is a Factory Engineer without their Factory? They are no one, a waste of space. Worse than trash, they were unusable and unclean. They were nothing but blights upon existence. My mind shut off, as these thoughts kept rattling in my head. Repeating constantly.

—
Drone #403 tried to get their friend to move. The friendly two-legged one was unresponsive. They had brought them back to the main hive after the destruction of the two-legged being's hive. The Queen and Warriors said that they couldn't do anything for their friend. The two-legged friend's mind was broken and scattered according to them. So Drone #403 did what Drone #403 did best! It took his friend to gather more food. Nothing made the drone happier than gathering ore of the glowing food. Maybe it would make their friend happy and responsive again too. Drones 403's friends agreed. They helped put the two-legged one on 403s back as they began hunting down food.

With normal tunnels collapsed the Worker Drones would have to rebuild the expansion leading to the two-legged ones home. This would obviously take time, so they decided to take the two-legged one to the abandoned tunnels. The one claimed by the predators. The two-legged one terrified the Predators, as they kept getting hunted whenever they entered the two-legged one's territory. Causing the Predators to only send adult Predators there, who were also hunted. They had seen the two-legged one take down a grand Predator just before the threat had arrived. Just the mere presence of the two-legged one would cause the Predators to flee the tunnels.

That was proven correct as they felt the Predators flee the area after they took their friend to the tunnels. The blue light of food echoed off the walls. So Drone 403 did what Drone 403 did best. They collected food.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I have not managed to gain full control of myself yet, my thoughts keep pushing towards ending my life, to make it all end so the pain would go away. But that isn't to be. I can't let myself falter, I have more to do, a factory to revive. I cannot stop, no matter how much I want to end it, because the Factory must be built. It cannot sit, it cannot expand unless I bring it back. I will bring it back. I guarantee it.

The ants themselves have seemingly accepted me among them, despite having no way to communicate with me. The Ants I now identify as the Worker ants of the colony like to take me with them when they go mining crystals, I use this time working on the back of the ants to process materials for use, most of my suits functions are broken, destroyed by the collapse, my life support systems failed a couple of days back. Not sure how long I've been underground now, but I need to fix it before I can head back to the surface to survey the damage.

I feel an antenna tap my back. It's Jeff, the Worker Ant that I stick with the most, it leans down, allowing me to climb on its back, and I hopped on before resting. The ants are fascinating, there were four types of ants I've seen so far, there was the massive Queen Ant, which was bigger than any of the ants I've seen so far, it was not hostile towards me, but was definitely curious. The Warrior ants were twice the size of the Worker ants, but they definitely didn't like me, or better yet, I'd say they feared me. The Warrior ants would back away from me the moment I got close. The final Ant was something I'd call a processing ant. It would swallow down the crystals, and crap out pellets the rest of the ants would eat. The processing ants have to eat many different crystals before they start doing so, I suspect this is how they make sure they don't overdose on a single element.

I have to use my scanner to identify which crystals I can and cannot eat. Say if I had a bit too much iron in my diet earlier, I'd have to switch to another crystal that used a different element. This is important because if I don't it could very well kill me. Overeating is actually a massive threat to my life. Regardless, I was making progress. The thing I was working on before I was picked up by Jeff is a kinetic generator, using just a few magnets and copper, I could rotate the handle to produce power. I want to turn it into a gravity mill, but in order for a gravity mill to function, it has to be in orbit around the planet, it can't actually be on the planet, or it would not work. So I'm taking a different approach. Crystals can store energy, especially if you graft them in the right order, using crystals that used the same materials in batteries, and then covering the crystal with a layer of plaster, you could make an extremely powerful battery. One capable of storing the energy from my hand crank. So that is what I did.

Every day I either rotated the stone crank for energy or upgraded the generator with my gears so I could produce more power. As far as what I'd use the power for? A smelter of course. I was rebuilding the factory underground, it was a constant effort. It would likely take months before I could get even close to my former progress.

--- Earth, Sol Station 13

The Director looked at his wrists, the magnetic cuffs holding them together. He was upset. How could he not be? He had spent his entire life in service to the Coalition of Allied Planets, and everything he had done was for the sake of it. Yet no one could see that. He didn't want to just drop off the Factory Engineer alone. He wanted to reinforce the border between them and the void race. Yet he was told to pull the warship he had sent to protect the engineer back when he was getting a fleet ready to keep the planet protected until the Factory was up and running. He was denied, told that he could not provoke the Void Race.

The same Void Race that had flat-out killed the Engineer on that planet. They knew the value of the Engineer, there is no way they couldn't, especially with how much knowledge the Void Race had. He had thought this would be it, to show the Council what this was, it was a ploy! The Void Race never wanted to be allies, they never wanted peace. They wanted control, they wanted territory. They wanted to conquer humanity like every other alien in this god-forsaken galaxy.
Instead of listening to him. They decided to appease the void race, instead of preparing to defend their borders. They decided to persecute him to prevent a war. They stopped every move he wanted to make to prevent the Void Race from having too much power on humanity's borders. He would not have it.

He refused. The magnetic cuffs fell off, as the power on the station went out. The cell door opened, and he stood walking out, the Shadow Guard nodded at him. "Director, a shuttle has been prepared. We are ready to fight with you."

"Good. Do you have a radio linking up with base command?"

"Yes sir!" They hand it over to me. I begin speaking.

"Broadcast this, It is time Shadow Guard, to rise into the light. For years, we have protected humanity from threats, internal and external. For years we have been suppressed by these politicians who only seem to care for their pockets. For years our borders have laid unprotected. Our people turned into slaves, soldiers who had fought in the battle to protect humanity had been villainized by the Coalition of Allied Planets. Even our most potent weapon, our strongest allies. The Factory Engineers have been brainwashed. Forced into the path of an factory engineer from birth the moment they showed their talent for it, even when they could have become heroes of humanity. For years, the Coalition has regarded Humanity as some sort of check, not regarding each other as real people. It is time for revolution, for the protection of your sons and daughters, for the protection of our future, we must fight."

I let go of the radio, handing it back. That message would spread out through all of humanity's space. Causing a spark to land on the fuel the Coalition has been gathering for years. The mistreatment of outer colonies, and the thousands of brainwashed engineers every year. The massive wealth inequality between sectors? It had reached its breaking point months ago. There was a reason the Shadow Guard stopped suppressing it. Because the Director knew, the Council had stepped away from their humanity, instead wanting to please outside powers. Not realizing that we have the ability to fight back. That we were strong enough to protect ourselves from them. The Void Races' attack on that Factory Engineer was the last straw. The Director was angry. He would let his anger show. His friend had turned his back on him because they thought the Director was sending the Engineer to his death. But the Director had no intent on letting the Engineer die, no, he was stopped, blocked, and had to waddle through insane amounts of red tape. He would not let the Engineer die in vain.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

The crystals were currently my lifeblood. Kind of. Technically with my life support restored on my suit, I could survive without it, simply by constantly processing the grit and sand into different materials using the tools that come with the suit. With a bit of chemistry, I could make edible bites out of metals, would just take time. If I didn't do it fast enough I would probably die of starvation. If not thirst. Honestly, currently, I'm far more likely to die of thirst than hunger. The liquid in the crystals, while it is a liquid, it isn't water. Luckily, there is an atmosphere in the caves, and more importantly. I found ice. Not some frozen metal, I'm talking normal frozen water. With a bit of processing, I suddenly had access to water. A big thing to be honest. It means I will not die of thirst for the foreseeable future. Until I run out of ice that is. But if there was ice in one area, there will be ice elsewhere. Who knows, I might even find a lake if I'm lucky.

My life is slower here. The Ants are a protective bunch, according to my scanner, I was now covered in an intense pheromone that made other ants more friendly to me. The Soldier ants aren't scared of me anymore at least. The Queen Ant was fascinating to watch. The Ants seemed to be more evolved than I thought, capable of thought and structure. Meaning they were both Sapient and Sentient. A primitive race yes, but this would be game-changing on the galaxy scale. Because currently, Humanity was the youngest of the races. Sure we were definitely terrifying, if only because our capable production was leagues above that of foreign races. But we were still the youngest. A primitive race like the Ants changes that because if the ants were to be uplifted and had a bond with humans it would be a game changer to the political power that humanity possesses.

It is one of the reasons most of the galaxy wants to subjugate humanity or make humans a client race. Because the political power gained would be breathtaking. It proves your ability to work alongside or subjugate another race. Humanity was basically a super tasty morsel in its early space fairing years due to this. I suspect it may have been the main reason most races were looking to subjugate us instead of working with us because they wanted that power. Politics are annoying to think about because normally they fly in the face of reasonable values. You'd think it would be more valuable to work with new races instead of trying to put them under your boot. But not many have that view I suppose.
Regardless, I suppose I should focus on the ants. The ants seem to have a massive sense of order to them. They have dedicated areas for different things. A processing area, where the crystals are sorted and stored before they are fed to the food processing ants. A material work area, where they make special mounds of sandstone, which are used to construct pillars to support the expansion of the nest. A graveyard, where dead ants are put to rest. They also have dedicated resting areas, and play zones for young ants. The ants I would consider Princess Ants to stay in the play zone a lot. They seem to have built up a weird fascination with me. So I try to stay away from that area. Easier to stick with the worker ants instead of getting practically molested by the princess ants all the time.

I suddenly detected a large amount of commotion on my scanners. In a factory, this would typically mean a belt line malfunctioned and started hitting each other. Here it would probably mean a fight. Following the alert, I saw a giant red ant had broken into the wall and was currently fighting with the soldier ant, and they had the soldier ant to the ground. They were going to kill it. I jump, pressing the pressure release to send me flying toward the red ant. A pick deployed into my hand, and I slammed it into the red ant's head. The reinforced pickaxe destroyed the skull instantly, I wasn't able to control my momentum so I collided with the wall, before pushing myself back up to an upright position. This area was right next to the play area, and there were a lot more red ants in the tunnel. I spun my pickaxe in my hand. But instead of fighting me, the red ants started to run away from me.

I was massively confused as I saw them run over each other to get as far away from me as possible. Many of the soldier ants I know started to come over to our area, and the soldier ant I saved started nuzzling up to me much like the worker ants normally do. It even rolled on its stomach when I started giving it rubs, so naturally I gave it belly rubs and its head started lolling about. Still, I am apparently terrifying to these red ants which is fascinating. But their existence shows me that there is more to this planet than I thought. It wasn't just the worms and the normal ants, there was more to it. Is it possible there is an entire ecosystem below the surface of this planet?

 

[TrueGuardian32]

The red ants are definitely interesting. But I know absolutely nothing about them. Till now I thought the standard color for the ants was grey. Now, instead of chasing down the red ants, the grey ants did something rather interesting. They went and collapsed the tunnel leaving rubble behind. They also collapsed the wall and started to move the nest, collapsing caverns and areas overnight. I had to pack up some ice to take with me, cause they were collapsing the area where my ice was. Which was a bit annoying, I was basically carrying a sled with my stuff on it as I migrated with the grey ants.

The Red Ants are spooked by me, but the Grey Ants are spooked by the Red Ants. I do not know what is all going on here, I haven't had time to study it. Nor do I have the ability to observe the Red Ants. All I can do is follow the Grey Ants to a new area. They were moving practically everything, workers were carrying tons of larvae, and a new tunnel appeared basically overnight as they dug out to a new area. The tunnel was getting widened constantly, my guess is that they were widening it for the queen. So the queen could actually get into the new area. the problem is that I couldn't dig myself, I have no idea how to dig without collapsing the shaft I was digging. I knew a decent amount of engineering, well, an insane amount. Plus I could learn on the fly. I will start by observing the way the ants layer their pillars, that way I can replicate their method to make my own secure tunnels, I'll likely need to make myself a drill to make it easier on myself.

It's frustrating when I think back to my factory, depressing as well. I had all the tools I needed, planned expansions, and the ideas that would occupy my days. I was constantly laying out blueprints for the factory's growth, setting up production lines, and working on several automation bits that would keep the factory production up. The factory must be rebuilt, this time it will be stronger. I already know how to build structures that can withstand a Rod From God-type attack. It was simple engineering to make a structure capable of withstanding that amount of force. You could do it using regular steel if you know what you are doing. It just takes effort and research.

Shrugging I started to get to work. Pulling my simple battery and engineer I started to attach it to the drill bit I had created. I did some simple wiring and hooked up a spinning mechanism. After a few moments, I had a drill, or well, an augur. Laying it against the wall I pressed the trigger, and grinned as the rock was ground up, I pulled out the bits as I started to make myself a layer. I wasn't sure how big of an area I could excavate without causing a collapse, but I would learn. Jeff, the worker ant that sticks around me the most started to dig with me. After a few minutes, we managed to clear our a cubic area that was sixteen feet in width, seven feet in height, and sixteen feet in length.

With the expansion done, some of the worker ants started to come over and move the rocks I displaced. I followed them to see where they took them. Finding a mound of rocks and dust in a large cavern room that had been made. I am not sure where they put all the excess rocks though. Because this room is largely empty. They had to be doing something with them though. With how much they are clearing out the materials won't just disappear. But there weren't any ant hills on the surface, so where could they be putting the excess materials? Hmm. I will have to observe more. I returned to the room I had created. Before laying down my newest blueprint. A simple coal-powered generator, except I wasn't going to use coal. It took up most of the space in the room, but it would ensure maximum power production. But I couldn't just build that.

Grabbing my augur I started clearing out another room, as a plan for a mobile drill vehicle was made in my head. I'll call it a drillzer. The idea isn't finalized yet. But I do have plans. I should be able to make two versions, one version would drill holes, collapsing the rocks behind them, and the other would store the stone for me to move. That way I could actually clear areas. I think the priority should be the one that stores the material so I can actually spread out my factory at a much faster rate. Heh, I can finally say it again. The Factory will expand.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

It took a long time for me to automate ore processing again. Without a steady source of power, I had to constantly supply the machine I made with energy, manually spinning the crank. There was too much of a gravitational pull to build a functioning gravity mill. Meaning I was stuck on doing things manually until I found a fuel source. Honestly, I was playing around with kinetics to provide energy. Gas explosions and such. Something that is easy to forget is that there is a full breathable atmosphere in the tunnels. Meaning Oxygen and Hydrogen was available if I could harness it. Well, along with some other gases, there were a lot of other gases that weren't exactly harmful.

Figuring out how to harness such materials wasn't exactly possible at the moment. Meaning I was stuck with spinning the hand crank for my generator manually. On another note, I started to use an alternative way of viewing things. I was using one of the filters on my visor that displayed my vision in white, grey, and black. The reason is that the further out I go from the nest, the more my base of operations expands. The fewer crystals I have access to. Meaning the only light available was from my visor, this filter made it easier to process everything and actually let me see shapes in the darkness.

Still, this was good news. With my area of operations growing to a larger and larger degree I was able to start making things using rotational force. Sure making poles and stuff out of stone was significantly harder, and more frustrating than working with wood. But it worked. I was using rotational force as a method to power the conveyors. The conveyor belts themselves were made out of a bunch of stone plates, as the main thing I had access to was stone. Heh, I just realized I had built a highly advanced factory line out of well-carved stones. So what was providing the rotational force? Nuclear power.

I'm not joking, I was using a glass rod with radioactive isotopes to provide energy to a very rough machine that would convert the heat into motion. It required a ton of coolant, I was currently using a rotation of liquid mercury to keep the thing from overheating. All automated of course. I'm pretty sure if I wasn't wearing a high-tech bodysuit I'd probably have radiation poisoning.

—

Drone 403 worried about their friend. Their friend started to build their own nest again. This time it wasn't on the barren surface. But their friend was isolating themselves again. It didn't help that the Queen was terrified of their friend. After the hostile colony found them they were slaughtered by their friend. Allowing their friend to gain the trust of the Soldiers and other Drones. But in the process it scared the Queen, making the Queen declare their friends' territory off-limits. So instead we left food beside the entrance to his territory. After all, their friend had protected them. That was worth some degree of trust. The Queen hid every time their Friend left their territory to head to the food areas.

Drone 403 missed interacting with their friend. Whenever their friend patted their carapace it felt nice. With their friend isolated, they would no longer receive head pats unless their friend left their nest. But they were always in their nest working on new regions. Sometimes Drone 403 would go into the entrance and watch as their friend worked, they were always working on something, rarely taking a moment to rest, the only rest they had seen was when their friend slept or ate. It was fascinating to see them make things move and change. It was what brought the Drones to the surface, after all, their friend was a curiosity most drones couldn't ignore.