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]

Posting this early, this was going to be released tomorrow, but eh, Feel free to keep me tabbed on twitch without adblock, it gives me ad rev that supports me, and drop a prime sub if you feel like doing that, it also supports me, and comes free if you have amazon prime!
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[Lovhes]

I'm liking what I see here. Humanity is basically factorio gremlins here, but it seems other aliens have means to compete against humanity in other ways.

I am interested on how you make the humans start diverging on the phenotype based on where they live.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I'm liking what I see here. Humanity is basically factorio gremlins here, but it seems other aliens have means to compete against humanity in other ways.

I am interested on how you make the humans start diverging on the phenotype based on where they live.

Click to shrink...

I'm definitely excited, been a while since I did a foray into original fiction.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Currently writing the chapter for this on https://www.twitch.tv/trueguardian32

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[TrueGuardian32]

Would you guys like me to release this chapter early by releasing it today, or wait till tomorrow and see if I can get a double release out?

 

[Wenceslaus]

I say try to go for the double post

 

[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]

I do not know if I'll be able to get another chapter out, I'm going to try but no promises.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I feel like working on this more, working on a chapter right now, if you wish to support me you can leave me tabbed on twitch. I am writing right now. You can also come chat if you would like, I'm just typing away.

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[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]

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[TrueGuardian32]

Will likely be a 1 day delay for the update on this. I am dedicating today to Cleaning and gaming.

 

[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]

You can leave me tabbed on twitch to support me if you wish to.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Sorry about the lack of updates, for some reason I'm finding myself unwilling and unable to write on either Glop or World Factory. I'm going to start a oneshots and snippets story thread and work on a few unrelated stories and see if that gets me back into writing.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Surprisingly I have been writing. Just extremely slowly. It took me a hour to get 200 words done which is not normal. Regardless an Update for World Factory should come out at some point this weekend

 

[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]

I appreciate all who leave me tabbed on twitch

 

[TrahKartolo]

Damn, felt lowkey tragic... I dunno why

 

[meloa789]

If there are moons around the factory world, he could use those to mine extra materials.

 

[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.

 

[kycan12231]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[meloa789]

Yep, this clandestine operation is going to blow up on their faces.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Huh, I slowed down on updates massively. I will see about getting something out tomorrow.

 

[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]

I should probably crosspost this before I forget /shrug

 

[meloa789]

Either our dear Engineer was a bit careless, or there is a mole.

 

[WheeledWriter]

Or the Planet is being bio harvested by the Void and their Ant/Worm drones sent back a report with their regular cyclic update of the engineer's presence?