Engineer’s Log Day 76

If my recording software could pick up the clapping I’m doing, you’d be hearing quite a lot of it. Given that it has now officially been 28 days since my arm contracted a mild case of hurting from my inability to watch my step, I was able to swagger right on into the medbay to get verified that I could safely stop using the splint. Autodoc scanned my arm and told me that I should probably eat more vegetables, which is code for me being good to go. The splint is finally off and gone from my arm. I can eat cereal with two hands now! I mean, I won’t but I can.

I’m thinking I’ll still keep things relatively light for the next few weeks in the interest of not having a relapse but that still means I can tackle a few of the tasks I’ve been putting off. This especially means weather monitoring plan can finally start coming to fruition. I’d already gotten most of the parts assembled so it should just be a matter of the final assembly and then suiting up to go and plant it. I’m bringing a few extra tools this time to avoid any of the issues I had last time.

Engineer’s Log Day 77.1

Alright, I’ve left the base and taken off into the great unknown… well maybe the great kinda known since I’ve walked this way before. I made a few extra preparations but there are 3 that I think are particularly notably different from last time.

First, I’ve made sure to take some dedicated mapping devices to avoid getting lost. Not one but multiple. Last time, I wandered around for some 3 days before I found my way back and I’m not overly keen to have a repeat of that incident.

Second, I’m traveling in combat gear. It’s definitely a bit of a pain to wear for so long and I might catch a slight bit of heat stroke but the trade offs should be worth it. I survived that little fight on my last expedition due to a bit of luck on my part because if I’d been a few feet any other direction, my limbs would probably have been in 4 different places. Power armor won’t protect me from everything but I’d like to increase my odds of survival as much as I can. At the very least, it should help keep me safe from any roving Bug Panthers. Power armor also has the added benefit of some light servo assisted movement which means that it helps move itself. There is the tiniest bit of delay in copying your movement but that’s hardly noticeable once you’ve gotten used to it. Those tiny delays do make it chafe something mean though.

Last little upgrade was me tying the weather spike to myself. It was such a pain to handle last time that I’ve decided to circumvent that entirely by just not. I ended up using the rope the little guy had found and made a little holder with what remains of my boy scout knot tying knowledge. I don’t think I’m winning any awards for how neat it looks but it’ll do for my purposes.

Engineer’s Log Day 77.2

Alright, I made it to the destination, planted the spike, and am now taking a water break. It took me a bit longer than anticipated to get the bottom half of the spike actually buried but I suppose the original plan involved me having a few extra folks around to help dig. Fortunately, the dirt here is relatively light so I was able to dig my hole, drop the spike’s base in, and then fill in the surroundings with a bit of concrete in a relatively short amount of time.

Planning on sticking around a little bit longer to make sure that the whole thing is stable before heading out because the worst crime I could commit would be failing to secure it and having to come back out here later to redo set up. After I’ve verified it won’t tip like a surprised cow, I’ll do one last performance check and head out. I’ve one more stop on the way home and I’d like a bit of extra time there.

Engineer’s Log Day 77.3

Well… I’m back where everything started. This little clearing where my life flashed before my eyes several times over. I’m glad I’d grabbed the dog tags from the folks who’d been here to guard me because nature had done its work and little remained of the bodies besides a few scraps. I made 5 memorials, 3 for us and 2 for the xythalaxns. Even if it wasn’t much, I owe it to the guys who’d come to stand guard over me and died for it. Godspeed soldiers, I didn’t know you on a personal level but I’ll come out here again with a better tombstone.

I made two for my former enemies as well since I had a bit of extra time and it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Engineer’s Log Day 78.1

After a very solemn trip through the forest last evening, I’d tossed everything off to the side, showered real fast, and then slid into bed. Now that I’m up this morning I’ve noticed something a bit odd. The signals I’m supposed to be getting from the spike I planted yesterday aren’t coming through anymore. Naturally, I went to check the recording logs and I’d been getting consistent updates for less than 30 minutes before it suddenly just stopped.

I valiantly resisted the urge to scream in despair like a man and instead have made some plans to fix this. I’m almost certain that there is something physically wrong with the spike because there isn’t any reason for my code to have broken at that time. If it were a code problem, the issue would have happened much sooner or some manner of event would have been noted in system memory. Neither happened which leads me to my suspicions.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Assuming that this is, in fact, a physical issue, I have to wonder what was the cause? The first thing that springs to mind is that some small woodland animal decided to beef with the random machine sitting out in the woods and in the process of beefing, it somehow caused permanent damage to the spike. I know there are a few animals that are big enough to cause the sort of damage that would total the spike entirely but to my understanding those guys tend to live quite far from here. Obviously, it could be some unknown animal like the Bug Panther but I find it highly unlikely anything big enough to knock it over would have completely avoided detection. Small external repairs are likely to be the main course for today’s trip.

I suppose there is the second option of Zeus taking personal offense that I would dare to try and scan his domain but I rule that very unlikely.

There’s a few things I can think of that might have broken for it to transmit perfectly fine initially only to change its tune like an hour later and all of them will be annoying to fix. Given that I’m not going to be dragging out the whole weather spike this time, I can afford to bring a few extra tools and pieces I need so I can hopefully avoid making this trip again.

Engineer’s Log Day 78.2

Well, I’m still pretty sure it was small animals still but damn they have hands. The weather spike was still standing when I arrived but a few panels on the outside of the spike looked like they’d been pulled open. Unscrewed them and peaked inside and man whatever my mystery creature is sure did a number. Several of the diagnostic screens had scratches on them and a few of my neatly collected cords were cut. Fortunately for me, the screens weren’t damaged badly enough they were unreadable and I’d brought plenty of wire to replace the cut portions.

After getting everything fixed, I closed the panels and ran my tests again. The weather spike was talking with the base so I was good to go… Ish. The mystery animal could still come back and fuck things up so I spent a bit of time sealing everything up using the wonders of a blowtorch and melted plastic. It’ll make it a pain in the butt to get back into the weather spike for future maintenance but it should be worth it in the short term.

Engineer’s Log Day 78.3

Nah. No way. Just… ugh. I just got back home and ran to check and make sure that the spike was taking to the base like it was supposed to. It made it a whole hour this time before going silent once again. I’m going to lose my mind. I’m going to have to walk that 5 hour hike for a 3rd time. I don’t have it in me!

Engineer’s Log Day 79

I suppose there was a third option I didn’t consider for why my stuff might be broken. The xythalaxns might have gotten involved. I say this because the entire top half of the weather spike appears to have been blown to smithereens which neatly put a hole in my small animal theory. I suppose the Zeus option isn’t off the table yet with this new evidence though I will say the skies were clear almost all of yesterday.

The xythalaxns being the responsible party makes the most sense now but it does have some pretty disturbing implications. First, they either saw me making the weather spike or they monitored me as I was leaving the base with it. There’s no reason for them to be out this far in the woods for anything besides following me. Second, they managed to tail me for 5 total hours and completely avoided my detection for the entire time. Mind you, I wasn’t keeping a particularly close eye out but the fact that they presumably did do that is kind of unnerving. This unnerving nature is compounded by the third implication, the weather spike was blown to pieces which means they most certainly had the explosive means to take me down.

I’m briskly walking back to the base now but I think that when I get home, I’m going to lay low for a little while. No sense in risking death just to get weather forecasts.

Engineer’s Log Day 80

The sun is setting and the kid didn’t show up today. I think my mystery stalker may have caught him on his way here which I think is technically for the best. Every time he approaches the base, there is some risk that my turrets go off and he gets hurt no matter how effective my code may be. There are also additional concerns for me that if the xythalaxns think I kidnapped him, they properly bring the hammer down.

It has not been lost on me that I am outnumbered 300 to 1 and no defense is absolute. My best defense is by me not being enough of an issue to the point they feel it's worth the resources and manpower to deal with me. To be fair to me, I’m confident that I’d have to really be causing problems to reach that point… like kidnapping their kids.

Sigh

Ahh well, mopey, sad thoughts aside, I was able to get some good work done today. The sapling orchard has been weeded and I was able to start making progress towards a functional HARP. Technically speaking, it was just some of the extremities but hey, progress is progress.

____________

Glysia watched as her friend’s son walked through the forest for a moment more before deciding to step out and intervene.

“Well hey there kiddo, what do you think you are doing?”

The young xythalaxn jumped guiltily causing Glysia to chuckle to herself, like mother like son it would seem, “I don’t recall your mom saying you could wander the forest like this.”

The young xythalaxn sputtered for a few moments as he tried to think of an answer, “Momma uhhh… Momma said I could learn farming and my friend farms!”

Glysia felt an ear flick with amusement, “But did she say you could come this far out? You do know the human lives very close to here, yes?”

“Yeah! My friend managed to lock up the human! He’s really strong even though he’s really short. Plus he can build all kinds of cool things! He isn’t very smart though-”

Figuring this could continue for some time, Glysia decided to shortcut the conversation and jumped in, “It's good to make such an interesting… friend though how did you get to his house? I’m told the area is quite dangerous.”

The young xythalaxn tilted his head in confusion, “I just walk there?”

“Just walk there?”

“Yeah wanna see?”

“No, I think I’m fine.” Glysia intoned sweetly all the while shifting closer to the kid.

Sensing something was off, the kid turned to run only for Glysia’s arm to shoot out, grab him by the collar, and lift him into the air, “Lets go talk to your mom ok?”