(A Virtual Room in NERV HQ)
“What in the hell?”
A phrase that never bode well was uttered in the control room, causing Isaac’s gaze to snap to the technician who uttered the words that foreshadowed a lot of extra work on his part. “What happened?”
The tech turned to look at him, and said, “We just had a new entry appear in the list of possible spawn sites for new players who are coming in on an Advanced or Hardcore start. It is not in the list of new starting zones we were going to add in to encourage people to start in new or underserved areas.”
Isaac blinked. “What? So you mean the AI added in a new starting zone? Bring it up on the screen.”
Starting Zone: Starborn Colony
Location: Star’s Reach, Star’s Reach System
Restrictions: No racial restrictions. Limited to Advanced or Hardcore starts.
“Star’s Reach? I haven’t heard of any such system. Must be player-discovered. Can we see the full admin details of the system?”
Star’s Reach System
Designated Gateway 19
Discovered 30 hours ago in-game.
System claimed by Black Star Company as corporate-controlled system.
Star’s Reach
Primary habitable world in Star’s Reach System.
Primary settlement: Starborn (1 hour old), located on coast of Western continent.
Planet owned by Black Star Company.
Dungeon 125-A located on Southern continent.
Location A2-D234-2C9X-Epsilon located on central mountain range of Western continent.
Starborn
Population: 11 (5000 additional in stasis)
Note: 100% of current population, including those in stasis, are registered as slaves of Black Star Company.
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Isaac nodded his head. “Ah, that explains it. Our favorite tester found a shiny new world when he went exploring through the Gateway, and put a flag down as soon as he could to ensure that he could claim everything in the system as his. As the only ruling authority in the system, with a colony of over three thousand people on the ground, he has a solid legal claim to the system and anything in it.”
“Isn’t that a little rushed, though? He hasn’t had time to check the planet out yet.”
Isaac sighed. “Of course, it is a bit rushed, but in this case getting the claim in means all rights are his. Any government, corporation, or other concern that wants in on the new colony is going to have to go through him, since he’s got the legal claim.”
“That’s going to make a lot of people unhappy.”
Isaac laughed. “Oh, that won’t be what makes them unhappy. It will be the ones that choose the new Starborn colony as their start zone, and find themselves slaves of the Black Star Company before they even logged in. They’ll scream bloody murder at that.”
“Should we do anything about it?”
“If someone complains about being slaves at the start, inform them that the determination of a new starting zone was made by the AI, and their legal status is part of why it is restricted to higher difficulty levels. If they whine about the fact that Mollen got something special again, inform them that it was the fruits of his own labor. Then add in that, since the revelation of Nuevo Edo’s existence, fifty-seven ships have been lost dialing unknown gate addresses, not counting twenty-eight ships that ignored quarantine orders for the Amazon planet, and wound up becoming permanent residents, or worse.”
Another tech said, “Sir, what about those two notes on the Star’s Reach listing?”
Isaac pulled up his developer’s notes, and said, “Hmm. Dungeon 125-A looks to be a standard Deus dungeon, not one of the corrupted ‘Zerg’ dungeons. Right now, it is listed as stable and contained, meaning no one has tried to destroy it causing the dungeon’s forces to disperse and go ‘rogue’, spreading across the planet. Hmm. Oh, it looks like there’s a VIP as the ‘boss’ of this dungeon, if the teams can get to him. That should be a very interesting fight to watch.”
He flipped through his screens, and said, “Ah, here we go. Location A2-D234-2C9X-Epsilon… Oh. Oh my.” Looking away from his notes, he brought up a chat application, and dialed in a contact code. When Morgan’s face appeared on the screen, he smiled weakly, and said, “Honey, would you mind stopping by the control room. I think things are going to be getting interesting on your end. It has to do with the planet ‘Admiral Mollen’ claimed for himself.”
“He did WHAT? I’m on my way!”
Moments later, Morgan materialized in the control room, looking upset. “What is this about Mollen claiming an entire planet?”
“Well, an entire system, actually. He took his fleet through a 19th Gateway address, decided he liked the neighborhood, and set up shop. Claimed the entire system as corporate property, since he had a colony ship that he got from the Empire as part of his payment for the war. The planet itself is a decent, earth-like planet, so I can tell why he would want it. Anyways, the AI picked it as a new spawn site for people starting as Advanced or Hardcore players, starting them as slaves to the Black Star Company.”
“Shit! That’s just great. People already think we’re playing favorites with him. How bad is it going to be?”
“Well, that part isn’t too bad. There’s also a dungeon on the planet, which should provide some extra income once he goes public with the fact that he owns a star system, and has the tools necessary to keep it.”
“What else is there, Isaac? You wouldn’t have called me down here if there wasn’t something important.”
“Well, before the game started, we scattered thousands of special locations around the galaxy. Some are known, like the Grand Arena on Dimiya. But some of them are not known to the public. All of these locations, however, have Lost Tech. And one of those locations is on Star’s Reach.”
“Oh, great. So, what kind of Lost Tech are we talking about here? Please tell me it isn’t weapons. We don’t need him getting any more superweapons on top of the ones he’s already got.”
“Well, I’ll have to deep dive the code to find out what exactly is there, but it is apparently called the ‘Sanctum of Perpetual Knowledge in Motion’. Probably loses something from whatever language it was originally in, but I think he stumbled onto an ancient technological archive of some sort.”
“Well, that’s just great. People are going to be screaming at us if he gets any more of a tech advantage with his ships.”
Isaac grinned. “Well, at least the pirates will be busy for a while, once news of a new isolated colony becomes known. Maybe it will take a while for the news of the Sanctum to make it out.”
Morgan sighed. “We can only hope.”