Orion woke up feeling more rested than he had in a long time. It felt like a dream having his little phoenix buddy back. He’d only had Apus for a few minutes during the opening cutscene, but knowing he had a friend was immensely comforting. Even a digital companion was better than the isolation he’d been feeling. Especially given that one of Apus’s primary functions was acting as a game tutorial.
Panic suddenly welled up in him. What if it was a dream? What if the loneliness and isolation had finally given him space madness and he’d imagine the whole thing? What if Apus wasn’t really here-
Wait, no, there he was!
Apus was sitting at one of the crafting tables, scrolling through the various tabs quickly. Presumably he was communicating directly with the Galaxy HUD since the bird wasn’t touching the screen. The phoenix noticed him and the screens closed.
“Good afternoon, Sir.” Apus said cheerfully, “Did you know you yell in your sleep?”
Orion rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, “Yes, but oddly enough that’s not a new phenomenon.”
Apus considered that, “Fascinating. I have reviewed the logs and am up to date with the current situation. I have discovered some distressing information about your condition. Your short-term memory was not completely uploaded, so you may be experiencing some disorientation. This may also relate to your missing leg, which seems to have not downloaded completely. I am even more impressed with what you’ve accomplished with no guidance whatsoever.”
Orion stretched and popped his back, “Yeah, and I died twice.”
Apus waved a wing in the air, “Understandable given the circumstances. This is not a starting area. You are the lowest level of any enemy you’ve encountered. Even the Terraworm Grub was level ten.”
Orion sat at the desk. “You mean the maggot thing? No wonder I couldn’t defeat it.”
“Exactly. The fact you’re able to survive at all is remarkable. The atmosphere on this planet is thin and has a low-grade toxicity. The air is literally poisonous. That you accomplished all this while in a bulky Biosuit is amazing.” Apus looked around, “Where do you keep it, by the way? I was going to make upgrades while you slept but I can’t find it.”
“Oh, I don’t have one.” Orion admitted, “Mine was ripped before I even got here. Couldn’t find any in the base either. I’ve just been freeballin’ it out there.”
Apus looked startled, which was disconcerting for an emotionless AI.
“That could explain why your Endurance is off the charts.” Apus said reflectively.
Orion shrugged, “No idea. I can’t access my stats.”
“You can now,” Apus corrected.
Orion pulled up his HUD and waited for the shock of pain that accompanied it, but the screen was stable. Curious, he scrolled over and opened his character tab. The window showed him his stats, his skill points, and had a 3-D picture of Orion showing the current gear he had equipped. He saw a second page with three skill trees for his Warden vocation. The next window showed his trade skills and Trade Points he could use to customize those. The final page showed his inventory, equipment slots and weapon wheel.
“I can finally finish leveling up!” Orion whispered reverently.
Apus nodded, “Shall I offer some guidance, Sir?”
Orion agreed and the two spent the next hour upgrading his skills. The stat bars were pretty simplified, probably so that non-gamers who might join in could easily navigate their character sheets. It was probably possible to cap all of your stats out to max, and gear would enhance a person’s abilities beyond their physical limitations.
Orion appreciated that. Some games went very heavy on building a meta and micromanaging your skills down to the decimal point for the best possible build. Orion always felt that was a very restrictive way to play. He preferred to play goofy gimmick characters whenever possible. He hated the idea of a “Right” way to play, and being punished for creativity in favor of an overpowered setup everyone uses? How do you know something won’t work if you don’t try anything different? Besides, the last thing Orion wanted to do in his digital afterlife was math.
The stats were divided into five categories:
PWR - Power
END - Endurance
FNS - Finesse
KNW - Knowledge
CHM- Charm
Every new player character started with a base of ten points across the board. This would give your average person the ability to do whatever they wanted without difficulty, even if they never used their character to do anything but relax. Just doing everyday activity could increase abilities slowly, and more strenuous activity would increase it faster.
Orion’s stats were heavily stacked in strength and endurance. Mining and the few fights he’d been in had made Orion fairly beefy on his own, and using Sunflare increased that. His finesse was decent too, both crafting and using his guns helping him level there. His endurance, however, was bigger than both of those stats combined. Apus speculated that the mere act of walking around in a toxic atmosphere was causing Orion to use his regeneration at all times, and it was power leveling endurance at twice the rate of others.
Power was needed for strength based activities, such as combat and heavy labor. Endurance determined how long you could exert yourself, and also factored into resistances and health points. Finesse was more dexterous and delicate work, affecting stealth and tinkering trades. Knowledge was smarts and helped with psionic attacks and hacking computers. Charm was used for social situations such as haggling and even playing instruments.
Combining different stats could help increase a person’s chance of successfully accomplishing a task in either battle or crafting. However, these weren’t the only factors that determined if someone was successful at a task or not. Apus gave an example that a skilled person at playing guitar in real life could show that same skill in the game without risk of failing a minigame. But if that same guitarist wanted to use music to charm an NPC animal into becoming a pet, the stats and minigame would come into play.
Orion thought about that, “Okay cool, so I can still just do stuff I knew how to when I was alive? Like, I could still draw art without risking it turning out badly just because I messed up the game?”
Apus nodded, “Exactly. Star-Lynx is hoping that the minigames will allow people to start learning new skills. Or at least get them interested enough to learn from a real teacher. Miss Douglas was worried about people using the AI to mass produce art or literature. It would take the challenge out of things and people might lose interest. Practice still makes perfect, even here.”
“I can get down with that.” Orion rubbed his chin. “I suppose it could also help people with disabilities to create how they want, too.”
Apus blinked. He turned his head thoughtfully and his eyes went bright yellow. Orion watched for a bit, the phoenix staring fixedly in front of him. After a moment the eyes went back to their normal soft glow.
“I submitted that suggestion to the developers, but it did not successfully send. It seems we are not connected to the Galaxy Chat,” Apus announced.
Orion nodded, “Yeah, I’ve tried a few times. Either my personal HUD can’t access it or this planet is cut off from the rest of the game. As near as I can tell, we’re on our own here.”
Apus started to waddle across the counter again. Orion wondered if this helped the bird think. After a moment Apus stopped in front of Orion and pointed.
“If we’re here for the long haul, then there is one way to help boost our survivability rate,” Apus explained. “One of Cosmic Horizons Online’s features is a colony system. In theory it would allow players to have their own planets to customize if they wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of cities and space stations. Establishing a colony opens you up to a host of new buildings and terraforming options. You don’t even need to think up your own floor plan. If you fix up the rooms and power in the base you woke up in, it should trigger the colony mechanic.”
Orion nodded. He still hadn’t even finished clearing up the robots or the bodies in the compound. “I wouldn’t even know where to start,” Orion admitted.
Apus tapped his chest with his wing, “But I do. Remember, it’s my job to guide you. I can give you step-by-step instructions on what to do. But before that we need to take care of something even more vital. You need a reliable water source.”
Orion slumped, “Sure, but it hasn’t rained and I’ve checked everywhere for a water source.”
Apus shook his head, “Not everywhere. In a desert biome the best place to check for water is underground. Let me show you something that might help.”
Orion sat up and watched as Apus pulled up a recipe icon for something called a [Multipurpose Universal Tool].
“That looks pretty neat,” Orion mused. “What does it do?”
Apus spread his wings. “Everything.”
The Multipurpose Universal Tool, or MUT, was closer to what Orion envisioned when he thought about science fiction gear. The pickaxes and shovels were fine in a pinch, easily constructed but with limited durability. Especially with the rough use Orion was giving them. The MUT not only combined them, but could be used at a distance using something Apus called ‘Sen-Tech’. A kind of hard light beam fired from the tool to move objects, build structures, and remove obstacles like stone and dirt. It could even teleport items and materials directly into and out of the inventory of the wielder.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Building a MUT required orgite tools of every kind, including some Orion hadn’t crafted yet. Following Apus’s guidance he build a set of carving tools, a hoe, a watering can, and even a paint brush. Doing so leveled his machinist trade and unlocked new recipes in the crafting list. Once the items were all dumped on the work bench he got to work combining them, ending up with more useless junk. Discouraged but determined, it took three more tries and almost all of Orion’s surplus materials to construct a MUT.
The final products looked a bit like an ornate copper magnet, the top and bottom having small holes filled with miniature Gates, with a handle in the back. The grip had a small purple panel on it that could let Orion adjust settings between a variety of tools, from axes to paintbrushes. On Apus’s suggestion, Orion also slotted the [Terra Mod] cassette he found into the bottom half. Gripping the center made his hand look a bit like a 1950’s robot with a clamp claw. Orion investigated its stats now that his repaired HUD allowed him to do so, and he was pleasantly surprised.
“No durability?” Orion asked.
Apus nodded, “Sen-Tech, or Sentinel Technology, is the apex of scientific advancement. Arthur C. Clarke wrote that ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. It’s considered Lost Technology, most of which following the Sentinels through the Void Gate. There are leftover ruins made by Sen-Tech scattered across the galaxy.”
“Well, all right then. Let’s go find some water.” Orion stood, “After breakfast. I’m low-key starving.”
Orion did his usual morning routine, though it was already past noon. He greeted Todd and did a few practice swings at him. Orion had started boxing with the dummy, even if he didn’t know what he was doing it felt good to take out his frustration with his fists. Then he checked his traps for ratillacs. Now that Orion could access and upgrade his Warden skills, he took a better look at the rattliacs he’d caught. One of his Handler abilities allowed him to identify animals and learn facts about them by either hunting or training them. When he saw their species name his lip curled in disgust, flashing his tusks.
“Squealers? What, seriously?” Orion sneered, “Why, because rats and tires both squeal? Is that why they have little piggy noses?”
Apus, “I don’t have data on that but-“
“No,” Orion said firmly. “That name is stupid. They’re ratillacs.”
Apus looked at Orion from his shoulder perch. Patiently, he said “Sir, I’m sure the developers had their reasons for calling them that. It’s not our place to just rename them.”
Orion folded his arms, “I’m a beta tester right? Send a message and let the developers know I think Ratillacs is a better name than Squealers.”
Apus, “Sir, we’re still not connected to the Galaxy Chat.“
“And after that, can you change their name in my personal HUD?” Orion continued stubbornly, “I can’t stand looking at that name. Squealers. My god.”
Apus was quiet for a moment and decided to pick his battles, “As you wish, Sir. Message sent, but not received.”
The name above the dead critter switched from Squealer to Rattilac. Nodding in satisfaction Orion continued to collect his daily meals. Two more traps had been wrecked, the prey carried away with a small blood trail. Orion squatted over the second broken trap, laying down a fresh one. He tapped his implant and a holographic visor slid over his eyes, highlighting the paw prints in yellow.
“I’m going to need to deal with that soon,” Orion muttered. “But I’m sick of drinking recycled piss, so one thing at a time.”
After breakfast Orion followed Apus southeast of the base, about halfway between the hangars and Bite Rock. The phoenix instructed Orion on the use of the MUT, going over the basic controls. After some careful fiddling he adjusted the settings to ‘stairs’ and combined it with ‘mineshaft’. When he shot the MUT at the ground, several flowing purple tendrils of energy emitted from both of the micro-portals. The cracked mud lit up in one foot by one foot cubes, and after several seconds of continuous fire, they lifted up from the ground. With a flash, they vanished, and Orion watched as the dirt cubes appeared in his inventory.
As soon as the first four blocks vanished, four more lit up and were quickly scooped away. Within a few minutes, Orion had the start of a nine by nine foot tunnel descending at forty-five degree angle. Apus instructed him to make a kind of subway tunnel awning over the entrance, using mud bricks to make a sort of wedge facing west. The idea was to cut down on wind resistance and keep the hole from filling up in case another sandstorm rolled in.
He continued digging for a few hours. Orion had stocked up on stone and wood before heading out. The MUT automatically cut the stone into cubes to make stairs, and every ten feet the lumber was used to make support beams to prop up the ceiling. The MUT even used glass and machine parts to make LED lanterns on every other set of support beams. Orion practically sauntered through the crust of the planet.
“This almost feels like a cheat mode,” Orion commented after a while.
Apus preened his feathers thoughtfully, “Perhaps. But consider this: a man works for thirty years in construction, working sixty hours a week. Hard labor, lifting heavy bags of cement, digging ditches, working in the hot sun all day. He doesn’t make much money but has enough for a cozy one bedroom apartment with a dog.
Orion looks upward, pulling up the image in his mind. “Okay, I’m with you so far.”
“One day there’s an accident on site and the man is critically injured. The only way to save him is to upload him into Cosmic Horizons. He doesn’t necessarily want to go off exploring planets or fighting aliens. He just wants a little piece of land to himself, a little homestead to kick up his feet. Maybe even get a pet to keep him company.” Apus asked, “Do you think he wants to break his back digging holes and cutting beams after working non stop for decades? Or worse, pay someone to build him a house? The MUT is the ultimate do it yourself kit. Easy to use, easy to customize and no heavy lifting required.”
Orion paused to think about that as cubes of packed dirt fell on the ground. “That makes sense. It would be one thing to build stuff by hand as a hobby,” Orion said. “It’s another thing to have to work just to survive. I know what that’s like.”
Even with the modified MUT the work was slow going. Sometimes, the beams of light would pull a random cube off the wall. Sometimes a rock or boulder would bar the way and Orion would need to use a mining pick to break it down. One of the boulders was full of a bronze crystal formation that looked like pyrite. Orion mined it with some difficulty, breaking a pick in the process, and he had to switch to a new one to finish the job. Even with his Mining trade at level three, the mineral he obtained could only be identified as [ERROR]. Chalking it up to an early game glitch Orion kept the ore, carving a rectangular chunk out of the boulder to clear the path.
Orion wasn’t sure how deep he was, so dug out an alcove big enough for a camp if he needed to take a break. He considered making a chest and leaving it here to drop off materials, but aside from the mud and clay, any stone he dug up was immediately used to build the mine stairs. Going for a winding staircase design, Orion lengthened the break area and dug down in the opposite direction. He continued this way for a while, making rest stops every hundred feet or so before changing directions.
By his fourth pit stop, Orion was getting discouraged. The ground was getting rockier, more chunks of stone appeared and gave the impression of walking into a giant mouth. Gathering a few more Error crystals and even one or two fossils leveled up his Mining trade to level five.
[Mining Trade leveled up! Gemstones can now be gathered in ore deposits!]
Apus was pleased by that announcement. Gems were great for the machinist trade and could be used to craft a lot of advanced machines, particularly quartz. The MUT seemed to scale with his level, the pace increasing as the light beams dug even faster.
Orion was starting to zone out and get bored by the proceedings. He wasn’t paying attention as he trudged down the path and his foot slipped on something. Orion fell backwards and literally slid down a flat surface, crashing butt first into the partially dug wall. Suddenly very alert, Orion saw that under him was some kind of frictionless glass with a faint blue glow.
Rolling to his knees, Orion slowly pulled himself up to the last set of stairs and tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Tapping the surface with his peg leg and there was a soft hum and a ripple of energy from the contact. He pressed on the surface, feeling a crackle of static electricity that raised the hair on his head. It felt like touching an old CRTV screen.
“What do you make of it?” Orion asked Apus.
Apus flew down to it, walking around the panel of light. Being only a holographic projection, Apus didn’t slip around, but he also couldn’t interact with anything. That didn’t stop Apus from pecking at it with avian curiosity. “I’m not sure, Sir,” Apus admitted. “I don’t have any records of this in my CODEX.”
Orion stood, “Let’s see how big it is.”
Orion started to clear the space, digging a large cavern propped up by rafters and support beams. In order to clear enough space, Orion crafted a crude bridge across the dirt, little more than a big plank of wood. After some considerable time clearing the space. Orion realized what he was looking at. It was some kind of dome, like the kind you’d see over a sport’s arena. There was an interlocking pattern of brighter light, looking almost triangular. Orion followed the seam though the dirt and finally he found what he was looking for.
It was some kind of saucer-shaped disc, one large center panel lit up with blue light. Three smaller LEDs encircled the top, forming a triangle where the brighter light originated from. Despite being a piece of Sen-Tech he couldn’t identify as his skill level, for all intents and purposes it looked like a UFO frisby.
“This must be what’s generating it,” Orion said. “But what is it? And how is it still working? And why is this underground?”
Apus shrugged his wings, “All questions I wish I could answer, Sir.”
Orion held up the MUT, “How about this then? What’s the range on this thing?”
Moving back as far as he could and still reach, Orion clung to a nearby wooden beam on the stairs. The Org took aim and fired at the strange disc. The ground shook as the purple light grappled with the disc, the energy panel rippling like the surface of a pond. After a long moment of fighting, the Sen-Tech gun turned the UFO gizmo blue and teleported it into Orion’s inventory.
[BioDome Generator added to Inventory!]
Every panel of light connected to the generator winked out, like turning off a light switch. Orion’s stomach flipped as every chunk of dirt not supported with rafters hovered for a few seconds, then dropped through the dark chasm below. Loose soil turned into powder under Orion, and as gravity took full hold of him and he plunged through the cloud of dust like a cartoon coyote. Wiping dirt from his eyes, he blinked and realized he was hundreds of feet in the air, plummeting towards a suburb.
A terrified scream erupted from Orion’s throat as the ground suddenly raced towards him. He squeezed his eyes shut against the terrifying height, feeling lightheaded from vertigo. A rock his hit shoulder and sent Orion spinning and his eyes shot open reflexively. Confusion cut through the pulse-pounding fear gripping his mind.
There was a cozy middle-class neighborhood swiftly getting closer to him, complete with indigo blue roads, purple lawns and even a playground off in the distance. He was dropping towards a Cul De Sac with a semi-circle of houses below. One even had a pool, but it was bone dry. No help there, Orion was dropping fast over one of the buildings. Not that it would matter at this height, either way it would be like hitting concrete. He idly wondered if the game had fall damage yet.
“SIR!”
Orion turned his head and looked at Apus, keeping pace with him since wind resistance didn’t affect his holographic body.
“See if you can turn around and curl into a ball!” The phoenix instructed, “Your back plates may offer some protection in the fall!”
Orion nodded and tried to twist his body, folding one arm in and letting the wind push him slowly around. Looking up, Orion was startled to see the full extent of the damage he’d done. Beyond the falling chunks of dirt he saw six missing panels in the sky, with darkness beyond. The rest of the dome showed what looked like a live feed of the night sky, this one with two moons instead of the planetary ring he was used to.
Seeing the night sky overhead while being underground was extremely disorienting. Orion hugged his legs into a backwards cannonball dive mere seconds before his body tore through the roof of the building. He smashed through some furniture that splashed him with foul-smelling water and kept going through the floor.
His momentum slowed some, and Orion had to focus to keep himself tucked in as pain lanced through his body. The sound of dishes and wood shattering came next as Orion exploded through a gaudy kitchen. Orion tore through the floor like wet tissue paper, forcing him to release his legs as the red glow around his vision flashed. Something soft popped under him and Orion went spread eagle as he literally hit rock bottom with a sickening crunch.
[You Have Died]