Authors Corner: Well this chapter was a bit harder do to less motivation then i wanted. Got some fights and more fights. This chapter features lots of refernces that could cause copy right infringing yet i dont care.
Jokes aside. I am in need of ideas. I can go another chapter of fighting (or not) but i need some ideas to do next. Please post below ideas that you may have for monsters (space ones), tech (simple stuff that can be done atm and not 5 years from now), missions (already have an idea to do but need more), and so on.
Enjoy
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A few short hours after we began our slaughter of the native monsters, we had cleared every beast up to five meters away from the cave.
We were able to accomplish this due to Jessica sniping them. It really was her time to shine. We retreated some distance away and from the ship at 150 meters away from her target and not needing to worry about wind resistance, we sniped down several clusters in a few hours while we returned to the ship for repairs and healing.
My robot didn't get so damaged but there is still some. I wouldn't take my chances letting damage accumulate. The durability of the robot is spread throughout the four limbs, the chest and head.
100 for each limb, 50 for the head and 550 for the torso.
The reason I don’t want damage accumulating is because when the durability drops to 80% the limb begins to slow down or malfunction. The speed is supposed to drop by 10% and it doesn't exert as much strength as it should.
It goes without saying that I repaired the few damages the arm and chest gained from the hits and the times blocks while we fought.
It was small components that broke or cracked but I stored them in a separate box. I would never toss out these components because they are one of the most expensive to get. The reason being that they are made specifically for psionic weapons or robots.
Parts made for this use have trace amounts of the mineral, Psidium. This is an uncommon rank material only found in space and it's the material used for making psionic technology and more specifically it's the material that is processed to make Psionic Tech Nerves.
The ranking for metals is simple to understand. It's common, uncommon, rare, legendary, mythical.
Though Psidium is a very sought after metal it's still uncommon and not overly impossible to find. Since this is a game, unmined asteroids spawn after a time with the metal. Common metals take a week to respawn,uncommon take from 1 month to 3 months depending on rarity. In each rank there is a class of rarity from 1-10 like in missions. Psidium is rank 10 in the uncommon category.
If you're wondering about the price of psionic nerves, I don't know, what we gained to make our robots was a 5 kilo roll of psionic nerve and with the two equipment I made it took all of the roll.
I will have to check the market price for everything linked to Psidium some time since I will need upgrades sooner or later.
After the few repairs to my robot was done I went and repaired the girls. Jessica still got damage to her shoulder but it also seems that she had some parts damage in her head from using that android trait where she can raise her perspective speed. What was it called, overload I think.
Hilda had some damage caused by movement and some from attacks from when she was fighting. It was actually because of her that we needed to come back. Her body can't handle extensive battles even with a tank since simple movements wear down her body.
I think the money we gain at the start will have to go to the girls upgrades first. Once they get a second durability upgrade they can handle much more and with less repairs.
If I know them, from what I saw, Hilda would get the four foundation upgrades, 2 durability and 2 mental upgrades then focus on close range combat upgrades. Jessica will do the same but her specialization would be more mental so that she can fire the gun much more easily.
After we returned to the ship we returned to the camp because of the time.
From what I heard the monsters when killed efficiently they won't come out if they aren't herded out. At best a small bit more will be outside if we left it and returned.
Since it was night time, it wasn't to our advantage to continue fighting. When we told the results to the terraformers they were rather happy that we were finally advancing.
Their leader was still bitching about our speed but we had succeeded in decreasing the number all day tomorrow we will be fighting. We will see how effective I am as a tank.
Oh right I got to level 6 and the others also surpassed level 10, well everyone but Alex since he doesn't fight.
We all log out to eat and do our business and let time pass before returning.
Like before I take a walk and return just before two hours pass and log in to find it was day time already.
Back in the game during day time we return to the cave and find that the monsters barely advanced out from where we killed them to.
This showed us that breeding can only go so far.
As such we suit up and drop down.
I tell Jessica to only use the sniper since the railgun are trump cards and not something to constantly use especially when you have a gun like that.
We drop down and slowly walk towards the cave.
Just before crossing the 100 meter mark Lia warns me and I pass on to the others.
With a nod we take some steps in and suddenly as if something triggered an explosion, all the monsters outside look our way.
After another step they finally all rush at us.
Because they were 50 meters ahead and around the cave they all came from the front or from the frontal flanks.
We move back several dozen steps to get away from the point where the residents of the cave would rush out.
After reaching a comfortable distance I turn around and meet a group of seven bears head on. One instantly dies to a headshot from Jessica before it reached me and it tripped up another one.
When I reach the first it dies like the first bear I killed and then with his body in that angle I grab his hind legs and spin it around like I did the gorilla the first time.
This is the tactic I have used to generate the most hate towards me at all times.
Letting the bear fly its heavy body impacts into three wolves crushing them.
I then turn to the left and block an incoming paw swing from the bear and let a left hook connect with the bears lower jaw.
Dad finally arrives and jumps on the back of a bear and starts to force the head side ways.
The bear's body follows and falls sideways but dad jumps off quick and grabs the head again when its down. After a struggle he finally breaks the neck and kills the bear.
Hilda was different, with a laser sword she runs in and like dad jump on the back but with her laser sword off she places it on the bear's forehead and activates it making the laser drill into the head and upper body. With a sweep of the laser sword she digs out a huge slash carving everything out.
Lastly Lisa, she doesn't have attack type psi techniques like making fire and so on but with dad's stupid suggestions she actually used her pin point control of psi to mimic a sith lord choking someone.
She even goes as far as doing the pose of holding someone before closing her fist and crushing the neck or head.
It’s very entertaining to watch really because this is one of the few star wars imitations that is actually possible without side effects or death. The first time we did this we found out how scary strong elves can be. She easily lifted 14 wolves like that and cracked the heads as easily as if you are breaking a chicken's neck.
Jessica, on the ship, just simply snipes away at the enemy. Because of the sniper's low fire rate, I told her to aim for high priority targets like wolf alpha's and bears. This way the burden on us is lessoned by a great deal she can fire two shots in a minute. If it was a planet with an atmosphere then it would be 1 per minute or even less.
The lack of air resistance is very useful. All she needs to do is calculate the gravity pull over distance.
In this large scale fight we keep Lisa from fighting so we can heal or pull back. She set up a dome barrier where she stood. If needed she will fly over and heal dad or he will go to her.
The enemy numbered around 80 this time and it was all the remaining clusters outside and after 5 long hours of fighting we finally killed the last one.
The ground was littered with enemies and around me even formed a small hill since I made sure to cause the most havoc.
I move my arms and legs and the lethargic feeling as well as the feeling I get from the psi tells me that damage to my arms and legs combined would put each limb at around 60% of their durability.
It was much tougher than I had anticipated but even then we succeeded.
[/tds]Alex: On it, come quick before something decides to show up.[/tds]
Noah: Alex, bring the ship down, we are going back. Robot needs repairs and we need to rest up.
We walk back to where Alex landed and enter the ship.
She takes off and heads for the camp so we can safely do our check-ups.
At camp we first eat and calling Lisa I start repairs while she recharges the robot.
I have Lisa recharge the robot. The method is rather simple, on the back of the robot there is a removeable plate the size of hand. Under it is a glowing white disk. By putting your hand there you can directly transfer Psi into the robot without leaking. The other way is to touch the actual body but there is a 20% psi loss which is reflected by the armor. Normally the 20% is negligible when you're in a station with lots of Elves to recharge but outside it’s better not to waste.
I, on the other hand, start with repairs. Opening the plates I look through the parts repairing everything before rebuilding it.
After 2 hours the repairs were done and Lisa had already recharged the robot completely.
I brought over a small cart that is found in cargo’s to move heavy loads. Placing it next to the left arm I jump into the robot.
Coming to life I move the left arm jump above the cart and lay the robot back.
“Unhook left hand.” I command.
The next moment the sound of latches coming off and a heavy sound of metal falling a short distance.
I poke my head out of the chest and check the hand and see it was properly on the cart.
“Position lock.” I commanded.
Suddenly the sound of air pressurizing came from all over the body. I tried to move the body but it was locked in place. With a nod I got out and walked to the arm and looking at the exposed wires and Psionic nerves, I disconnect the connections in this joint. The connections are plugs between each part of the body. This makes it possible to make the robot with modular parts. In simple terms, the robot is like building blocks I can change.
With all the parts off I push the cart to one of the boxes.
Lisa was watching and was confused.
“What are you doing? Is the fist damaged?” She asked.
“Nope, come help me get this.” I reply as start opening one of the boxes.
Lisa helps open the box then store the fist inside and take out the other module.
“This…!” She started saying but froze after she pulled out the part.
“This is my drill, yep.” I tell her.
In the air currently was a long drill on a moveable joint and with thicker plate forming the shell of the arm going up to the elbow.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
As Lisa sets the drill on the cart she looks at me.
“Why did you bring this out? Isn’t it a tool?” She asked.
“It can be used as a weapon, a heavy consumption weapon but still a weapon. Against foes that are 100% rock and mineral this feels like an effective weapon.” I reply.
“What if it gets damaged?” She asked.
“Repair it like everything else. I doubt it would get damaged though. The plates on the arm will be replaced with those here and this is twice as thick and provides extra defense as well as aids to anchor the drill on my robot's arm so that it doesn’t fall off when i’m working.” I replied.
She looked once more as if thinking something before she nodded.
Seeing as she wasn’t saying anything I pushed the cart under the frozen left arm.
Then began the job of removing the armor plate. It wasn’t exactly simple because the plates were connected to psionic nerves but like the joints it was connected through plugs but it was annoying to remove it completely since most of them have around 10 on each.
After removing all the plates up to the elbow, I moved the cart into place. The plates of the drill are more rigid compared to the normal plates and are made of five circular plates that are shaped to match a specific location on the arm. Another feature is that the plates open up to make it easier to install each plate.
WIth the plates open and the drill at an angle I put it in the correct position before installing the psionic nerves before jumping into the robot.
“Unlock movements.” I said the command and I could move again.
Looking at the left arm I move it carefully trying to connect drill.
*Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!*
Hearing the five clicks I knew that the drill was connected correctly.
“Hook left hand, drill module” I said.
With the command came the sound of pressurizing arm and the loud sound of latches closing.
Hopping out of the robot I go to the arm and close the plates one at a time after connecting the psionic nerve leaving it partially loose but still closed near the parts.
Jumping back in the robot one final time I give the final command I need.
“Lock drill arm plate.”
At once, one by one the plates closed and clamped down on the arm as if it was skin and was born there.
I close the chest lid and begin to drive psi around the robot to check its system.
When I find no damage I then go through the steps to checking the drill’s systems properly and when I find nothing wrong I put the robot back in standby mode.
“Alright, everything's ready here, all repaired.” I said.
“You should go repair the other girls as well, Hilda took a beating from that gorilla that targeted her while you were busy with the others.” Lisa said.
“We should go then.” I said and she nods as we both head upstairs to get a bite to eat and repair Hilda and Jessica.
***
Standing at the 100 meter mark we saw the entire area was clear of enemies besides the piles of rubble that was left behind.
Looking back to the group behind me they nod and we start to move forward. By 80 meters it came.
From the cave came a wave of beasts that began to pour out.
We had come prepared for such a huge number, we had stocked up on some consumable weapons while we were there. We got them in exchange by having me repairing several machines that were malfunctioning in the camp.
The consumables were grenades. Now don’t say they don’t explode in a vacuum because all modern weapons are self oxidizing.
Lisa makes 4 of the 50 grenades in the open box next to her float and pulls the pin and tosses the grenades into the cave as fast as her psi could throw.
Suffice to say that the explosion caused a large number of beasts to be thrown out of the cave and probably a large amount of damage came to those inside.
There was probably 40 that got outside before the explosions went off and we rushed forward to meet them.
We had 3 boxes with grenades and we had left her in a barrier where she would throw the bombs.
I quickly moved to make the hate focus on me and we began the fight.
My lovely method of turning my enemies into ragdolls and throwing them all around with some flair does a more than effective job at getting their attention and now to try my drill.
Like it was explained the drill by itself takes 300 psi to operate and so release more psi from the containers while driving the reinforcing psi into the drill while the new psi floods the body.
When the drill was online the screens showing the information appeared on my left.
With a thought the drill began to spin and because the robot was pressurized, I could hear and feel the distinctive sound of the drill spinning.
I see a huge gorilla fist coming at me and with my drill, I punch.
The result was more than satisfactory because when the drill hit, the arm of the gorilla was completely grinded to dust and what remained of it was riddled with cracks.
The follow up punch with my right hand connected on the chest leaving more cracks on its body and the finisher was one last left punch to the weakened chest causing the gorilla to fall apart.
Before I could react another gorilla was swinging but before it hit, its head blew up into dust because of a sniper shot to the head.
I turned and grabbed the arm and ripped out off the body and began to use it like a club.
I then heard a series of explosions and then a message came.
Lisa: 30 more incoming, I stopped the flow with a few more grenades
We had cleaned out 30 so it was reinforcement to put the numbers we took down.
As we cleared the last few the new group arrived and we continued on crushing, and taking a look at the cave I could see more coming out but suddenly the flow stopped with a final beast.
Noah: Seems all the beasts are out of the cave!
The moral of the others burst and we began to kill faster. Lisa tossed a large number of grenades decimating the approaching beasts and sending parts flying all over.
Eventually she joined us in the fight and healed dad quickly before using her psi to squash large beasts and cull the number of wolves that were a distraction.
After an hour, the fight finally ended but I felt something was off. I did take into consideration that dad and the others have been fighting for several days but it felt like the numbers were small.
Suddenly I felt a vibration from below.
“RUN! Something's coming!” Lia shouted sending this through the chat to the others.
We all sprinted towards the ship and just as I walk out of the 100 meter range of the cave something burst out from underground.
Looking back what I saw was a long 5 meter long body made out of rock with an open mouth at one end.
“It’s a giant worm! An infant one though!” Lia explained.
The worm didn’t stay long above ground and burrowed underground.
Still it became apparent quickly that it was coming to attack because it lifted a trail of dust behind it.
Roktar: Fuck! Now we are stuck in a fucking Tremors rip off! Everyone run back to the ship!
We didn’t argue and just ran.
I looked back and saw the worm rapidly gaining and seeing we couldn’t run away I asked.
“Lia, what is the level range of that thing?” I asked.
“It was around 5 meters, the length normally shows the level so it should range from as low as 45 to at most 59.” She replied.
I paled when I heard that but could only grit my teeth when I started to make the drill spin. I focus on all the armor plate and the drill and reinforce it with skin reinforcing.
I then stop and turn around and saw it was no more than 10 meters away and closing fast. The ground began to bulge and with the stop I put my body into turning and bring the drill on my left arm down.
Just as the worm was 1 meter away it appeared out of the ground and met my drill head on.
The shell around the worm was as hard as steel and the weight behind it pushed me back and didn’t stop but soon cracks appeared and the shell began to crumble as the worm began to writhe around in pain.
I took a step forward trying to push back and push further in and it slowly worked as the drill dug deeper and making more cracks appear as it burrowed into the body.
Finally the shell broke under the pressure of the worms own strength and me pushing back against it.
My arm dug deeply in the much weaker inner rock that was rapidly grinded into a fine powder.
The worm began to shake its head but soon lost its strength and slumped down.
It stopped pushing and I was able to remove my arm leaving a large hole in its head.
With my drill out it quickly spurred to life and retreated into the ground and flees for its lift.
We were on guard for a good 10 minutes before we slowly return to the ship and only after we were in the air did we finally relax.
Looking at the others we began to laugh and soon cheer as we finally got one cave cleared for the mission.
The cheers also passed on to the terraformers but after that we reported to the leader about the fight and they all paled when I told them there was an infant Giant worm that was aggressive in that cave. It relieved them when I said I was lucky enough to scare it away and how I had set up the drill for fighting previously and had lucked out.
“It's good that you succeeded, I was just about to request a backup crew to come. It seems like when your crew is all together you are efficient. Having a Dwarf fighter, even a newbie one, is a good thing for your crew. I guess you will need repairs right, once we set up the bomb your crew can take a day off before heading to the next cave.” He said and I nodded.
We shake hands before he begins to order the bombs be loaded and I go to repair the damage to my drill and the robot as a whole.
Later that day the bombs were set at the end of the cave, which was expanded due to the beasts eating the stones on the walls.
There was also a drastic increase in heat near the end of the cave which shows that the magma was near.
It kind of worried the terraformers. I asked why,
“Well if the magma is near then if we detonate the bomb then the lava can be diverted to the caves.” He explained when we were back in the ship.
“Well, isn’t it just important to have the release of the pressure, you just made different exits that will release the eruption.” I said.
“Not so simple. It would act more as a leak and in turn make the eruption weaker.” He explained making me nod understanding the actual problem.
“Then won’t the explosion from the bombs collapse the caves? If not we can weaken the walls and ceiling in some areas so that the explosion closes the cave up.” I replied.
He looks at me and nods.
“Good idea, our men can do that while you start clearing the next cave. It’s safe now so we don’t need to worry.” He said and I nodded.
“You have the coordinates to the caves so we will let you be for now, enjoy your day off.” He said and leaves into the mining camp.
I go into the shuttle and find a bed to sleep on before logging off to enjoy a break and some real sleep.