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The Nebula (dropped)
Volume 2 Chapter 3 Contact

Volume 2 Chapter 3 Contact

Heh Really short brake to get inspired for more XD hope you like it even though it’s just more development and reconstruction. It will be pretty planeside development and terraforming the planet until plant life starts taking root and an atmosphere begins developing. (mainly until the base can take care of itself)

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Conference room (3rd person)

Currently Samuel and Marcus were discussing the contract. They were looking through all the models available that could be made quickly but still are efficient and long lasting. After several models one was finally chosen. It was a slightly older model that worked wonders in areas of interference it was also the only model quick to build model that had the strongest radio and the best antenna so it was a given. It model name is known as MIST (Magnetic Interference Signal Tracker)

(I’ll be truthful with you I was just thinking of any random name when I decided to just that the first letters of the four words XD who know it would get a good name like this)

The satellite main body was perfectly oval shaped and supposed to be white in color, there are several antenna around the body for close range signaling, these can be closed and stored inside the main body for replacing and repairs, but at both ends of the oval satellite were one large antenna on each end that are permanently  extended. These are for longer range signals such as space station to planet contacting or with larger satellite it could be between each solar system.

Marcus: so can I count on your men to build the satellites.

Samuel: yes I will have my men start soon, as you agreed we will start once we have materials and once the advanced pay is deposited.

Marcus: it was a pleasure doing business with you commander.

Samuel: pleasure is mine now…please tell me about this miner Mores is so intent on helping.

Marcus: oh that young man, heh that boy I the first miner that was able to take off to mine, as well as the first one to build a fighter to defend his ship. I must say this he is a good captain and his crew is original crew is quite skilled. When there was that surge of anomalies around the most of the stations he was given orders to check one of them and camp upon a derelict Reaver ship with six of them still alive and what we believe is a rock creature that originated from Kelha II.

Samuel: Hmm… I though Kelha II was a desert planet with no life.

Marcus: we though so as well but after an incident with the planet base we have down there we began thinking otherwise and this man’s discovery proved it.

The two men continued talking about Noah for a bit before Samuel left back to his ship to have his crew prepare the workshop for production.

Noah POV

Down on the planet inside the radio station Morgan, Adam and I were celebrating that we could get our message through.

Mission Base Survival

You have been able to get into contact with Kelha II’s Space station. They are now preparing to make satellites to improve the signal between the planet and station. Your job is to get the base ready for their arrival.

Difficulty D

Objective: you must build the buildings below and get them running

-build Basic level Shipyard

-Build basic level equipment workshop

-build basic level power suit workshop

-designate a zone for junk yard

-Make a Basic level droid and drone factory

-scout the up 30 km in all directions around the base

-Locate suitable areas for new bases to be erected, for either agriculture or mineral extraction

-research Dome shields so that you can build more around new bases

Reward: ???

Noah: this one seems a bit simpler

Adam: Nope it’s not, it’s just that the rank means the effect it will have is only around the base or planet

Noah: oh that sucks…anyway let’s get on with the simplest, you guys start on the droid and drone factory that will need the workshop machines so we will need one a few off ship. I will go to the ship and send a few drones to scout the land outside for the last option.

We split up and I headed to the carrier. At the carrier there were already a few higher up crew mates there, obviously Gunner for one, Ernest and a few techs and soldiers.

Gunner: we saw the new mission what do you want us to do now.

Noah: well we need to start building, first set up a place for junk, then around that area where metal junk is placed build a new refinery to recycle the metal which will go into two new Part making workshops before going to the assembly line at the equipment and power suit workshops. As for the shipyard, that will also be put near the junkyard since we will need spare parts most of the time. Try and make the junkyard near the landing platform were the carrier is it will be easier to transport the ships at a smaller distance.

Giving out my orders they all started to talk and discuss who builds what and how to set up with a large map of the area. Before I moved to far out I got a new idea.

Noah: hey the shipyard I got a better idea. Fix up a few of this mining tanks and make it under ground, this will add an extra layer of protection for the future if someone attacks and then make an open hatch with a shield like from the carrier to close and open.

A few liked the idea and started up the talk again with increased vigor. I finally headed into my original Dingy and sat in the pilot’s seat.

Noah: alright now I’m sure the AI in the ships can help with this.

I put the head set on which allows us to talk over the radio or to the AI.

Noah: computer I need manual control of a drone as well as visual from the front of the drone.

“Drone Manual controls active, Drone Camera deploying, Visual image now transmitting”

I grab the handles which were now controlling the drone as the windows turned into screens and showed what the drone was seeing.

From my POV I was over the carrier. Turning the drone I am it towards the shield and hitting the pedal the drone flew off outside. In the near vacuum of Kelha II there wasn’t much to see. Just a cold desert that has never known what vegetation was. I flew near the surface and had the AI activate the scanner. My objective was to find really fertile land as well as ground water which wasn’t present in our current location and we only have what we brought. As I scan the drone suddenly picked up seismic activity before the image turned into static.

Noah: Computer what happened?!

“Drone signal has been lost, possibilities of it being destroyed 85%, Possibility of simply losing contact 0%”

Noah: give me control of a different Drone.

The images suddenly came back and I was flying over the base again. I fly out as fast as the drone could take it in 2x gravity and soon find the drone. Around it dozens of Golems were crowding around it and destroying it. When I got near the looked up and started to move around and before I knew it they threw tons of tiny versions of the fish like golems that were used by raiders. By stomping on the pedal I was able to dodge the creatures but they used there magnetic abilities to draw themselves towards the drone. I had it go as fast as possible and it finally returned into the bases shield which let it through while blocking the Golems which crashed into the dome.

I was breathing heavily from the fright.

Noah: ”this is REALLY bad, we can’t do anything with those things around destroying the drones while we scan…we need better drones…or different kinds of drones”

After thinking about his I left the ship and found Gunner and the guys still talking.

Noah: guys we are changing plans, first we need a Junkyard then a workshop for parts and last we will make the droid and drone factory as well as a research lab for technology development and focus on making new types of drones as well as better drones.

They all looked my way after I suddenly appeared and changed the plans.

Ernest: what’s with the sudden change?

Noah: I used the manual control of the drones and went scouting and found that the planet is the home of the Golems and if we are to slow they will attack us. I think this was what destroyed the freighter so I for us to safely scout we need more drones we can control easily. Namely Shield and weapon specialized drones as well as drones with better and quicker scanners so they don’t need to stay in one spot while scanning.

Gunner: that’s a tall order boss, we need to develop three kinds of drones as well as a few workshops.

Noah: exactly and that is why for a few days we will have to build a lot of worker and construction droids to help out this way we can speed the process and make do many projects at once. This is very important, for proper agriculture we need to scout for good land as well as ground water that we are in desperate need of for basic needs. I think we have at best two weeks of water if it’s rationed well.

This caught most of them by surprised, they knew we didn’t have unlimited water but they didn’t know that exact amount and hearing it was so little time set them to work immediately, gunner grabbed a few worker droids and headed to a clean around about half a km away from the landing zone with the bots carrying a lot of long junk poles that that were then set up right around the area making a 40x40 area that was designated the junkyard. He gave orders to the maintenance droids that were originally from the base to drop all scrap metal in here.

Ernest and the other techs and mechanics split up and with the help of the worker bots started building a parts workshop with machines and tools to make basic parts. The other was the droid and drone factory which had machines found for assembly lines as well as the tools for that as well.

The last group that split up went with a few researchers and techs that prefer the research fields and transformed a large empty ware house into a research lab for droids. They were the quickest to set up which was only 2 days since it was mostly clean up and preparing some machines like the workshop and assembly as well as computers and large scanners for very detailed scans. They started their work by scanning both the carriers’ shields and the done shield of the base hundreds of times until they got sufficient data on both they also did lots of scans on the lasers of the dingy.

Their objective was to make 2 different drones. The first is a shield drone that generated a large enough shield to protect other drones. The other is Laser drone this one is meant for combat. I also asked for a third kind of research which was for a better kind of engine and propulsion system to improve the maneuverability of the drones. The research team had become swamped with work and had to ask for help from the other teams around the base to increase the research.

Space POV (3rd POV)

In space it was just as hectic. With the need for many metals an official mission had been given to the miners to mine many tons of various materials that were in the fields. In the escort warship Blutopfer it was just as hectic as the station. As they received tons of refined metal sheets they began to work on the MIST satellites, the ship’s crew which was a proportion of 30% player and 70% NPC had been tipped towards the player’s side because the station had sent many mechanic and technician players to learn advanced constructions like this. The effects of the missions that Noah completed caused great effects for those around the base and made many opportunities to gain experience and money. After 2 days they had completed the first satellite which was made at lightning speed because of the need for them being urgent.

Almost 90% of the crew was helping out while the rest took care of the other necessary systems of the ship. By now the structure to the second satellite was nearly done thanks to the collective work of the worker droids and mechanics work. The first satellite was going through its final tests and having its system coded by the techs who were all over it to get it done.

In the real world the forums were in an uproar over the intense activities on Kelha II

(just an advanced apology I couldn’t think of any names for people so I used a few of you user’s names without permission sry again)

Overlord Mea: hey have you heard of the stuff happening around Kelha II

Riou666: yep I’m currently here, the top miner Noah was sent on a mission to the planet surface and it caused a mission for us up here after he succeeded.

Mad Jester: what is the mission!!!!! Those of us who are not there want to know?!

GreyDragon: we need to build satellites to improve the signal between the station and planet. 8 of them in under 2 weeks for some reason.

Riou666: I think it’s because the planet is a desert one so they will need water soon as well as food they only have what they took in Noah’s carrier.

Mad Jester: HOW THE HELL DOES HE HAVE A CARRIER!!!!

The conversations continued in many different forums but all of them were all over the place wanting to know about it. Since no one could go out into deep space since they had neither a hyper drive nor warp drive they couldn’t go anywhere.

(hyper drive = high speeds to cover many km over time, warp drive = jumps a great distance in short amount of time)

As the players around the station continued supplying what little info they had acquired from the NPC on the station they give to the public but that was all they could do without any strong connection to the players themselves.

By the end of the first week much was done both in space and on the planet. In space, 4 satellites were completed and were now floating around the warship, they need to complete the last 4 faster so they were now making the other 4 in space since there was MUCH more space outside ship.

On the planet the junkyard was already done and had accumulated quite a bit of broken parts that were recycled to get extra metal if the mining couldn’t get enough. We had repaired one of the tanks but it didn’t have a drill attached so instead we converted that one into a mining truck and made and attacked 2 containers behind it that carried a lot of ores there was also 2 other tanks that had drills that came back online and had begun digging out the shipyard area under the base near an area that had no construction on top. Moving on we were able to complete the refinery, parts workshop and droid and drone factory and for now it was focusing on worker droid to increase building speed.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The research team had grown thanks to the increase in worker droids all they needed was someone to lead them so with many open hands most of my crew were helping with building and research while the miners were left to mine with the help of the bots. The research had gone well, Gunner led the research on the laser droids and had been able to develop a laser gun like the ship lasers but at half size and about 2/3 the original power. The shield research was led by James, Jonas and Adam since it was a technical and mechanical puzzle. They were able to reduce the size of the shield generator to about the size of a motor cycle, which I might add is very small compared to the original dome shield generator which was about 15 meters high and had a diameter of about 7 meters. The small generator had the strength to make a dome shield around the drone that was about 8 meters in diameter and though it was large it was also difficult to build but I didn’t mind. Laser drones were much easier to build but the easiest was the new scanner drones; the new scanners were developed by Mr. Kinter and a part of his group using the golem cores to make the tech. I don’t know the specifics of how it’s done but I think the core can amplify the strength of the scanner so it was a bit simple to upgrade the scanners.

The biggest upgrade that still hasn’t been able to accomplish was improving the propulsion. The biggest problem is that they need to pretty much make a new engine for the drones. i have been helping this group since I was interested in having my mechanic skills improve and I knew how hard it was, the current engines we have in most ships are normal hydrogen fuel propulsion engine. It’s a somewhat weak engine for a fighters and drones but it’s the best a midway frontier space station could get. One of the ideas I had thought of was an Ion pulse engine which uses battery power to make the pulse. It would cut down on fuel use and might make it faster. We have been studying about Ionization that is used in higher grade ships near the capitals that have ion pulse engines. It’s much harder than it looks to make a small pulse engine because it use for large or luxurious ships so to make small one is harder.

Even without the better engine we start producing the new droids, the shield ones we make about 5 in 2 days of the second week while making 10 scanner drones and 20 laser drones. The orders were basic the scanner drones were to stay within the shield drones dome and will scan after they get near the ground. The laser drone will at all times defend the scanner and shield drones and if needed will leave the dome to distract them while making openings for others to attack.

With that finally all set it was the 3 day of the second week and we were already rationing water and even with the green house having started to grow it would be impossible to grow fast enough before we run out. So in a somewhat desperate move we sent out the drones. With some men using many of the ships to take control of all the drones we set off into the desert. I took control of a shield drone and had everyone that was control a drone in an open chat in the ship. We moved at 10 meters above the ground to allow the scanners to do their job and started scanning around the base first. We saw some obvious effects, it seems they don’t come near here for some reason but we were glad at least. The ground around the base, at least outside the large mineral pocket, had some fertility that could grow vegetation on it.

When we reached about 5 km away from the base we were attacked. 10 human golems attacked but were intercepted by the laser drones. the lasers didn’t have as much power as the ship ones but I was much stronger than a normal rifle laser and with a few shots the golems tumbled back down and crumbled into dust as they smashed into the ground.

(A.N. laser pistol = 1/20 ship laser, laser rifle = 1/15 ship laser, Sniper = 1/12 ship laser)

We lowered towards the ground and soon we were over then and after our shields covered them we had a special function to the shield drones activate. Soon an extendable are came out and reached for the bodies and broke then up. After a few minutes the tiny cores inside them appeared and they took it into an inner storage. We then continued on and scanning, every kilometer  they attacked and were repelled, it was mostly human golems which didn’t have much resistance to the lasers since they were smaller.

After reaching about 4 hours of searching and reaching 30 km away from the base he finally found what we wanted.

700m underground was an underground river that was flowing rabidly inside the planet under intense pressure. Around it was about 2 meters of ice as well which is probably from the cold temperatures of this planet. We stayed about half an hour with the shield drones spread out to give max coverage to allow the scanners to get the best readings. The river was 30 meters in diameter and flowed through a think tunnel underground covered in ice. Besides the river the ground, which is also moistened a bit instead of dead dry like most of the desert, had better fertility them any other area we have scanned so we knew this was where we needed to start. It would take a lot of shield drones and land transport to send between our base to that new area to start producing anything and even longer to make a proper dome shield to keep golems out, the shield drones can act like a dome shield but they can only reach so far underground and have only so much strength against their attacks that could be hidden underground. We mark that area on the map and have the drones return for us to get ready for this.

Space POV

The four days of the second week they started working on was even worst the first. They had to build the 4 remaining satellites in space they finished all four by the fourth day but that was with 90% of both the station and the warships man power working overtime to get the large constructions done at one time.

With all the satellites finished the mechanics and techs that worked on it were all in bed sleeping from the overnight shifts they had but the commander still had to hand it over to the responsible workers that would take and place then correctly in place. A few remaining techs that had been told to rest the day before were ready as were the 40 different miners with fighter ships from the station. The techs were taken inside the satellite through had a small docking bay, which was simply a long tube that extended out. After they were in, the dingy pilots all hooked the 8 satellites and towed them with 8 on each one.

The first one was placed some distance from the entrance of the tunnel so it wouldn’t block passage. That one was easy but it got a bit harder after that. It was hard to guide the other satellites through the asteroid field but thankfully they were only about 1/3 the size of the carrier so they all fit even with the huge antennas.

(A.N. Satellites meant for solar system communication in my story can be as nearly 3 times as big as Kelha II which is to say around 200 meters long and about 100 wide and it worked just like a station between solar systems if someone doesn’t use a warp drive to jump.)

The next 3 were easy to place as well since all they needed was to take it and put it in a general position and let the techs inside use the propulsion of the satellite to turn it properly.

At the fourth layer they started to get attacked but it was tiny groups of 6-9 and came every 5 km. The 4th and 5th layers were the same. The 6th and 7th were larger groups that were also taken care of they were about 15-20 in a group but only human golems. The 7th had the raiders but that was all, most of the larger ones were pushed back onto the planet and it didn’t have many more left and all the satellites were finally placed and were correctly placed after a long day of hulling these things.

Once they were finally in place the techs were picked up and taken back and a quick message to the station had them send their own techs to work the stations.

2 hours after leaving all satellites were working and Mores Marcus and Commander Samuel were there in the stations tower to receive the message. A signal was sent to the planet. After about half an hour it was received and a clear channel was made with the receiver.

Mores: hello this is Kelha II station Mores cane speaking is this on the planet base.

Noah: good to hear from you and loud and clear sir.

There was a sudden shout of accomplishment as the message came in loud and clear through the radio.

Mores: how is it down there Noah.

Noah: truthfully it could be better, we are in need of water and food but we have made some advancements, we located land and water on the planet but its inside the desert about 30 km north east of the base and out there Golems live sir. Oh us down here have taken to calling them that since it reminds us of the fantasy creature with that name.

Mores: I see…besides the basic needs anything else needed down there.

Noah: if you had a dome shield that would be great but if you don’t we will make one but for now just food water and personal to work down here, we are kind of short on hands and have even started to make droids to make that up but they can only take basic orders.

Mores: I’ll get the basics down there

Noah: oh make sure to tell them that for now it’s a one way trip, it’s too dangerous to leave the planet unless you have a very fast ship. Golems jump out at you even at high altitudes if you try leaving the planet or leave the base for that matter.

More: that is a problem but I will get some to work, specifically what types of personnel

Noah: I need people who know about engines we are trying to make ion pulse engines down here to make ships capable of speeding past the golems before they can attack us.

Mores: that…is a tall order.

Samuel: sir if they need information about ion engine my crew may help, we have used ion engines before when we were still in a smaller class warship it made up for the large size.

Mores: is there a blue print or something.

Samuel: no ion pulse engines done have blue prints because when one knows the principles to making it they can make it at any size or shape which makes blue prints obsolete. What we have are instructions how the ion pulse is done.

Noah: you have something like that, is there something you want in return!

Samuel: well the it is B class secret that only commander rank or high were only allowed to know how to make.

Everyone kind of looked down after hearing that

Noah: is there something you might want in return, we got from these creatures we got tons of mineral cores, there were two large ones.

This got everyone’s attention, a core is said to be hunted down by many because of their uses in powerful technology and to get a large even more so. It is also a perfect bargaining token for high level tech secrets that were wanted by many and known by few and it has defiantly caught the commanders attention.

Samuel: how big exactly is it?

Noah: …

There was silence from the radio for a few minutes before my voice appeared.

Noah: ok I needed to have it checked in comparison let’s see they put it next to a Dingy they said it was about 1/3 of the height and 1/5 the length

Everyone’s mouth hit the floordroped. Why? Because they were just slightly smaller the A class cores these cores were at the level where it could be traded for a single B ranked tech because it was almost 1/3 times larger than a normal core that was about the size of a human.

Samuel: i-I will have to talk with my superiors about the exchange but i has to be both, if they accept I will hand over all the knowledge we know about it.

He said that quickly and ran out without a second though which surprised a few people since the man was known for his calm domineer but in front of such a trade he couldn’t deny it.

Mores moved up and took the mic again

Mores: you know that is more valuable than the info you want right.

Noah: I kind of thought so but value comes with necessity and this ball of metal has less value to us then the engine that could get us off this rock and working in space again.

Marcus: haha I have to agree with him sir

Mores: yes so do I, we will have a crew ready and taking down as many much food as possible they will be going in Dingys which might be fast enough to leave the planet unlike the carrier.

Noah: good idea, send a lot with lots of food and water which are in need.

Marcus: don’t worry we will get it down right away but it will take about 1 day or two since a some Golems are still in the asteroid field but I’m sure it’s nothing like what you faced.

Noah: we will be waiting.

The connection cuts off and everything starts getting hectic again in the station as many Dingys are loaded with either food or water. When all was done 10 Dingy had water and 10 had ration food and 2 had some personnel that would work down on the planet. The crews were paid for the trip and would get a bonus after coming back. they were accompanied by their fighters to protect them as they flew towards the planet being the first after Noah to head all the way

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Hey guys I got some ideas on what to do but the chapters will come out slower now, mostly only on the weekends when I have more time to write I think maybe 2 chapters a week from now on RL is getting busy so I won’t be able to write so much except for weekends

next chapter i will try to add some fighting with the drones against large enemies

all feedback is well accepted both good and bad