Watch it all burn! - Edited 11-8-2018

Let’s make a list:

The first thing to do, check for messages. Next, check the overall game status. Then, try and contact Yama or Rassie.

I need to figure out what they know about my “observer.” Shit, what am I going to call my guest?

“Observer works for now.” An old-time computer-generated voice ground through my head.

Okay, no chance of privacy. This is going to suck. At least the voice was quiet enough to sound like it was coming through a bone induction speaker and knew how to ask it questions. So, yay! Go me.

“’Observer’ feels a bit informal. Do your species communicate verbally or through any audio cues?”

No response. Well then, I guess I don’t know how to ask it questions. So, maybe I get some privacy? I walked to the wall monitor and pulled up messages. Spam. A lot of spam. Well, not spam technically, but 48 daily status messages? Yeah, that’s it. 48 days. A new email pined into my mailbox. 49 days. Okay, delete all those except for the last seven. That should be roughly six months relative. Let’s see if there is anything valuable in them.

TO: Crew of ARK-5

REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group

SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 43

Plausible habitation planet detected en-route to the fallback point, Charlie. Reroute Combat Group in accordance to protocols. Yellow Alert still in effect. Possible Xeno sighting on Ark-9. Patrols advised full awareness and constant vigilance. Ark-11 loss of compression on cargo bay. No casualties. Repairs necessary before equipment status can be verified. Volunteers from off-duty personnel will be allowed to assist with repairs. Uniform of the Day is ship suits with fatigues. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. Mining teams, please note that all samples to be brought to science labs for immediate evaluation.

The next several followed the same pattern; then I found myself reading today's briefing.

TO: Crew of ARK-5

REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group

SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 49

Plausible habitation planet verified as sustainable with minor terraforming. The Arks will be distributed as follows:

Lunar Facility will be handled by Ark-7. Ark-5 will assist.

Planetary construction will be handled by Ark-9, Ark-3, and Ark-2

Asteroid mining will be handed by Ark-11 and Ark-19

Solar System Survey will be managed by Ark-12

Combat Group is advised that Yellow Alert still in effect.

Repairs on Ark-11 should be complete in two more days.

Lost crew members have finally been inserted into the game. Fire Team leaders, orders will be sent regarding retrieval of team members.

Uniform of the Day is ship suits with fatigues. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties.

Another message hit my inbox.

TO: Crew member Jax

REPLY TO ATTN: Yama

SUBJECT: Orders

You will ignore all orders until the following is completed.

Report to medical, receive full battery in-game

Report to Engineering, receive full scan

Report to Science, receive full scan

Once completed, return to quarters and check for further orders. You have been assigned to a special action task-force for First Contact while we try to make substantive contact with the life form. Your fire team was reassigned to supplement other fire teams which lost crewmembers from what we are referring to as the Gate Incident. Uniform of the Day is ship suits with fatigues. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties.

There goes my day. I had to scrap the rest of my to-do list. I strapped on my helmet and set the face mask to close automatically. Stepping out of my quarters I had a minor sense of déjà vu. The last time I had climbed through the hatch to my berth some serious shit went down. I couldn’t stop from freezing up for a moment as my brain caught up to the situation. In front of me were directional signs pointing me to the different areas of the ship. I noticed, also, a mini-map in the top right of my view that oriented itself to the bow of the vessel.

I thought to “Observer” Time to show you around this bucket. Then headed left towards Medical. The trip was much shorter in the game than in the “real” world, thanks to the simplified design. Less than two minutes later I was walking through the doors.

“Doc, Yama said you wanted to stick me in a scanner and take a bunch of samples.”

A different doctor than out game was here to greet me.

“You must be Crewman Jax. Lieutenant Commander Olmos, certified sample taker at your service.” She had a genuine smile as she called out to greet me, standing up from her desk in an office off to the side of the hatch I entered from. She met me roughly halfway between the entrance and her office.

“Please step into the chamber here. This will work just like the scanner you can find in many emergency med kits, but on a much larger scale, and with more delicate details. We’ll be able to map your full neuro with this.”

After stepping into the small room, I felt cold. My ship suit should have protected me from any temperature variance down to 100 Kelvin, but it wasn’t set as active while on the ship. I removed my helmet and attached it to my belt, then waited. After a few minutes, the lights in the chamber switched to one of the “invisible” spectrums then, minutes after that, the lighting returned to normal, and the door to the chamber opened. I reattached my helmet again and stepped out.

“Have a seat and remove your gloves. Time for the fun part!” The doctor pointed at a chair to the side of the scanning chamber, a slightly sadistic grin stretching across her face.

I sat as instructed, then removed my gloves and fatigue blouse. Then, anticipating the next request, I also removed the top of my ship suit. First, the doctor grabbed a hair sample, then a skin sample, followed by a blood sample and a spit swab. Finally, she had me lay on a cot while she plugged a diagnostic utility into my head jack and ran another scan.

“Okay, armor up.” She said.

I reattached all pieces of my armor and stood.

“Any other samples? You missed having me piss in a cup.”

The doctor laughed.

“To be honest, I don’t think I need most of them. Yama just wanted us to be sure.”

“Sure of what?”

“That you are who you say you are.”

“Last I checked, but how can I be sure?”

With that, I was dismissed. With nothing else on my slate for the day, I decided to get the rest of my tests down as soon as possible. I started my “trek” to the Science Lab. The configuration of the in-game ship made this a little too simple. It was right across the passageway.

The same scene played out in the Science Labs. Further down the corridor in Engineering, there was a change- they didn’t take any genetics samples. They also ran a lot more tests on my Neural.

“You realize you have non-standard issue gear, right?” That snapped me out of the autopilot I had been on.

“Explain,” I said, laying on my stomach, a cable connecting from my Neural port to a diagnostics system. I was just able to turn my head enough to see the holo-display of my Neural. It was massive. Not the display, but the Neural. I hadn’t been able to see this in either Science or Medical. I was surprised as to how the monofilament had webbed its way through and around my brain. I could even see the squib that had been implanted to ensure I wasn’t and didn’t become a threat, the one that had already been triggered and failed. I wasn’t sure as I’m not an explosives expert, but a part of it seemed to be missing.

“That doesn’t look normal,” I said once I had craned my neck enough to see the holo-display.

“Nope, and it looks like it’s still growing, too.” The tech said. He then grabbed the cable and yanked hard, causing my head to move a little before the connector slid out.

“Fuck! Warn a girl next time. It may be just the tip, but that still hurts!” Then I realized what I said and turned a bright red. The tech just laughed.

“You’re not my type, but that’s still funny. Sit up, let me show you what I mean.” The tech turned to the console, entering a few commands and the room went dark with an oversized model of a brain with a standard issue neural implant. “Let’s wait just a minute, so I won’t have to repeat this. Yama, make sure the team gets a copy of the specs on this beast.”

Within a minute, two more techs entered the room.

“Lieutenants Li, Schneider, sorry for calling you in here, but I figured you’d like to see what Crewman Jax has decided to share with us, and hopefully we can all study this together. I chose not to contact Ensign Le Roux or the rest of the third shift; they can watch the recording.” The two lieutenants nodded and me and sat down.

Over the next several hours, we reviewed all the different pieces where the tendrils intersected my brain. There were tendrils in every part of it, from where I sensed taste to how I processed the flow of time. Obviously, I have them in my occipital lobe, which is where the data jack was, as well. All the tendrils were woven into a very tight matrix.

When comparing my Neural with any of the existing Mk-I’s through Mk-V’s, there were almost no similarities. The pieces that connected to the jack initially were still the same, but that was about it. Standard modules, such as the sensory recording or memory enhancement utilities, and the minor comms suite, which allowed for direct communication with the ship, could almost be recognized. Everything else was alien to our known designs.

The advantage of pulling this data in the game is that Yama had a copy immediately, which meant Rasputin and Hera would be getting an almost immediately, then the other ships that were with up would also get a copy to research.

The big takeaway was that the filaments from the alien tech were one molecule thick, made from an as of yet unknown element, and still somehow worked. I would have to remember to ask Yama to get Rasputin to share the samples I knew were taken during my last surgery with everyone involved.

I returned to my quarters and signed into my terminal.

DAILY QUEST COMPLETED

Follow daily orders

Exp Rewards

25

Other Rewards

Schematics for prototype Neural Weave

Huh, so the game had some sort of experience mechanic built into it. 25 points for following orders didn’t seem like much to me, but I also didn’t have a way of judging things, yet. Maybe I still had something in my messages. One message, near the beginning of the queue filled in some of those holes.

TO: All Personnel

REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group

SUBJECT: Intro

Welcome to your first day in your Virt-P’s. Under orders of the Hive AI known as Overlord, there are a few items for you to familiarize yourselves with. Personnel will automatically be granted the title of “Crewman.” By following your daily orders and completing missions, you will gain experience. Experience can be used in a variety of ways:

EXP (Experience) will be used as currency Spending EXP can grant you titles, levels, rates, or ranks The EXP Shop will have pre-made items The EXP Shop will have pre-made schematics The EXP Shop will have pre-made software and other utilities The EXP shop will have food options available

Titles: In addition to spending experience to buy titles, the rank will provide you the title that corresponds to your rank. If you rank up, you will lose other rank related titles. For example, a Lieutenant will not be able to choose Ensign as their title.

Titles will only be available to purchase if your Avatar meets the requirements. Titles, when equipped, will provide a bonus to skills. “Cheng,” for instance, will provide an experience boost for all Engineering based tasks that require a team of engineers or construction techs/drones to complete. This boost will be 1% for each engineer or tech, plus 5% for the user using the “Cheng” title. Additional position head titles include but are not limited to “Bonesaw” for medical, “Captain” for ship’s crew, and “Squad Leader” for the infantry units.

Levels: Each rank will consist of five levels. Levels you gain will grant additional proficiency with your skills, allowing you to gain understanding in your provided skillsets with AI-assisted learning. This will allow those of you that have not gone through training on maintenance to be assets to repair teams. For example, a level 1 avatar that the user may not have experience cleaning their weapon will automatically have this skill. By concentrating on your sidearm, a user will know how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble their firearm. By doing so repetitively and correctly, with a 0% failure rate, a user will have that knowledge upon coming out of cryo.

While many already are familiar with disassembling and reassembling their firearms, many have not learned this skill set. Upon reaching another rank, an avatar may gain the knowledge to modify their firearms. Again, upon creating and installing a perfect modification the user will know how to manage, maintain, and introduce new changes. See personalized development plans for more detailed information on skills paths.

Gaining experience levels will also allow an Avatar to learn additional ways to do a task, other than the default way that everyone will know. Examples include learning which chemical compounds can clean a mechanical engine easier than standard issue MU-1 Degreaser, which plants can be used to create a more filling meal supplement or a more nutrient-packed meal supplement, then the actual preparation of the plants for those purposes.

Rates: Purchased rates will only be available if it is a specialization of your standard rank. An MS may specialize in Pastries, for instance. They will still be able to cook their usual fare, with competency. However, they will gain a more intimate understanding with pastries, allowing for some advanced creations.

Rank: All enlisted are started as E-1, all warrant officers will be started at W-1, and officers will be begin at O-1, and will have to purchase their ranks. A few exceptions will be made on this, such as the Admiral and each ship’s captain.

Upon receiving the new rank, the knowledge of the lower rank’s levels may be unlocked as well. This would be the case for specific Rates, but most rates will have this option. For those crewmembers that decide to “Mustang,” be aware that the knowledge from your Enlisted ranks will stay as skills learned. Also, out of the game, you will still be your actual rank.

Pre-made Equipment and items: Items that can be purchased includes and is not limited to rounds for your firearm, utility items, weapons, armor, environmental suits, flight suit upgrades, skillsets, food, and more.

There was another message titled “Accessing the Store” and a third named “Avatar Reference” which taught me how to use the EXP store and access my Avatar details, the internal commands were “Store” and “Avatar Information” respectively. The limitation that the store could only be accessed from a terminal. Deciding to test these functions out, I commanded “Avatar Information.”

Name:

Jax,

Danni

Rank:

None

Titles Available

Crewman; Engineer; Host

Equipped:

Crewman

Experience

25

To Next Level

100

Modifications

Sindri Foundries Left Arm; Hephaestus Industries Right Leg

Enhancements

Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)

Skillsets

Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden

Specialization

None

Strength

14 (11)*

Stamina

12

Health

11

Agility

12 (8)*

Manual Dexterity

17 (13)*

Intelligence

15

Concentration

11

Learning

18

Equipment:

Duty Uniform; Engineering Kit MK-I; Utility Belt; Taishi Ci Battle Rifle

Magazine 1; Rounds 0/30

The “Rank: None” bothered me, but the captain had at least told me about it. I selected the asterisk by my listed stats to receive a pop-up explaining that this was due to cybernetic enhancement. For instance, without my leg, my agility was an “8”. Selecting the “stats” I discovered that everything was based on a “100” scale, with most humans being at a “10” for average, above 15 was exceptional. I state “most humans” as drones and mech suits can have an 80 dexterity or strength, and as such were calculated into the “100” scale.

It then listed what the stats meant. Strength, Stamina, and Intellect were self-explanatory. Agility was the speed at which one could move, and Manual Dexterity ended up being the ability to move limbs in unconventional ways more efficiently. My cybernetic arm in effect again. Health is how capable someone is of recovering from illness and how strong their immune system in general was. I had been healthy, so this just barely above average must be impacted by the three years I had spent in a hospital bed. Learning represented how quickly we could absorb and make use of information, and concentration was the ability to maintain focus on a task during environmental interference.

I closed out the “Avatar Information” and brought up the “Store” to get an idea as to what I would be able to buy. Everything was expensive. First, I checked the “consumables.” 100 EXP would be enough to buy 5 days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack which would give concentration stamina, and learning bonuses. Clothing was similar. 500 EXP would be enough to get one piece of casual clothing. Weapons and armor were even more expensive. Upgrading to a different battle rifle would be 5,000 EXP or more, but… that made me check the modifications.

A new retractable stock for the Taishi Ci would be 250 EXP. A lightweight plasteel block would only be five experience, and it was just large enough to create two retractable stocks if you knew how to map out the mass with drafting software. Was there drafting software? Yep, 100 EXP. I had a plan on how to get caught up with EXP to the rest of the crew.

I sent a message to Yama.

TO: Yama

REPLY TO ATTN: Crewman Jax

SUBJECT: Store

Question on the store and sales of EXP. Can items be sold to other Avatars for EXP? Can an Avatar sell direct through the store?

TO: Crewman Jax

REPLY TO ATTN: Yama

SUBJECT: Store

Items can be sold to other Avatars directly. Opening sales on the store will require the ability to sell directly to other ship members. Items must be hand delivered. No selling on the store physical objects that must be manually transported to a separate Ark. Intellectual Property may be licensed to other Arks, but there is no way to protect IP (expect a licensed item to be reverse engineered and resold in place of your IP).

That means this could probably work. Next, I checked the cost of explosives, particularly incendiary grenades. After reviewing the prices there, I checked the prices of some components and realized that I had just enough knowledge to build all sorts of weapons, weapon upgrades, modified firearms and more, then resell them to the local fire teams. Starting with incendiary grenades, I could make and sell them for well under the cost of an “official” incendiary grenade. In fact, I could build one for 20 EXP. I sent a message to some of the guys I know who like to have a little “boom-boom” in reserve. Less than five minutes later, I was on my way to the science labs to make my prototype.

Watch it all burn! - Original

Let’s make a list:

First thing to do, check for messages.

Next, check over all game status

Then, try and contact Yama or Rassie.

I need to figure out what they know about my “observer”. Shit, what am I going to call my guest?

“Observer works for now.” An old-time computer-generated voice ground through my head.

Okay, no chance of privacy. This is going to suck. At least the voice was quiet enough to sound like it was coming though a bone induction speaker. And knew how to ask it questions. So, yay! Go me.

“’Observer’ feels a bit informal. Does your species communicate verbally or through any audio cues?”

No response. Well then, I guess I don’t know how to ask it questions. So, maybe I get some privacy? I walked to the wall monitor and pulled up messages. Spam. Lots of spam. Well, not spam technically, but 48 daily status messages? Yeah, that’s it. 48 days. A new email pined into my mail box. 49 days. Okay, delete all those except for the last seven. That should be roughly six months relative. Let’s see if there is anything important in them.

TO: Crew of ARK-5

REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group

SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 43

Plausible habitation planet detected en-route to fallback point Charlie. Reroute Combat Group in accordance to protocols. Yellow Alert still in effect. Possible Xeno sighting on Ark-11. Patrols advised full awareness and constant vigilance. Ark-9 loss of compression on cargo bay. No casualties. Repairs necessary before equipment status can be verified. Volunteers from off duty personnel will be allowed to assist with repairs. Ship suits with fatigues is Uniform of the Day. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. Mining teams, please note that all samples to be brought to science labs.

The next several followed the same pattern, then I found myself reading todays briefing.

TO: Crew of ARK-5

REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group

SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 49

Plausible habitation planet verified as sustainable with minor terraforming. The Arks will be distributed as follows:

Lunar Facility will be handled by Ark-7. Ark-5 will assist.

Planetary construction will be handled by Ark-9, Ark-3, and Ark-2

Asteroid mining will be handed by Ark-11 and Ark-19

Solar System Survey will be handled by Ark-12

Combat Group is advised that Yellow Alert still in effect.

Repairs on Ark-9 should be complete in two more days.

Lost crew members have finally been inserted into the game. Fire Team leaders, orders will be sent regarding retrieval of team members.

Ship suits with fatigues is Uniform of the Day. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties.

Another email hit my inbox.

TO: Crew member Jax

REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama

SUBJECT: Orders

You will ignore all orders until the following is completed.

Report to medical, receive full battery in-game

Report to Engineering, receive full scan

Report to Science, receive full scan

Once completed, return to quarters and await further orders. You have been assigned to a special actions task-force for first contact. Your fire team has already been reassigned to supplement other fire teams which lost crewmembers from what is being referred to as the Gate Incident. Ship suits with fatigues is Uniform of the Day. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties.

There goes my day. I had to scrap the rest of my to do list. I strapped on my helmet and set the face mask to close automatically. Stepping out of my quarters I had a minor sense of déjà vu. The last time I had stepped out of the doors to my berth some serious shit went down. I couldn’t stop from freezing up for a moment as my brain caught up to the situation.

In front of me were directional signs pointing me to the different areas of the ship. I noticed, also, a mini-map in the top right of my view that oriented itself to the bow of the ship.

I thought to “Observer” Time to show you around this bucket. Then headed left towards Medical. The trip was much shorter in game than in the “real” world. The overall design was simplified. Instead of just under a dozen. Two power plants instead of one every half kilometer. One cargo hold, one hangar. You get the idea. Less than two minutes later I was walking through the doors.

“Doc, orders said you wanted to stick me in a scanner, then take a bunch of samples.”

A different doctor than out game was here to greet me.

“You must be Jax. Lieutenant Commander Olmos, certified sample taker at your service.” She had a genuine smile as she called out to greet me, standing up from her desk in an office off to the side of the hatch I entered from. She met me roughly half way between the hatch and her office. Please step into the chamber here. This will work just like the scanner you can find in many emergency med kits, but on a much larger scale, with finer details. We’ll be able to map your full neuro with this.

After stepping into the chamber, I felt cold. My ship suit should have protected me from any temperature variance down to 100 Kelvin, but it wasn’t set as active while on ship. I removed my helmet and attached it to my belt, then waited. After five minutes, the lights in the chamber switched to one of the “invisible” spectrums then five minutes after that, the lights returned to normal and the doctor told me to step out. I reattached my helmet again and stepped out.

“Have a seat and remove your gloves. Time for the fun part!” The doctor pointed at a chair to the side of the scanning chamber, a slightly sadistic grin stretching across her face.

I sat as instructed, then removed my gloves and fatigue blouse. Then, anticipating the next request, I also removed the top of my ship suit. First the doctor grabbed a hair sample, then a skin sample, followed by blood and a spit swab. Finally, she had me lay on a cot while she plugged a diagnostic utility into my head jack and ran another scan.

“Okay, armor up.” She said.

I reattached all pieces of my armor and stood.

“Any other samples? You missed having me piss in a cup.” The doctor laughed.

“Too be honest I don’t think I need most of them. Yama just wanted us to be sure.”

“’Sure’ of what?”

“That you are who you say you are.”

“Last I checked, but how can I be sure?”

I started my “trek” to the Science Lab. The configuration of the in-game ship made this a little too simple. It was right across the passage way.

The scene was similar in Science. Further down the corridor in Engineering, the major change was they didn’t take any genetics samples. They did however run a lot more tests on my neural.

“You realize you have non-standard issue gear, right?” That snapped me out of my day dreaming.

“Explain.” I said, laying on my stomach, a cable connecting from my neural port to a diagnostics system. I was just able to turn my head enough to see the holo-display of my neural. It was massive. Not the display, but the neural. I didn’t see this in Science or in Medical. I was surprised as to how the monofilament had webbed its way through and around my brain. I could even see the squib that had been implanted to ensure I wasn’t and didn’t become a threat, the one that had already been triggered and failed. I wasn’t sure as I’m not an explosives expert, but a part of it seemed to be missing.

“That doesn’t look normal.” I said once I had craned my neck and saw what was shown.

“Nope, and it looks like it’s still growing, too.” The tech said. He then grabbed the cable and yanked hard, causing my head to move a little before the connecter slid out.

“Fuck! Warn a girl next time. It may be just the tip, but that still hurts!” Then I realized what I said and turned a bright red. The tech just laughed.

“You’re not my type, but that’s still funny. Sit up, let me show you what I mean.” The tech turned to the console, entering a few commands and the room went dark with an oversized model of a brain with a standard issue neural implant. “Let’s wait just a minute, then I’ll be able to say this once without repeating it. Yama make sure the team gets a copy of the specs on this beast.”

A few seconds later, two more techs entered the room.

“Lieutenants Li, Schneider, sorry for calling you in here, but I figured you’d like to see what Crewman Jax has decided to share with us, and hopefully we can all study this together. I chose not to contact Ensign Le Roux or the rest of third shift, they can watch the recording.” The two lieutenants nodded and me and sat down.

Over the next five hours we reviewed all the different pieces where the tendrils intersect my brain. There are tendrils in everything from my taste to how I sense time. Obviously, I have them in my occipital lobe as well. All the tendrils were woven into a very tight matrix. When comparing to the Mk-I’s through Mk-Vis there were almost no similarities. What was the same were the pieces that connected to the jack initially. Items such as sensory recording and memory enhancement utilities, and the minor comms suite which was the definition of an internal communications device. Everything else was alien.

The advantage of pulling this data in game is that Yama had a copy immediately, which meant Rasputin would be getting a copy soon, then the other ships that were with up would also get a copy to research.

The big takeaway was that the filaments from the alien tech was one molecule thick, made from an unidentified element, and still somehow worked. I would have to remember to ask Yama to get Rasputin to share the samples I knew were taken during my last surgery with everyone.

I returned to my quarters and signed into my terminal.

DAILY QUEST COMPLETED

Follow daily orders

Exp Rewards

25

Other Rewards

Schematics for new neural weave

Huh, so the game had some sort of experience mechanic built into it. 25 points for following orders didn’t seem like much to me, but I also didn’t have a way of judging things. Maybe I still had something in my messages. I found a message near the beginning of the queue

TO: All Personnel

REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group

SUBJECT: Intro

Welcome to your first day in your VirtP’s. Under orders of the Hive AI known as Overlord, there are a few items for you to familiarize yourselves with. Personnel will automatically be granted the title of “Crewman”. By following your daily orders and completing missions you will gain experience. Experience can be used in a variety of ways:

Gaining experience can grant you levels Spending experience can grant you rank Spending experience can grant you titles Experience will be used as currency

In addition to spending experience to buy titles, rank will provide you the title that corresponds to your rank. Each rank will consist of five levels. Each rank of your rate can be specialized.

Levels will gain you proficiency with your skills, allowing you to gain understanding in your provided skillsets with AI assisted learning. This will allow those of you that have not gone through training on maintenance to be assets to repair teams. Examples of this are at entry, a level 1 avatar that the user may not have experience cleaning their weapon will automatically have this skill. By concentrating on your side arm or primary weapon, a user will know how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble their firearm. By doing such perfectly (a 0% failure rate) a user will have that knowledge upon coming out of cryo. While there are many who already are familiar with disassembling and reassembling their firearms (read Marines), there are many whom have not learned this skill set. Upon reaching another rank, an avatar may gain the knowledge to modify their firearms. Again, upon creating and installing a perfect modification the user will know how to manage, maintain, and install new modifications. See personalized development plans for more detailed information on skills paths.

Gaining experience levels will allow an Avatar to learn additional ways to do the task, other than the default way that everyone will know. Examples include learning which chemical compounds can clean a mechanical engine easier than standard issue MU-1 Degreaser, which plants can be used to create a more filling meal supplement or a more nutrient packed meal supplement, then the actual preparation of the plants for those purposes.

Titles will only be available to purchase if your Avatar meets the requirements. Titles, when equipped, will provide a bonus to skills. “Cheng”, for instance, will provide an experience boost for all Engineering based tasks that require a team of engineers or construction techs/drones to complete. This boost will be 1% for each engineer or tech, plus 5% for the user using the “Cheng” title. Additional position head titles include but are not limited to “Bonesaw” for medical, “Captain” for ships crew, and “Squad Leader” for the infantry units.

Equipment that can be purchased consist of rounds for your firearm, utility weapons, armor, environmental suits, flight suit upgrades, skillsets, food, and more.

There was another message titled “Accessing the Store” and a third named “Avatar Reference” which taught me how to use the EXP store and access my Avatar details, the internal commands were “Store” and “Avatar Information” respectively. The limitation that they could only be accessed from my quarters. Deciding to test these functions out, I commanded “Avatar Information”

Name:

Jax,

Danni

Rank:

E-1

Titles Available

Crewman; Engineer; Host

Equipped:

Crewman

Experience

25

To Next Level

100

Modifications

Sindri Foundries Left Arm; Haephestus Indrustries Right Leg

Enhancements

Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)

Skillsets

Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden

Specialization

None

Strength

14 (11)

Stamina

12

Health

11

Agility

12 (8)

Manual Dexterity

13 (17)

Intelligence

15

Concentration

11

Learning

18

Equipment:

Duty Uniform; Engineering Kit MK-I; Utility Belt; Tasihi Ci Battle Rifle

Magazine 1; Rounds 0/30

I selected the asterisk by my listed stats to receive a pop-up explaining that this was due to cybernetic enhancement. For instance, without my leg, my agility was an “8”. Selecting the “stats” I discovered that everything was based on a “100” scale, with most humans being at a “10” for average, above 15 was exceptional. I state most humans as drones and mech suits can have an 80 dexterity or strength. It then listed what the stats meant. Strength, Stamina, Agility, and Intellect were self-explanatory. Manual Dexterity also sounded like a lot of what it was, except it also included the ability to move limbs in unconventional ways was more likely to have a larger number. My cybernetic arm in effect again. Health is how capable someone is of recovering from illness and how strong their immune system in general was. Learning represented how easily we could absorb and make use of information, and concentration was the ability to maintain on task in the event of environmental interference.

I closed out the “Avatar Information” and brought up the “Experience Store” to get an idea as to what I would be able to buy. Everything was expensive. For the “consumables”, 100 EXP would be enough to buy 5 days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack which would give concentration stamina, and resistance bonuses. Clothing was similar. 500 EXP would be enough to get one piece of casual clothing. Weapons and armor were even more expensive. Upgrades to the battle rifle would be 5,000 EXP or more, but… that made me check the modifications.

A new retractable stock for the Taishi Ci would be about 250 EXP. A light weight plasteel block would only be five experience, and it was just large enough to create two retractable stocks, if you knew how to map out the mass with drafting software. Was there drafting software? Yep, 100 EXP. I had a plan on how to get caught up with EXP to the rest of the crew.

I sent a message to Yama.

TO: Yama

REPLY TO ATTN OF: Crewman Jax

SUBJECT: Store

Question on the store and sales of EXP. Can items be sold to other Avatars for EXP? Can an Avatar sell direct through the store?

TO: Crewman Jax

REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama

SUBJECT: Store

Items can be sold to other Avatars directly. Opening sales on the store will require the ability to sell direct (No selling on the store physical items that must be delivered to ARK-11). IP may be licensed to other Arks, but there is no way to protect IP (expect a licensed item to be reverse engineered and resold in place of your IP).

That means this could probably work. Next, I checked the cost of explosives, particularly incendiary grenades. After checking the prices there, I checked the prices of some components and realized that I had just enough knowledge to build all sorts of weapons, weapon upgrades, modified weapons and more, then resell them to the local fire teams. Starting with incendiary grenades, I could make and sell them for well under the cost of an “official” incendiary grenade. In fact, I could build one for 20 EXP. I sent a message to some of the guys I know who like to have a little “boom-boom” in reserve. Less than five minutes later, I was on my way to the science labs to make my prototype.