Intel Weenies -Edited 11-8-2018

I was wide awake. According to the ship's clock, it was 0300 hours. I had slept for only 2 hours yet felt more awake than I had the last two days. I checked my console only to discover no orders assigned yet, just the daily brief. Today it stated the obvious. Yellow alert, plan to hit the planet today before the end of second shift and stay vigilant. The alien ships that were trailing us were still flying erratically, and we were not willing to see if they were hostile, and they would not respond to our hails. I decided to go for a run. When I was done with that, I had a workout. The fitness center and track surrounding it were utterly deserted. In fact, it felt like it hadn’t been in use for a long while. When I got back to my quarters, Yama responded to my question on that with a message that boiled down to “without a lot of work, stats won’t increase, but they will not decrease unless someone loses a limb or is incapacitated some other way.”

Death was seemingly not permanent, in-game, so if someone had an arm or leg lost, they would often just kill themselves and respawn in their quarters. Doing so would make them lose all EXP gained that day from daily missions, quests, and squad activities.

I bought another plasteel brick and then brought out my magazine. I emptied the rounds from it first so I would not get any bad data. Once that was done, I created a template for an extended 45 round magazine. My plasteel brick could make 12 extended 45 round magazines made for a Taishi Ci. I made a total of 72 magazines this way. There wasn’t even an item like this available in the store, but standard magazines were 15 EXP each. I then priced out a brick of a magnesium alloy at 50 EXP. I changed out the dimensions of the block, keeping the mass the same. I then used that brick to create six barrels, fully rifled and vented. Two were long barrels the other four were shorter barrels. I took apart my battle rifle and scanned the three barrels.

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel

Weight

.8 kg

Range

600

Maximum

3500

Recoil Reduction

0

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel Short

Weight

.5 kg

Range

500

Maximum

3300

Recoil Reduction

5%

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel Long

Weight

1.1 kg

Range

900

Maximum

4000

Recoil Reduction

10%

The two barrels I would sell each for 50 EXP. I kept a short barrel and then two magazines. I then sent messages to everyone asking about weapon mods that I had some extended Magazines available for 10 EXP each, as well as a limited number of barrels. It was now 0500, so I was surprised that no one was responding to the message. I started a scan on my Taishi Ci to see what other mods I could think up; then the orders started coming in.

I sold out of everything immediately, then had to go to the labs due to grenade orders. After those, I was back in my quarters making new barrels and stocks. By the time my orders of the day came in, I had already completed 100 orders, putting me back over 4500 EXP, and granting me two more schematics and EXP bonuses for each of the barrel lengths made.

TO: Crewman Jax

REPLY TO ATTN: Yama

SUBJECT: Daily orders day 51

Report to medical, engineering, and science for follow up examinations. After, please report to Intel with all created gear.

Today's trips to medical, engineering and science were unproductive. No significant changes to me in the last 24 hours and my Neural had only grown by 1 micron at my temples. No visible difference to the density at my jack, either. After I was done with the daily three, I returned to my quarters. Before I reported to Intel, I wanted to make sure I had everything. I quickly purchased some ceramic plates and placed them into my fabricator. On the fly, I designed some armor plates that connected like overly large scales on my sides, up my spine and then larger plates over my thighs and calves. That only took thirty minutes. I then armored up, put my fatigues on over my armor, attached my kits to my utility belt along with my battle rifle. Then used my mini-map to head to Intel.

I was sitting at a table, in my skivvies, cuffed down with my left arm and right leg on a table near the door. It was a bit fuzzy, but the moment the doors to intel opened, I was hit with a lot of electricity. Before my suit could respond, and seal itself I was hit with another round of something, and then I blacked out, only to wake up like this. Fortunately, the game didn’t translate the pain of getting electrocuted like that through. Otherwise, I would be beyond pissed off, instead of just stewing.

Yama’s avatar walked through the door.

“Jaxssssssss, good of you to come by.”

“Fucking hell, Yama! What is this about? You might have fried one of my prosthetics!” Seeing that it was Yama that came in, I wasn’t about to let him off the hook. After all, an AI doesn’t have a “real” body, so it doesn’t know what pain is like. “I came by as ordered, with all my gear, AS ORDERED! You didn’t need to fry me!”

“Had to be ssssssure.” Yama hissed. He then turned the bulkhead I was facing into a screen. I watched a cigar-shaped craft following an ark suddenly explode. “A ssssssssssingal wasssss ssssent from you, then thisssssssss…”

Well, shit.

“You’ve seen the reports of on my tests. Do you KNOW what’s even happening inside my head? Is it also happening to my body outside?”

“You will provide a full report on itssssss activitiessssss.” Yama hissed.

“It called itself ‘Observer’ when it climbed into me. I haven’t heard a peep since.” I said, knowing that was only a partial truth. After a moment I continued. “I think it may have shown me how to make the ship suit I had on. I had never even considered that combination of materials, but yesterday I woke up from what felt like a migraine. Medical and Science didn’t tell me about any changes in my Neural, but we saw something in Engineering and determined that it had grown several microns.”

“This morning it had grown another micron at my temples. The density near my jack had also easily doubled yesterday, but I couldn’t see any changes today.” I don’t know why I told him that piece; then I noticed a glint from the back of his head. That could only mean that he was jacked into something. My stomach fell out. He was jacked into me.

Yama stared at me for a solid minute. It appeared to anyone on the outside that he was deep in thought. I, however, could tell he was talking with Rasputin. After another 30-ish second, I heard a blip from the cart. Looks like I got a message on my terminal. I turned back to Yama, and he moved towards me.

“Rassssssputin sssssendssss hissss regardssssss.” Yama hissed. “There musssst be more. Isssss that all you know?” His gave was at the minimum unsettling.

“That’s everything. The ceramic plating, maintenance kits, stocks, magazines, and grenades were entirely me. Including the idea to place a full scanning suite into the helmet along with the comms unit and bridge them together. My next idea that I haven’t implemented yet was a new targeting system, and to make a single filament blade for a backup CC weapon. After that, I was going to price out ammo and see if a tungsten jacketed round would work or if a depleted uranium round would be effective for the Taishi Ci’s.”

“Conssssider ssshhhipsssss weaponsssss?” Yama asked.

“Not yet. I was a Marine first, so I want to make sure my Marines are taken care of. After that, I can worry about what Navy, then officers do. And yes, I realize how ironic that sounds having just upgraded to Warrant One.” I responded to his pointed look as I was answering him. “Also, just so you know, there was something else that ‘Observer’ said that I hadn’t thought of. When the four of us were in the room together, it said it had repurposed some matter. Any ideas?

“You had been injected with medical Nano. Injected to heal quickly. Your Neural had been compromissssed. Additionally, new sssenssor and communicattiion modulessss have been compromissssed.” Yama was full of great news.

“So, it hijacked the medical Nano, then when you all re-added the memory, sensor and comm modules it took them over? Well shit. Can I be sure of anything that I have heard or seen?”

A shadow shot out from my Neural jack a moment later.

“Replay. Observer requires data.” Simple, concise, and to the point. Yama paused for less than a second, then replayed the video.

“Observer sees. Orders followed. Not Us.” You could hear the capital “U” in “Us.” Somehow its synthesized voice came across sounding pleased.

“You mean that the ship wasn’t you, or that the communication, wasn’t you? Or something else?” A voice over a speaker said.

“Yes,” Observer replied. I thought I heard a pleased tone in the cacophony of digitization it called a voice. “Not us made disappear. Enemy gone.”

Well, shit. Not only was it first contact with one race, but there was also a second alien species, and they were at war. From the inside, it meant that so were we, now.

“Genocide. Subspace was hidden. Risk contacting new species. Observation protocols for safety. Potential ally.” Observer was talking. This was a nice change.

“So, your species was being attacked, by whatever those were?” I nodded towards the display. “It became a systemic genocide, and so you hid in subspace? What next? You then saw us as we entered through a wormhole? And you then decided to contact us and see if we were genocidal as well, or if we were potential allies? Did I get that right?”

“Not sure on the name.” there was a long pause. “Stories call ‘Wormhole’ verified.” Observer said. I think there was pride in its voice. “All else correct.”

Okay, so I was right on that.

“Did you give me a ship suit schematic?” Now seemed as good a time to ask as any.

“Old tech. Not relevant.” Observer responded.

“What about my neural net?” This was a sticking point for me.

“You have specs. Used for accessing data. Galactic standard.” Observer said nonplussed.

Yama looked at me, then at Observer, and again back at me. “You ssssspeak well together. More information needed.”

The area around me flickered, and Rasputin joined us.

“Outside a multitude of ships has made their presence known. Yama has informed me that these ships are a potential enemy. Please give me the data I require. Thank you.” Observer shot a finger into my jack before Yama had even finished speaking. The pain made me black out again.

I came to with my arm and leg reattached, and my ship suit and fatigues next to me. I suited up.

Observer, are you still with me? I thought to myself

Yes.

I suited up and grabbed the rest of my gear on my way back to my quarters.

DAILY QUEST COMPLETED

Follow daily orders

Exp Rewards

25

Well, shit. Couldn’t they at least compensate me for their own bullshit?

Intel Weenies - Original

I was wide awake. According to the ships clock it was 0300 hours. I had slept for only 2 hours yet felt more awake than I had the last two days. I checked my console only to discover no orders assigned yet, just the daily brief. Today it stated the obvious. Yellow alert, plan to hit the planet today before the end of second shift and stay vigilant. The alien craft that were trailing us were still flying erratically, and we were not willing to see if they were hostile, and they would not respond to our hails. I decided to go for a run. When I was done with that, I had a workout. The fitness center and track surrounding it were completely deserted. In fact, it felt like it hadn’t been in use for a long while. When I got back to my quarters, Yama responded to my question on that with a message that boiled down to “without a lot of work, stats won’t increase, but they will not decrease unless someone loses a limb or is incapacitated some other way.”

Death was seemingly not permanent, in game, so if someone had an arm or leg lost, they would often just kill themselves and respawn in their quarters. Doing so would make them lose all EXP gained that day from daily missions and squad activities.

I bought another plasteel brick and then brought out my magazine. I emptied the rounds from it first, so I would not get any bad data. Once that was done, I created a template for an extended 45 round magazine. My plasteel brick could make 12 extended 45 round magazines made for a Taishi Ci. I made a total of 72 magazines this way. There wasn’t even an item like this available in the store, but standard magazines were 15 EXP each. I then priced out a brick of a magnesium alloy at 50 EXP. I changed out the dimensions of the block, keeping the mass the same. I then used that brick to create six barrels, fully rifled and vented. Two were long barrels the other four were shorter barrels. I took apart my battle rifle and scanned the three barrels.

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel

Weight

1 kg

Range

600

Maximum

3500

Recoil Reduction

0

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel Short

Weight

.5 kg

Range

500

Maximum

3300

Recoil Reduction

5%

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel Long

Weight

.7 kg

Range

900

Maximum

4000

Recoil Reduction

10%

The two barrels I would sell each for 50 EXP. I kept a short barrel and then two magazines. I then sent messages to everyone asking about weapon mods that I had some extended Magazines available for 10 EXP each, as well as a limited number of barrels. It was now 0500, so I was surprised that no one was responding to the message. I started a scan on my Taishi Ci to see what other mods I could think up, then the orders started coming in.

I sold out of everything immediately, then had to go to the labs due to grenade orders. After those I was back in my quarters making new barrels and stocks. By the time my orders of the day came in, I had already completed 100 orders, putting me back over 4500 EXP, and granting me two more schematics and EXP bonuses for each of the barrel lengths made.

TO: Crewman Jax

REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama

SUBJECT: Daily orders day 51

Report to medical, engineering, and science for follow up examinations. After, please report to Intel with all created gear.

Todays trips to medical, engineering and science were unproductive. No major changes to me in the last 24 hours, and my neural had only grown by 1 micron at my temples. No visible change to the density at my jack, either. After I was done with the daily three, I returned to my quarters. Before I reported to Intel I wanted to make sure I had everything. I quickly purchased some ceramic plates and placed them into my fabricator. On the fly I designed some armor plates that connected like overly large scales on my sides, up my spine, and then larger plates over my thighs and calves. That only took thirty minutes. I then armored up, put my fatigues on over my armor, attached my kits to my utility belt along with my battle rifle. Then used my mini-map to head to Intel.

I was sitting at a table, in my skivvies, cuffed down with my left arm and right leg on a table near the door. It was a bit fuzzy, but the moment the doors to intel opened, I was hit with a lot of electricity. Before my suit could respond, and seal itself I was hit with another round of something, and then I blacked out, only to wake up like this. Fortunately, the game didn’t translate the pain of getting electrocuted like that through, otherwise I would be beyond pissed off, instead of just stewing.

Yamas avatar walked through the door.

“Jaxssssssss, good of you to come by.”

“Fucking hell, Yama! What is this about? You may have fried one of my prosthetics!” Seeing that it was Yama that came in, I wasn’t about to let him off the hook. After all, an AI doesn’t have a “real” body, so it doesn’t know what pain is like. “I came by as ordered, with all my gear, AS ORDERED! You didn’t need to fry me!”

“Had to be ssssssure.” Yama hissed. He then turned the bulkhead I was facing into a screen. I watched a cigar shaped craft following an ark suddenly explode. “A ssssssssssingal wasssss ssssent from you, then thisssssssss…”

Well, shit.

“You’ve seen the reports of on my tests. Do you KNOW what’s even happening inside my head? Is it also happening to my body outside?”

“You will provide a full report on itssssss activitiessssss”. Yama hissed.

“It called itself ‘Observer’ when it climbed into me. I haven’t heard a peep since.” I said, knowing that was only a partial truth. After a moment I continued. “I think it may have shown me how to make the ship suit I had on. I had never even considered that combination of materials, but yesterday I woke up from what felt like a migraine. Medical and Science didn’t tell me about any changes in my neural, but we saw something in Engineering and determined that it had grown several microns. This morning it had grown another micron at my temples. The density near my jack had also easily doubled yesterday, but I couldn’t see any changes today.” I don’t know why I told him that piece, then I noticed a glint from the back of his head. That could only mean that he was jacked into something. My stomach fell out. He was jacked into me.

Yama stared at me for a solid minute. It appeared to anyone on the outside that he was deep in though. I, however, could tell he was talking with Rasputin. After another 30-ish seconds, I heard a blip from the cart. Looks like I got a message on my terminal. I turned back to Yama and he moved towards me.

“Rassssssputin sssssendssss hissss regardssssss.” Yama hissed. “There musssst be more. Isssss that all you know?” His gave was at the minimum unsettling.

“That’s everything. The ceramic plating, maintenance kits, stocks, magazines, and grenades were entirely me. Including the idea to place a full scanning suite into the helmet along with the comms unit and bridge them together. My next idea that I haven’t implemented yet was a new targeting system, and to make a single filament blade for a backup CC weapon. After that I was going to price out ammo and see if a tungsten jacketed round would work or if a depleted uranium round would be effective for the Taishi Ci’s.”

“Conssssider ssshhhipsssss weaponsssss?” Yama asked.

“Not yet. Marine first, so I want to make sure my marines are taken care of. After that I can worry about what Navy, then officers do. And yes, I realize how ironic that sounds having just upgraded to Warrant One.” I responded to his pointed look as I was answering him. “Also, just so you know, there was something else that ‘Observer’ said that I hadn’t thought of. When the four of us were in the room together, it said it had repurposed some matter. Any ideas?

“You had been injected with medical Nano. Injected to heal quickly. Your neural had be compromissssed. Additionally, new sssenssor and communicattiion modulessss compromissssed.” Yama was full of great news.

“So, it hijacked the medical Nano, then when you all re-added the memory, sensor and comm modules it took them over? Well shit. Can I be sure of anything that I have heard or seen?”

A shadow shot out from my neural jack a moment later.

“Replay. Observer requires data.” Simple, concise, and to the point. Yama paused for less than a second, then replayed the video.

“Observer sees. Orders followed. Not Us.” You could hear the capital “U” in “Us”. Somehow its synthesized voice came across sounding pleased.

“You mean that the ship wasn’t you, or that the communication, wasn’t you? Or something else?” A voice over a speaker said.

“Yes,” Observer replied. I thought I herd a pleased note in the cacophony of digitization it called a voice. “Not us, made disappear. Enemy gone.”

Well shit, not only a first contact with one race, but there was also a second alien species, and they were at war. From the inside it meant that so were we, now.

“Genocide. Subspace was hidden. Risk contacting new species. Observation protocols for safety. Potential ally.” Observer was talking. This was a nice change.

“So, your species was being attacked, by whatever those were? It became a systemic genocide and so you hid in a subspace realm? You then saw us as we entered through a gate, what we call an Einstein-Rosen-Diamandis Bridge. And you then decided to contact us and see if we were genocidal as well, or if we were potential allies? Did I get that right?”

“Not sure of name. Stories call ‘Wormhole’.” Observer said. I think there was pride in its voice. “All else correct.”

Okay so I was right on that.

“Did you give me a ship suit schematic?” Now seemed as good a time to ask as any.

“Old tech. Not relevant.” Observer responded.

“What about my neural net?” This was a sticking point for me.

“You have specs. Used for accessing data. Galactic standard.” Observer said nonplussed.

Yama looked at me, then Observer, and back at me. “You ssssspeak well together. More information needed.”

The area around me flickered and Rasputin joined us.

“Outside a multitude of ships has made their presence known. Yama has informed me that these ships are a potential enemy. Please give me the data I require. Thank you.” Observer shot a finger into my jack before Yama had even finished speaking. The pain made me black out again.

I came to with my arm and leg reattached, and my ship suit and fatigues next to me. I suited up.

Observer, are you still with me? I thought to myself

Yes.

I suited up and grabbed the rest of my gear on my way back to my quarters.

DAILY QUEST COMPLETED

Follow daily orders

Exp Rewards

25

Well, shit. Couldn’t they at least compensate me for their own bullshit?