Dirtside - Edited 11-9-2018

This time I was the last person to arrive. We were all still a few minutes earlier than zero hundred. One cargo freighter was being loaded up, and we started heading towards it. We had found our ride.

“Who’s the loadmaster? I want to look at the manifest to see which goodies we are being sent off with.” I asked, approaching a thrower.

“That would be the EO1 in the office over there. Petty Officer Mabiata has gone through the list and has some questions too.” A spacer Equipment Operator said.

I headed to the office to review the manifest.

If you have ever worked with a Load Master, then you know EXACTLY how the conversation went, up to the point where Yama had to step in and chew us both out. I did get my way, though. Initially there had been no consideration for the fact that the area we were going to be constructing the outpost might not have any atmosphere. Several additional packages were added, so we didn’t suffocate on the surface of wherever we were placed. Said packages were, of course, environmental shelters.

The power plant configurations that had been packaged were also for a Thorium power plant, not for a Gravitic Generator, but it would be enough to power the fabs to get everything going. I then had to purchase a few portable fabs to ensure that the drones needed could be made on the surface. I added these to my personal gear, along with everything I would need for my next piece of destructive kit. Last, I made sure that we had a few dozen cores for the different VI/SI that would be needed to run the outpost. With that, we boarded the cargo freighter.

Outpost Theta was going to be built on an ugly rock with a roughly 20 km diameter. I use the term “roughly” here because it wasn’t a sphere. Hell, it wasn’t even a spheroid. But the scanning software in my helmet put it all together for me, and I didn’t want to deal with the math to see if it was off by any.

Name:

Jax

Danni

Build:

Engineer

Lieutenant

Status:

Full Suit Integrity

Armor 100% Effective

Air:

179:15:03

Vacuum, recyclers set to automatic

Gravity

.04 G

Stable

Accessories:

M1k33 Drones (Construction)

Engineering Kit MK-II

Weapons:

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle

45/45 (9 spare magazines)

Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2)

7/7 6/7 (6 spare clips)

Mono-blade

N/A

We had been dumped on the rock in a mostly flat area with shit gravity. The scans of the rock showed that it was high in silicate, nickel-iron, titanium, aluminum, frozen methane, and traces of a few other minerals and rare metals – platinum, gold, terbium, yttrium and the like.

First order of business was to get our temporary shelters set up. We set up tents in a circle and then worked on setting up and connecting the Thorium Generator in the middle of our little tent city. Power lines were then attached to each tent to help generate energy for the atmospheric recyclers. After that, it was time to set up the fabricators.

I queued up several of the construction M1K33s after four of the mining drones that we had set up for the mining craft. I designated an area for the drones to start digging out for the first barracks then I hit the rack.

I woke three hours later at what my readout was telling me was 0500. I called opened some of the field rations that I had packed and had breakfast, thinking about how we could spruce things up in the short term. I then queued up another eight construction drones and left my tent.

I was greeted by a large earthen mound that hadn’t been there when I racked out the night before. A few tons of metals and silicates had been displaced over-night. Well, in this gravity it was only several dozens of kilos.

Others were stirring in their tents as well. I could see the backlighting coming on with a few shadow shows for my entertainment.

“Drop your cocks and grab your socks!” I sent over comms. “We have a nice long planning session for today.”

Neith, can you set up a blueprint overlay on my HUD, so we can see how the outpost layout will be configured? Also, link it to the holo in my arm so I can share it.

-Why not just link it up to their HUDs as well?-

I want to get away from being invasive and forcing it onto them. If they request a link up, please do share it. For now, however, just up on my holo.

-Understood.-

I was joined a little later by the team, having finished breakfast.

“Because there is no magnetic field on this rock, we have no directions, so no ‘north.’ So, where do we want to configure as the ‘north’ gate?”

We also needed to come up with a better name than that. Calling things by a direction when there was no direction would throw me off after too long.

“Ma’am,” Turing spoke up. “Would it be a good idea to work off the natural layout of this valley?”

“That was my thought as well, but I wanted to get some input. We’ll all be managing this, so I wanted to ensure that voices were heard. I was thinking of orienting what we had as ‘north’ towards that crater. Here, let me show you.”

I brought up my holo and showed the orientation with the barracks hole already where it was, and the ‘crater gate’ lining up from it.

“Well, that would give any ground-based attackers an obvious breach point for them to come down.” Was Janssens reply.

“Yeah, but that means we could also get it all set up for easier defense on that route.” Everyone had huddled around.

“Agreed, Torres, which would also make it the obvious place to have defenses.”

“Yeah but lining it up that way would put the landing field in a crater.”

“That’s not a bad idea. It would give additional security as well as basic environmental camo.” Marques was looking at something on a hand-held.

“Then we could have the resupply tram set up here in this mound. I think it could work.” Jorges was thinking about how his piece could connect up and fit in with the orientation.

“Whichever way we do it, what about the power runs?”

“We’ll do those the same as in the plans, Watson. Daisy chained and connected ground panels with internal wiring.”

The only ones who weren’t involved in the conversation were the CBs who were having a discussion of their own.

“Takeshi, Riviera, and Jamesson, what are you discussing?”

“Ma’am, looking at the supplies list, we can get started on the gravitic and the barracks, but where will we be getting the rest of the materials from? We don’t have mining drones yet.”

“What is under your feet, Jamesson?”

“Uhm, dirt, ma’am?”

“Yes, but do you know what it is made of?” I sent everything I had on the composition of the rock over to everyone.

“We have all the materials we need to build out the structures. We have, in those crates,” I motioned to the supplies, “all of the cores we will need to get the base management core set up. After that, we need to figure out what is missing and requisition if from the Ark. But first thing is first. We need to get the barracks, and the Gravitic Generator set up, so we can do everything else.”

“Okay, Ma’am. Now, how are we going to requisition the materials? I don’t see a comms array.”

“You’re forgetting; we’re In Game right now. All we have to do is let Yama know. Our tents are set up with an interface.”

You could almost see the light of understanding dawning on the team. Janssens cursed. Turing laughed.

“Get it now? Okay, next question, do we want to re-orient anything with the outpost before we get started on construction?”

“Ma’am, I was thinking,” Asimov started, “would it be possible to get some bunk areas built into the command and sensor array buildings? With limited numbers, it may require us to be on for longer periods of time. Being able to catch some shut-eye for a few hours without leaving the building would be great.”

“Good point. I was also thinking of adding another two barracks. One with some separated out rooms for senior staff. I know some Lieutenant Commanders that are entitled enough to complain to everyone they see if that isn’t there by default. It would also allow us all a little more breathing room, so we weren’t always around everyone else.”

“Please, ma’am.” Seemed to be the consensus from the group.

“Okay, so if we orient like so, and then under these drone bays add some additional rooms… how about this?”

“Looks good to me, ma’am. But, how about we also move the location of the office under Command and add another level? We could have that become a suite. Office in front for whoever is working shift; then we can have a few rooms for bunk areas and a head?

“Good call, HT.” Torres looked excited at the possibility of not having to have a room next to some of these guys. I can’t say I blamed her.

“Sure, I can see that. Now, on that note, Torres, do you recall what you did for the sick bay on the mining craft? I want to set up a small room in each of the barracks just like that. We’ll still have a building dedicated, which will be where the VI lives that manages the autodocs, but this way there is a place for immediate response if something happens.”

“I can do that.” She started plugging away at her terminal.

“Great, so I will set this up now. We’ll orient the ‘crater gate’ as ‘north,’ and offset things for the landing zone, allowing us to create the tram tunnels. The hole the mining drones have built out for us so far is a good depth with these changes. I’m also going to add a series of tunnels to connect everything. We don’t have a magnetic field to keep out radiation.”

“Yavuz, see if there are any new materials we can make from this rock. Asimov, start programming the VI for base management. Marques, Jorges, review the plans for your landing and resupply areas and let me know if there are any changes you would like made. CBs, you’re going to be busy this morning. I want you to take control of the M1k33s and smooth out the ground. We then need to start creating the linked pads. Ensign make sure the crates were delivered without damaged machines inside. Watson, take a look at the electrical and see if there are any changes you think should be made. Thorisdottir, work with the CBs. Marines, you get guard duty for now, though I will be asking you two to check something out soon.”

I passed the control token for my monkeys to the CBs so they could start creating a level “ground” in the outpost area and set up the mining drones to dig out the regions based on what had been discussed.

We had the shell for the barracks completed by the end of our first full day, and I had finished the heavy weapons design that had popped into my head while looking at the schematics for the railgun earlier.

Light Bringer Hi/Lo Anti-Armor Weapon

Type 1

Kinetic

Rounds

2 Maximum

Sight

2.0 Magnification Scope

Fire Mode Options

Single

Modifications

none

Range

1000 m

Maximum

5000 m

Type 2

Energy

Rounds

10

Fire Mode Options

Single

Modifications

None

Range

1000 m

Maximum

N/A

Weight

18 kg/28 kg

I had done it. A handheld quick recharge laser and railgun combination. I had thought of calling it the “bastard hi/lo,” but in the end, I decided to go old school religion.

The layout was a railgun on the top barrel. It had a magazine that held power for the entire weapon as well as two 5kg iron spikes. The lower barrel was an anti-vehicle laser cannon. A full capacitor could fire 10 shots. If someone shot one round from the railgun, then they would only get five shots. That was why I placed the capacitors in the magazine.

I had thought of adding a replaceable core, but they could get damaged or lost too easily. The tradeoff was that if I wanted to increase the number of shots, I would have to add a second magazine. The weight was going to be a bitch.

I did, however, create a magazine that was ONLY capacitors. That would give a hundred shots from the laser cannon, but then you would lose the “high” part of the gun.

I then built out something that I thought Thorisdottir would enjoy. I had noticed him running with a heavy assault rifle during the outpost defense demo we had done.

Hades Laser Minigun

Type

Energy

Charges

10000

Sight

none

Fire Mode Options

Full auto

Weight

25 kg/35 kg

Modifications

none

Range

1000 m

Maximum

N/A

The rate of fire on this beast would be massive, up to 3000 shots per minute. The gun (more of a cannon, really) had to have a backpack connected to hold the capacitors and to link power to the weapon. The cannon itself was light compared to the ballistic cousins it was based on, but when adding in the backpack, we were almost at their unloaded weight. The advantage being that the power feed could be connected through the firing mechanism in the ship suits with minimal adjustments.

Other than taking the Marines out to test fire both weapons, the day was dull. The next day, however, we were able to move into the barracks. Construction continued. Thankfully the M1k33s made our jobs easy.

Dirtside - Original

This time I was the last person to arrive. We were all still a few minutes earlier than zero hundred. One cargo freighter was being loaded up and we started heading towards it. We had found our ride.

“Who’s the load master? I want to look at the manifest to see which goodies we are being sent off with.” I asked, approaching a thrower.

“That would be the EO1 in the office over there, Petty Officer Mabiata has gone through the list and has some questions too.” A spacer Equipment Operator said.

I headed to the office to review the manifest.

If you have ever worked with a Load Master, then you know EXACTLY how the conversation went, up to the point where Yama had to step in and chew us both out. I did get my way, though. Originally there was no taking into account for the fact that the area we were going to be constructing the outpost at might not have atmosphere. Several additional packages were added so we didn’t suffocate on the surface of wherever we were placed. Said packages were of course environmental shelters.

The power plant configurations that had been packaged were also for a Thorium power plant, not for a Gravitic Generator, but it would be enough to power the fabs to get everything going. I then had to purchase a few portable fabs to ensure that the drones needed could be made on the surface. I added these to my personal gear, along with everything I would need for my next piece of destructive kit. Last, I made sure that we had a few dozen cores for the different VI/SI that would be needed to run the outpost. With that we boarded the cargo freighter.

Outpost Theta was going to be built on an ugly rock with a roughly 20 km diameter. I use the term “roughly” here because obviously it wasn’t a sphere. Hell, it wasn’t even a spheroid. But the scanning software in my helmet put it all together for me, and I didn’t want to deal with the math to see if it was off by any.

Name:

Jax

Danni

Build:

Engineer

Lieutenant

Status:

Full Suit Integrity

Armor 100% Effective

Air:

179:15:03

Vacuum, recyclers set to automatic

Gravity

.04 G

Stable

Accessories:

M1k33 Drones (Construction)

Engineering Kit MK-II

Weapons:

Taishi Ci Battle Rifle

45/45 (9 spare magazines)

Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2)

7/7 6/7 (6 spare clips)

Mono-blade

N/A

We had been dumped on the rock in a mostly flat area with shit gravity. Basic scans of the rock showed that it was high in silicate, nickel-iron, titanium, aluminum, frozen methane, and traces of a few other minerals and rare metals – platinum, gold, terbium, yttrium and the like.

First order of business was to get our temporary shelters set up. We set up tents in a circle and then worked on setting up and connecting the Thorium Generator in the middle of our little tent city. Power lines were then connected to each tent to help generate energy for the atmospheric recyclers. After that it was time to set up the fabricators.

I queued up several of the construction M1K33s after four of the mining drones that we had set up for the mining craft. I designated an area for the drones to start digging out for the primary barracks then I hit the rack.

I woke three hours later at what my readout was telling me was 0500. I called opened some of the field rations that I had packed and had breakfast, thinking about how we could spruce things up in the short term. I then queued up another eight construction drones and left my tent.

I was greeted by a large earthen mound that hadn’t been there when I racked out the night before. A few tons of metals and silicates had been displaced over-night. Well, in this gravity it was only several dozens of kilos.

Others were stirring in their tents as well. I could see the backlighting coming on with a few shadow shows for my entertainment.

“Drop your cocks and grab your socks!” I sent over comms. “We have a nice long planning session for today.”

Neith, can you set up a blueprint overlay on my HUD so we can see how the outpost layout will be configured? Also, link it to the holo in my arm so I can share it.

Why not just link it up to their HUDs as well?

I want to get away from being invasive and forcing it onto them. If they request a link up, please do share it. For now, however, just up on my holo.

Understood.

I was joined a little later by the team, having finished breakfast.

“Because there is no magnetic field on this rock, we have no directions, so no ‘north’. So, where do we want to configure as the ‘north’ gate?”

We also needed to come up with a better name than that. Calling things by a direction when there was no direction would throw me off after too long.

“Ma’am,” Turing spoke up. “Would it be a good idea to work off the natural layout of this valley?”

“That was my thought as well, but I wanted to get some input. We’ll all be managing this, so I wanted to ensure that voices were heard. I was thinking of orienting what we had as ‘north’ towards that crater. Here, let me show you.”

I brought up my holo and showed the orientation with the barracks hole already where it was, and the ‘crater gate’ lining up off of it.

“Well, that would give any ground-based attackers an obvious breach point for them to come down.” Was Janssens reply.

“Yeah, but that means we could also get it all set up for easier defense on that route.” Everyone was huddled around, now

“Agreed, Torres, which would also make it the obvious place to have defenses.”

“Yeah, but lining it up that way would put the landing field in a crater.”

“That’s not a bad idea. It would give additional security as well as basic environmental camo.” Marques was looking at something on a hand-held.

“Then we could have the resupply tram set up here in this mound. I think it could work.” Jorges was thinking about how his piece could connect up and fit in with the orientation.

“Whichever way we do it, what about the power runs?”

“We’ll do those the same as in the plans, Watson. Daisy chained and connected ground panels with internal wiring.”

The only ones who weren’t involved in the conversation were the CBs who were having a discussion of their own.

“Takeshi, Riviera , Jamesson, what are you discussing?”

“Ma’am, looking at the supplies list, we can get started on the gravitic and the barracks, but where will we be getting the rest of the materials from? We don’t have mining drones yet.”

“What is under your feet, Jamesson?”

“Uhm, dirt, ma’am?”

“Yes, but do you know what it is made of?” I sent everything I had on the composition of the rock over to everyone.

“We have all the materials we need to build out the structures. We have, in those crates,” I motioned to the supplies, “all of the cores we will need to get the base management core set up. After that we need to figure out what is missing and requisition if from the Ark. But first thing is first. We need to get the barracks and the Gravitic Generator set up, so we can do everything else.”

“Okay, Ma’am. Now, how are we going to requisition the materials? I am not seeing a comms array.”

“You’re forgetting, we’re In Game right now. All we have to do is let Yama know. Our tents are set up with an interface.”

You could almost see the light of understanding dawning on the team. Janssens cursed. Turing laughed.

“Get it now? Okay, next question, do we want to re-orient anything with the outpost before we get started on construction?”

“Ma’am, I was thinking,” Asimov started, “would it be possible to get some bunk areas built into the command and sensor array buildings? With limited numbers, it may require us to be on for longer periods of time. Being able to catch some shut eye for a few hours without leaving the building in case something happens would be great.”

“Good point. I was also thinking of adding another two barracks. One with some separated out rooms for senior staff. I know some Lieutenant Commanders that are entitled enough to complain to everyone they see if that isn’t there by default. It would also allow us all a little more breathing room, so we weren’t always around everyone else.”

“Please, ma’am.” Seemed to be the consensus from the group.

“Okay, so if we orient like so, and then under these drone bays add some additional rooms… how about this?”

“Looks good to me, ma’am. But, how about we also move the location of the office under Command and add another level? We could have that become a suite. Office in front for whomever is working shift, then we can have a few rooms for bunk areas and a head?

“Good call, HT.” Torres looked excited at the possibility of not having to have a room next to some of these guys. I can’t say I blamed her.

“Sure, I can see that. Now, on that note, Torres, do you recall what you did for the sick bay on the mining craft? I want to set up a small room in each of the barracks just like that. We’ll still have a building dedicated, which will be where the VI lives that manages the autodocs, but this way there is a place for immediate response if something happens.”

“I can do that.” She started plugging away at her terminal.

“Great, so I will set this up now. We’ll orient the ‘crater gate’ as ‘north’, and offset things for the landing zone, allowing us to create the tram tunnels. The hole the mining drones have built out for us so far is a nice depth with these changes. I’m also going to add a series of tunnels to connect everything. We don’t have a magnetic field to keep out radiation.”

“Yavuz, see if there are any new materials we can make from this rock. Asimov start programming the VI for base management. Marques, Jorges, review the plans for your landing and resupply areas and let me know if there are any changes you would like made. CBs, you’re going to be busy this morning. I want you to take control of the M1k33s and smooth out the ground. We then need to start creating the linked pads. Ensign make sure the crates were delivered without damaged machines inside. Watson look at the electrical and see if there are any changes you think should be made. Thorisdottir, work with the CBs. Marines, you get guard duty for now, though I will be asking you two to check something out soon.”

I passed the control token for my monkeys to the CBs to start creating a level “ground” in the outpost area and set up the mining drones to start digging out the areas based on what had been discussed.

We had the shell for the barracks completed by end of day one, and I had completed the heavy weapons design that had popped into my head while looking at the schematics for the rail gun earlier.

Light Bringer Hi/Lo Anti-Armor Weapon

Type 1

Kinetic

Rounds

2 Maximum

Sight

2.0 Magnification Scope

Fire Mode Options

Single

Modifications

none

Range

1000 m

Maximum

5000 m

Type 2

Energy

Rounds

10

Fire Mode Options

Single

Modifications

None

Range

1000 m

Maximum

N/A

Weight

18 kg/28 kg

I had done it. A hand held, quick recharge laser and railgun combination. I had thought of calling it the “bastard hi/lo”, but in the end I decided to go old school religion.

The layout was a railgun on the top barrel. It had a magazine that held the power for the entire weapon as well as two 5kg iron spikes. The lower barrel was an anti-vehicle laser cannon. A full capacitor could fire 10 shots. If someone shot one round from the railgun, then they would only get five shots. That was why I placed the capacitors in the magazine.

I had though of adding a replaceable core, but they could get damaged or lost too easily. The trade off was that if I wanted to increase the number of shots I would have to add a second magazine. The weight was going to be a bitch.

I did, however, create a magazine that was ONLY capacitors. That would give a hundred shots from the laser cannon, but then you would lose the “high” part of the gun.

I then built out something that I thought Thorisdottir would enjoy. I had noticed him running with a heavy assault rifle during the outpost defense demo we had done.

Hades Laser Minigun

Type

Energy

Charges

10000

Sight

none

Fire Mode Options

Full auto

Weight

25 kg/35 kg

Modifications

none

Range

1000 m

Maximum

N/A

The rate of fire on this beast would be massive, up to 3000 shots per minute. The gun had to have a backpack connected to hold the capacitors and to link power to the weapon. The gun itself was light compared to the ballistic cousins it was based on, but when adding in the backpack we were almost at their unloaded weight. The advantage being that the power feed could be connected through the firing mechanism in the ship suits with minimal adjustments.

Other than taking the Marines out to test fire both weapons, the day was boring. The next day, however, we were able to move into the barracks. Construction continued. Thankfully the M1k33s made our jobs easy.