Full Story - PDF - here https://www.dropbox.com/s/vfogbfgzjdrhe ... y.pdf?dl=0
Chapter 1 – Lonely Outpost
It had been some time since the automatic alarm system had last pleaded for support at this distant outpost. But that was of little consolation since, per last reports, the biters had mangled and dismantled the only power line into this tiny enclave and had brought all functioning machines to a standstill.
For whatever reason, whether due to the noise, pollution or some other sensitivity, the native fauna was not interested in leaving operating machines in one piece. And, based on other investigations, it was probably to the best that the power succumbed so early in the assault. As single minded as the biters were in eliminating all perceived threats, they quickly lost their bezerking nature when the machines went silent.
Komás had bookmarked a pending research program with the goal of discovering a way to peacefully cope with the natives, but he had other priorities before he was willing to spend the lab time and resources on an outside chance at peace. Although, he was currently having second thoughts regarding his priorities as he approached the south wall of the outpost. Or, more accurately, what was left of the south wall.
With some, not unreasonable anxiety, Komás pushed forward towards the breach. The servomotors on his currently unreinforced exoskeleton, hummed as he danced around the remains of about two dozen baby biters, the "smaller" of the native specimens.
The wide open breach declared, like a billboard that Komás had more to worry about than baby biters. And, he suspected that there was more to discover than just a few of the babies' "big brothers."
Although the Outpost had been established early, Komás, recognizing the danger of a poorly defended outpost so far from the landing site, used most of his initial meager resources to provide a double wall and automated construction services to automate its repair. The auto-con system had just finished being adapted to the alien environment when he founded the outpost and Komás was able to craft 5 Con-bots with his suits Hyper-dimensional Portable Factory-Mark 6, or HPF-M6.
As he got closer to the breach, he was able to identify just how well the con-bots' durasteel chassis stood up to the biters' incisors. Not well at all.
Scattered next to the quickly deteriorating three big brother biters and an assortment of babies were what appeared to be the parts and pieces of several con-bots. It wasn't until Komás collected all of the DCV13s (Dimensional Condenser - v1.3) each bot carried that he was able to account for the loss of four Conbots. Although the biters missed damaging the DCV13s directly, the sudden loss of the carrier field destabilized the microwarp and made relocating the carried material, probably a wall section, all but impossible and very dangerous. Somewhere in the nearby solar system, several wall sections had suddenly appeared. 'At least it wasn't something expensive like mod armor mark 2 this time," Komás reminded himself yet again.
Passing through the wall, Komás noted the smooth grooves the biters teeth had carved into what was left of the double wall. "Even my vibrosteel tool can't compete with the biters," Komás admired. He would have known why by now except the biter's corpses didn't keep long enough to examine. Only their Alien pink "eggs" survived long enough to research. "And they were hard to collect" He clenched his leg in memory of the shock followed by the searing heat after his first run in with a bunch of babies ended with his leg carved up much like that wall. Fortunately, the Company had spared some expense in equipping him with mostly up to date nanotech biohealers for establishing a base on this "tranquil" planet and his leg was rejuvenated in time for him to practice with his newly adapted SMG on the baby biter nest. "And I had seen that as a challenge."
Stepping through the breach, Komás turned and activated his dimensional condenser and provided the necessary gestures to have the missing wall sections replaced. Unlike the pieced together devices he had planetside, Komás' DCV1 was the Company's product with a reasonable range and significant capacity. His gestures were quickly interpreted (there was even some anticipation programmed in) and "Wham! Murus ex nihilo!" Even after training on the Company's system for 7 years, he still got a rush of adrenaline every time he commanded such power and the recently relocated volume of air swept over him.
His euphoria drained as he turned and took in his surroundings. Perhaps, all those years ago, he should have said no.
Chapter 2 - Interview
“So you think you have what it takes?” said the excited old man from behind his desk. The young Komás thought the question rhetorical, but did his best to keep his impulsive sarcasm under wraps.
“Sir, I graduated at the top of my class in astrogeology and had exemplary marks in all of my applied physics classes. I know what you’re looking for and I’m it.”
“Really? Perhaps you are, but let’s do a little more digging before we finalize our conclusion” Director Mubek chuckled with a smile. “What can you tell me about phase distortions?”
Komás thought “A textbook question?” but responded, “When talking about sublight transitions, phase distortion is the skip in time that seems to occur when an object, as viewed relative to another, crosses the c over 3 or one third the speed of light threshold. This phenomenon was first identified when pre-hyper vessels, returning to Earth were routinely routed incorrectly by Space Control. After the near miss of HLN Duchess and a local barge, an official inquisition was imposed in order to determine the cause of this close call. Fortunately for science, non-official sources also took note, and the principal of sublight phase distortion was determined. In short, the vessels were passing through an n-field, a wrinkle in time, if you will, and were reappearing some distance from their previously observed trajectory. To the travelers, there was a short pause in transmission from Earth, but they still received transmissions from other non-stationary vessels. Currently, there are at least three non-stationary broadcast satellites in use by Space Control for each incoming vessel, so there is no transmission lapse anymore.”
Komás fired back, “Since its discovery, phase distortions have been accounted for and haven’t been a problem. What is your interest?”
Director Mubek continued to smile and added a slight, “hmmm…” and nodded his head.
He continued, “Instead of thinking about the ‘problems’ with phase distortions as they relate to interplanetary vessels, what if we considered a more portable ‘potential’?”
“I’m sorry, Director, but I’m not connecting. How do you relate astrogation with any portable potential?” Komás responded.
Director Mubek’s eyes sparkled, “What would happen if you could produce a, “wrinkle in time” you called it, around any physical object at any given location? Take this pen, for instance. If I accelerated it up to 1/3 c, what would happen to it?”
Komás entertained the question as best he could, but he couldn’t help letting a bit of incredulity in, “It’d get pretty heavy, it would move pretty fast, and, since we’re talking about Phase Distortions, I imagine you’d lose track of it. Have you been losing quite a few pens recently?”
Mubek chuckled at the jest, but he felt he had enough to decide that Komás would be a good fit for the Company. “Why don’t you follow me down to the lab? I’d like to show you a few more of my missing “pens.”
----
Komás remembered his eyes going wide after his initial interview so many years ago. As he surveyed the ruins of the Outpost, his eyes were going just as wide but for a different reason.
Komás was surrounded by turret carcasses, ripped up belts and mangled mechanical arms. His eyes kept wandering to the mechanical arms, or ‘inserters,’ which were stuck in grotesque poses of anguish. The damage to the walls understated the biters’ ferocity towards machines by quite a bit. “The biters really don’t like us,” he mumbled.
From the automated reports, he ‘knew’ what was damaged, but seeing it was different. The biters’ shear hatred radiated from the destruction. And, not for the first time, Komás felt very alone.
He wished that the Company had solved the inertial problems that limited phase distortion to just non-biologics. “A few friends would go a long way to lighten this load.”
Following that thought, he reminded himself to bookmark another research project into overriding his DCV1’s biological safety system. “It’d be messy, but I think I’d like to phase shift some of these monsters if they get that close again.”
Just then, the automatic alarm system started blinking yellow pulling Komás back from planning the repairs of the Outpost. As he instinctively reached for his recently upgraded MPLAB (Multi-Particle Lethal Accelerator Boomstick), he called up the overhead map and cursed.
Komás, in a panic, quickly holstered his MPLAB and got his bearings. As he reopened the breach in the south wall, the auto alarm cycled from yellow to red and then started listing equipment items with a harsh red ‘X’ next to them.
“Even this is a bit too clever for these unthinking monsters! If the mainbase falls, I’m gonna have a tough time holding off their increasing assaults!” Komas thought as he raced back to what had become home on this increasingly hostile planet.
Chapter 3 – Big Blueser
For the 4 hours it took him to return from the Outpost at his current full exoskeleton speed, Komás had little he could do to respond to the onslaught of bad news. When he first arrived, Komás was pumped with adrenaline and carelessly engaged the first biters he found.
“Crack-crack!” reported his weapon and two brother biters dropped. Within range were 2 more brother biters that had quickly stopped munching on the main iron ore feeder belt to take notice of this new threat. Komás had judged correctly that he could drop those two as well before they could engage. However, he neglected to review his ‘eyes from the sky’ before beginning the assault.
As he brought his weapon around, the wall to his right shifted and he let off a distracted shot. The brothers pounced into motion, barely touched by his first shot, and Komás had to put his full concentration into a leading shot which landed the majority of particles into their underbellies, dropping the lifeless pair to the ground and spraying Komás with biter goo and guts.
By this point, Komás had started his momentum away from the moving “wall.” As he wiped the slime from his visor he felt a force clamp to his leg and a sharp pain flashed through his system before the biohealers registered the state of emergency and flushed pain blockers into his neurotransmitters. With the shock of being overtaken so quickly, Komás again released another distracted shot which thankfully registered with a release to his leg.
With his quick release from pain, Komás’ eyes cleared and focused on the blue beast’s return glare, just as the monster lunged with a clamping bite to Komás’ torso. Like an oversized angry mousetrap, the beast’s jaws snapped down onto Komás’ exoskeleton with enough force to pop Komás’ ribcage and deform the durosteel frame causing a different shock that the biohealers were unable to block.
As with all the biter varieties he’d “experienced,” the biters’ power came from the snapping of their jaws. Once engaged, their bite was unable to sustain any significant clamping pressure and they recoiled to snap down again. Komás tolerated some patience with his scientific side while he observed their mechanics against a wall, but not when it was against his body.
As the newly named Big Blueser recoiled to snap again, Komás levelled his boomstick and released a point blank blast into the monster’s mouth.
Thankfully, the shot threw the biter’s aim off and he snapped wide. Predictably though, considering the need for protecting an offensive system that was used to thrash against all sorts of refined mechanical devices and walls, the biter’s mouth was well armored and resisted significant damage from the MPLAB’s durasteel jacketed copper slugs.
Still moving away, Komás levelled 2 more shots at the monster’s center of mass. He noted some purple goo leaking from the side belly, but was not encouraged.
“I need to get to those trees.” Komás thought as he released another pair of quick shots.
His exoskeleton was working at its limit but wasn’t quite able to keep him ahead of the blue mass that smoothly lunged towards him. Seeing no recourse, Komás turned and produced two more clouds of particles that seemed to bounce right off of the Blueser’s hide.
The monster leapt forward for another bite and, in desperation, Komás threw up his left arm to deflect the monster’s bite.
Already filled with numbing pain blockers, he was able to distance himself from the broken limb being held in place by the fractured and bent remnants of his exoskeletons arm cage. With little hesitation, Komás fired two more blasts up at the beast while it was mangling his arm and scored a hit to the back of its left ear.
The beast staggered and Komás was able to drive home another shot into the goo spattered area of the biter’s head causing the beast’s mass to collapse like a bag of sand.
Komás quickly queued up his overhead map and confirmed that the nearest pack of biters had not responded to any of the commotion. He then went to key in the microwarp address for a repair pack and realized his sickening dilemma.
Although advanced for a prototype, the DCV1 still had several limitations that the Company had not felt the need to iron out before its first field mission. One of those limitations was the small number of addresses, 10 in this case, associated to the “gesture” package. For the rest of the addresses, the user had to simply access the library with the touchpad – that had previously been mounted to Komás’ left arm. “10 slots ought to be enough for anybody,” he remembered Director Mubek saying in response to the limitation.
“Great, there go all of my repair packs, turrets, grenades and spare particle ammo. But at least I still have - what? –spare ore, some wood and 2 wood chests, two types of conveyor belts, a burner inserter– oh and a stone furnace! Maybe I can convince them to jump into the furnace while it’s cooking!” Severely injured and close to a breakdown, Komás brought himself out of it by remembering those who depended on him and forced himself to steady his breathing.
Without access to repair packs, Komas, as prompted by the holographic self-help system, disabled his left arm cage’s servomotors and used a nearby tree to brace the bent cage while he forced it back into a somewhat “straight” configuration. At least straight enough to allow his broken and mangled forearm to be reset and give the biohealers a chance to repair what was left. Even with ideal conditions, he didn’t expect the use of his arm for another week. But, as the alarm system continued to remind him with new red X’s, he wasn’t ready to concern himself with what may or may not happen in a week.
For the next half hour, Komás worked his way around the East side of the campus, carefully avoiding any pack of biters over 2 and all biter groups that were within sight of a Blueser. He had a plan, but he needed to reach the storage chests at area C, a little to his south.
Unfortunately, area C storage was currently the feeding ground of a lonely Blue who didn’t look interested in having his meal of metal and gears interrupted. Komás was running out of time and needed to act expeditiously. Fortunately, a distraction presented itself.
A lonely turret had been left intact on the perimeter. Having spent its ammo on the initial assault, the dormant turret no longer presented a target for the biters’ insatiable hatred of machines and was left alone. Komás knew the turret, even with ample ammo (which he no longer had) would not do much against that blue hide. His hope was in getting behind the Blueser to take advantage of its weak spot.
To that end, Komás gestured into place a wood chest and filled it first with the microwarp addresses for wood and then the rest of his SMG ammo from his military grade autoloader system. He then gestured into place the burner inserter between the chest and turret. Crouching down low, Komás gave his exoskeleton the mental command to run on silent and then gestured the last unit of his wood supply into the inserter.
In a controlled but unbalanced hurry, the one armed Komás dashed back to the north while the pre-ignition system on the inserter identified the fuel source and started the digestion process. In seconds, the inserter shifted into motion as its arm smoothly glided to the chest and accessed the chest’s library.
As intended, the inserter identified the wood fuel supply and, with programmed self-interest, fed itself another unit of fuel, giving Komás a little more time to circle around before the fireworks began.
Komás reached his ambush position and turned to see the mechanical arm feed the first clip of SMG ammo into the turret. With unstoppable purpose and an increasing humming, the turret chassis gracefully rose and turned towards the Big Blueser.
The loud humming from the turret was soon broken by a rapid staccato as the bullets went streaming towards the biter. Without any hesitation, the blueser faced the machine and charged with a lithe tenacity. Although the beast’s hide resisted most of the projectiles, Komás noted a few speckles of purple goo leaking from the lower belly.
With the biter fully engaged, Komás moved quickly in from the side before the turret spent all of the ammo.
It turned out ammo was not on the critical path. In one quick biter snap, the turret chassis crumpled and it’s humming immediately ceased.
“Crack!” Komás triggered a hurried blast into the rear of the Big Blueser. While half of the accelerated particles from his boomstick bounced off of the ridiculously resilient blue hide, some found their way into the softer patch behind the monster’s ear. With considerable relief to Komás, the Big Blueser staggered forward and then fully dropped to the ground on top of the crumpled turret.
“I’m getting good at this,” Komás said to himself with short lived enthusiasm.
As if to highlight his desperation, several plumes of fire jetted into the sky to the southwest of his position. He knew what had happened, but the cold and ruthless alarm system reminded him of his continuing failure anyhow.
X Refinery S1-5 – System Loss Identified
X Pipe Run L13-4E – Function has ceased – Shutoff valve engaged
X Refinery S1-3 – System Failure Identified
X Refinery S1-1– System Loss Identified
X Pipe Run L04-3N – Function has ceased – Shutoff valve malfunction
X Pipe Run L04-2N – Function has ceased – Shutoff valve engaged
X Pipe Run…
Komás stopped reading after noting the complete loss of Liquid Storage S2. “It’ll take days to replace all of that Petrol.” But, with the loss of the refineries, he didn’t have days, maybe a few hours, before the electric generators would starve from the loss of solid fuel and shut down. And, he needed that power in order to remove the rest of the 5 dozen or so beasts that were populating his base and getting dangerously close to the heart of his research center.
Using the DCV1’s receiver - mounted to his right arm - Komás collected the microwarp address from the storage chest in area C and assigned it to one of the available gesture spots. “I hope these work.”
Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapters 1 through 8
Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapters 1 through 8
Last edited by DerivePi on Mon May 02, 2016 5:42 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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Xterminator
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Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost
Amazing! I honestly greatly enjoyed this. 
I haven't read a book in probably 5 years, but if this was a book I would not be able to put it down. Really interesting and entertaining to read. Really looking forward to the next part if you decide to so one. 
I haven't read a book in probably 5 years, but if this was a book I would not be able to put it down. Really interesting and entertaining to read. Really looking forward to the next part if you decide to so one. 
Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost
Thanks! I had fun writing it. I'll probably write a little more if people enjoy it
Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost
Nice! Good read. Please, do continue.
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Lee_newsum
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Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost
OK, chapter 2 is up.
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Xterminator
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Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost
Awesome second chapter. Thoroughly enjoyed the read! Can't wait for more. Hehe
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Lee_newsum
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Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost-Chapt 3
Chapter 3 is up and ready. Hope you enjoy!
Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost-Chapt 3
Very nice, loving it!
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Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost-Chapt 3
Chapter 4 – House Cleaning
Director Mubek angrily threw some papers onto his desk and, not for the first time, complained, “These bureaucrats will be the death of us all! Look at this Komás! Now they are insisting that any company promoted interplanetary expedition be equipped with, what do they call it… yes, ‘minimum defensive tactical measures.’ I’d hate to be the squirrel that got in the way of a ‘Seergen Tactical Rocket’ much less the ‘Advanced Thermal Caster from Proliss Industries.’ Do they think we need to spend more of our resources on unnecessary ‘tactical measures?’”
Komás sarcastically injected “Maybe they are just looking out for our best interest?”
Director Mubek snorted and looked up with a grin, “Yes, and I’m sure the lofty political contributions from the likes of Seergen and Proliss have nothing to do with their names being on the list. Well, as you no doubt know, the argument is a lost cause. The system has been gamed. If we proceed without the ‘minimum’ requirements our insurance policy will be cancelled and we will have no source of funding.”
----
Komás now had an appreciation for the “good will” bestowed by the political class. Along with the required military munitions came mandatory basic training for the expeditionary team. Komas knew that without that training, he’d already have been biter food.
Thanks to his limited boot camp experience, Komás remembered what the Bolsten ALE (Automated Laser Emplacement) could do to steel plate and concrete. With these recently acquired emplacements from the storage in Area C, he was hoping the biter hides fared even worse, but he didn’t want to count on it for its first foreign field test. To that end, Komas planned to focus on clearing out the main munitions dump before proceeding to the adjacent oil processing plant. Based on recent damage reports, he suspected that there would be fewer biters to contend with at munitions. And, there were a few “presents” there he was interested in delivering to the remaining beasts.
As with most of the advanced technologies that had survived the expeditions “hurried” landing, the ALEs had required adaptation in order to function in this planet’s technologically caustic environment. Even many of the basic processes, stored in the computer’s library, inexplicably required further research and shielding in order to operate. Otherwise, the mainbase would have been better equipped to handle this recent incursion.
Komás, pressured by the failing supply of fuel for the base’s electric system, quickly deployed a textbook ALE position using the 5 turrets he had obtained. The shiny new turrets looked feeble without defensive walls, but Komás didn’t have any. “If these turrets aren’t effective, a few walls won’t change the outcome,” Komás muttered to himself. Just then the alarm system brought him out of his reflection:
“Stimulant supply is low. Seek rest and recuperation within the hour.”
With his recent injuries, the biohealers were boosting his body’s metabolism in order to speed the recovery process. That, coupled with the recent spikes in adrenaline, was causing significant fatigue and Komás knew he’d become unresponsive as soon as the stimulant ran out. He needed to clean out the base and get it operational now!
Using the power from his exoskeleton, Komás awkwardly charged towards the nearest group of biters. Coming within range, Komás let off three blasts towards the middle of the group where two of the little biters fell.
Having their attention, Komás turned tail and led the biter mass back to the defensive position. With a gulp, he noted two bluesers were part of the pursuit. Nearing the position, Komás banked right in an effort to expose the beasts to flanking fire. It wasn’t until the lasers opened fire that he realized just how close the biters had gotten. “Why are those turrets tracking me!” he thought, just as a stream of coherent light coalesced tight to the outside of his left hip. A sizzling sound followed by a putrid stench attacked his senses.
A staccato of light flashes and screeches from the overheated gas pumped the air to his side.
Komás completed his outside turn and faced the oncoming monsters with his boomstick held tight to his hip with his only functioning arm. Both bleusers were still charging, but the turrets had cleaned out the brothers and baby biters. With his finger full tight on the trigger, Komás fired and watched as the lasers pock marked the left side of the first beast. Like a hidden spoon scooping out one piece of hide at a time, the turrets were able to dig through the impossibly tough hide until the blueser tripped over its front legs and collapsed into a heap.
Several more beams sizzled into the side of the corpse, as Komás shifted his aim towards the second blueser. Even with his fury of blasts aimed at this blueser, the beast recognized the danger from the turrets and turned towards them with his armored head. Komás moved in to engage trying to hit the sweet spot behind the biter’s ear. Unfortunately, the biter was able to lunge and dismantle one of the turrets before it collapsed into a quickly degrading pile of goo.
With time against him, Komás quickly returned to the now empty munitions dump and fetched the microwarp addresses for the stored landmines and placed them in his DCV1 where the laser turrets had resided.
As he came in view, he saw the turrets rear up and open fire to an enemy outside of his view. Even while knowing he was too late, Komás said “I need to get up there to add my firepower,” and rushed forward.
Even as he started to move forward, the laser turrets went quiet. “Oh no, the power system!”
Although the turrets were now dead, the wave of biters smashed into them with menace and hatred, levelling the turrets mangled scrap.
As he reached for the mines, Komás thought, “I am done!”
Director Mubek angrily threw some papers onto his desk and, not for the first time, complained, “These bureaucrats will be the death of us all! Look at this Komás! Now they are insisting that any company promoted interplanetary expedition be equipped with, what do they call it… yes, ‘minimum defensive tactical measures.’ I’d hate to be the squirrel that got in the way of a ‘Seergen Tactical Rocket’ much less the ‘Advanced Thermal Caster from Proliss Industries.’ Do they think we need to spend more of our resources on unnecessary ‘tactical measures?’”
Komás sarcastically injected “Maybe they are just looking out for our best interest?”
Director Mubek snorted and looked up with a grin, “Yes, and I’m sure the lofty political contributions from the likes of Seergen and Proliss have nothing to do with their names being on the list. Well, as you no doubt know, the argument is a lost cause. The system has been gamed. If we proceed without the ‘minimum’ requirements our insurance policy will be cancelled and we will have no source of funding.”
----
Komás now had an appreciation for the “good will” bestowed by the political class. Along with the required military munitions came mandatory basic training for the expeditionary team. Komas knew that without that training, he’d already have been biter food.
Thanks to his limited boot camp experience, Komás remembered what the Bolsten ALE (Automated Laser Emplacement) could do to steel plate and concrete. With these recently acquired emplacements from the storage in Area C, he was hoping the biter hides fared even worse, but he didn’t want to count on it for its first foreign field test. To that end, Komas planned to focus on clearing out the main munitions dump before proceeding to the adjacent oil processing plant. Based on recent damage reports, he suspected that there would be fewer biters to contend with at munitions. And, there were a few “presents” there he was interested in delivering to the remaining beasts.
As with most of the advanced technologies that had survived the expeditions “hurried” landing, the ALEs had required adaptation in order to function in this planet’s technologically caustic environment. Even many of the basic processes, stored in the computer’s library, inexplicably required further research and shielding in order to operate. Otherwise, the mainbase would have been better equipped to handle this recent incursion.
Komás, pressured by the failing supply of fuel for the base’s electric system, quickly deployed a textbook ALE position using the 5 turrets he had obtained. The shiny new turrets looked feeble without defensive walls, but Komás didn’t have any. “If these turrets aren’t effective, a few walls won’t change the outcome,” Komás muttered to himself. Just then the alarm system brought him out of his reflection:
“Stimulant supply is low. Seek rest and recuperation within the hour.”
With his recent injuries, the biohealers were boosting his body’s metabolism in order to speed the recovery process. That, coupled with the recent spikes in adrenaline, was causing significant fatigue and Komás knew he’d become unresponsive as soon as the stimulant ran out. He needed to clean out the base and get it operational now!
Using the power from his exoskeleton, Komás awkwardly charged towards the nearest group of biters. Coming within range, Komás let off three blasts towards the middle of the group where two of the little biters fell.
Having their attention, Komás turned tail and led the biter mass back to the defensive position. With a gulp, he noted two bluesers were part of the pursuit. Nearing the position, Komás banked right in an effort to expose the beasts to flanking fire. It wasn’t until the lasers opened fire that he realized just how close the biters had gotten. “Why are those turrets tracking me!” he thought, just as a stream of coherent light coalesced tight to the outside of his left hip. A sizzling sound followed by a putrid stench attacked his senses.
A staccato of light flashes and screeches from the overheated gas pumped the air to his side.
Komás completed his outside turn and faced the oncoming monsters with his boomstick held tight to his hip with his only functioning arm. Both bleusers were still charging, but the turrets had cleaned out the brothers and baby biters. With his finger full tight on the trigger, Komás fired and watched as the lasers pock marked the left side of the first beast. Like a hidden spoon scooping out one piece of hide at a time, the turrets were able to dig through the impossibly tough hide until the blueser tripped over its front legs and collapsed into a heap.
Several more beams sizzled into the side of the corpse, as Komás shifted his aim towards the second blueser. Even with his fury of blasts aimed at this blueser, the beast recognized the danger from the turrets and turned towards them with his armored head. Komás moved in to engage trying to hit the sweet spot behind the biter’s ear. Unfortunately, the biter was able to lunge and dismantle one of the turrets before it collapsed into a quickly degrading pile of goo.
With time against him, Komás quickly returned to the now empty munitions dump and fetched the microwarp addresses for the stored landmines and placed them in his DCV1 where the laser turrets had resided.
As he came in view, he saw the turrets rear up and open fire to an enemy outside of his view. Even while knowing he was too late, Komás said “I need to get up there to add my firepower,” and rushed forward.
Even as he started to move forward, the laser turrets went quiet. “Oh no, the power system!”
Although the turrets were now dead, the wave of biters smashed into them with menace and hatred, levelling the turrets mangled scrap.
As he reached for the mines, Komás thought, “I am done!”
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Lee_newsum
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Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost-Chapt 3
What next 
What next 
What next Re: Fan Fiction - Return to Overrun Outpost-Chapt 3
Chapter 5 – From a Distance
The Zerta T-89 “Observation” Satellite finished transmitting its latest findings from the class M-planet some distance below. Several hours later, a Zerta H-1A hyper relay, located on the edge of the local star system, repackaged the received transmission and deployed a data drone for immediate delivery to “Home-Base.”
Neither device knew what the actual address was for designation “Home-base.” In fact, even the data drones didn’t have a direct address, but only a series of way-points that they were to travel to and, with a given direction, broadcast their encrypted data. Further, if any of the devices were scanned or approached they were to dump the balance of their hydrogen fuel into their fusion reactors and, shortly thereafter, drop the reactors magnetic shielding. Although not a complete randomization of matter, it would be enough given the current investigative abilities.
This latest package of data included a log of Specimen X1’s travels for the past 4 days, growth charts of the Xeno A1, 2 and 3 experiments and satellite photos of the ground being transformed by both X1 and the Xeno experiments. Although the T-89 satellite had the finest military grade spyware installed, the photos were considerably grainy and blurred as they had been since the events on A-day. In fact, only long term exposures with post processing filters allowed any refined information to be captured.
For this reason, the spy satellite was unable to calculate the exact magnitude of the thermal bloom that preceded this latest emergency data transmission. It calculated, using an average atmospheric distortion that the blast radius was within 2 deviations of 348 meters. This approximation was further refined by the color and duration of that area during the event to be 150 to 450 meters. This approximation had been logged under day 93, local time 19:85.
Based on the given parameters being met, the satellite redirected its laser transmitter to the programmed surface coordinates and sent a brief signal. After a short interval, a directional signal from the surface confirmed the instructions. Unlike the reaction from a similar message sent on A-day, nothing observable happened. A neutron explosion did not disable the orbiting deep space explorer ship this time. And, an Electro Magnetic Pulse didn’t send the recently embarked shuttle tumbling towards a crash landing on the planet’s surface. From the vantage point of the satellite, the M-planet’s surface remained peaceful. Even so, the satellite’s AI added a column for “Xeno B1” to be included in its next transmission.
---
Director Mubek continued to pace behind his desk. It had been 5 weeks since he should have heard back from the expedition. It had been 4 week since he reported the missing expedition to the authorities. And, it had been 2 angry and frantic days since he had heard back from the authorities.
---
“Director Mubek?” a female voice asked from the other end of the connection.
“Speaking” Mubek tersely responded.
“I am responding to your missing expedition report. We have reviewed the circumstances you have provided and have elevated their condition to code ‘orange.’” The voice provided.
“OK, what does that mean?”
“Well sir, there is only one level more urgent than ‘orange.’ At that level, a rescue expedition is put into the final planning phase and our trained operatives are assigned given the circumstances we expect to encounter. The rescue mission is assigned to one of our deep space cruisers and, once it becomes available, the mission embarks.”
She continued, “Since we are at level ‘orange’ it’s important that we get some more specifics as to the nature of the expedition. I see on your initial expedition report, form IE5-22-A, that you reported the purpose of the expedition as experimental under a subcategory of astrophysics. We’re going to want some more specifics. I also see that the expedition’s target planet was previously listed by Universal Realty, which is good. And your insurance – “
“Yes, of course,” Mubek interrupted. “Just let me know where to meet the team and I’ll give them as much information as I can.”
“Team?” the official responded.
“Yes,” Mubek quickly responded. “The team that you told me was being put together for the rescue mission.”
“Oh no, you misunderstood me” she said. “We won’t be assembling a team until the situation is elevated to code ‘red’” she responded seriously. “At this time, we are still gathering our facts so that we can react in an expeditious and effective manner.” It sounded like she was reading a poster.
“But my people need to be rescued now!” Mubek exclaimed thinking yet again of the families that would remain worried and broken while their family members remained missing.
“That is quite enough excitement Mr. Mubek,” she replied. “We are committing considerable resources to your expedition and we will provide you with our best efforts.”
Mubek’s heart sank even lower as more depression consumed him with those words.
“Now,” she went on. “We were talking about your insurance.”
“We have an emergency and all you want to do is talk about insurance,” Mubek thought, but he responded with a simple “Yes.”
“Well, as you should know, a great part of our missions are funded through insurance. Mr. Mubek, I’m afraid without appropriate funding or a listed insurance program, we won’t be able to move this mission forward.”
Mubek was floored, “What do you mean?” he asked incredulously. “This expedition is insured! Our paperwork is in order! I have provided their information to you! Here it is, you need to contact Grand Intergalactic Insurance. Do you want me to give you their number again?”
She responded with false understanding, “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Mubek. Grand Intergalactic Insurance has filed for dissolution. They won’t be responding to any phone calls anymore. As for your policy, the files we were able to obtain did not list your policy anywhere. Until we can list an underwriter, we won’t be able to move the mission forward.”
With great effort Mubek mumbled a response and ended the call. With hands to his head he started to cry.
---
Many light years from the desk of Mubek, a broken but alive Komás started to stir after 3 days of undreaming sleep. His fingers from his good arm, curled around the charred ground in front of him as his brain began to recall the foolish yet successful plan that had allowed him to breathe a little longer on this harsh, unloving planet.
---
After the failure of the laser turrets, he dropped 2 armed landmines and frantically ran back to the munitions manufactory with the last of the local biters close behind. The blast from the landmines took 3 of the biters and slowed the rest of them for a small blessed amount of time, giving Komás enough time to reach his goal.
“Computer, command code ‘sasquatch.’ Disengage safety protocols for the sulfur and explosives chemical plants.”
“Command acknowledged: Warning, system safety protocols have been disengaged. Status must be affirmed every 2 minutes. Pleas affirm the unsafe system condition for CP-89, Sulfur production and CP-105 Explosive compound T.”
“Affirmed!” Komás huffed as he arrived at the munitions manufactory.
“Affirmation acknowledged,” chimed the computer.
Using his one good hand, Komás gestured into place the rest of the landmines one at a time, tight against the side of the now ‘unsafe’ explosives chemical plant. Inside of the plant, the addresses for the stored explosives were being accessed and the explosive material was being brought out of its hyperwarp wrinkle to sit in an onsite queuing container. During normal operations, the queue was limited to one unit of explosives at a time. Now, explosive material was piling up in an unorganized mess. Next door, the sufur plant was doing the same thing.
Finishing the preparation, Komás ran away from the rigged trap as quickly as his unbalanced frame would allow.
The front line of biters cut through the other side of the explosives Chemical Plant and missed the trap. Komás only realized his mistake when he heard the 2 big bluesers snorting directly behind him.
However, Komás was very lucky. Had the biters caught him, he would not have survived. Had he been 10 seconds closer to the plant, the explosion would have cracked his armor and the immediate decompression would have removed his lungs. Even as close as he was, he should have died. But, the hoard of biters had just caught up to him when a straggler cut close enough to the trap to trigger the explosion. The biters behind him with their mass and tough hide absorbed a considerable amount of the shockwave. When he woke, Komás didn’t remember the biters smashing into his back and bringing him face down into the ground. The only evidence left was the biter goo that covered him and the ground around.
The blast radius was just over 280 meters.
The Zerta T-89 “Observation” Satellite finished transmitting its latest findings from the class M-planet some distance below. Several hours later, a Zerta H-1A hyper relay, located on the edge of the local star system, repackaged the received transmission and deployed a data drone for immediate delivery to “Home-Base.”
Neither device knew what the actual address was for designation “Home-base.” In fact, even the data drones didn’t have a direct address, but only a series of way-points that they were to travel to and, with a given direction, broadcast their encrypted data. Further, if any of the devices were scanned or approached they were to dump the balance of their hydrogen fuel into their fusion reactors and, shortly thereafter, drop the reactors magnetic shielding. Although not a complete randomization of matter, it would be enough given the current investigative abilities.
This latest package of data included a log of Specimen X1’s travels for the past 4 days, growth charts of the Xeno A1, 2 and 3 experiments and satellite photos of the ground being transformed by both X1 and the Xeno experiments. Although the T-89 satellite had the finest military grade spyware installed, the photos were considerably grainy and blurred as they had been since the events on A-day. In fact, only long term exposures with post processing filters allowed any refined information to be captured.
For this reason, the spy satellite was unable to calculate the exact magnitude of the thermal bloom that preceded this latest emergency data transmission. It calculated, using an average atmospheric distortion that the blast radius was within 2 deviations of 348 meters. This approximation was further refined by the color and duration of that area during the event to be 150 to 450 meters. This approximation had been logged under day 93, local time 19:85.
Based on the given parameters being met, the satellite redirected its laser transmitter to the programmed surface coordinates and sent a brief signal. After a short interval, a directional signal from the surface confirmed the instructions. Unlike the reaction from a similar message sent on A-day, nothing observable happened. A neutron explosion did not disable the orbiting deep space explorer ship this time. And, an Electro Magnetic Pulse didn’t send the recently embarked shuttle tumbling towards a crash landing on the planet’s surface. From the vantage point of the satellite, the M-planet’s surface remained peaceful. Even so, the satellite’s AI added a column for “Xeno B1” to be included in its next transmission.
---
Director Mubek continued to pace behind his desk. It had been 5 weeks since he should have heard back from the expedition. It had been 4 week since he reported the missing expedition to the authorities. And, it had been 2 angry and frantic days since he had heard back from the authorities.
---
“Director Mubek?” a female voice asked from the other end of the connection.
“Speaking” Mubek tersely responded.
“I am responding to your missing expedition report. We have reviewed the circumstances you have provided and have elevated their condition to code ‘orange.’” The voice provided.
“OK, what does that mean?”
“Well sir, there is only one level more urgent than ‘orange.’ At that level, a rescue expedition is put into the final planning phase and our trained operatives are assigned given the circumstances we expect to encounter. The rescue mission is assigned to one of our deep space cruisers and, once it becomes available, the mission embarks.”
She continued, “Since we are at level ‘orange’ it’s important that we get some more specifics as to the nature of the expedition. I see on your initial expedition report, form IE5-22-A, that you reported the purpose of the expedition as experimental under a subcategory of astrophysics. We’re going to want some more specifics. I also see that the expedition’s target planet was previously listed by Universal Realty, which is good. And your insurance – “
“Yes, of course,” Mubek interrupted. “Just let me know where to meet the team and I’ll give them as much information as I can.”
“Team?” the official responded.
“Yes,” Mubek quickly responded. “The team that you told me was being put together for the rescue mission.”
“Oh no, you misunderstood me” she said. “We won’t be assembling a team until the situation is elevated to code ‘red’” she responded seriously. “At this time, we are still gathering our facts so that we can react in an expeditious and effective manner.” It sounded like she was reading a poster.
“But my people need to be rescued now!” Mubek exclaimed thinking yet again of the families that would remain worried and broken while their family members remained missing.
“That is quite enough excitement Mr. Mubek,” she replied. “We are committing considerable resources to your expedition and we will provide you with our best efforts.”
Mubek’s heart sank even lower as more depression consumed him with those words.
“Now,” she went on. “We were talking about your insurance.”
“We have an emergency and all you want to do is talk about insurance,” Mubek thought, but he responded with a simple “Yes.”
“Well, as you should know, a great part of our missions are funded through insurance. Mr. Mubek, I’m afraid without appropriate funding or a listed insurance program, we won’t be able to move this mission forward.”
Mubek was floored, “What do you mean?” he asked incredulously. “This expedition is insured! Our paperwork is in order! I have provided their information to you! Here it is, you need to contact Grand Intergalactic Insurance. Do you want me to give you their number again?”
She responded with false understanding, “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Mubek. Grand Intergalactic Insurance has filed for dissolution. They won’t be responding to any phone calls anymore. As for your policy, the files we were able to obtain did not list your policy anywhere. Until we can list an underwriter, we won’t be able to move the mission forward.”
With great effort Mubek mumbled a response and ended the call. With hands to his head he started to cry.
---
Many light years from the desk of Mubek, a broken but alive Komás started to stir after 3 days of undreaming sleep. His fingers from his good arm, curled around the charred ground in front of him as his brain began to recall the foolish yet successful plan that had allowed him to breathe a little longer on this harsh, unloving planet.
---
After the failure of the laser turrets, he dropped 2 armed landmines and frantically ran back to the munitions manufactory with the last of the local biters close behind. The blast from the landmines took 3 of the biters and slowed the rest of them for a small blessed amount of time, giving Komás enough time to reach his goal.
“Computer, command code ‘sasquatch.’ Disengage safety protocols for the sulfur and explosives chemical plants.”
“Command acknowledged: Warning, system safety protocols have been disengaged. Status must be affirmed every 2 minutes. Pleas affirm the unsafe system condition for CP-89, Sulfur production and CP-105 Explosive compound T.”
“Affirmed!” Komás huffed as he arrived at the munitions manufactory.
“Affirmation acknowledged,” chimed the computer.
Using his one good hand, Komás gestured into place the rest of the landmines one at a time, tight against the side of the now ‘unsafe’ explosives chemical plant. Inside of the plant, the addresses for the stored explosives were being accessed and the explosive material was being brought out of its hyperwarp wrinkle to sit in an onsite queuing container. During normal operations, the queue was limited to one unit of explosives at a time. Now, explosive material was piling up in an unorganized mess. Next door, the sufur plant was doing the same thing.
Finishing the preparation, Komás ran away from the rigged trap as quickly as his unbalanced frame would allow.
The front line of biters cut through the other side of the explosives Chemical Plant and missed the trap. Komás only realized his mistake when he heard the 2 big bluesers snorting directly behind him.
However, Komás was very lucky. Had the biters caught him, he would not have survived. Had he been 10 seconds closer to the plant, the explosion would have cracked his armor and the immediate decompression would have removed his lungs. Even as close as he was, he should have died. But, the hoard of biters had just caught up to him when a straggler cut close enough to the trap to trigger the explosion. The biters behind him with their mass and tough hide absorbed a considerable amount of the shockwave. When he woke, Komás didn’t remember the biters smashing into his back and bringing him face down into the ground. The only evidence left was the biter goo that covered him and the ground around.
The blast radius was just over 280 meters.
-
Alekthefirst
- Fast Inserter
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- Contact:
Re: Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapt 5 is up
If that's the end im gonna be so pissed
I need more of this
I need more of this
Factorio is a game about automating everything. One day, i hope i can automate shitty signatures just like this one.
Re: Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapt 5 is up
Definitely more to come!Alekthefirst wrote:If that's the end im gonna be so pissed
I need more of this
-
Lee_newsum
- Filter Inserter
- Posts: 436
- Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:41 am
- Contact:
Re: Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapt 5 is up
well that was a boom!
Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapters 1 through 6
Chapter 6 – Shorting the Long Haul
Komás looked down at his “new” left arm, and, not for the first time, had a desire to burn the itchiness from the surface of his skin. He’d had previous experience with the biohealers, but the scope of this damage surpassed. Not only was there a strong feeling of ants crawling all over the new skin, but somehow the biohealers had reversed the nerve connections to his fingers. Every time he wanted to point his index he wound up giving himself the middle finger. Although he laughed the first time, the joke was getting old.
Since his near death incident, Komás had restarted select parts of the factory. First, he brought power production back up using some of the stored coal. With that power, he reconnected half of the nearby mining drills. Since he hadn’t yet acclimated the electric furnace technology, Komás was stuck using a little more of the coal to smelt the raw stone and ores into usable product. The stone went mainly to wall production, and the ores were dedicated to mass production of Bolsten ALE lasers.
Although he had some oil production back on line, (mainly for battery production) he was quickly running out of energy resources. He estimated a week before his current coal supply would be exhausted. Yet again Komás wished he could adapt fusion technology to this world’s resistant domain.
---
At Mubek’s gesture, Komás moved to the window of the Operation’s Pulpit. Below them, taking just a small corner of the 2 acre assembly plant’s floor was a compact tangle of machinery, belts and robots. Behind it, shaped like a big megaphone, was another cleaner mess of electronics and piping.
A nervous Mubek asked, “Were you able to compensate for the feedback wave we got in yesterday’s test?”
“Director, I believe my answer hasn’t changed from the last four times you asked me. Last night, ‘we’ were able to identify the problem – the dimensional condenser was underpowered for the given mass – and compensated by decreasing the test mass,” Komás responded.
“Yes, yes” Mubek mumbled distractedly as his thoughts moved somewhere else.
Below them a technician maneuvered a plate of durasteel onto an awaiting “receiving table” near the middle of the connected machinery.
In short order, the plate was scanned by a camera, picked up by a mechanical arm and moved to an awaiting adjacent storage bin.
“OK, Director, would you like to verify the portable factory’s functioning prior to condensing it?” Komás asked.
“Yes. I think one last test should do it. Have HPF-4 manufacturer a pen.” Mubek replied mischievously.
Komás, with only a slight smile at the ongoing inside joke, keyed in the order and then looked up to see the portable factory prototype move into action.
The mechanical arm lasered off a piece of the durasteel plate that had just been stored and placed the piece into onto a transport belt which fed into the heart of the machinery. After disappearing for only a few seconds, a pen appeared on a returning belt and was placed on the “receiving table.” The mechanical arm lasered the phrase “Abra Cadabra” onto the pen and then returned to its resting position.
Komás announced, “All personnel have reported back Mubek. We are ready for the test.”
“Very well Komás, let’s see if the fourth times the charm.” Mubek said as he firmly pressed the iconic big red shiny button in front of him.
Immediately a thrumming noise emanated from the megaphone. At the peak of its crescendo the portable factory vanished and the building’s baffles, placed all around the exterior, were sucked open as air violently moved to fill in the vacuum.
“Well done!” Mubek exclaimed.
“Now Komás, would you kindly see to getting my pen back?”
“Of course Director,” Komás said as he pressed a few keystrokes on his keyboard.
A new view was brought up on the overhead screen showing an image of another “receiving table” much like the one attached to the recently vanished factory.
With a slight flash of light, a pen with “Abra Cadabra” etched on it appeared in the center of the receiving table.
“Looks like we can now work on getting that fusion plant integrated with our portable factory design. It’s probably to the best that we were required to have all fusion tests take place off planet,” Komás said looking forward.
“Yes. Losing one fusion bottle, much less three would have been devastating to our budget,” Mubek replied.
“Now Komás, run a few more tests and then see to getting our portable factory back out of hyper-warp. I must be off to an engagement that should facilitate our future real estate needs.”
“Of course, Director,” Komas replied.
---
“Yes, Jenkins, I realize ‘your’ numbers aren’t what we told the board to expect, and I fervently wish I could have you there to personally tell them why. Fortunately for you, I don’t think your presence would help the situation,” CEO Gans angrily stated.
“But Gans, You know our ‘Mars Elixir’ should be a top seller. Who would’ve expected our military customers to not pay top price for quicker reflexes, sharper vision, and stronger musculature?”
“Why Jenkins, I imagine I would have predicted our sales to be exactly what they are if you bothered to mention … oh, I don’t know… maybe the sudden drop in intelligence experienced by soldiers who were administered the product,” Gans replied with deliberate sarcasm.
“That ‘elixir’ should have been relabeled a poison and never left this building! Now we have a marketing mess as well as a sales flop! How do we explain to the Duke of Argentin that his heir’s sudden ineptness should be overlooked? No, Jenkins. I’ve heard enough from you. You did well with the chameleon tonic, but your string of failures … shrieking birds, an uncontrollable anti-tech bacteria, aggressive genetic monsters … no more failures Jenkins or I’ll feed you to your worms myself.”
Gans continued, “Jalus, how are we going to recover from this?”
Jalus cleared his throat, “I believe if we invest more in our commercial products, we can…”
Celianna, the Head of Corporate Clandestine Operations sat quietly at the back of the Company’s operations meeting while her fellow coworkers probed a new course of action. Gans didn’t require her attendance to these weekly meetings, but he had asked her to attend this one. He felt that her presence would add weight to his anger. Judging by the perspiration on Jenkins forehead, she agreed with his assessment.
After the meeting droned on for another hour of improbable hypotheticals and half thought through ideas, Gans signaled a close to the meeting and retired to his office joined by Celianna.
“He’s a smart scientist, but I need to keep a closer watch on him.” Gans confided.
Celianna responded, “Jenkins spends his leisure time purchasing expensive artwork and fighting with his soon to be ex-wife. Based on his social messaging, he’s already moved on to several other possible companions. Our previous efforts to thwart his wayward job searching seem to remain in effect. Although, he still has contact with our chosen job placement company. If he moves in that direction again, I will see that they further embarrass him.”
“Is he a threat?” Gans probed.
“He is under observation. As long as he remains moderately complacent, I don’t think he will act out of line. However, per your authorization, we have contingencies in place. Going through a divorce battle opens up all sorts of avenues of approach,” Celianna explained.
“Very well,” said Gans. “Now tell me what you’ve gleaned from our latest interplanetary report.”
“It is most likely that specimen X1 has been neutralized. Although Jenkin’s xeno-hounds performed within parameters, I believe the specimen finally succumbed to an explosion it must have triggered. We should have confirmation with our next transmission.” Celianna reported.
“Are we ready for the coup de tat then?” asked Gans.
“Yes. With a loss of insurance funding and a stretched bankroll, the director of that company should be happy to accept our outstretched hand for help,” stated Celianna.
Gans replied, “Good. We are currently purchasing options on his company’s shares under three different names. Once a “rescue” mission returns with news of the failed expedition, we will exercise our options with one hand and rescue the director from his distress (and company) with the other. I just wish I could give the Board the good news now. They are becoming impatient with these failures.”
Komás looked down at his “new” left arm, and, not for the first time, had a desire to burn the itchiness from the surface of his skin. He’d had previous experience with the biohealers, but the scope of this damage surpassed. Not only was there a strong feeling of ants crawling all over the new skin, but somehow the biohealers had reversed the nerve connections to his fingers. Every time he wanted to point his index he wound up giving himself the middle finger. Although he laughed the first time, the joke was getting old.
Since his near death incident, Komás had restarted select parts of the factory. First, he brought power production back up using some of the stored coal. With that power, he reconnected half of the nearby mining drills. Since he hadn’t yet acclimated the electric furnace technology, Komás was stuck using a little more of the coal to smelt the raw stone and ores into usable product. The stone went mainly to wall production, and the ores were dedicated to mass production of Bolsten ALE lasers.
Although he had some oil production back on line, (mainly for battery production) he was quickly running out of energy resources. He estimated a week before his current coal supply would be exhausted. Yet again Komás wished he could adapt fusion technology to this world’s resistant domain.
---
At Mubek’s gesture, Komás moved to the window of the Operation’s Pulpit. Below them, taking just a small corner of the 2 acre assembly plant’s floor was a compact tangle of machinery, belts and robots. Behind it, shaped like a big megaphone, was another cleaner mess of electronics and piping.
A nervous Mubek asked, “Were you able to compensate for the feedback wave we got in yesterday’s test?”
“Director, I believe my answer hasn’t changed from the last four times you asked me. Last night, ‘we’ were able to identify the problem – the dimensional condenser was underpowered for the given mass – and compensated by decreasing the test mass,” Komás responded.
“Yes, yes” Mubek mumbled distractedly as his thoughts moved somewhere else.
Below them a technician maneuvered a plate of durasteel onto an awaiting “receiving table” near the middle of the connected machinery.
In short order, the plate was scanned by a camera, picked up by a mechanical arm and moved to an awaiting adjacent storage bin.
“OK, Director, would you like to verify the portable factory’s functioning prior to condensing it?” Komás asked.
“Yes. I think one last test should do it. Have HPF-4 manufacturer a pen.” Mubek replied mischievously.
Komás, with only a slight smile at the ongoing inside joke, keyed in the order and then looked up to see the portable factory prototype move into action.
The mechanical arm lasered off a piece of the durasteel plate that had just been stored and placed the piece into onto a transport belt which fed into the heart of the machinery. After disappearing for only a few seconds, a pen appeared on a returning belt and was placed on the “receiving table.” The mechanical arm lasered the phrase “Abra Cadabra” onto the pen and then returned to its resting position.
Komás announced, “All personnel have reported back Mubek. We are ready for the test.”
“Very well Komás, let’s see if the fourth times the charm.” Mubek said as he firmly pressed the iconic big red shiny button in front of him.
Immediately a thrumming noise emanated from the megaphone. At the peak of its crescendo the portable factory vanished and the building’s baffles, placed all around the exterior, were sucked open as air violently moved to fill in the vacuum.
“Well done!” Mubek exclaimed.
“Now Komás, would you kindly see to getting my pen back?”
“Of course Director,” Komás said as he pressed a few keystrokes on his keyboard.
A new view was brought up on the overhead screen showing an image of another “receiving table” much like the one attached to the recently vanished factory.
With a slight flash of light, a pen with “Abra Cadabra” etched on it appeared in the center of the receiving table.
“Looks like we can now work on getting that fusion plant integrated with our portable factory design. It’s probably to the best that we were required to have all fusion tests take place off planet,” Komás said looking forward.
“Yes. Losing one fusion bottle, much less three would have been devastating to our budget,” Mubek replied.
“Now Komás, run a few more tests and then see to getting our portable factory back out of hyper-warp. I must be off to an engagement that should facilitate our future real estate needs.”
“Of course, Director,” Komas replied.
---
“Yes, Jenkins, I realize ‘your’ numbers aren’t what we told the board to expect, and I fervently wish I could have you there to personally tell them why. Fortunately for you, I don’t think your presence would help the situation,” CEO Gans angrily stated.
“But Gans, You know our ‘Mars Elixir’ should be a top seller. Who would’ve expected our military customers to not pay top price for quicker reflexes, sharper vision, and stronger musculature?”
“Why Jenkins, I imagine I would have predicted our sales to be exactly what they are if you bothered to mention … oh, I don’t know… maybe the sudden drop in intelligence experienced by soldiers who were administered the product,” Gans replied with deliberate sarcasm.
“That ‘elixir’ should have been relabeled a poison and never left this building! Now we have a marketing mess as well as a sales flop! How do we explain to the Duke of Argentin that his heir’s sudden ineptness should be overlooked? No, Jenkins. I’ve heard enough from you. You did well with the chameleon tonic, but your string of failures … shrieking birds, an uncontrollable anti-tech bacteria, aggressive genetic monsters … no more failures Jenkins or I’ll feed you to your worms myself.”
Gans continued, “Jalus, how are we going to recover from this?”
Jalus cleared his throat, “I believe if we invest more in our commercial products, we can…”
Celianna, the Head of Corporate Clandestine Operations sat quietly at the back of the Company’s operations meeting while her fellow coworkers probed a new course of action. Gans didn’t require her attendance to these weekly meetings, but he had asked her to attend this one. He felt that her presence would add weight to his anger. Judging by the perspiration on Jenkins forehead, she agreed with his assessment.
After the meeting droned on for another hour of improbable hypotheticals and half thought through ideas, Gans signaled a close to the meeting and retired to his office joined by Celianna.
“He’s a smart scientist, but I need to keep a closer watch on him.” Gans confided.
Celianna responded, “Jenkins spends his leisure time purchasing expensive artwork and fighting with his soon to be ex-wife. Based on his social messaging, he’s already moved on to several other possible companions. Our previous efforts to thwart his wayward job searching seem to remain in effect. Although, he still has contact with our chosen job placement company. If he moves in that direction again, I will see that they further embarrass him.”
“Is he a threat?” Gans probed.
“He is under observation. As long as he remains moderately complacent, I don’t think he will act out of line. However, per your authorization, we have contingencies in place. Going through a divorce battle opens up all sorts of avenues of approach,” Celianna explained.
“Very well,” said Gans. “Now tell me what you’ve gleaned from our latest interplanetary report.”
“It is most likely that specimen X1 has been neutralized. Although Jenkin’s xeno-hounds performed within parameters, I believe the specimen finally succumbed to an explosion it must have triggered. We should have confirmation with our next transmission.” Celianna reported.
“Are we ready for the coup de tat then?” asked Gans.
“Yes. With a loss of insurance funding and a stretched bankroll, the director of that company should be happy to accept our outstretched hand for help,” stated Celianna.
Gans replied, “Good. We are currently purchasing options on his company’s shares under three different names. Once a “rescue” mission returns with news of the failed expedition, we will exercise our options with one hand and rescue the director from his distress (and company) with the other. I just wish I could give the Board the good news now. They are becoming impatient with these failures.”
Last edited by DerivePi on Thu May 14, 2015 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Lee_newsum
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Re: Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapters 1 through 6
What a web you weve!
what you up to 6 chapters all good and fun to read
what you up to 6 chapters all good and fun to read
Re: Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapters 1 through 6
I made it sticky, but I think this should eventually be moved to "Show your creations"? On the other hand: this is so very special, why not here?
(Short!) opinions? (Especially DerivePi)
(Short!) opinions? (Especially DerivePi)
Cool suggestion: Eatable MOUSE-pointers.
Have you used the Advanced Search today?
Need help, question? FAQ - Wiki - Forum help
I still like small signatures...
Have you used the Advanced Search today?
Need help, question? FAQ - Wiki - Forum help
I still like small signatures...
Re: Fan Fiction - Factorio Story - Chapters 1 through 6
I am honored! Feel free to put it wherever you think it fits.ssilk wrote:I made it sticky, but I think this should eventually be moved to "Show your creations"? On the other hand: this is so very special, why not here?
(Short!) opinions? (Especially DerivePi)
- Thanks for reading!