It’s been a week, a whole week, since I purchased this stupid computer. Almost wished I would have made my own; it would have been faster and simpler. But my 3D printer was working basically nonstop, making necessary parts for my missile interceptors and a new, smaller kind of missile. Not for ship use but for in-person combat.
The idea ca to before I started working on this piece-of-shit computer that was filled with way too many components that would allow it to connect to networks. So I had to painstakingly remove them while still keeping the computer functional. All the while, I wanted to continue working on making and designing weapons.
The realization I ca to was that my current weapons were way too weak. Even if I cut down my armor plating to just one centiter, it would still shrug off every weapon I had, except for the atomic bullet. With the strength I currently have, holding a shield with that thickness would not be a problem.
That thought was the starting point of a chain reaction of ideas that made realize how dangerous things could get in combat. There were species out there stronger than . Allowing them to carry a lot of weight.
I had seen tal armor on so of the adventurers. Thinking it was a bit ridiculous. So stupid of . I had also seen people wearing leather armor. Thinking that was even more ridiculous. But now that I knew what kind of monsters were out there, those leathers were probably more resistant than kevlar and titanium plates combined.
That’s not to speak of the ch suits. Just what they might be capable of was even harder to imagine. I found I was in the wrong mindset, so used to how things worked on Earth. But now I was in the wider galaxy that didn’t just have better technology, it also had magic.
It kind of reminded of the saying of a country bumpkin not knowing anything about city life. All of this kind of made feel like that. Yet I had learned that sotis the country bumpkin knew better. So abandoning everything I knew wasn't going to be the best solution.
No matter how many tis I have experienced this, it always ca back to the saying I heard from one of the foreign friends I had. It didn't really translate the best. The golden middle road was the direct translation, but what it ant was that it always ca back to the fact that extres never worked, and you should always try to go with the middle.
That's why the first concrete design I made wasn’t so laser weapon I barely knew anything about, or a miniaturised railgun I had no idea how to make. It was to make miniature missiles that could deliver a decent-sized explosion.
But more importantly, they could fly around obstacles and strike at weak points of an enemy, sidestepping so of the problems of improved defensive capabilities I found myself up against.
The programming needed to change a bit, but I could use a lot of the programming I already made for the missile interceptors. The idea was to have a few drones with at all tis that had a few of these mini-missiles, but my main thinking was to add a few hundred of them into Bob and teach him how to use them properly.
Right now, I wanted to work on upgrading Bob and Lola did grudgingly accept that this was currently the best solution for increased defense.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
But I was still ssing about with this stupid computer. Fortunately, I should be done. Right now, the diagnostics I was running were showing that everything seed to be good.
With a bit of anticipation, I inserted the mory card with the prir the Baron gave . The information soon started to show up, but there was a lot less of it than I expected.
"Okay, let's see..."
So the organisation didn’t have a direct na, it was more of a united viewpoint of different people than a unified organisation with the sa goal. As an associate to the organisation, I was a mber with no additional fees or questions asked to conduct trade with them. There was also a way to recognise the signs of this organisation, so I could find more of its establishnts.
"Lola, are you seeing these markings and quantum net signs?"
“Yes, I’m recording it all. Going through the database I’ve been able to assemble. There are a few stations where the quantum net signs seem to indicate the presence of this organisation. They, however, seem to only be in trade centres. Nowhere smaller than that seems to have the signs.”
“Well, I didn’t expect them to be everywhere. They all seem to be focused on entertainnt, so of course they would be in population centres and places with high traffic.”
A lot of the data seed to be scrubbed so I wouldn’t learn so facts, which was a bit weird, but it seed to be a sowhat secret organisation so it kind of made sense. Barons seed to be important mbers. I did gleam that Barons were the mbers who had reached far enough in the understanding of the truth of entertainnt to rule over an area.
“What do you think this ‘truth of entertainnt’ ans?” I asked Lola, a bit confused about that part.
“Didn’t you say that the Baron felt a lot stronger to you than anyone else? Perhaps he gains strength from sothing to do with entertainnt?”
“Perhaps, but he could have just had a really high rank. And who knows what this truth might an. It might just be so type of religion. Perhaps they think that entertainnt is the one thing that makes people sentient or sothing like that?”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t think about stuff like that. I wouldn’t want your brain to start hurting.”
“Hey Lola, that wasn’t that bad of an idea. And shouldn’t you get back to calculating? I need to know, to the best of our capabilities, the stress points of different materials. Otherwise, making the Mark 2 could be a disaster if the ship simply collapsed from its own engine’s accelerating.”
I spent a little bit more ti learning the symbols so when I was in a station, I could hopefully recognise the signs of this organisation, so that I could perhaps sell a bit more of my collection. Although I did have plenty of credits, which was a bit weird.
It kind of made sense to just park myself on so planet for like a decade and run planetside portals to gain strength, and only then venture into space once again when my credits were starting to run low.
Plenty to think about, but there was still a lot of design work left to be done, and I didn’t even know the estimate of how much this new ship was going to cost.
A couple of more days in FTL took us to the start of a new FTL current. Sotis it was a bit weird to understand why the current was called a new na, because it was seemingly one current, but I’ve co to learn that whenever there was a lot of turbulence when you travel a current, that was counted as the end and the start of a new one.
We now entered a current called the Roundabout. The na of it seed quite obvious. It went in a circular arc and almost ca back to where it started. As we entered this current, we dropped out of FTL and, after reacquiring our exact position, re-entered it.
A few more weeks of travel, and we finally reached a point where we needed to refuel. This ti we were going to use a refuelling station because the one that was close to us was a bit special.
This current, nad Roundabout, seed to be quite famous because it had so many other currents that rged and split off from it. So there was a lot of traffic, and because of that, so of the refuelling stations were built different and better protected.
When we dropped out of FTL, on the screens was a completely different type of refuelling station. It was almost two kilotres long, but its height and width were only 120 tres. It looked like a long piece of pipe. Currently, around it there were about 100 ships either slowing down to refuel or accelerating to re-enter FTL.
Apparently, this station was brought here by six battlecruisers that were connected to this station. Lola zood in and we could actually see the remnants of those connections that had long ago been dismantled. The entire surface was filled with weapons and refuelling locations.
Basically, they have turned this refuelling station into a battle station whose main job was to refuel ships that ca by. It also looked kinda shiny, as the entire surface had a chro-like finish. It did look quite striking.
It didn't take us too long to refuel and once again enter FTL.
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