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3 September, 4501

Jackpot! Lots of ships!

by Captain Peter Avignon

September 2, 4501 – Cont.
Sent the repair team into the belly of the beast today: Beñat, Castor, and—after some convincing—Lucid in a vac suit, with Astrid playing babysitter in full battle dress. I provided moral support and held the flashlight. Or I would have, if this facility had flashlights. I held intentions.
 
Four hours they wrestled with coolant lines, power conduits, and systems so ancient the manuals were probably carved in stone. And just when the reactor hum started to sound like progress… something went wrong. A misaligned coupling, a reversed polarity—I don’t know. I’m a pilot, not a miracle worker. All I know is Beñat’s swearing could’ve powered the grid himself.
 
We called it. Pulled back to the Good Times to lick our wounds and drink Castor’s vodka.
 
September 3, 4501
Back at it. This time, Lucid’s wearing Astrid’s combat armour—better radiation and spore shielding. Took two hours, but the reactor finally flared to life. Beñat stayed behind to stabilize it manually. The man has nerves of tungsten. While I was admiring a particularly artistic patch of corrosion on a bulkhead, DATO’s voice echoed through the comms:
 
“Reactor output stable. Initiating avatar construction.”
 
A machine in the corner of the command center whirred to life—some kind of bio-synthetic printer. Within minutes, it fabricated a humanoid form. Not as advanced as Dora, but… convincing. Uncanny. Like a person made by someone who’d only read about people.
 
It opened its eyes.
“I am now operational in a mobile form. Thank you for your assistance.”
 
We’re no longer talking to a voice in the walls.
Now it’s got a face.
 
We left the rust-and-spore-choked ruins of Midgard behind us, climbing through a blood-red sky on a pillar of fire. Below, the planet sprawled like an open wound—a nightmare landscape of Jred biomass and dead dreams. I’ve seen infested worlds before, but this one… this one feels hungry. Dr Aris has set up her initial lab in the "main" facility we found D.O.T. in. She crazy.
 
Breaking atmo was a relief. No more spores. No more whispering red vines. Just the clean, cold black.
 
The moon hung ahead—a grey, pockmarked sentinel orbiting a dead world. D.O.T.—the newly minted android body of the Dictys Operational Terminal—sat calmly in the co-pilot’s chair. It’s… impressive. Not like Dora, who’s more person than machine. D.O.T. looks human—smooth synthetic skin, natural posture, relaxed hands. But there’s a stillness to it. A quiet that feels a little too perfect. Still, it’s a far cry from the clanking drones and stiff servos I was expecting.
 
We set down on the moon without a whisper. No atmosphere, no weather. Just dust and darkness. D.O.T. led the way across the regolith, moving with an unnerving grace. No stumble, no uncertainty. Just purpose.
 
The facility was a brutalist slab of permacrete and radiation shielding—no windows, no welcome mat. At the facility’s main airlock, D.O.T. didn’t break stride. A barely visible seam opened along its temple—no drama, no sparks—and it retrieved a slim data wafer, sliding it smoothly into the access port. Its eyes didn’t flicker. It didn’t tremble. It just… waited.
 
The door opened without a sound.
 
“The atmosphere was purged during the Ragnarok Protocol, to prevent biological contamination,” D.O.T. explained, its voice calm, almost warm. “Gravity is minimal. Please mind your step.” We stepped into the dark. Our suit lights cut beams through the dust-filled stillness, illuminating a cavernous hangar filled with silent, shrouded shapes—skeletons of ships and machines from a dead war.
 
The only sound was the rasp of our own breathing. The only company, a doll with a dead man’s voice (assuming it's not entirely synthetic). We’re in. Now we just have to find what we came for—and hope what’s left here doesn’t find us first. We head to the right after entering the airlock to security controls to secure the facility before we flick on switches and trip some sort of automated systems.
 
The facility is in pretty good condition. No past jobs done. Hasn't been disturbed in 425 years – unopened in centuries. A thin layer of dust permeates the place, leftover from when it was inhabited. We get to a small security office, a terminal and a desk. The automated systems are being run out of this terminal, although the interface is off. "Can I just go log on to this terminal, D.O.T.?"
 
"Might trip a system, but worth a try"
 
The button pulls up a holo-display. IT gives us a rundown of the currently operating security systems. Currently, 6 security-sized bots like the dog-sized ones on the planetary facility are patrolling. More are in reserve. Doesn't look like we have to worry about the Vendetta-class drones.
 
We restore doors and life support (I feel my weight return to me). Lights are harder, and we gotta restore the system one by one. D.O.T. is eventually able to activate the backlog.
 
"Error. We do not have enough resources to handle the backlog."
 
Looks like they were manufacturing Jump Drives for seven ships, six of the same class as ours in the 200-ton weight range, and one 600-ton vessel we've not seen before with a similar layout but twice the size.
 
Finally, the lights are turned on. None of us is comfortable taking the suits off – yet. With the restored life support, we move about the facility more easily. Not every space has artificial gravity.
 
So, we have seven pristine ships, all missing their jump drives. Just sitting in this facility. The makings of a fleet.
 
Castor mentions that he knows a guy on Miracle who could help out, so we make the repairs that we can to our ship in this facility and then head back. We radio to Dr. Thorne before heading out to ask if she needs anything – she asks for a spare vaccsuit in case the spores break through hers.
 

Continue reading...

  1. Bringing the Fight to Them
  2. Personal Log - New Year, New Shipping Codes
    2nd of January, 4500
  3. Lots of Dead Bodies
    2nd of January, 4500
  4. Personal Log
    9th of January, 4500
  5. Personal Log: Ship Upgrades on Mehen
    10th of January, 4500
  6. Personal Log: The Kumarbi Conspiracy
    17th of January, 4500
  7. Heading into the Unknown
    28th January 4500
  8. The Expedition Begins
    18th of February, 4500
  9. Faxi
  10. Eldanea System + Pariahan Fronts
    4th of March, 4500
  11. Against the Solanian Survey Corp
    18th of March, 4500
  12. Obligatory Water Level
    20th of March, 4500 CE
  13. Aidan Thorpe Arrested
    8th of April, 4500
  14. Leunus Prime
    15th of April, 4500 CE
  15. Impounded on Catta Primae
    25th of April, 4500 CE
  16. Captain's Log: Communications officer detained
    7th of June, 4500 CE
  17. next steps
    14 June 4500
  18. the Mistake (the Planet)
    21st of June, 4500
  19. Licking our wounds in Wild Space
    18 September, 4500
  20. Wow, Civilised Space!
    5 October 4500
  21. Opus Dei strikes Guild science facility
    19th of November, 4500
  22. Hey Geneviève (sup, Hüsnü)
  23. Extra-judicial shipping in the Union of Sol
    7 December, 4500
  24. Derelict space Station - Shiva Rao
    11th December, 4500
  25. Welcome to the Aseni Republic of Vega
    16th of December, 4500
  26. Returning with the spoils of salvage
    11th of January 4501
  27. Fancy Auction
  28. Peter joins the Military-Industrial Complex
  29. Operation Murder Galvao [TOP SECRET]
    9th of April, 4501
  30. I'm at Soup
  31. Taking down Galvao
    18th of April, 4501
  32. Xin Heinan Occupied
    May 6th, 4501
  33. THIS MAIL RUN WENT FULL CHAOS MODE! (GONE WRONG? GONE SEXUAL? GONE CLASSIFIED?!) [NOT CLICKBAIT] [100% LEGIT]
    14 May 4501
  34. Save us, Aidan
    16th of May, 4501
  35. Making the Trek to the Jred Frontier, pt 1
    19th of May, 4501
  36. Guerilla Journalism
    20th of May, 4501 CE
  37. Water Crisis on Actium
    12 June 4501
  38. Just your typical vaporator delivery
    13 June 4501
  39. VapeTech® Infiltration: Operation "Clawed Opportunity"
    15 June, 4501 CE
  40. Veii vs VapeTech®
    16 June, 4501 CE
  41. Killer Robot v. Big Bomb
  42. Onwards, to Jred Space!
    26 August, 4501 CE
  43. Arrival on Midgard
    2nd of September, 4501 CE
  44. Jackpot! Lots of ships!
    3 September, 4501
  45. Upgrades, people. Upgrades.
    24th of September, 4501
  46. Merc Doods
    10th October, 4501
  47. Merc Doods 2
    11 October 4501
  48. Merc Doods 3: The Merckening
    11 OCtober, 4501

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2025 [en] | Anvil Time: 04:43, Dec 20 2025