Here’s the story:
Story 3 To the Unknown
MTACs (Mechanized Torso-Actuated Chassis) are metal exoskeletons used for heavy duty mining work. They are armed with mining lasers and can be remote controlled or worn by miners.
MTACs make for effective emergency weapons in combat, as they are heavy, virtually immune to anti-personnel laser weapons, and have large, dangerous claws. Some have surface cling abilities that allow them to maneuver in zero gravity.
The spoke bomb is a weaponizable tool used in rescue operations.
It consists of supercompressed constructs of interconnected tritanium pins encased in an isolated chamber, with a small discharger set at their center. When a spoke ruptures and the tritanium comes into contact with air (or the encased backup pocket of oxygen contained within the bomb), it expands violently, blowing away anything in its immediate vicinity. The tritanium spokes click into place and form a complex prismic polyhedron, similar to a hubless wheel. The spokes are perfectly balanced, and effectively create a hole in a wall through which a person can pass.
It should be noted that they are not biased in operation, and will not distinguish between a hole created in a wall, a crumbling piece of metal wreckage, or someone’s torso.
NewEden Concise & Comprehensive Encyclopedia
YC127.3
PART I
“Nothing is more dangerous than a gang of capsuleers, without a doubt.”
Diary of Rennit Hage
YC127.3.7
“In these days, the drifters are attacking the whole NewEden. CONCORD has already encouraged capsuleers to defend our homeland, But the situation remains severe……” As the clock reached EVE time 0720, a front-projected holographic displayer played the live Scope news in Rennit’s bedroom. Everything seemed to be as usual as a normal day, and things were under full control.
When Rennit got off the bed, the curtain slid away, showing the view of the ship hanger. Rennit loves old things, which is closely related to him being an archaeologist. though most windows use electric fog glass. In the middle of the hanger, there was an Astero floating, and every single scar of the ship’s hull was clear. That’s Rennit’s everything, a Sisters of EVE faction frigate, and some worn-out components. He loves his ship and names her Tria. Though most of the ships need crews, frigates can be commanded by a single pilot. So, Rennit persists in working solo, since he needs to pay salary to an unnecessary crew.
After washing up and breakfast, Rennit went out of his apartment. The space station where he lives was small, located in a remote system named Renyn. The station got an unremarkable name----Planet X Moon 14 Chemal Tech Factory. While Rennit got to the docking port, a clear female voice appeared.
“Good morning Mr. Hage. The ship’s on-board system is already online, and most parts of the ship are working well, except the left lighting lamp and there are still cracks on the hull. In summary, the ship can work well in space.” It’s Auto, an AI program that had been trained by Rennit himself for years. She is a helpful assistant in all situations.
Rennit nodded, initiating the transport vehicle to Tria. After docking on Tria, the docking port opened automatically, and he walked to the bridge. The light on his ship was dim, which is not common, as he can remember every part of the ship’s instruction.
The bridge of Tria was very simple. Rennit likes to make things neat, forcing him to focus on his work. Also, he always complies with regulations, tiding him with seat belt. It prevents accidents while accelerating, as there are more than thousands of examples of being injured in the past fifty years.
“Auto, please send undock request to the C&C. Hope this time we don’t have to wait for an hour just like yesterday, it’s so unpleasant.”
“Roger that. I believe that C&C always let capsuleers to go first, and……Well, this time C&C permitted the undocking request. Surprisingly it only took us fifteen seconds.”
“Great. Maybe this time the good luck is with us.”
Within one second, a tractor beam connected with the ship, dragging it to the hanger door. Thanks to the inertial compensation system, the ship can offset some of the G-force caused by acceleration, or he will be blackout especially on a high-speed frigate.
Tria arrived at the door of the hanger, and Rennit was able to use the ship’s own plasma engine. He set the thrust to top and left the station. Because he works in wormhole space, he needs to scan out a wormhole. He released 8 scanning probes, founding cosmic signals. Luckily, the first signal was a wormhole, which means that he doesn’t need to waste his time anymore.
“Auto, prepare for warping to that wormhole at 25 kilometers and retract those probes. If the wormhole is a Triglavian one, just warp back as fast as possible.”
“Okay. Warp drive activating. Warping in 3, 2, 1, 0…”
Rennit felt dizzy. For most carbon-based organisms, warping is always uncomfortable, except capsuleers. There are medicines that can relieve this discomfort, but their manufacturers are not reliable, bringing great risk. Therefore, he never uses them.
“Sir, the onboard scanner hasn’t found a sign of Triglavian. It can be safe to go through the wormhole.” Auto reported as if the ship had gone out of the warping tunnel. Rennit nodded, commanding Tria into the wormhole. After the ship got into another side of the wormhole, he turned on the cloaking device. It is very dangerous in a wormhole space, because there won’t be CONCORD or navy to save him in any situation. It turns out that he is on his own.
“It seems like that we are safe, and the star is not going to affect us much.” Said Rennit, decloaking Tria and send out probes again. In wormhole systems, cosmic signals are a lot more common than high sec space, making the chance of getting rich much higher. The reason why Rennit was here is to found ancient sites or pirates’ servers that he can hack in and find precious products.
In a moment, he found an Angle Cartle server. Without a second thought, he warped to it. While warping, he kept scanning everything that could be found. Also, he made a navigation point in deep space for evacuation. As he was near the server, he scanned out a cargo hold that should not be there.
“Something must be wrong. Maybe somebody gave up before we came…■■■■, it must be a trap! Warp away to wherever we can go!” Shouted Rennit while the ship got to the server. The cloaking service he was using can’t work if there is anything 2500 meters, but that cargo hold is right in front of his ship, stopping him from cloaking.
“Two ships just decloaked! A Moa and a Cormorant! Capsuleer pilots commanded!” Auto reported.
Now things are much more complicated. Although decloaking can interfere with a locking system, both ships locked him down and warp disrupted him in a flash. He was not able to escape anymore.
“They fired! Our shield is getting low. We only have five seconds until they make it to the armor!”
Calm down, calm down, you will always find a way out, no matter what happened…
Rennit opened the reactive armor hardener and the armor repairer in overheating mode. Also, he released five of his EC-300 drones. He headed to the Moa with the 5MN microwarpdrive in full speed, locking down both ships. After the ship was 2000 meters to the Moa, he started to orbit it. The Moa’s railguns can’t spin that fast, so he only needs to handle the fire power of the Cormorant, which couldn’t take him down in a short time.
“Good choice, but…”
“Just be silent for a moment! I can handle this!”
Auto stopped talking. Rennit ordered drones to ECM those two ships, betting they will be ECMed. In the first round, drones stopped the Cormorant’s locking system, but the Moa’s locking system is still working. He needs to take another try, which is risky. The probability of success was only 15%.
It’s going to be crazy, but I can not lose. I’m not a capsuleers. I won’t be relieved. I must make it!
Everything he got was now counting on those ECM drones that only cost less than a hundred thousand ISK in total. Luckily, Rennit made it. He ECMed the Moa, stopping its disruption of his warping core.
“Alright, Auto, warp us to the position we set while warping. There is no need to retract those drones, there are still ten of them in the drone bay. We are save now.”
“Got it. It’s a miracle for us to survive. I will do the damage report while warping.”
“Great.” As Rennit spoke, Tria got into the warping mode. “Also, please remind me to write this whole thing in my diary. Now I have something to show off in front of other people, including capsuleers. But we are still going to work, this is not an excuse of resting.”
“Sure. Today the luck is with us.”
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PART II
“If you found anything that does not exist in the official database, you should contact the special investigation team. If you have made outstanding contributions, we will pay rewards.”
CONCORD Exploration Guide
YC127
“The ship’s status is not too the way bad. The reactor’s temperature is a little high, which is not a problem. But the armor was damaged hardly, so we need twenty minutes to fully repair it.”
“Okay, I can wait for that.”
As the ship got to the navigation point, Rennit started the armor repairer. After the armor was repaired, and the capacity was full, he sent out another group of scanners, searching for another server or relic.
While scanning, Rennit found something unusual. It was a new type of signal that he had not seen before.
“Auto, could you check this signal in our data base? I’m not sure about what it
is.”
“Yes sir, checking……Oh, something must be wrong, there is no matching data in the data base. The sensor might be abnormal after the conflict, but it seems like there is no problem with other signals. You can see the alpha wave is a little high, the zeta wave is too short. By the way, its signal strength does not match distance from us.
“So, you are talking about that the signal we are scanned is an unknown object?”
“Yes. According to the CONCORD Exploration Guide, we should contact them. They might pay for it.”
“Really? Then follow the rule and contact them. Whatever, let us check it out
first.” Rennit ordered those probes to scan out the signal. Although it’s difficult,
Rennit still finished the work in a few minutes.
“Now, set the warping course to that signal. Open the hardener and the covert
ops device.”
After warping, a large structure was Infront of him. It’s dark gray structure and
antennas turn out that Sleepers built it.
“I cannot find a power signal. I am quite sure that this structure was offline. I
Can’t understand why they turned it offline.”
“Do you think it’s safe for me to board it?”
“Don’t know. According to some stories, you might get killed. I think bringing a MTAC to stay with you is a good choice.”
“Good, can we hack in it?”
“No, we can’t. It’s offline, and if you want to enter it, you must take a computer and connect with it inside.”
“Sounds easy. Is there a way to get inside?”
“Of course! You can wear a spacesuit and break in it. The MTAC can help with
that. I can prepare them all for you.”
Rennit nodded, heading to the airlock. After getting into a spacesuit, he opened the airlock and got into the space. On his right side, there was a MTAC adsorbing on the ship. Its mining laser was modified to cut hard materials.
“Now you got the full control of the ship. Stay close to the structure, and
prepare for emergency evacuate.” Rennit operated the command by the
microcomputer on his left arm.
“What? It’s illegal! AIs are not allowed to take full control of a ship! The rogue drones are examples!”
“Yeah, I know, but here is the w-space, no one will blame us. Also, I trust you, I trained you.”
“No, I can’t…” “Do what I say! It’s an order, just do that, nothing big!”
“Okay, just for a while. I’m not going to act unless it’s necessary…”
“That’s right. I’m sure that you can handle it.” Rennit operated his posture
adjustment device, heading to the Sleeper’s structure. After he contacted the armor,
he active the magnetic attraction device. He stood up, just like standing in a
metal desert with a smooth surface.
He took the MTAC controller that was hanging around his waist and command
the MTAC to move to his front.
Hope the laser can break the armor.
After aiming the laser, He activated the laser. There was a little electromagnetic
interference to his electronics, which is normal. In a moment, a small red point
appeared, and became bigger. The laser was invisible. Many people in high sec
though lasers can be seen, but the truth is that the light beams are simulated by
computers. They hardly see lasers with their own eyes.
A minute later, He stopped the laser and checked the hole he had made. It’s
too small. He can never break in. He must find another way.
“Auto, is there anything that can be helpful to use?”
“Sure, you can try the spoke bombs. It might work.”
“Good, but how can I get those?”
“You can check the MTAC’s emergency kit, there should be a dozen.”
Rennit opened the kit. The kit was very cluttered, since those things wasn’t
checked for years. After searching randomly, he finally found them. He fastened one of them and got MTAC and himself 20 meters away. He activated it. With a
big explosion, a hole appeared.
“According to the research, the drifter base’s armors are about 64000mm thick.
The hole was about 10000mm, so it’s possible for you do reach the hull.”
“Thanks for that.”
He activated another five spoke bombs. All of them done their work perfectly,
making the hole about 60 meters deep.
“Almost there but be careful of the next blow. There might not be a damage
control module. It is possible to generate a huge airflow.”
“Got it.” Rennit activated the seventh spoke bomb. This time, the explosion was bigger.
“Great! Now you can enter the hull. There’s no air in that room anymore. It’s
inner gate closed to prevent more gas losing.”
He walked down the hole and stepped into the room. He never wondered that he could be the 41st human from NewEden to board a Sleeper’s structure.
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Forum is not friendly to the one who copy things from docx, and the docx one looks much better.
Could you give me any advice?
Thanks for reading!