Day 53.
The beat was bumping. The trumpets were blaring. The synthesizers were harmonizing. The machines were humming and moving to the music.
Thomas stood on a platform he had constructed, and danced to his disco track blaring in his helmet. Every so often, he pointed downward, pulled the trigger of the build gun, and dragged it to another point.
Furnace. Furnace. Furnace. Belt. Belt. Constructor. Constructor.
The trees had been cleared away, and now concrete foundations stretched out a distance from the HUB. A new storage container outside acted as Mike's new drop-off point from his miners, and conveyors brought the raw ore to furnaces. Multiple. Built in moments. Those furnaces now brought their finished bars straight to a row of constructors. Hooked up to power, which took another few clicks to set up power poles and cable, those constructors were now working in unison, spitting out Iron Plates, Rods, Screws, and Wire.
Walls went up around the side facing the spider cave, and belts weaved on through. A section was cordoned off for limestone, and Thomas was happy to kiss the days of smashing up rocks good-bye as they began to pour out bags of concrete.
And he danced. Looking out at what could now be considered a factory, Thomas felt alive. He felt useful. He felt in control.
Until a tap on his shoulder jolted him back into reality. His brain felt the cold, hairy touch of one of the spider legs, and he jumped back, startled. Only as he began to fall from his perch could he see the confused helmet visor of Clint disappear as he fell to the factory floor below.
He shut his music off, and by the time he had recovered his breath and made sure he was uninjured, Clint had made his way back down.
"Alright, Alright," said Clint, "Keep your ancient shit off, Patel. We have work to do! I need to talk to you about this thing."
"Alright," moaned Patel.
"First off, this is incredible," said Clint, "Second, we need to actually be making a plan on how we are going to design this factory. It felt as if it was years away a moment earlier, but now we are a hammer-throw away from making a real difference."
"I'm up for anything," said Thomas, "Perhaps ADA has a program where we can design a layout and figure out how we-"
"No such luck, lad," said Clint, "We'll have to use our old fashioned imagination and communication. However, all of this can wait if we don't solve the power problem."
"Power problem?" asked Thomas.
Just then a switch blew, and all the machine grinded to a halt. The hum of the factory lowered in pitch, and slowly everything stalled out.
"Energy problem," said Clint.
"It's not a problem, I'll just make another few biomass burners," said Thomas.
"Actually, that isn't the problem," said Clint, helping Thomas to his feet, "We keep coming up short because we don't have enough fuel. Mike and Simone have been running ragged while you've been playing 'Teleston Nights' up there. I'm afraid we need to discuss something."
Clint brought him back to the HUB terminal, and scrolled through the terminal to find what he was looking for.
"Here we are," he said, "Coal Power. When you pinged it last, I saw some Coal veins were picked up on the resource scanner. It isn't too far off, but it won't be easy. We need to make a plan, a good one, and we need to get this factory up and working soon."
"Alright, so why don't you and Mike head down to the spot you saw and I can stay with Simone back here and-"
"Look, lad, we have a problem with that too," said Clint.
He turned around to the craft bench, and he placed his rifle down on the bench. Taking out the cartridge, he showed Thomas. There was only a handful of rounds left inside.
"Ok," said Thomas.
"We're out," said Clint, "There are ways to make weapons like this one, but we need more supplies. Which means the trip could be dangerous."
"I don't like that," said Thomas.
"It's why I need to come up with a plan. You go help the others with gathering biofuel," said Clint, "I'll come up with a plan on keeping the power on for good. And I'll oversee the next few milestones being sent up while we're at it."
Clint stood in front of the team out next to the hub. Thomas looked nervously around. Simone pet Hari carefully on his head. Hari's multiple eyes lazily scanned around the group.
"Alright, I need solid ideas," said Clint, "If they don't start flowing, I'll have to call on somebody."
"Look, I don't see why Ficsit can't resupply us," said Thomas, "There's a big satellite up there. Can't we tell it we're out of bullets and need it for the hostile environment?"
"Unfortunately, no. Ficsit tried to supply the Pioneers with some materials and gear to ensure they can survive," said Clint, "The whole reason we were even provided a rifle is most likely because of the hostile environment. We'll be expected to progress far enough in our operations to build and defend ourselves if needed."
"Why not a vehicle?" asked Simone, "We could make an airship and float to the coal! Than we could become the first Pirates on Massage-2!"
"I... ok. Let's circle back around to aircraft," said Thomas.
"Ficsit does not approve of Pioneer piloted aircraft," said Clint.
"The logistics of providing Pioneers a pilots license is too labor intensive and training intensive for Ficsit Incorporated," said ADA, "For the liability it would cause. Ficsit Incorporated has provided some options for wheeled-transport more in line with Pioneer training standards."
"Too hard to fly," said Clint, "But they'll give any idiot a driver's license."
"Alright, this is a path," said Thomas, "What about a wheeled vehicle? We can make one of those and be safe from harm."
"Perhaps, that isn't a terrible plan," said Clint, "But we an barely keep out generators fueled. Am I supposed to trust we can fuel some type of truck?"
"Never fear, lady and germs," came the triumphant voice of Mike exiting the equipment workshop, "For I have a solution to our many woes."
"Mike, we've talked about this," said Thomas, "You cannot address the team like-"
"What is our biggest reason we can't just go across the planet to that coal spot?" asked Mike.
"Distance," said Clint.
"Spiders!" said Thomas.
"Destiny," whispered Simone.
"I'll have to give it to Thomas, I think," said Mike, "But Critters! In just a little bit of walking we've come up against mean hogs and quick and creepy spiders. Who knows what else is out there in the great unknown?"
"Don't remind me," Thomas put his hand on his churning stomach.
"But, Alas," said Mike, "I have solved our problem. Self defense! No longer need we rely on Foreman Clint."
"Is it a gun?" said Clint, "I'm unsure how impressed I can be if it is nae a gun."
"It's these!" said Mike, producing a series of tasers for everyone, "I found the recipe for my Ficsit Inc Xeno-Zapper and made everyone one! Now we each have something to ward off the creatures!"
Everyone accepted one from Mike. Clint and Thomas looked unimpressed, but Simone was wielding it like a laser sword.
"Thanks, Mike," said Clint, "This is really helpful, but I'm afraid we're going to need more than a sparkler to protect us."
"I agree," said Mike, "Which is why I am stepping up as role of protector here. I also found something that took me a while to figure out, but thanks to Aida, I was able to assemble it."
Mike lifted up from behind his back, a long object that looked almost like a baton. It was made up of a handle Thomas recognized as that of the 'Xeno Zapper' he was just handed, however it had an extension of three rods. At the other end, it had the dual pincers of the taser. At a flick of Mike's wrist, the object came to life, shining a dull blue color while electricity streaked up its length similar to a Jacob's ladder. The object now gave off a dull hum.
"And, presto!" said Mike, "Ficsit brand Xeno-Basher. The best way to solve your problems with violence!"
"You made a laser sword?" asked Simone.
"No, that would be made of light and would be copy righted," said Mike, "This is more like a taser-sword."
"I hate it," said Clint.
"Does it work?" asked Thomas.
"I just turned it on, for the demonstration," said Mike, "I have not a clue if it'll be effective, but it's durable and bigger than those tasers."
"Mike," said Clint, "Why did ye not think to make one for each of us?"
Mike held his hand to his chest as if offended, "Foreman! This took a lot of time and effort to make. Besides, I did make you all self defense weapons! Is that not enough?"
"No," said Thomas and Clint together.
"He who wields the sword," mumbled Simone, "Rules the land..."
"Simone!" barked Clint.
"Look, this will help us keep safe from the baddies of the world," said Mike, "With this thing, Tom and I can easily-"
"Hell no! I'm not going!" said Thomas, "There's more of those things out there! There's no way!"
"Thomas Patel," said Clint, "We all have to make sacrifices. Besides, you're the one who knows how to use the fae gun."
"If that's what it takes someone else have it," said Thomas, "I'll stay here and finally finish orientation."
"Out of the question," said Clint, "Look, I'd love to spare someone to go with you, I really would. However, while you are gone, we need more Build Guns to keep up our fast paced recovery. Simone believes there might be one tucked away inside her drop pod, and I want to have a go at the other two we found before meeting you two."
"Sounds like a job for me," said Thomas, "We shouldn't split up! We should do both these tasks, together."
"I'm afraid I must overrule you," said Clint, "Fortify, Patel."
"Think of it like this, partner," said Mike, "You'll be with the guy with a sword! You'll be much safer."
"What in our history on this planet makes you believe that?"
"It'll be fun! Now let's go find something to hit with this stick!" and Mike walked away from the group.
"Well, well, site meeting adjourned," said Clint, "Thomas, make sure Gunn doesn't needlessly die."
Clint walked away, leaving Thomas with a humming Simone.
"Surely you think this is madness, too?"
Simone looked to Thomas before singing,
"Cover your eyes, oh!
The Oloro is coming, oh!
Go and hide, oh!
Should I open them?
Whoever he finds will be killed, oh!"
"Oh, space jesus!" said Thomas, stepping back from her, "What the hell, Simone!"
"You need to stop worrying, Thomas," said Simone, "If you cannot stop relying on everyone else to protect you, than how will you be strong enough to protect them when they need you?"
"Hey, I'm not supposed to be here!"
"But you are here," said Simone, "And not a single person around you has the power to change that. So, puff out your chest and get to it. Turn the power on so we can work toward getting you home."
Simone added as she walked away, "He may wield the sword, but the only substitute for power, is power."
Thomas rolled his eyes, "As usual, an abundance of help, that one."
Thomas felt the heavy weight of the taser in his hand. He carefully made his way through the brush right behind Mike, and it still didn't feel real. The thought of them heading so far away from camp worried him, deeply.
Mike, on the other hand, was ecstatic. If was as if he thrived off of the exploration. He charged ahead. He climbed rocks for a better vantage point. He chopped away bushes and shrubs to make a better path. He gathered these strange nuts he believed to also be edible.
"This is exciting," said Mike, "The whole reason we set out to the stars."
"To work at a tier one planet as an HR drone?"
"Adventure!"
"Nope."
"Danger!"
"Oh, absolutely not me."
"The thrill of discovery and the unknown!"
Thomas sighed, "There's no way you actually believe that."
"And why not?" said Mike, "We're living like our ancestors! Living off the land. Just two manly men, and their dog."
Hari, who had begun to recognize 'dog' as a word directed at or for them, came barreling out of the brush to walk closer to the two men. The looked around with their tongue hanging out, trying to guess if a treat was in their future.
Thomas gave them a light pet before returning his attention to the path ahead.
"You aren't worried about anything? How about everything that has gone wrong since we touched down on this planet?"
Mike shrugged, "We've been doing pretty well. You have a magic Bob-The-Builder Gun. I have this sweet laser sword. Clint is happy at the idea we could actually catch up if not somehow get ahead on out projections. Simone... is Simone."
"We crashed on the planet," said Thomas, "It feels like we're not supposed to be here. Why am I going through all this again?"
"I don't know, feel like you have some real issues," said Mike, "But don't worry little buddy. We won't let you fall into the abyss."
"Thaaaayaaaaaaaaa!"
On the other side of the bushes, Thomas dropped off the edge of a large cliff. Mike was barely able to reach out and grab him. Thomas dangled, grasping desperately at Mike's forearm.
"Heh, see?" said Mike, "Won't letcha... fall."
"Pull me up!" shouted Thomas, "Pull me up!"
With great effort, Thomas was yanked up from the cliffside. He sat down, and gasped for air. Mike patted his back, and taking out his chainsaw to clear a variety of trees and debris so they could get a better look at the cliff.
"That was close," said Mike.
"Why didn't you tell me?" said Thomas.
"How was I supposed to know?" asked Mike.
Mike gasped, looking out beyond the cliff. Thomas followed his gaze, and held a breath of his own.
The view was magnificent. From their spot on the cliff, they could see the forest dip into a valley below. In the distance, other valleys and hills could be spotted, their trees providing a splash of green and blue. In the far distance, a group of trees peaked up into the air, showing their red leaves. Massive stone archways stretched great distances, looking like a natural masterpiece. Thomas could even spot a massive waterfall pouring off a cliffside, some of the water turning into a fine mist at the bottom. In the distance, a large mountain stretched up into the horizon.
A shadow ran across the tree canopy, and Thomas' eyes were cast upward. Soaring through the air, a massive mantis-bird was spotted. Surrounded by smaller flying creatures, the creature, almost silently, glided over all they saw and cast a dark shadow over the land.
With the slightest tilt, it banked around, and headed off to Thomas' left. The large creature headed off into the distance, surrounded by its flying creatures.
"Wow," said Thomas, "What an amazing planet."
"I could not agree more," said Mike, "Wonderful and untamed."
"Almost," said Thomas, petting Hari who was sitting not far off.
Thomas raised up the Build Gun, and squeezed the trigger. The resource Scanner 'bong'ed into action, and a wave of blue spread out, into the valley ahead. Both men sat in silence for a few seconds, as the circle spread out into the distance. "Ping. Ping". Went the holograms on their hud. Tiny circles were triggered in the area ahead.
"There," mumbled Thomas.
"So close," said Mike, "And yet so far. We have to find a way down that doesn't involve falling."
"We'll just go around," said Thomas, "That way. We'll figure out a way."
Day 55.
Thomas was lying on the pipework. He stared into the skyline ahead. He listened to the steady banging of mike at the crafting bench he had built.
Next to him, the massive steam generator stretched into the sky. He tried to imagine what would have happened if Clint insisted they built it by hand if he hadn't learned about the build gun. It was much too big.
Down past his feet, he knew a water extractor sat in the stream running not far from them. It awaited the finishing of copper plates so they could finish connecting the pipeline.
Somewhere, Hari whined. He was trying to reach a specifically high berry plant, but he was unable to finish off the last pale berry.
Thomas rose, and fell from his position on the pipework. He walked down the length of the foundation to see where the crafting setup was being kept. To his annoyance, he saw several portable miners sitting next to the crafting area.
"Mike," said Thomas, "We talked about this. I thought you were making the copper sheets so we could finish this up!"
"Alright, I hear you, partner," said Mike, "However, let me offer you up something. Go to your Aida blueprints. Look up a 'Marki Miner'."
With a sigh, Thomas brought up his build menu on his HUD, and began to scroll through the choices. He eventually found a group called 'Miners', and saw one option, for the Mark I. Looking over the schematics, Thomas gave off a whistle.
"With a fancy conveyor port," said Thomas, "These things could make you obsolete, Mike. This could completely automate a great many of our things back at the HUB!"
"My thoughts are it could automate the bringing of coal to our generators!" said Mike, "We won't need to trade off staying the night here to make sure the machines are running all the time."
"Hey, that's," Thomas paused, checking his thoughts on the matter, "That's really clever. I didn't think of that."
"The more of us there is to run around and make things, the closer we'll get to getting you out of here. Or finishing the job we were sent here for."
Thomas picked up the heavy, portable miners and put them in his pocket dimension. He was beginning to feel the weight pulling on his suit, and he feared it was somehow filling up.
Thomas walked over to the two separate ore veins they had found. Carefully, he arranged the Miners pulled the trigger on the build gun. In a matter of moments, the large miners rose into view and stretched high above Thomas. The conveyor ports were pointed towards their generator.
Thomas was flicking through his options when he came across a vehicle section. His heart jumped at the image of a tractor.
"A Tractor!" he exclaimed, "Hey, Mike, we can get a vehicle!"
"Great!" said Mike back, "But I got those copper sheets. Let's worry about getting the power back up before we worry about some slick wheels."
Thomas quickly hooked up a couple of conveyor belt mergers and attached the two miners. With a single line, he attached conveyor poles down to the foundations, and into the steam generator. Taking the copper sheets from Mike, he also quickly finished their pipeline and hooked up to the first generator.
"Alright, let's get the Biomass burners going, and get this party started," said Thomas.
"Hook it up and I'll flip the switches," said Mike, "Otherwise, they are all set to go!"
It took Thomas moments to hook up their new generators to power poles and those poles to the small "power grid" they had created. Mike was given a thumbs up, so he flipped the switches on the Biomass Burners, and filled the small system with power.
As those burned, slowly the machines were thrown into motion. It took a few moments, but the water extractor began to spin, and it began to absorb water from the river and force it up through the pipes. The drills on the fixed miners also began to spin, and the miners slowly lowered them into the planet's soil.
They waited for some time, watching as the pipes began to fill, and eventually the first of the water began to pour into the steam generator. They had pre-filled it with coal earlier, so it would be ready to turn on as soon as it could. As the water extractor came up to full speed, water came pouring in, and the steam generator began to hum, and come to life.
It hiccupped a little at first, but in no time the smoke stack began to belch smoke, and the generator was in full swing. Mike clapped and hollered, much to the excitement of Hari who did not understand what was happening. Thomas smiled as he viewed their power readout from a power pole. This single generator was producing a monstrous amount of power from what they had been getting. He smiled, delighted they had succeeded.
"Well, let's get back, I suppose," said Mike, "Looks like everything is going well. Look."
Down the conveyor belt, small amounts of coal were already beginning to appear. They were brought down to the generator, and the conveyors automatically began filling the generator. The pipes were beginning to get full and backed up as well, the water extractor doing its job well.
"Hey," said Thomas, "How many more of these do you think we could get?"
"How many more?" asked Mike, he scratched his helmet to mime thinking, "I don't know for sure. Maybe one or two more without risking what we have?"
Thomas nodded, "Alright, maybe we should get a few more going before we leave. I don't want to camp out here again, but I also think we can avoid coming back here to expand if we just have all the extra power now and we won't have to deal with it later."
Mike nodded in agreement, "Can't argue with that thinking, Amigo. Yall bring up a solid point. Let me check the output of the miners and see what we can expect. You verify the output of the water extractor. If the math adds up, let's get a few more generators, set 'em up, and forget them!"
Thomas twirled the build tool in his hand, "Sounds like a plan, Amigo."