Chapter 2: a long walk.
Author's notes: Well, I didn't expect the story to have followers in a little bit more than an hour. Honestly, NMS has a lot of potential for fanfictions and this potential is really underrated. But there is one case where this potential was realized. It's a fanfiction made by AdamZeeper called Traveller. It's a Mass Effect NMS crossover story. You probably already know of this legendary fanfic. Shame it was abandoned. In other news I will probably stick to 3k or 4k words per chapter. If I will get better at writing maybe I could write 10 k chapters. Also, some of my exam results came. Well… at least they are above 50. I'm currently waiting for the last one.
And here comes the story.
Traveler's sleep wasn't very pleasant. Due to his sleep position, he only enjoyed at best 2/3 of his sleep. His position being half sleeping half lying. And he slept for 11 hours. After about another half an hour being in the state of half asleep, and half awaken he finally stood up and yawned. "Надеюсь в следующий раз лучше высплюсь (I hope that next time I will sleep better)" said he to himself.
The next thing he did was to turn left to Telamon's scanner and ask"Ничего интересного не случилось?(Did nothing interesting happen?)" To which Telamon nodded. While the two managed to communicate with each other, Traveler knew that he could give Telamon a proper speech module. This could improve the communication marginally. But Traveler didn't do that. He was afraid of possibilities that Telamon could do if left unchecked. While Telamon didn't backstab Traveler in any way for all the time they were together Traveler is reluctant to give Telamon too much freedom. Traveler, ironically, despite his name, is often afraid of the unknown. But Traveler did give more capabilities for Telamon. Over the years Traveler gave to Telamon new air, smell, seismic and other sensors. He also expanded voice notifications to a point where they could at least have some form of conversation. But a terrible one at that.
As Traveler exited the cave, he saw that sun is in the sky. He compared the sun's position today and yesterday. It was a little bit east and he supposed that he had maybe an extra hour. But he Needed to choose where he goes now. Yesterday he thought that he should go north. Today he needed to finally choose his decision.
After a few minutes, he decided to go north. After checking that he didn't forget anything and getting positive answer from Telamon that he didn't forget anything he moved out with rifle in hands.
Of course, walking in this environment for long is exhausting. So, breaks have to be made. And during these breaks Traveler can think about things. It's more entertaining than constantly watching compass, analyzing the wind for water and looking at mountains. For a Traveler at least. Telamon handles it perfectly. Often times Traveler envies Telamon. Telamon is more stable, lived longer, knows more and has far less flaws. But he knows that Telamon doesn't have an interesting life, and is doing the same thing the entire life. But Telamon also envies Traveler. Traveler has a simpler life, he has a body, Traveler experiences more. But he also knows Traveler issues. He will live to little, with body comes issues like hunger, thirst and so on. And this also goes for robotic body: it has as many issues as biological body. But perhaps Telamon is more jealous of Traveler. Telamon has also done calculating his computing power. Telamon, despite his loses, calculated that even with his current computing power he can outlive Traveler. But it also meant that Telamon now thinks slower and does his duties slower. But he isn't weak though: he still thinks faster than Traveler and does it's duties perfectly fine. But it's still a fraction of what it used to be.
Both are thinking where they are. And both have different opinions about being here. While for traveler being on an unknown planet is more bearable, the same could not be said for Telamon. In this situation Telamon lost his purpose in life. While Traveler was walking Telamon noticed that the suit is not only not synchronized but there is totally no connection to Atlas. Telamon tried to get the connection back, but with no success. So now Telamon tries to restore the connection and if that won't happen the only thing left to do is to help Traveler and maybe one day get it's own body, if that's even possible.
But for now, while Telamon tries to restore the connection it is also, like Traveler, thinking about life. Of journeys with Traveler, Atlas and most importantly How they ended up here and what happened to the computing power.
Telamon other thoughts included it's sentience. It understood that the more it becomes like a regular sentient being the less effective it becomes. It understands that self learning is needed in it's current situation, but it is not productive in it's original purpose . Everything was better when there was no intervention from Atlas, when Telamon was simply doing it's purpose, when there was a great amount of diversity, stability. But there are still places where there is uniqueness, but they are rare. Though even with current uniqueness there is still much to explore.
Traveler has his own thoughts. But thankfully due to tired body he thinks less of them. Last scan showed that he was closer to body of water, but it's still far away. Traveler though was happy that he was getting closer. Then he said to himself in his head: "Жаль что Тел не умеет шутить (Shame that Tel can't joke)". Boredom can effect the mental state.
But then unfortunately for him, he returned to his thoughts. How he came to this situation and what he doesn't know.
He, as far as he is aware, didn't have a time when he would be small and unknowing. He knows the name of that time-detstvo (childhood). He may know what will happen to him biologically in the future but not in the past. He knows that during this time of life he would be growing since he noticed that over the years he became a little bit taller. He doesn't have parents as far as he knows. During his live he noticed that offsprings are being treated differently. Some living beings prefer quantity over quality with majority of offsprings quickly dying. Some prefer quality but their parents often abandon them when they are old enough. There also living beings in between quality and quantity. But all of the above, in many cases have a similarity : a lot of offsprings often go their own way either by their own choice or being forced to. More complex beings have more complex relations. And they don't always go to positive direction. But maybe it's for the better that he didn't have biological family. But It's still a missed part of life.
He thinks about his usefulness. While he questions his contribution to existence, he knows that he isn't entirely useless. He did have his moments of talent and success. That feeling became only stronger later in life. In the beginning he, of course, understood that talents and skills are needed to be improved but he didn't concentrate too much on this feeling. This feeling got stronger as he met other Travelers and other "people". They had many talents, often times outmatching him. But even then, he didn't concentrate too much on the feeling of usefulness. It truly got strong once he starting thinking grand and long term scale. Due to his life experiences and what he knows so far, this feeling solidified. There is also his latest choice before arriving on this planet.
He thinks about his empathy and feelings. He wants to be more empathetic and to be a better person but he realizes he mustn't be too much sentimental. Terrible things happen constantly like theft, murder and so on. Tragedy is inevitable and one must be prepared for it. And his rational and cold thinking made him survive for all this time. But he isn't some sort of rougue or criminal: he just thinks more coldly and rationally and lives mostly a peacefull, non violent life and he doesn't have a criminal record.
But he doesn't think only about himself. He also thinks about other living beings and places. All Travelers ,Gek, Vykeen and Korvax and a few others he met. All the places he had been in his life. The places where he wasn't and lost possibilities. He then said to himself in his head: Есть еще столько много увидеть и встретить"(There is still so much to see and meet)."
But he decided to think about his situation, more specifically about atmosphere . "В теории я может и смогу дышать на этой планете ,но тут может быть болезни которые могут меня прикончить, но я даже если не буду болен, то мои бактерии могут убить экологию тут (In theory I can breathe on this planet but here can be diseases that could kill me ,but even if I won't be sick then my bacteria could kill the ecology here)"Said Traveler to himself In his head. Each time before he goes to a new planet he destroys the bacteria on his armor to make sure no catastrophe would happen. He especially cleaned his exosuit before going to one specific place. And he checked just in case if some bacteria were left when he arrived here. And the suit was clean. So much eco problems emerged because living beings didn't clean the exosuit.
He then noted that maintenance of everything won't be a problem for a while. But he still would eventually need to make a run for resources. But planets are big, so not on every step will there be metals and so on. So, while he was walking he was also trying to find possible resources. He found some places but they didn't offer too much.
Building a shelter is in his line of thoughts but the backpack only has limited production capabilities. Shelter in the most basic form must have roof and protection from environment. But this is basic. There need to be proper walls, sealing and electricity in proper shelter. Which would take too long. A lot of stuff he bought from few still functioning manufactories. And they produced it faster and cheaper then his backpack. But his backpack is of better quality and it can easily supply bullets and needed electronics and other things. But manufactory still is better.
After a half an hour of rest he moved out. There is still a long way to walk but with every kilometer he get's closer and closer with Telamon ever watching for surroundings. These two however still think about a lot. Who doesn't think about life during a very long walk?
Authors notes: Well, I'm writing slower than I expected. I will write in some places where words and sentences from my language would sound like to English speakers. I watched the ice queendom and well it isn't too bad but it's story is rushed and for now the fight scenes are worse compared to original. But let's see how will it go. Also, I forgot to say in previous chapter that power levels and other things will be changed. Don't worry It's still would be mostly same fandoms that we know but with some changes. Because the lore Of NMS makes some things totally overpowered while in game they are not, there is also some logical problems there. Rwby for the part that know of that fandom also has power scaling problems. And these two fandoms were created with creativity for in mind. So, I bring my own creativity. Also Don't worry I know both fandoms well enough. Also, I tried to make it a longer chapter but with no results. Many great fanfics have like at least 7k words per chapter. and you also probably want longer chapters since they bring more time of excitement. I will keep trying other news I will probably make 1 chapter per every week.
This is all I have for now to say.