Chapter 3: animals do exist here.

Author's notes: One person didn't understand by what I meant computer power. So I'm saying this to those who also might be confused. In this case computing power means computer capabilities. Telamon's situation can be described as this: From factory A was taken a lot of equipment to factory B. Factory A is still functional but it's not as productive as it used to be. Now Telamon is less capable AI but it is still quite advanced. And for now of course I won't tell why Atlas did this and why Telamon doesn't have any connection to Atlas . Also there is other reason that I write at this speed. Rwby still has couple of seasons to make and it would take quite a while to finish them. Also I watched teaser of the latest season of RWBY and I'm interested what would happen next. Probably some of you think that the mc is self insert. Which isn't true. The mc is my Traveler in game. And we are different and I hope that it would stay that way.

And here comes the story.

Traveler and Telamon at this point have been on this planet for a while. And they figured out the time cycle already. Traveler calculated that the day consists of roughly almost 24 hours. And now they are in more colder terrain. By more colder means the temperature is 7C degrees colder during time when sun shines the most. And there was a higher percent of moisture. But there are still mountains and high temperature. Not a great change but it's better nonetheless.

Currently Traveler is "standing" on a mountain. By standing it means holding onto a rock above and praying that he won't slip over the edge that he is currently standing on. As he was standing new scan of wind came to his Hud: the percentage of moisture is getting bigger and the wind is getting stronger as he goes more and more north. Now Traveler was happy to finally get to stable ground.

But he didn't only look for wind and temperature he also looked at rocks. Rocks can tell quite a story: From how wind changes them, how temperature affected them and so on. And these rocks were pretty much the same as others he saw: the moisture is a little bit higher but there is nothing else.

After some time he got to the lower more stable ground and he continued to go north.

Traveler was thinking about what would be there. What is certainly good is that environment protection system would probably require less maintenance. That he knows. But other things… . What kind of possible animals will be there? Is there civilization? He tried to get some connection when he was on mountains and frequencies didn't work. He thought that if it civilization exists, then there could be other frequenters. If all of that exists here. He is thinking if he ended up in a technologically primitive society. He doesn't deny that possibility either. But this got him thinking. What is advanced? To primitive lifeform even a gun would seem like something made by God. What if the same situation is with Atlas? What if it's just misinformation and everything is fine with the part of existence he knows? Considering the life experiences Traveler has gone through he wishes this possibility to be real. There was a possibility that life on this planet isn't complex enough to create civilization. In this case he would be alone with some animals. This got him thinking about loneliness. At first it isn't too bad but the fact is he learned that he isa a social creature, he needs to talk to others on fundamental level. He did learn how to cope with that feeling but the fact being that even if Telamon could speak it would still be lonely.

But then he remembered one funny important thing: he didn't have currently any financial debt. He chuckled to that. During life he did have debts but he did eventually pay them off. Those were grueling times of work. Even with this whole situation he is bit happier that at least he doesn't have any debt at the moment.

Then he returns to the present. There is still a long way to go.

Later he got into another place. Traveler was looking around. So did Telamon. Telamon being an AI could see better than his organic companion. As it was looking Telamon noticed something off in the distance on a hill. Telamon zoomed in and saw a small living being with black, white, yellow and red orange colors, it had 3 tails, was quite small, had one eye and was approaching fast towards their position.

Then Telamon said to Traveler:" Приближается неизвестное существо с севера, встреча через приблизительно 20 секунд (Incoming unknown creature from north, contact in about 20 seconds)."

Traveler looked and saw that creature. Or what could be seen from this distance. He decided to unlock the rifle and set it to stun rounds. Stun rounds being electricity.

As he was doing that Telamon tried to study the creature from this distance as best as possible. Telamon studied more and from the looks of it, it would be only an annoyance to Traveler. But Telamon knows that the look of that creature would be more terrifying to Traveler. Telamon itself doesn't fear the look of creatures it sees because it doesn't have instinct to fear the ugly and terrifying. But Traveler does have fears.

And as Telamon was looking at the creature, Traveler was prepared to shoot and raised the shields just in case.

And then the Traveler saw that little creature. It was "roaring" and it looked ,as it seemed to him, prepared to attack. And even from this distance from what he sees he couldn't call it beautiful.

He said:" По крайней мере лучше чем биологический ужас(At least it's better than biological horror)."

And now it was closer.

Traveler decided to make a warning shot using his targeting computer.

But the creature didn't stop.

He decided to make a second shot but know it was intended to hit. But he had to focus: the target was fast and small. He hoped that it would hit.

But it didn't

Now it was even closer.

And then Traveler saw that creature in it's full terrifying glory.

Which prompted to shoot more.

The third was a misfire but the forth did hit. But the creature kept moving

And the fifth shot managed to disable it.

Now the creature was in pain and for now disabled. Stun bolts were intended to be used on larger more dangerous target than this creature and expectedly it would have more effect on it. And Telamon and Traveler could study it more now. Telamon Immediately began scanning it. And as Telamon was scanning it new data came: the creature at first appeared normal but the deeper the scan went the more it turned out that it's very different from Traveler's biology.

Traveler of course was also studying it but he kept fingers on the trigger. And in one of the moments the creature started to recover and tried to attack with it's tails but Traveler stunned it this time. Traveler doesn't fanatically attack animals: he attacks if only attacked and prefers to stay at a distance from animals. But he is willing to stand his ground.

But before further study could be made the creature started to fade away leaving only dark dust behind. And now the" remains" spread into the air

Traveler took a few steps away from the dark dust.

After a few seconds, there was nothing remaining of the creature. Even that dust

Traveler said to himself:"Чтож, это необычно. В следующий раз надо снизить мощность снарядов (Well, this is unusual. Next time the power of the rounds needs to be lowered)"

Telamon wanted to study it more and was ashamed that this creature couldn't be studied more. This creature is especially unique. Well was unique. Telamon hopes it will get a chance to study more like these in the future. If there is one specimen there should be more.

Traveler regretted that the creature died and blamed himself to be too aggressive ,but it tried to attack him as it seemed to him and he will forget this encounter in time. This isn't the first time he saw a life meeting it's end.

And he decided to move on

As he was prepared to continue walking Telamon said to him:"Приближаются существа с севера встреча через приблизительно 20 секунд(Incoming creatures from the north contact in about 20 seconds)"

Now Traveler saw more of this creature but now in bigger numbers. "Конечно, где есть один там есть и другие (Of course where there is one there are others)" Sighed Traveler to himself. And Telamon wanted to study this type of creature more.

As Traveler was aiming and preparing to fire he hoped that he didn't start some conflict with a civilization, government or something like that with these creatures. Evolution goes in many ways so why couldn't these creatures have a civilization. He also hopes that he isn't destroying rare creatures.

And the he fired.

Now shots were getting better because there are more targets. He then started to go away from them while he is shooting to have more ground between them. While stun rounds were hitting targets they weren't hitting enough and these creatures didn't care about being shot even when some stun rounds killed some of them.

He was now more open to the possibility of using boltcaster. They were getting closer.

And he decided to switch to boltcaster.

Then the results improved drastically. Now creatures were meeting plasma bolts. Each hit easily taking one of them or more. Plasma is deadly after all.

In many cases bolts went through creatures and then heating the terrain around. But despite all of this they didn't retreat. This was their undoing.

After the last creature was eliminated there was a lot of dark dust in the air.

Traveler and Telamon still don't understand why these creatures do that. Maybe some part of biology?

But Traveler didn't want surprises so he turned towards scanner and asked Telamon"Эта пыль на нас как то влияет?(Does this dust effect us in any way?"

To which Telamon shook his scanner.

Traveler was happy about that.

Then Traveler asked ""Что-то смог узнать насчет этих созданий?(Did you manage to learn something about these creatures?) To which Telamon shook his scanner.

Traveler sighed.

And now Traveler hoped that those were just some low intellect creatures who attacked on just instinct since he didn't want trouble. It might be bad to judge living being by intelligence criteria but sometimes it can be a measurement. But higher intellect doesn't mean full knowing. Traveler knows that he only sees only a part of color spectrum while some more primitive creatures can see more colors.

He then decided to switch to more practical topic The ammunition. Ammo indicator showed that in the rifle there are 33 bullets left. 1 he used for target practice on a rock and other 30 he used on these creatures. He has 8 magazines each holding 64 bullets so the maximum amount of bullets is 512 bullets. One magazine is in the rifle and there is also one magazine in the pistol. So on his belt are 6 magazines. But now he doesn't have 512 bullets due to the shooting it is now at 480 in total The other one bullet he used in pistol for on a rock. Then he checked stun rounds. The power dropped from 90 to 85 percent.

He then calculated the number of creatures and used ammunition on them. From what he saw there was like a few dozen of them. So that means each bullet rougly killed 1 of them. And his targeting computer helped him a lot here. He isn't a bad shot but targeting computer makes things easier.

Then he continued his path north now being more cautious and thinking of what else could he encounter.

Later he found another group of these creatures. But now he is hundreds of meters away from them with binoculars . These creatures were currently in a cave .

And as he was looking a small earthquake happened and rocks fell and closed the exit to the creatures.

He was happy that at least they are farther away. But he wants to know more about these creatures. Better sooner than later .He wanted to know their physical capabilities better since the only thing he knows is that they can be fast and resist stun rounds.

He waited for like an hour and was thinking that rocks did their jobs at destroying them. But then he noticed that ,as it appeared to be, those creatures were breaking through. Traveler was now looking at their progress. But then as rocks were being removed he noticed that in place of those creatures was a mass of them combined into one.

Now Traveler with Telamon are interested.

Now they see that the the combination dissolving into the original creatures. And then They moved out to somewhere. And Traveler saw ,as it seemed to be, that they were not heading towards their direction. Traveler after 17 minutes of waiting confirmed that they were definitely far away and attached binoculars back to his belt where was his ammo a few supplies and his welder.

Personally, both of them are calm about these creatures and don't like them only because these creatures attacked them.

Traveler sees that there isn't much time of sunlight left and so prepares to take a nap. His environment protection system now is less stressed and would require less maintenance but he still needs to have some sort of shelter. Unfortunately, there wasn't any cave or some place where there is some sort of "roof" around here, so he will have to stay where he is. So, the only place to stay was either here or to that cave where those creatures have been. And he decided to go only there in case if the weather will get more terrible. After all going to where those creatures were not so long ago and which are pretty unknown isn't the best idea.

He then doublechecked that there wasn't any danger around and asked Telamon just in case if everything is safe, to which Telamon nodded.

Traveler then turned to scanner and said to Telamon: "Думаю на сегодня хватит открытий. Нужно уже спать. (I believe that's enough discoveries for today. The time has come to sleep.) "

But he had one more though to say to Telamon.

Traveler sighed and said:"Мне жаль что ты в такой ситуации, у нас совершенно разные пути и я лишь чувствую себя лишним грузом для тебя. Надеюсь ты сможешь когда-то получить свободу.( I'm sorry that you are in this situation, we have completely different paths and I feel myself just as an extra weight to you. I hope you will get freedom one day.)" While Traveler doesn't trust Telamon completely he still feels that he should one day free him or at least give him more freedom. And Traveler doesn't trust Telamon completely since Telamon is a powerful AI and could do many things. Traveler got during his life a sense of disbelief and suspicion. And thanks to those limitations Telamon couldn't speak much.

After those words Traveler was looking at the scanner. There was no response. Such are Telamon's limitations.

After a minute Traveler already wasn't expecting a response and decided it's better to take a nap.

Author's notes: Well so this was the first encounter with Grimm for our duo. The Grimm that they encountered are called Sulfur fish. I planned to make this chapter longer but decided to divide it in two chapters since the pacing would make more sense. So in a week you'll see the other half. Also, I know the issue that the word chapter repeats twice in the begging in both chapter 1 and 2. I will probably solve it when I will be done with 4 chapter. Also I decided to add a new technology as you noticed: stun rounds. In the NMS I believe there should exist stun rounds because other more cooler things exist. Shame they don't exist.

This is all I have for now.