Uninspired
Mass Effect, Inspired Inventor
03
Leon Reynolds. Experience: 10100xp. Points: 431.
Shop
Tech Trees:
1. The Expanse. -100 points.
2. Horizon (Game). -100 points.
3. Battle Angel Alita (Manga). -100 points.
4. Terminator. -100 points.
5. Cyberpunk. -100 points.
6. Mass Effect II. -100 points.
7. Stargate II. -100 points.
8. Marvel (Cinematic Universe) II. -100 points.
Upgrades:
1. Sell By. -20 points.
– You can now choose to sell Tech Trees or Upgrades you don't want, or get a refund on one you've already bought. Warning: selling off a tech tree or upgrade will forever remove it and you will be unable to purchase it later.
2. Neural Mancer. -20 points.
– You have developed a mastery of neural interface link technology. You've honed your mind to razor sharpness, with a focus and clarity of thought like a Tibetan monk. When using a neural link, your thoughts become reality. Technology you control through it is treated as an extension of your body. Stacks with: Mechanical Savant, Nimble Fingers, Bishop Administrator.
3. CAD Master. -20 points.
– You have achieved mastery of CAD software. You can now directly input thoughts to CAD blueprints and make modifications at the speed of thought. Stacks with Neural Mancer when using a neural interface.
Tech Tree
1. Mass Effect I.
2. Stargate I.
3. Marvel (Cinematic Universe) I.
4. Big Hero 6 (Movie Universe) Max.
Upgrades
1. Fast Learner.
2. Mechanical Savant.
3. MacGyver's Apprentice.
4. Nimble Fingers.
5. Crash Override.
6. Bishop Administrator.
I sighed as I flopped down on top of my bed. My bed, in my house, on my land—not the orphanage. After a year of waiting to turn 16, and then a couple of months more for the paperwork to process, then speak to a judge and plead my case for why I should be allowed to emancipate myself, followed by a week straight waiting for the cleaning company to go through the house and clean everything and make it livable again, I had finally done it. And now, I was here. In my family's home. Alone.
I had said goodbye to my few friends at St. Nicholas. I might go check on them eventually, but for now, I had other things to focus on.
"Right. That's enough lazing around. Send it over, Alpha," I instructed, forcing myself to my feet and out of the room that had originally belonged to my parents in this world. I made my way downstairs, to the sliding glass door leading to the patio and the in-ground pool.
The roar of repulsor engines flared above as something large came to a hovering stop and lowered itself down on a set of retractable legs, distributing its weight so it didn't crack the cement. Looking at the stealth cargo drone, I waved my hand towards the camera on the rear and the back hatch lowered into a ramp. The thing was about the size of a large van. All sharp angles meant to remove any radar pattern it might have, much like the F-117, and painted in a black that seemed to eat light and definitely ate radar and lidar.
From inside, a drone on rubber tracks rolled out, carrying a solid black cube—all microbots, clinging together in a cube formation to protect the contents of the cube. I directed it inside, to the stairs leading down to the basement. The tracked bot stopped and the microbots came to life, lifting off the cart and scurrying downstairs like an ungodly large spider. Once downstairs, they came to rest in the far corner of the room and set down their payload, before linking up and forming a black pillar beside it. What they had been protecting was a black rectangular cube exactly six feet tall, by three feet wide and deep. On the front, in the center, were a trio of brightly glowing arc reactors. Set above that was a flat glass lens.
The lens flared to life and a hologram sprang into being in the middle of the room—a young, slim elf girl with long blonde hair, wearing a very conservative black dress and looking very prim indeed. Well, I say young—she looked about my age. "Greetings, master Reynolds."
"Alpha, I've told you to call me Leon," I grumbled at the VI, shaking my head. From above, I heard the back door close and the roar of the cargo drone taking off again. Sitting down in the big computer chair I'd had installed down here, along with a desk, I asked, "How are we looking?"
A screen popped into being beside the holographic maid, showing the underwater factory, my current stock of raw materials, and progress being made towards cleaning out another abandoned junkyard—one of many, where the country's collection of gasoline burning vehicles had been sent when someone had forced through legislation to try to force electric vehicles on people… and where those EVs had ended up when it proved cheaper to buy a new one than replace the battery when it went out after ten years of service. The batteries, the materials for which were mined in the third world, in the most toxic places on Earth. Which, when it finally came to light and public sentiment finally shifted again, tanked the EV market and brought a return of petroleum-based vehicles—though at least this time, they were a bit cleaner burning than the ones that came before them.
My eyes flicked to a screen where microbots were finishing up construction of a series of large, boxy structures. Each of them looked to be roughly the size of a train car, and made entirely of steel. I could make out several repulsors along the body that would act as maneuvering thrusters, each set in place such that it could swivel and turn as needed to change the angle of its thrust. Each one had six hatches, one for each side, and clamps for docking so that they could be connected in a number of configurations.
Inside of most of them, I knew was everything needed to make each livable and make reentry if need be. Power in the form of multiple, redundant arc reactors. Life support. Inertial dampeners and artificial gravity. Shields. A supply of water and water recycling capability. Two single occupancy flip down padded benches that could be used as beds. A small room with a toilet/sink/shower. Every one of those could sustain life for the entire network of containers that they would be connected to and supply power, life support, water, and shielding. I wasn't taking any chances of anyone being stranded up there.
Some containers were more specialized. There were farming containers, which held live soil, seeds, irrigation systems, lighting, and small bots to harvest whatever was grown—year round. There were containers full of just fresh water, and some with small environments full of fish, plants, and other aquatic life. Still others with soil and grass, vegetables, chickens, and rabbits. Two were dedicated to putting Alpha into space and keeping a permanent presence there. Then, of course, there were the ones that were just cargo containers, carrying hundreds of small missiles, each propelled by repulsors and filled with microbots equipped for working in space. I'd be shooting those into the asteroid belt and turning them into my own personal mining force shortly. Finally, there was a container full of more missiles, each carrying a small, arc reactor powered satellite. Those would be bound for every planet in the system, and points in between, creating the first and only real time subspace communications link across the solar system.
It was everything someone would want to make an orbital station, a colony on the moon, or in this case a station in the L1 Lagrange point and enough shuttles to ferry people back and forth. And it was where Alpha and I would be living for the month of September.
"Ahead of schedule, sir," Alpha summarized. "The demonstration modules are prepared to send to NASA and the ESA and I've filed for the patents already and… quietly slipped in the back door and made sure they were approved in a timely manner."
"Good girl, Alpha," I grinned. "And the second shipment, with the security…?"
"Inbound now, sir. ETA, 2 minutes. I'll have it set up in fifteen."
"Excellent. So, tell me, how would you feel about having a body?" I asked, kicking the chair and spinning around.
"A physical body, sir?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. I knew I hadn't programmed her to have emotions, but the VI made a good show of emulating them when it was appropriate.
"That's right," I confirmed. "Organic flesh over a metal endoskeleton. Or maybe something different. Not sure yet. What do you think?"
She was silent for a few moments as she considered—what might as well be hours given her clock speed. Finally, she nodded. "It would allow me to better perform my job, master Reynolds. I would not just be a digital presence capable of assisting you in your online needs, but a physical one as well, capable of protecting you should the need arise."
"Alrighty." I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes, opening my menu. Going over my list of options, I first bought the available upgrades. Then, I hummed as I tried to remember what the new things were from.
Alita, I actually recognize. Whole lot of cybernetics and future tech in a dystopia where shit went bad. But the big takeaway from that was being able to move someone into a fully robotic body. It's the grandmother to what Cyberpunk was based on. Definitely a good choice, considering how much other shit is in the setting.
Horizon was the one with the fugly character playing Assassin's Creed against robot dinosaurs. Something something robot apocalypse wiped out all organic life on Earth, the robot dinosaurs brought it back. That's basically 'terraforming, the tech tree.' Definitely want it at some point, but it won't be immediately useful. On the other hand, terraforming takes time, so having it available ASAP would get me a jump on that. …But I could wait a year or two.
The Expanse… uh… bland 'hard scifi' setting with some magic space rock shit that created a space zombie plague. Nope! Fuck that noise.
Putting my new upgrade to use, I sold off The Expanse for 100 points, giving me a total of 471. Eventually, I gave in and made my choices: Stargate II, MCU II, Battle Angel Alita, and Terminator. The first two, because I wanted to push on up those tech trees and get to the better tech designs to crib notes from, the other two to give me more options.
Over the course of the next few minutes, the information poured in and settled in my brain. I whistled quietly at the sheer possibilities I had at my fingertips. Then, I reached out and pulled on the neural interface band laying on top of my desk and brought up my custom CAD software.
I began with the basic design for a T-900, then began making modifications. Changing out the nuclear power supply for an arc reactor. Upgrading most of the chips used to crystal tech now that I could make it (and that thought spawned a second CAD window to begin designing something to fabricate crystal tech). Upgrading all of the connections for the synthetic flesh so Alpha would actually feel it, then upgrading the synth flesh itself to make it functionally identical to human flesh, and adding some artificial organs to digest food and support her bio-synth flesh. On and on it went, planning out the requirements to give my robo maid a body.
When I was finished with that, I gave Alpha the okay to begin ordering what we needed and start construction. Then, I began designing large upgrades to my computing power, now that I had a method to produce Stargate's crystal tech, followed by new and better code to make it work, and an upgrade to Alpha to make her compatible when I migrated her over.
With the upgrade to MCU II, I now had access to the upgraded arc reactor and the knowledge of how to make Stark's artificial element, 'badassium.' I put in the plans for how to make that and bumped the priority of replacing our current stock of arc reactors up in the build order.
I had enough know how now to build a basic Stargate hyperdrive without naquadah. According to my math, it would be inefficient as hell, but it was still FTL—and any FTL is better than no FTL. So, I plugged in the design for that and began making a small ship around it. Well, less a ship, more a drone. Something that Alpha could remote pilot in short hops around the solar system to test and make sure it worked, before I ever set foot on one. But with a month to go, and Alpha handling the testing… hell, we could have a working model ready by time time we're ready for liftoff. Hell yes!
And with more knowledge under my belt, I finally felt safe experimenting with the two super soldier formulas I had on hand. I had Alpha put in orders for the chemicals for those, along with a request for spiders to test it on/finish the spider specific one. Designing a vita chamber was easy, considering the tech was WWII era stuff and could be greatly improved upon and brought up to modern standards.
However, I just had one qualm with using the Erskine formula now. Namely, while I hadn't gotten it by buying the second level of the Stargate tree, I was pretty sure what I wanted would be in the third or fourth level. Specifically, I remembered that during the SG-1 days, Anubis had made himself a clone body and enhanced it up to about a hair away from ascension, but found a way to keep it stable and holding at that—giving the ascended/descended Goa'uld a human body capable of some absolute bullshit. Telepathy, telekinesis, healing, force fields, and more.
The thing is, Erskine's formula enhances what's already there. A tiny manlet with a lot of spunk and determination gained at least a foot of height and twice his body mass in muscle, preternatural reflexes, and beyond peak human strength. What would happen if I took the spider formula (the one developed by Oscorp, in the Andrew Garfield version), enhanced my body using Anubis's tech, then took Erskine's formula?
I decided to shelve that project for now until I could dump more points into Stargate tech and find out.
Missions
Main:
1. Get to space. 50000xp.
2. Reach the moon. 10000xp.
3. Reach another planet. 10000xp.
4. Visit every planet in the solar system. 10000xp.
5. Leave the solar system. 10000xp.
6. Make contact with an alien race. 10000xp.
7. Get xeno pussy. 10000xp.
8. Survive. (16) 100xp/year.
"Wooo!"
I laughed, watching the holographic display of my surroundings as I broke atmosphere and kept going, on course for the moon. The display showed the tracks for over fifty containers behind me, which quickly filled with hundreds more tracks in different colors—green for me, blue for my future space station, yellow for comm buoys, and red for mining assets.
"We're out of atmosphere, sir," Alpha reported.
"We made it," I chuckled, watching the display as we began picking up multiple hails on just about every band imaginable, from every government on Earth (and Luna) with the capability to detect our launch—which was the US, Europe, and Armstrong Outpost. That last one, I actually answered, because we were heading their way.
The hologram shifted, displaying video and audio from the inside of a control room, where several people in the background were talking very loudly in frantic tones. They shut up when they saw me sitting there with a projection of Alpha on the screen beside me, before an older black man moved into frame. Looking at the two of us, he frowned. "I believe you children have the wrong channel—"
"No, we're reading you loud and clear. We are the intended target of your transmission, mister…?"
"Governor Brown. And you are?"
"We are the crew of the Phoenix," I sent the man a grin, straightening my flight suit where I sat.
The name of the first ship on Earth to achieve FTL in Star Trek? Yeah, I went there. I stole that.
"I'm Leon Reynolds, founder of New Horizons, LLC."
To his credit, governor Brown didn't dismiss me outright as some kind of hacker or something he had connected to on pirate radio, playing an elaborate hoax. "Got any proof of that?"
"Sure," I nodded, muting the transmission and looking to the screen showing Alpha. "Alpha, think you can put us on their doorstep?"
"The Phoenix's jump capability is not quite that accurate, sir. But I can put us into low lunar orbit above Armstrong Outpost."
"Do it," I confirmed, before unmuting the call. "We'll be there in a few minutes and we can discuss it in person."
"In person—" Brown began, before he was cut off as a hyperspace window opened and we moved into it. A second later, we dropped back out again and the connection reestablished itself. Governor Brown's mouth had fallen open as he stared at something off the camera. "That ship just…"
"Crossed the distance between the Earth and the Moon in a second. Yeah. Welcome to the future, governor. FTL is pretty awesome. I'll be landing shortly. Please send instructions on where I can park and find an airlock."
"R-right, yeah, of course," the man nodded, and I cut the transmission.
"He looked like he shit himself," I laughed.
"He did seem quite surprised."
"Alpha, take the wheel and set us down, would you?"
"Of course, master Reynolds."
I left the cockpit of the relatively small ship and made my way back to the armory. I moved into position and the floor, ceiling, and walls opened up. Over the course of a few seconds, an environmentally sealed suit of power armor was assembled around me, in classic red and gold.
Yes, Iron Man armor. There was no way I wouldn't build a set or two, now that I could. The current model was the Mark XLV, according to the information in my head. It was the best I could make right now, without at least another point in the MCU tech tree to get the nano suits—which I would be doing shortly. It was also the most advanced thing I would be leasing to the various governments, as environmental suits/space suits, after this demonstration—which was a big part of why I was making a public appearance on the moon wearing one.
The ship shuddered briefly and a moment later, Alpha announced, "We've landed, sir. The airlock is straight ahead from the ramp."
"Thanks, Alpha," I nodded, and made my way back to the Phoenix's airlock. I waited a few moments for the air to be pumped out before the ramp ahead of me lowered down to the pale white lunar surface.
I could barely contain my excitement and was smiling so hard my face hurt as I stepped off the ship. The moment I was off the ship and outside of its artificial gravity envelope, I could feel the difference. It was kind of like stepping into a pool.
I checked my menu and, sure enough, I had gained another ten thousand experience and one hundred points for getting to the moon, on top of the fifty thousand experience and five hundred points for getting to space, leaving me sitting pretty at 698 points. Considering my options, I shrugged and made some quick purchases: MCU III, Stargate III, Cyberpunk, and Horizon. I'd save the other 298 points until I could look more in depth at the Stargate and MCU trees to verify what I was capable of now, and then buy a higher level if they didn't have what I wanted.
The airlock cycled open as I approached, and Alpha helpfully highlighted the cameras watching me. Stepping in, I waited as the hatch shut and the airlock pressurized. I was met on the other side of the door by the governor and several very confused technicians. I had my helmet retract and grinned at the crowd. "So… questions?"
There was a sudden avalanche of noise as everyone began shouting questions.
"…And this will be my last transmission from Lagrange One station. I'm boarding the Phoenix now and expect to be home in a few minutes. I'll be touching down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral shortly after that, to meet with some people and give a live demonstration of what the Phoenix can do. I'll be sending the first shuttles to Armstrong Station and Canaveral for trips back out to L1, so expect those soon."
I muted the feed and sighed as the floating drone followed along behind me, recording as I entered the ship and strapped in. Alpha verified everything was ready and pushed us off from L1.
"Sir, I have more messages for you."
"Go ahead, Alpha."
"You've gotten no less than five offers from different studios in Hollywood to do a documentary on yourself, this trip, and where you're going from here. Three from various studios in Europe. One from India and Japan."
"China?" I asked with a grin.
"They're still insisting the whole thing is a hoax, and say that if it isn't and we land in China to prove it's not, they'll seize the Phoenix for themselves."
I snorted. Yeah, that had been the party line out of China since the whole thing started—it was fake, and if it wasn't, what was ours was theirs if we showed up. "I'd like to see them try, honestly. I don't think they're ready for defensive weapons in the kiloton energy range."
"Probably not, sir. Please keep in mind that starting a war is not conducive to business."
"I won't start anything."
"Don't end it either," the VI sent me a knowing look that left me raising an eyebrow at her ability to emote. The ship shuddered briefly as we jumped to hyperspace. Only a few seconds later, we were back out again and dropping into atmosphere. "Have you decided whose offer you want to accept, or will you give it some time?"
"Well, considering Hollywood's propensity towards recasting people and dramatization… No. None of them. They can fuck off and die. Give Europe and Japan the green light and India a maybe, all of it under the stipulation that I own the rights to our story and have final say over what happens with it, with no 'creative license' from directors, writers, editors, or anyone else changing stupid things. Hell, if anything, it'd probably be best if I did some shots of the school and interviews with our teachers myself just so we can put it out there first."
"I'll put it on your schedule," the VI agreed.
I nodded and sat back, enjoying the ride and watching the view as we came down. A few minutes later, Alpha piped up again. "Sir, we are coming up on Cape Canaveral now. We're receiving a transmission. I am also detecting two F-35s scrambling from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station."
"Play it."
"—ied aircraft, this is Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. You are in violation of United States air space. You will be joined momentarily by fighters and escorted to an airbase, where you will land—"
"Haha, no. Put me on, Alpha."
"Transmitting, now," she announced, and the text transmitting popped up on the holographic interface.
"This is the Phoenix, Canaveral. We'll be putting her down at Kennedy Space Center, right at the end of your runway."
"Negative, Phoenix. You will follow your escorts or be fired upon."
I laughed. "Yeah, good luck with that Canaveral. Tell you what though. Go ahead, take the shot. I'll give you one for free. Hell, I'll even give you a second one to confirm. But that's all you're going to get. Any more than that and I'll return fire. Make sure you tell your pilots that. I'm armed with directed energy weapons. They won't get a chance to eject—"
"Missile inbound," Alpha announced. "They appear to be heat-seeking, as they cannot achieve a radar or laser lock."
"Shields?"
"One hundred percent. Impact in five…" I braced, but it turned out I didn't need to, as the missile impacted our shield and detonated harmlessly. "Shield at ninety-three percent."
"Not great, but not bad. We're going to have to rebuild some things," I murmured, before keying up again. "That's one, Canaveral. You've got one more."
"A second missile is inbound. Impact in five."
The moment the second missile struck our shield, I keyed up. "That's two, Canaveral. Now, we're putting her down on—"
"Six more missiles inbound, sir."
"Blow them out of my sky," I growled. In the projection of our ship and surroundings, several of the point defense repulsors fired and missiles began exploding. "Alright Canaveral. Congratulations. You've just played the fastest game of 'fuck around and find out.' Alpha, put us outside their windows."
"One moment, sir," she said, and the ship abruptly dumped altitude and accelerated, diving straight for the Air Force station's tower. We slammed to a stop just a few feet from the windows to the tower, giving us a view of everyone inside.
"You. The shitheel on the radio with the blond hair. Yes, you—don't you fucking duck, I'm looking at you."
"Y-yes?"
"Look to your left. You see the swamp out there?" I asked, and everyone in the tower turned and look. "Alpha, put a shot out there. Low yield, but something they'll feel from here. Rattle their windows."
A geyser of water erupted as one of the point defense weapons fired off and we watched as the windows shook in their frames, those facing the swamp directly cracking. I waited a few seconds for the immediate panic to subside, before speaking again. "Now, we're going to go touch down on your runway. You are going to send some people to have a nice, civil discussion about what my country can do for me, in exchange for what I can do for you. If anyone shoots at us again, my response is going to get real proportional. You have one hour, starting now."
The Phoenix pulled away quickly, before setting down ten miles away, exactly where I said we would. As we did, Alpha reported the old F-35s returning to base.
It could have been worse. Thankfully, I had it all recorded and streamed live. Alpha may not be transmitting audio, but it was absolutely recorded. To that end, I said, "Alpha, go ahead and drop the audio logs on the internet."
"Are you sure, sir? If you do that, it paints them into a corner. As it stands, everyone can spin it as a failure of communication and protocol. They can claim they told us to land. We can claim we didn't receive the transmission. They fired on us first. It must have been an equipment malfunction. Those F-35s are old and outdated. The Phoenix had an accidental discharge into the swamp. No one was hurt. Everyone can lie and save face. Should you drop the audio logs, they're going to feel like they have to retaliate, to send the message that no one can just bully the federal government into doing what they want."
I didn't like it, but she was probably right. "Fine. But when you get tired of them pissing and moaning, and demanding we turn over our tech and weapons, we'll drop it."
"As you say, sir. You should probably go make an appearance outside."
"Yes, ma'am," I chuckled. "Put on my armor and stand there looking dashing while you stream everything from the drones. Kinda feel like I'd need a coat to complete the look. Or a cloak. Something… frabjous."
"That's not a word, sir."