Day 2

I thought about the other thing. Fighting humans and all that. At this point I am pretty sure that it was my own reasoning and not the Abyss manipulating me. I am not actually sure if it can do that to begin with, to be honest. On the other hand, weird soul voodoo is already going on, so I can not rule it out, either. What I know is that humans and their shipgirls will be scared of me or hate me on sight.

I am not throwing shade, by the way. This is just how it is when my side, or, well, 'my' side is trying to genocide the species.

I had to take a minute off writing to let that sink in. Having been German before waking up like this, the irony is not lost on me. I am also preemptively locking up all research branches that lead to poison gas. We will not go there.

With that settled, back to the subject at hand. I am stuck like this until further notice, but also like two metres tall and deathly pale; trying to blend into human society is straight out, even if I got off this island without some fleet or scout spotting me. I am absolutely staying right here. Preemptively attacking anyone does not appeal, either.

I went around to explore some more after writing that entry yesterday; there are a number of laboratories in my rigging, enough to finish the basic techs. My crew is sizable at around five thousand, considering I recall that Bismarck had about two thousand. Most of mine are builders and scientists, though. I have two hundred guards and a complement of soldiers, but yeah. Either the Abyss lucked out when giving me this setup, or it knows exactly the couch potato I am. Now if only it gave me a couch, we would be golden.

Anyway, my builders set to do their thing; however Fairies the size of my hand could start and finish a house-sized factory overnight. Soul voodoo magic, I am not going to ask. I also question the Abyss's design choices, considering how that thing is all black steel, spikes, and a bunch of discoloured tentacles swaying in the breeze.

Now in any RTS, you would start building low-tier units to protect yourself and scout around. Or you are me and do not do that; I built this factory for mining drones, not combat drones. The first one is walking out as I write this; looks a little below half my size, more like an octopus. It walks on four pseudopods and has sturdy-looking maws on the rest. Here is to hoping the Abyss knows what it is doing.

Day 3

Well, mining works. Somehow. The drones just eat into the rock until they are full; all the stone is spit out as some weird goo, the other resources get digested and refined in their bodies before their half dozen Fairies carry it to me. Still weird that these things can just walk in and out of my rigging, even if it looks something like a cross between battleship and oil platform.

One upside of this approach is that the goo my drones create as a byproduct works something like mortar. I fast-tracked some extra processing power for them so they can comprehend the order, then sent them to dig proper rooms. All that goo evens out holes and dulls sharp edges; once it dries it is pretty solid to walk on. Step one of my new underground base is complete. Of course the rooms are not perfectly cubic in shape, but I can get used to having them be ellipsoid. The drones do not like biting off tiny pieces only.

I do not really need light in there, either. Ordinarily I would, but I found another tech option near the top: night vision.

You know how Abyssals have glowing eyes? Yes? No? I do not even know if this is canonical or made up, but my Abyss here tells me it is a thing. That is the night vision, a basic Abyssal property to find their way in the depths. I do not have it by default for some reason; now I may just be humanising the Abyss with this, but I thought it seemed confused that I did not have it. If that is true, then I guess something went wrong when I arrived. Maybe it was an unintended tradeoff for my resource generation power. Nothing else is missing, ignoring combat strength I did not want in the first place.

I was mulling it over for a bit, but night vision is just one of the first steps on an entire sub-branch on my tech tree. It is all about self-improvement in the literal sense. Considering that the resources I am mining will be exhausted eventually, I will spend them all on improving my own capabilities. There are upgrades to resource generation speed deeper down and I want them.

I also started talking to my drones a little more. They are a bit like dogs, if less excitable or playful. They work most of the time and follow simple orders. That may not be a good sign for my mental health, though.

I do have blueprints for proper Abyssal spawners in reach, maybe that would be a good investment right now. But making more Abyssals, the sort that can think and talk, eats a ton of resources. Or rather tons, actual tons. Those are resources I can not use on research!

I need to think it over some more, but for now I will take a walk around the island. Little else to do, really.

Day 4

I am starting to find a rhythm with these entries now. That always works for the best. As of right now, they will be made in the evening before I go to sleep. That way I can actually go through the entire day.

Speaking of sleep, one thing my conversion to an Abyssal fixed is that I no longer lie awake in bed for an hour after turning in. Somehow I can consistently fall asleep in a few minutes at most despite not having a bed. Or anything beyond some sand or rock. Also, do not sleep on sand; getting that everywhere sucks even for an Abyssal.

At least my body is hardy enough not to mind the ground. I really did not want to invest resources in creature comforts just yet. I am still on the fence about making other Abyssals, too. The Abyss itself tries to nudge me that way, but I disagree; it left me my free will, so it will have to accept what I decide.

Huh. I felt some flash of acceptance the moment I finished that thought. I guess the Abyss agrees? That little nudging is gone, too. Nice, a hurrah for competent superiors!

Which brings me back to wondering what the Abyss actually is. It does not say, even though it seems to take a decent amount of interest in me. It accepts my wishes and lets me do as I want. Maybe this is a test for now, to see how well I can do when working on my own? I do not really know the state of the world either, so maybe I am a last-ditch effort after the Abyssals were effectively routed. It does not tell me about others, either.

A lot of boundless speculation will not really help me right now, though. I just have to keep on going and see where I end up. Today was calm, much like the last few days; that ore vein we found is about exhausted, though. I still have a bunch saved up because the first few technologies are fairly cheap. Not to mention the two weeks I was indisposed for reasons I am still salty about, but whatever. I will need every bit of these resources later. Curiousity got the better of me and I made the mistake to look at tech prices. Some of the highest level stuff eats enough resources to build an invasion fleet with.

Then again, it is stuff like lasers and point-defense cannons that can shoot down supersonic projectiles. Anything outside actual space travel is in there somewhere.

Now I have to decide how to build my base. An island is technically just an outcropping of rock through the entire ocean, meaning I could constantly dig down. But I did not study the right subjects to know if that actually keeps the whole thing stable. Then again, I can probably reinforce such a tunnel with stone goo and Abyss steel. Do I want to risk that? Not right now.

Come to think of it, I have no idea where I am. It is kind of chilly here, mostly from the ocean winds. There are no maps on this island and I found no trace of human presence. No lost tools, no bones, nothing. For all I know no one ever set foot in this place.

On second thought, it does not actually matter. Being somewhere in the middle of nowhere is actually better than somewhere well known. That way I can stay hidden for longer, maybe even indefinitely. My luck is pretty decent, or at least it was before this little adventure here.

Day 5

Slow day today. I had the drones dig a little further down before spreading out. Research continues apace, too. I mix stuff like improved armour plating and gunpowder mixtures together with general improvements like blueprint generation or oil refinement.

The longer I work on this, the more I realise I really am an entire industry in the form of a person. I may have to relocate underground just to get enough space for all the stuff I need to build later. Good thing the ocean floor is past what most warships can reach. If I could find the Mariana Trench, I would set up shop down there.

On second thought, I saw pictures of the stuff crawling around down there. Not sure I actually want that.

Being efficient is harder than I thought it would be. I like the surface too much, it is what I am used to. But I will be found sooner or later if I stay up here. On the other hand, I always liked the concept of underground dungeons. Blame Dungeon Keeper on that one, assuming the game exists here.

This gets me back to something else I thought about: do I, or do I not create other Abyssals? I still do not want to because I like hyperfocussing on research, but I feel I probably should make one. Specifically one and only after I looked into stealth techs. It, she will be a scout to find more resources and maybe a larger place to dig my facility into. This island is okay for a start, but I will need more room eventually. An archipelago would be good, an actual mountain the best. Nobody will expect the Abyss to hide so far out from the sea!

I just imagined the expression some lone hiker would make after being confronted with Abyssals in the mountains. Nobody would ever believe them. I can not stop grinning.

But yes, I need to mull over some more. These log entries help sort my thoughts, writing always did that for me. I have a lot of them, but putting them into tangible words unfurls whatever twists and turns they take in my head.

In other news, I start to grow tired of not having food. I do not actually need any because all my needs are met with steel and fuel, what little I need of that on land, but I still remember food and want some. It has been about three weeks and all I can find are a number of small critters that I am not going to kill myself. There would be little meat on them anyway. A few wild fruits and such were around too, but those are really bitter. Probably poisonous too, but I am an Abyssal now. I even tried eating some of the plants out of curiousity, but they just tastes bland. It sucks.

I really need to stay disciplined, else I may just research how to make sweets instead of investing resources into something worthwhile.

Plans for tomorrow are up in the air, but I will probably build that spawn pool for my scout. Having that does not mean I have to grow anything in it, after all.

Day 6

I built the spawn pool. Well, 'built'. I have no idea why that takes up resources when I am technically just leaking black sludge out of my entire rigging until it fills the basin. That stuff is pure Abyss. I could bathe in it if I want to, though. Other things, erm, not so much. I tested with a piece of wood because trees can not run away. Dissolved in seconds. The dead fish I found ashore on my walk went the same way.

Should I feel disgusted by the sizzling and dissolving matter? No idea, the slimy fish was more upsetting because I had to touch it. At least I could wash off that gunk easily in the spawn pool. From what the Abyss lets me know, I just throw resources in there until it reaches critical mass for the ship type I want. It seemed confused when I thought about just throwing stuff in there to see what happens.

Then I threw stuff in there to see what happens. Mostly wood, stone, and sand. I had a bunch of the excess from digging thrown in there as well. The pool definitely swelled up some, but it does not feel like reaching critical mass yet. I have some sort of instinct for that, a gut feeling. I do not really want to deforest the entire island to make up the difference, though. Considering that I have so much steel at hand, I will probably dump some of my reserves in there tomorrow.

Fingers crossed it is not a chimera. I really do not need an "Eeeeedward" moment.

Moving on.

I saw a plane pass by in the afternoon. Far too slow to be a combat jet, more like a passenger plane. The Abyss nudged me to shoot it down the moment I saw it, too. Means that there are definitely humans around. They also found a way to travel by air without being shot down. It may be that the Abyssals are actually being pushed back or on the brink of defeat. From what shreds of canon I recall, they were winning there.

I guess it does not really matter in the end. I am not planning to wage this war myself, at most I will act as an arms dealer except with technology. Maybe I can link myself into the Internet if I find one of the cables going through the ocean? In fact, if it still exists I could hold the Internet hostage to get some leverage!

But I guess those are thoughts for later. I have yet to meet any humans to begin with. Does it count as being scared if I know that will not go well regardless of circumstance? Maybe I am just paranoid, but in this case I rather take too many precautions than too few.

I also need to figure out when to start producing actual combat units. It has to be someday, preferably when there is no outside pressure. On the other hand, I still like just researching. Maybe if I can improve my resource economy to the point I can divert some stuff without slowing tech speed. But I need to claim new ground for that.

The ocean floor would have the most unclaimed resources. The Abyss agrees. All signs point to going lower. I think I mentioned this earlier, but I like the surface. Maybe it is because I used to be human, but I do not want to live below.

But in the name of efficiency, I guess I will at least try some sort of exposure therapy. Dunk my head under water to get used to breathing in there or something like that. People can get used to a lot after all.

Or I send someone else to grab resources from the depths. Let them set up a second base to supply me. Are Abyssals I make loyal to me? Abyss says no, only the mindless ones like my drones are.

And there we are once again at the old question: do I trust someone not myself with a vital part of my plans? The answer is no, not really. Even if I created that person, I like having control of my work in all parts. That way I can set my own pace and all issues are on me. Less frustration that way.

But the idea still has merit. For now I am good on resources for the most part, so I can shelve the topic until it becomes relevant. Maybe if whatever sapient Abyssals I make later turn out trustworthy.

On that note, I think I am starting to pack-bond with my drones. It may be because there is no other living being around, but they start to become kind of cute. I started talking to them, though I am not yet at the stage where I give them names.

Day 7

It is a chimera.