Factory of the Magical Variety
by Conglomerate
First published
Prospector! A new, resource rich planet has been discovered. Preparing for launch.
Planet 8953 Prime
Type: Terrestrial
Resource Rank: S
Size: Medium
Environment: Habitable
Inhabitants: TBD...
Prep the drop pod, send down your tech, prepare for resource extraction, compete with other prospectors, and most importantly, make loads of money.
This story is going to be based off a combination of some of my favorite games "Terratech" and "Factorio". There may be some other large references too.
Prologue
Three hills form a small, serene and quiet, a group of trees lay on top of one hill, another has several large boulders, while the last one has a large yellow crystal poking up through the ground. The silence doesn't last though, a slight rumbling gradually grows in intensity. Finally a large, yellow machine crests the hill with trees, tearing them down as it's large sawblades and excavators loudly start up. The small chunks of wood and sap from the trees float up into the air by and unseen force and fly over to the back of the machine, being stored on a glowing blue grid.
The large machine finishes decimating the trees on the hill and it's massive tracks and wheels start up again. Moving over to the hill with the boulders, several glinting with an blue, metallic mineral, the machine starts up it's equipment once again. Suddenly, gunfire erupts from the now empty hill, bullets fly across the small valley and impact the large machine, causing several loose and small parts to fall off. Appearing now on the hill is a smaller, grey machine outfitted with several machine guns on top, it races across the valley and gets in close to the yellow machine, firing it's guns the entire time.
The large yellow machine starts up double time and turns to aim it's gigantic excavating equipment against he approaching machine. Seeing the charge, the grey machine easy maneuvers around and continues to fire upon the yellow machine, breaking off several wheels and plates of armor. The yellow machine, with quite a bit more armor to give, attempts to charge the smaller machine once again, this time grazing it causing a huge piece of armor plating and structure to be destroyed.
Quick on the retreat, the grey machine disengages and backs up to a distance, ready to fire. It doesn't get the chance though as several missiles impact it's side, tearing it apart and leaving it in pieces atop the hill. Zooming up above, a red white and blue machine flies above with wings and a propeller, it's missile battery reloading. Realizing it's outmatched, the yellow machine attempts to leave the area, the flying machine slowly coming around for another run.
Suddenly, the flying machine veers off in an attempt to dodge an incoming missile. It isn't quick enough however as the missile strikes it's center causing it to crash land through the yellow crystal, shattering it. Looking across the missile's smoke trail, it leads to another massive machine, this time however it appears to be an amalgamation of materials from all three previous machines. It isn't complete chaos though, there is obvious method to it's design, this machine is armed to the teeth and quickly begins firing upon the yellow machine tearing it to pieces. With little to no mobility left, the yellow machine can do nothing but sit and wait for it's cabin to be destroyed.
With all three machines clearly destroyed, the amalgamation sets down some sort of machine in the center of the battlefield. This device lifts up a grey sphere, several beams coming from the side, charging up something. The grey sphere implodes into black, somehow contained by the device, several long and thing black tendrils reach out from the sphere. The tendrils fan out and begin touching the left over armor and structure materials from all three destroyed machines, lifting them up and dragging them back towards the sphere. If you look closely, you can see the scrap and materials being compressed and stretched as they enter the sphere, somehow being transported somewhere else.
Without warning, five red marks appear on the ground, surrounding the amalgamation and it's device while it's still picking up the scrap. The marks slowly get brighter and brighter as the amalgamation quickly picks up the device and attempts to escape the small valley. It isn't quick enough however as five machines slam down, creating a small earthquake while surrounding the amalgamation.
The ground shifts, all the machines stop in an instant as large cracks start to form in the center of the valley. Really panicking now, the amalgamation attempts to force it's way through the surrounding machines. It's back wheels sink lower into the ground as the whole valley begins to lower and sink. The other machines flee down the hills leaving the amalgamation stuck in the center as the ground continues to tremble. A moment later all structural integrity is lost as the valley collapses with the amalgamation in it revealing a large sinkhole.
Hitting the bottom of the hole, the amalgamation sustains huge damage, knocking loose the device forcing the grey sphere out of it's containment. Not sensing the problem, the beams start back up again and begin charging the sphere. Just when it appears to be finished charging, a piece of machine falls on top of the sphere, cracking it. This single piece appeared to be a vanity piece, in the shape of a roast turkey.
The immediate surrounding area is enveloped in a large, black sphere including the amalgamation. When the sphere dissipates, nothing is there except a single grey block.
Author's Notes:
Here we go, I'm thinking this story it going to be quite good. I love Terratech and I hope I told a good fight scene. Stay tuned for the rest of the story!
Chapter 1: New Arrival
What the hell happened? I remember fighting off those techs, then I set down my SCU and started collecting my spoils. Then I go ambushed, the resulting impact opened up a sinkhole and then... Ah crap, there goes my SCU, of course it had to be my most expensive item, that thing was probably worth more than this entire tech I'm in right now. Well, now what?
I took a look at my surroundings for the first time, my tech was very damaged, but my cabin was fine for the most part. I also appeared to be in a cave. At the moment my tech was completely immobile, so using the powers given to all prospectors I summoned forth the build beam... except nothing happened. Uh oh, I must be out of reach from the satellite, welp, looks like I'm doing this the old fashioned way.
Using the glorious magnetic powers from my cabin, I methodically re-attached my wheels that were scattered around the ground. I then realized another major problem, I only had 9 wheels, 9 WHEELS! This is just great, I don't have access to my build beam, and now I have an odd number of wheels. Well time to get some from my inventory... Oh great, looks like I'm too far away from my storage as well. Well, if all else fails, just switch to another tech on standby, I open up my navigation menu and once again am shut down. This is great, no SCU, no inventory, and no other techs. Now would be a good time to panic.
After about 10 minutes, I finally calmed down and decided to actually do something about my predicament. Good news was that if I'm far enough away to be unable to access anything, that means there aren't likely to be enemy techs around for the same reason. Bad news is I'm an unknown distance away from safety, and I'm in a semi-vulnerable state with an odd number of several blocks. I guess I'm going to do what I did when I first started prospecting, I then attached the 9th wheel to the top of my tech.
Now that I'm mobile, I guess it'd be a good time to take inventory. In the immediate area I had enough blocks for a medium size tech, one shield generator and two repair bubbles, 1 solar panel, 5 batteries, a single small drill, a very small amount of weapons, my mobile refinery, several small collectors, and finally a fabricator? That was odd, I don't remember putting a fabricator on my tech, maybe one of the ones I was harvesting had one? Well, it was a valuable resource none the less, it means I could definitely build more without inventory access.
I quickly assembled a poorly defended base, not having immediate access to power made it harder to defend. It's not like I could just take my most valuable items out into the unknown. I had to find a way out of this cave, attaching all the guns onto my tech, I made my way out of the dead end I was apparently in. Maybe I didn't need power to defend this? It was in a great position, only one entrance. Further down the cave I came across quite possible the most important discovery of my career, a massive crystal of Harmonite, one of the rarest, and most expensive resources known. This chunk alone could bring me all the way up to the top, I could make my own corporation, not have to get licenses from others, I wouldn't even have to go prospecting ever again!
I couldn't just mine it right now though, I don't have the proper equipment to either mine or refine it. I can't even sell it or build with it yet either. For the moment, I was just stuck with it here in my new home. First things first though, I have to hide this, make sure it's protected from anyone or anything, my entire career and even life were worth less than this thing. I headed back to my valuables and took down all the extra blocks, then I made it back to the crystal and erected a shabby but secure wall to protect and obscure it.
With that in place I decided it was time to find a place for my solar panel, continuing up the cave, it didn't take long to find the exit. The world outside sure did surprise me, it was not what I was expecting, I was in the middle of a ravine, and on top of the ravine, I saw trees, lots of trees. The other side surprised me even more, castle ruins, let me break it down for you, on planets, plant life is rare, animals are about the same rarity as plants if not a little more, as they tend to coexist, what's even more rare, is sentient life. I was lucky enough to have ancient ruins on the previous planet, which I now knew I was no longer on, I mean come on, being too far to access anything and the differences in trees and ruins.
How I ended up on another planet I had no idea, but SCU technology can get very strange sometimes. There were more problems than just being on a different planet, building spacefaring techs wasn't easy, but it wasn't very hard either. The main problem I had was surviving, the problem with most fauna bearing planets was that they tended to have some hostile types, I wasn't doubting the capabilities of my current tech, but I have not see the local animals either. I had no idea what to expect with this new world.
Meanwhile
It wasn't everyday you get to ride in a sky chariot, it was an excited opportunity for most. But Twilight wasn't enjoying this ride in the slightest, there were more important things to worry about. She was just barely listening to Spike as he was talking, only hearing the end of his conversation.
"...and make some friends." Finished Spike.
This is gonna be a looong night. Twilight thought to herself.
To be Continued.
Author's Notes:
First chapter down, having a lot of fun writing and I hope to take this story on a bit longer, I'd hate to leave this unfinished.
Chapter 2: Getting Started
With everything back in the cave as secure as I could make it, I decided to explore the ravine I was situated in. I could see a small pathway/ramp out of the ravine that my current tech was too big to drive up, I'd have to shuffle around a few blocks if I wanted to fit up there. Moving on, one side of the valley had a small vein of Plumbite, glad to know I can fabricate a simple blocks without venturing far. On the other side of the ravine, there was a large landslide, a bit too steep to drive up with just wheels, but some of the rocks were small enough to move with my tech, something for a later date.
Having thoroughly explored my immediate surroundings, I realized that if I wanted to fabricate some more blocks, I'd need some Fibrewood chunks, so I had to make it up to those trees. Reassembling my tech to be a bit smaller, having the drill on front and the collectors at the back, I drove up the pathway and reached the top of the ravine. The trees were massive, I would only have to harvest about 2 to completely fill up my collectors, that was nice. Using only a small drill on trees certainly took a while though, before when I needed Fibron, I'd always just gun down a group of trees with a wall of guns, always faster and easier.
There wasn't as much Rubber Jelly in these trees, but there was enough for a 10th wheel, that was a relief. With my collectors saturated with Fibrewood, I had to head back down to my base in order to actual make something with it. Before I could make it back to the pathway, I was stopped by a low growling noise. Turning my tech around I saw about five creatures that seemed to be made of Fibrewood? That was interesting, I wasn't certain that they posed a threat, but it never hurt to be cautious. I only had about five guns on me, it should be enough, these creatures were just a bit bigger than a standard GSO block.
The five creatures vs the five of my guns, the only problem was that it was really hard to aim at more than one targets at the same time, knowing this, I started firing as soon as they got in range. They reacted quick however, four of them dashed to get to my tech, the first one being obliterated by my guns, falling apart into Fibrewood, Rubber Jelly, and some green fluid I didn't recognize. The next creature fell to my guns, the last three having finally made it to my tech, they immediately starting tearing at the armor plating, not getting very far but still damaging it. Using my tech's superior size, I drove over and crushed one of the creatures while locking on to the next, quickly ending it leaving only one left. Seeing that it could not defeat me, the final creature stopped it's assault and ran back into the forest.
I now had more Fibrewood than I know what to do with, I certainly couldn't carry it all, so I left it in a neat pile to pick up later. The mystery green fluid had quickly seeped into the ground and was no longer accessible, so I left that too. Driving back down the pathway, I made it to the entrance of the cave and started heading back towards my impromptu base. Not having conveyor belts sucks, I'll tell you that much, having to manually move each piece of material to the fabricator sucked. In the end though, I had some more blocks to build with, and my 10th wheel.
I could finally gain back some symmetry! It wasn't like the rest of my tech was very symmetrical, I had to shuck off a few blocks from the different companies because I could not find a way to evenly incorporate them into my design. I was very lucky to find a way to get three different licenses(not to mention very illegal), it allowed me access to the best of all three, GSO, Venture, and Geocorp all had their strengths and weaknesses, and I had access to all three. There were a couple other companies to gain as well, though I haven't found a way to get a Hawkeye license, and there was no way I was spending that much on a Better Future license, they really didn't have anything I wanted anyway.
It was then when I realized my next problem, I only had a GSO Fabricator, so I had no way of reproducing any of the other companies blocks. Well shit, maybe I could try to reverse engineer another Fabricator once I make one, I loved being able to fly. Of course GSO had flying equipment, but Venture was just so much better at it, they were faster and did more damage. I moved this problem off to the side though, there wasn't much I could do about it until I made my second Fabricator.
Having reassembled my tech once again, leaving all the excess blocks I didn't need at the moment off to the side, I realized my defenses were still very pitiful. I'd have to fix that, but to make power generation and storage, shield and repair bubbles, and weapons I would need a lot of resources, stuff that I did not have nor knew where to find it. Ugghh it was always so much easier to just buy things straight from the station, no wonder other techs hated crafting their own equipment.
First things first, I had to make a Component Factory, to make that I needed Rodite, Carbite, and Oleite Jelly, some of the more rarer materials, and none of them are typically found in a forest. This wasn't planet 8953 though anymore, I could very well find all of those in this very forest or nearby. With new found vigor, I made my way back to the top of the ravine, with trees so dense however, my tech could not properly fit through the gaps, and not wanting to anger anymore hostile creatures, I had to downsize.
Making a smaller tech when coming from a larger one always was hard, you have so much you want to keep, from wheels to size to equipment. However keeping all that was not an option, I shaved off a majority of my tech until I only had 6 wheels, 3 guns, my trusty radar, a couple of collectors, some lights, and enough blocks to cover my cabin. Hoping I wouldn't run into anything too dangerous, I drove into the trees, the lights flicking on to help see through the dark interior.
There wasn't too much to see, nothing appeared on my radar, and I didn't find anything too interesting. As I was about to head back due to the sun setting however, I saw something that peaked my interest. What looked like a tree that was carved out and lit up, I could see an obvious door and window, this had me both excited and scared. For one thing, sentient life could help me, very much so, but it could also be very dangerous, they could find me undesirable and try to destroy me. Realizing my day's worth of searching brought up none of the materials I needed, I drove closer to the house, which was a bit larger than my tech.
I was not hoping to make any enemies, so I kept my guns lowered, but ready just in case. It wasn't easy to see inside from just the window, however from what I could see were many pots and urns capped off with lids. There wasn't any words on these urns, however there were pictures drawn on. It wasn't easy to make out, but on one urn was a depiction of a bright green dust, another depicted chunks of a black substance, and the final one depicted a dark red liquid. Just my luck! This random dwelling in the middle of the forest held just what I needed, I would have to ask for it though, I wasn't just going to steal it! I did not need to be making enemies just yet.
Hoping to catch the owner of the house and ask nicely for their materials, the sun finally went below the horizon, causing the whole forest to suddenly get a lot darker, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention, I shut off my lights and laid in wait. I didn't know how long the nights lasted on this planet, hopefully not too long.
To be continued.
Author's Notes:
Second chapter down, I now realize that not everyone knows what Terratech is, and I hope my explanations have been straightforward enough to leave out an explanation chapter. Another thing I wanted to add was the scale, I had trouble thinking of how large the techs actually were compared to ponies, so I came with a comparison. A regular pony is just a bit taller than a standard block, and they could look over it if they stood on their "tiphooves". Another thing is weight, in the game, it's said that the blocks are relatively lightweight, especially Venture, so in this story I made it so that a majority of ponies could push a single block, however larger blocks such as Geocorp could easily crush a pony, not that I'd let that happen.
Chapter 3: A Long Night
It had been several hours, still waiting at the house, but nothing came or went. The night had been going on for a bit, long enough for me to look up at the moon, said moon had reached it's zenith about an hour ago, and hasn't moved since. This planet had must have had some strange moon for it to do that, I do wonder how long this night was going to last, not being able to see really affected how most prospectors operated. Even most lights weren't enough to warrant action during the night, I really only went out if it was necessary.
Just then and there, my radar picked up an entity, being just on the edge of my radar, I couldn't actually see it due to the thick foliage. Not knowing what to expect, I readied my guns, but not turning on my lights, staying hidden was pretty important to me at the moment. A moment passes, and the unknown entity makes it's way towards my tech, quite fast actually, seemingly not impeded by the trees.
Slightly visible from the trees, I could see a faint, purple mist swirling towards me, zipping through the trees, and eventually settling down right in front of my tech. This strange purple mist started swirling and lashing violently, forming a miniature tornado, said tornado gave way to a jet black creature, which posed dramatically. It silently looked over my tech, which I made sure to not move in the slightest, hoping to appear inactive or inanimate, something told me not to attract this creatures attention.
"What a strange metal construct," It spoke, pausing for a moment, closely inspecting my tech, from the wheels, to the shut off lights, to the guns up top, and finally to the mini drill on the front. It continued, "Perhaps this could be useful, it could possibly drive off those annoying ponies,"
Ponies? Like the horse? And did it want to use my tech? I had no idea if this thing could control it/me, coming from spooky purple mist certainly didn't help. I waited a bit, the black creature finished inspecting my tech, reared up, enveloped itself into the purple mist, and said mist began to approach my tech.
Not wanting to be controlled in any manor, I quickly started everything up, lights and all in an attempt to scare the mist off. It stopped, pausing for a moment before swirling back to it's black form. It looked back up in surprise at me, before speaking once again.
"It is autonomous? But I sense no lifeforce from this construct," It said, mainly to itself. "Golemancy must have progressed in my time imprisoned,"
This thing was imprisoned? Definitely not something I want to be associated with, quickly backing up, and making a mark on where this house was, I sped off, attempting to leave this thing's presence. It stood for a moment, before transforming back into mist and beginning to chase after me. Thankfully, my tech was faster than the mist, but because of all the trees, I could not outrun it directly, it was slowly gaining ground.
Panic quickly rising, I turned my guns toward the mist and fired, the loud popping of the weak rifles echoed throughout the forest. The mist stopped, not directly affected by the bullets, but instead appalled that it was attacked, it redoubled it's efforts to catch up to my tech, quickly gaining ground with speed.
There wasn't much I could do, I didn't want to leave it to my undefended base, but I also couldn't outrun it, I had no options but to hope to communicate with it, it had spoken before after all. I stopped, letting the mist catch up, and hoping that it didn't immediately attack me. Fortunately, it didn't, it stopped in front of my tech and once again transformed into the black creature, it looked angry.
"You dare attack me?" it questioned, "Do you not know who I am?"
Man of all the times to not have speakers on my tech, speakers are never really essential, I never include them in my designs, I've learned that most other techs who install speakers simply don't care what you have to say. God I hate Big Pete. That aside, not being able to properly communicate was a huge problem, one that I completely forgot about when waiting by the dwelling. how was I going to get out of this situation.
Due to my lack of response, the creature continued, "No matter, it seems you will be of use after all, your speed and that weapon you used against me shall be quite the method of disposing those annoying little whelps."
The creature once again transformed into mist, I would've ran again, but that wouldn't do anything, all I had left was to hope that it couldn't control or kill me. The mist quickly enveloped me, attempting to seep into my tech's blocks, then I had an idea. As I was lifted into the air slightly by the mist, I disconnected all the blocks on my tech, shutting off the light in the cabin, and attempted to play dead.
The mist stopped trying to invade my tech, and dropped it, causing the whole thing to fall apart as non of the connection points were activated, effectively making it look like my tech died. The mist coalesced back into the creature again, it looked over my "corpse" and huffed.
"What a waste... however there is no time to figure this out, I still have business to attend to." The creature then turned to leave, but paused. "Perhaps you were some use after all,"
With that, the creature somehow lifted up one of my guns, bringing it to it's side, and walking away into the foliage, disappearing into the night. I didn't reactivate my cabin for at least an hour, I mean what else did I have to do? I was a little pissed at the loss of one of my precious guns, however I'd rather have my freedom and/or life.
With my cabin pointed directly upwards, I noticed that the moon still has not moved, I began to wonder exactly how it stopped moving, that should have caused drastic consequences to the environment, even if this happens often. I still have no idea how this planets day-night cycle even works.
Another hour of waiting yields nothing, no mysterious creatures looking to use me, and no movement from the moon. Having felt like I waited enough time, I reassembled my tech, still mad about not having one of my guns, I wanted to make sure I made it back to base with at least something worthwhile. I drove back to the dwelling, this time however, the lights were on, I was happy once again until a horrifying realization dawned upon me. What if that creature lived here? Would it try to control me again? I quickly shot down that idea, the doorway was too short for the black creature to actually fit into, and while I don't doubt that the mist could fit, it seems redundant to have a doorway you can't use in your own home.
Steeling myself, I drove up to the dwelling once again, only problem was, I still couldn't communicate, nor did I have a way of knocking on the door. Not wanting to scare off the owner of the resources I very much so needed, I had to find some way to communicate. I couldn't do charades, as fun as that might be, it's kind of hard to do when you only have wheels and blocks. Defeated in this endeavor, I decided to make my way back to my base, having a new task in mind before the Component Factory. Communication.
To be Continued...
Author's Notes:
Yippie, third chapter done, and in the same day as the rest. Always a blast, but it makes me wonder what timezone fimfiction's server is in as I clearly finished both the prologue and chapter 1 last night. Doesn't matter though, as now I'm going to start deviating from Terratech, time to fabricate some more technologies and build some better bases.