Z
Zack
ON> 188604, Warehouse.
*BOOM*
"ARCCOS! WHERE YOU AT?!" Uso shouted, with all the subtulty that could be mustered by a creature that traveled by rocket-assisted leaps. "I got a plan that could make use of some spacerships."
As Uso landed, there was a sound of clattering machinery coming from within, all of it starting to wind down as an Arccos stepped out of the warehouse where she printed just about everything from newsletters, to dirty stories, to propaganda.
She wore an ink and grease stained apron, over a skin-tight variant on one of the new model Freespacer void suits.
"What plan is that, then?"
"Well, we can't get at all those tastey minerals under the ground without a huge workforce right? So how about we just skip all the digging around parts and extract the good stuff using space ships? It'd be easy enough to bring that stuff right to Vier so she can turn it into... you know, space stuff or whatever we need... mostly junker drones." Uso suggested, "This whole system is filled with useless planets."
"I've been doing that for a while." Arccos said, folding her hands behind her back to stand weirdly at attention. Although only the slouching really made it lose any formality.
"The Lament can just crush asteroids with its shearing systems, feed that right into the grinder unit and manufacturing bay. I've already built more new ships than we lost at Ee'ee."
"Well fuck. I don't have new ships. Or Vekimen to mine shit for new ships. Besides asteroids are small. Going out and catching those one at a time? ew. Gross. The gas giant in this sector has a few decently sized moons, easily several hundred times what you'd get out of an asteroid.
Lets just blow it up! Take the good stuff from inside!"
"Blow it up with... What exactly?" Arccos asked. Raising an eyebrow.
"RKVs*," Uso replied, "Just mass and speed. Throw it at the thing hard enough and scatter all the lighter elements away from that sexy, dense, core of useful stuff."
"I guess that could work. I'm not a stargazer or what have you..." Arccos tilted her head slightly. "Some of the new ships could help for sure, if that needs ships... How will Vier be using this stuff? We don't really have any factories."
"She's a robot. I thought all you robot-types had other robots that could build more robots? Its kinda a thing for you guys." Uso said, sounding just a bit too much like it was an actual question. "That fabber we took out of the Pumpkin Eater can pump out more Junkers, which can build more Fabbers, which can blahblahblah and then starships come out...
... and houses, and uh. Washing machines, showers," Uso held up her hands and made some airquotes as she said "Consumer" "Goods".
"Stuff that doesn't explode that the people need. Of course, we got to get that raw material To the fabricator on the planet. I figure we could use some of your ships and scoop up whatever Ice or choice metal-bits in your layline thing to send it to the planet."
"The leyline portal should probably not be used. It scared the shit out of the Locksmiths, and they can lock it down by shutting off all the other ends to me. We also don't have an output portal on the planet." Arccos moved a hand around, running two fingers around her mouth as if stroking an invisible mustache. "I also probably have more manufacturing capability in space right now, anyway."
"Yeah, and if I let you keep building ships I'm going to find myself out of a job real soon." Uso said, putting her hands on her hips, "I suppose I can get the Ragnacrew to help out, but it'd be a lot easier if you pitched in even if its just using the spare ships in your inventory to keep the spare junk from the planet cracking from getting out of control."
"What? You think I'd use my giant fleet to usurp you?" The pale 'spacer sniggered. Fingers still tracing downwards as if that phantom mustache extended to a long evil goatee, "Those things I can do. But we warned I'm using those ships eventually to trade for some industrial grade constructor stations, so I can make more ships to trade for more... Well, you get the idea."
"Oh don't think you're so special. I assume everyone with a fleet is trying to Usurp me. When you have a hammer, ever problem looks like a planet ripe for invasion by a fleet of hammers. Totally counting on you, ragnarok, and Vier complicating each other so I can keep calling shots...
... and, you know, my winning personality. I come to talk to people in person instead of using these...." Uso poked Arccos's body in the stomach, "... They aren't even meat puppets... They are just like, puppet-puppets.
Who even sells industrial grade constructor stations? Why don't we build those here?" Uso asked.
"'Free State' Protectorate." Arccos said informatively, "After all the fights with Yamatai, we got a bunch of stuff from all over. One was a lorath-made shipyard space station that self replicates if you feed it materials. We could build it here, but we'd have an operational one faster if we just traded a fistful of ships for it."
Arccos looked down as Uso poked her, giving a little chuckle.
"And you're free to come talk to the one of these housing my brain, if you just rocket jump to Station Doomstar."
"Did you really name it doomstar? That's so...." Uso twirled her hand about as if trying to catch a thought, "Not you. Its almost Nepleslian... like 'KILLHAMMER' or 'SPACEFUCKER'."
"Eh. I'd fuck space." Arccos said, almost like it was some unconscious thought transferred through a wireless connection. "But no. It more or less named itself. Or we all did."
"Well it sounds like a lovely place to rocket-jump to. Besides who knows what is in that lor-crap. We could have some home-grown factories here without having to pay a ridiculous up charge on some second hand spacery.
Vier is all 'open source this' and 'open source that'... I'm sure we could get her to put together a factory ship." Uso said, "......... or ships."
"I have a factory ship. What I need is a full-on shipyard to refit a first-generation mothership back to something resembling its original configuration." Arccos said, just a little bit slower than normal. "I can make a new drone craft, or light ship every two days or so. But I need to repair a battleship."
"I don't know how that's any different. Don't you just throw junkers at it until you're done?" Uso asked.
"Not really. Not if I want to do a damn good job." Arccos shrugged, "You can grab Vier if you want to come up and see what I'm talking about."
"I help you get some really nice parts for your lament and you help me with this planet busting thing?" Uso asked, sounding hopeful there might be a deal there, "I can always grab Vier and bring her to you but if you're hoping for a 6some with her and I then I have to warn you I think she only gets turned on by spreadsheets and properly formatted data files."
"I'm a Codebreaker. I can format, reformat, corrupt or reinvent data files extraordinarily well, I'll have you know." Arccos said, with all earnesty. "...Although I'm pretty sure she just doesn't know I exist at this point in time. My bad for making a joke out of that one... Thing."
"HA! That... Man how long were you saving that one up? You had to time it with launching the mothership..." Uso asked.
"Four weeks. Nepleslian time." Arccos said, matter of factly. "And I'm honestly pretty sure she never would have thought a second about it."
"... Right. Factories." Uso said, snapping back to the earlier discussion, "How bout it? I'm certain I can get ahold of whatever you need to start fixing up the white lament all nice and pretty... and it'll probably be a lot faster than mining ice-bits to sell for lor-crap."
"I'm not really fixing up the Lament any more. I have an actual, literal, first generation mothership. I stole it from Null and Void." Arccos tilted her head, just a little, "And are you jealous?"
"That's a dumb question. Being Jealous would mean that there's something that someone is better than me at." Uso stated matter of factly, "So you're fixing up whatever. We gonna make a deal here or are you too busy for Uso 'I want to blow up a planet' Tasuki?"
Arccos took a step forward, and puppeteered a hand to Uso's shoulder. Hunching down a little to look the Neko in the eye.
"Uso. I want you to know..." She said with all sorts of compassion, "That there will always be a special place in my heart for you. Because that is an awesome nickname. Let's blow up a planet."
*Relativistic Kill Vehicles
*BOOM*
"ARCCOS! WHERE YOU AT?!" Uso shouted, with all the subtulty that could be mustered by a creature that traveled by rocket-assisted leaps. "I got a plan that could make use of some spacerships."
As Uso landed, there was a sound of clattering machinery coming from within, all of it starting to wind down as an Arccos stepped out of the warehouse where she printed just about everything from newsletters, to dirty stories, to propaganda.
She wore an ink and grease stained apron, over a skin-tight variant on one of the new model Freespacer void suits.
"What plan is that, then?"
"Well, we can't get at all those tastey minerals under the ground without a huge workforce right? So how about we just skip all the digging around parts and extract the good stuff using space ships? It'd be easy enough to bring that stuff right to Vier so she can turn it into... you know, space stuff or whatever we need... mostly junker drones." Uso suggested, "This whole system is filled with useless planets."
"I've been doing that for a while." Arccos said, folding her hands behind her back to stand weirdly at attention. Although only the slouching really made it lose any formality.
"The Lament can just crush asteroids with its shearing systems, feed that right into the grinder unit and manufacturing bay. I've already built more new ships than we lost at Ee'ee."
"Well fuck. I don't have new ships. Or Vekimen to mine shit for new ships. Besides asteroids are small. Going out and catching those one at a time? ew. Gross. The gas giant in this sector has a few decently sized moons, easily several hundred times what you'd get out of an asteroid.
Lets just blow it up! Take the good stuff from inside!"
"Blow it up with... What exactly?" Arccos asked. Raising an eyebrow.
"RKVs*," Uso replied, "Just mass and speed. Throw it at the thing hard enough and scatter all the lighter elements away from that sexy, dense, core of useful stuff."
"I guess that could work. I'm not a stargazer or what have you..." Arccos tilted her head slightly. "Some of the new ships could help for sure, if that needs ships... How will Vier be using this stuff? We don't really have any factories."
"She's a robot. I thought all you robot-types had other robots that could build more robots? Its kinda a thing for you guys." Uso said, sounding just a bit too much like it was an actual question. "That fabber we took out of the Pumpkin Eater can pump out more Junkers, which can build more Fabbers, which can blahblahblah and then starships come out...
... and houses, and uh. Washing machines, showers," Uso held up her hands and made some airquotes as she said "Consumer" "Goods".
"Stuff that doesn't explode that the people need. Of course, we got to get that raw material To the fabricator on the planet. I figure we could use some of your ships and scoop up whatever Ice or choice metal-bits in your layline thing to send it to the planet."
"The leyline portal should probably not be used. It scared the shit out of the Locksmiths, and they can lock it down by shutting off all the other ends to me. We also don't have an output portal on the planet." Arccos moved a hand around, running two fingers around her mouth as if stroking an invisible mustache. "I also probably have more manufacturing capability in space right now, anyway."
"Yeah, and if I let you keep building ships I'm going to find myself out of a job real soon." Uso said, putting her hands on her hips, "I suppose I can get the Ragnacrew to help out, but it'd be a lot easier if you pitched in even if its just using the spare ships in your inventory to keep the spare junk from the planet cracking from getting out of control."
"What? You think I'd use my giant fleet to usurp you?" The pale 'spacer sniggered. Fingers still tracing downwards as if that phantom mustache extended to a long evil goatee, "Those things I can do. But we warned I'm using those ships eventually to trade for some industrial grade constructor stations, so I can make more ships to trade for more... Well, you get the idea."
"Oh don't think you're so special. I assume everyone with a fleet is trying to Usurp me. When you have a hammer, ever problem looks like a planet ripe for invasion by a fleet of hammers. Totally counting on you, ragnarok, and Vier complicating each other so I can keep calling shots...
... and, you know, my winning personality. I come to talk to people in person instead of using these...." Uso poked Arccos's body in the stomach, "... They aren't even meat puppets... They are just like, puppet-puppets.
Who even sells industrial grade constructor stations? Why don't we build those here?" Uso asked.
"'Free State' Protectorate." Arccos said informatively, "After all the fights with Yamatai, we got a bunch of stuff from all over. One was a lorath-made shipyard space station that self replicates if you feed it materials. We could build it here, but we'd have an operational one faster if we just traded a fistful of ships for it."
Arccos looked down as Uso poked her, giving a little chuckle.
"And you're free to come talk to the one of these housing my brain, if you just rocket jump to Station Doomstar."
"Did you really name it doomstar? That's so...." Uso twirled her hand about as if trying to catch a thought, "Not you. Its almost Nepleslian... like 'KILLHAMMER' or 'SPACEFUCKER'."
"Eh. I'd fuck space." Arccos said, almost like it was some unconscious thought transferred through a wireless connection. "But no. It more or less named itself. Or we all did."
"Well it sounds like a lovely place to rocket-jump to. Besides who knows what is in that lor-crap. We could have some home-grown factories here without having to pay a ridiculous up charge on some second hand spacery.
Vier is all 'open source this' and 'open source that'... I'm sure we could get her to put together a factory ship." Uso said, "......... or ships."
"I have a factory ship. What I need is a full-on shipyard to refit a first-generation mothership back to something resembling its original configuration." Arccos said, just a little bit slower than normal. "I can make a new drone craft, or light ship every two days or so. But I need to repair a battleship."
"I don't know how that's any different. Don't you just throw junkers at it until you're done?" Uso asked.
"Not really. Not if I want to do a damn good job." Arccos shrugged, "You can grab Vier if you want to come up and see what I'm talking about."
"I help you get some really nice parts for your lament and you help me with this planet busting thing?" Uso asked, sounding hopeful there might be a deal there, "I can always grab Vier and bring her to you but if you're hoping for a 6some with her and I then I have to warn you I think she only gets turned on by spreadsheets and properly formatted data files."
"I'm a Codebreaker. I can format, reformat, corrupt or reinvent data files extraordinarily well, I'll have you know." Arccos said, with all earnesty. "...Although I'm pretty sure she just doesn't know I exist at this point in time. My bad for making a joke out of that one... Thing."
"HA! That... Man how long were you saving that one up? You had to time it with launching the mothership..." Uso asked.
"Four weeks. Nepleslian time." Arccos said, matter of factly. "And I'm honestly pretty sure she never would have thought a second about it."
"... Right. Factories." Uso said, snapping back to the earlier discussion, "How bout it? I'm certain I can get ahold of whatever you need to start fixing up the white lament all nice and pretty... and it'll probably be a lot faster than mining ice-bits to sell for lor-crap."
"I'm not really fixing up the Lament any more. I have an actual, literal, first generation mothership. I stole it from Null and Void." Arccos tilted her head, just a little, "And are you jealous?"
"That's a dumb question. Being Jealous would mean that there's something that someone is better than me at." Uso stated matter of factly, "So you're fixing up whatever. We gonna make a deal here or are you too busy for Uso 'I want to blow up a planet' Tasuki?"
Arccos took a step forward, and puppeteered a hand to Uso's shoulder. Hunching down a little to look the Neko in the eye.
"Uso. I want you to know..." She said with all sorts of compassion, "That there will always be a special place in my heart for you. Because that is an awesome nickname. Let's blow up a planet."
*Relativistic Kill Vehicles
