The Station Core_A Dungeon Core Epic

by Jonathan Brooks

  Down to only one foot, the Scaly Bear collapsed on the ground, flailing around with it remaining arm as it slowly bled out. Milton was quite disgusted at the amount of blood that was present and if he could throw up, he would have. His dad wasn’t any type of hunter, so he had never been around a large amount of blood before – horror and action movies didn’t really count. Even the realistic scenes from some of his games couldn’t prepare him for the carnage in front of him.

  What Milton found strange, as his mind tried to disconnect from the horrible display of death and dismemberment, was that the bear – despite dying from blood loss, blinded from his orbs’ attack, and missing three limbs – was still trying to reach the damaged section of his shell. I guess ALANNA was right – they lose all sense of anything but reaching the leaking radiation. When the Scaly Bear finally bled out, he felt both a sense of relief and worry. He was glad that he had survived this attack but was worried about another one in the future. He had barely made it through “alive” and wasn’t sure he could survive another attack like that one.

  “Congratulations! You survived your first real attack! I told you that you could do it – but next time, try not to lose so many resources. You can’t assemble any more drones or sensor orbs until you build a manufacturing facility, so be careful with how you use them. Clean this up and get back to digging – now do you see why you need to hide?”

  Now that he saw the threat up close, he agreed with her assessment of the situation. He told her this – to her intense pleasure – and refocused on his tasks. First, he looked at his own casualties of the battle: his Lollipop Snake, 5 more sensor orbs (bringing him down to 44), and – what sucked the most – 1 drone. He could always make more snakes and he still had quite a few sensor orbs, but the loss of a drone set his plans back quite a bit. He had to be more careful in the future, since the drones were his only way to effectively manipulate the outside world.

  He needed to prioritize his movement to a safer place, where he could concentrate on defenses and building up his metal resource stockpile. I just hope we don’t get attacked by something like that again before I can get setup.

  Chapter 8 – Level up!

  As he sent the drones back to their previous tasks – minus one digger – he turned his focus to a notification he had received after the bear’s death.

  Congratulations! You have defeated Scaly Bear! You gain 300 experience!

  Congratulations! You have increased your Combat Level!

  Current Combat Level: 2

  Experience: 316/750

  By raising your Combat Level, you can choose to prioritize the development of certain statistics. In addition, your Combat Units will receive a 2% (per Combat Level) increase in their own attack and defensive abilities.

  Current Points to Allocate: 2

  Current Combat Unit A/D Increase: 4%

  Ah! Finally, an explanation on Combat Levels! Now I just need to figure out what all these statistics mean. “ALANNA, I need to know more about my statistics. If I were an avatar in a game, I could guess – but since I’m a Station Core I’m not really sure how they apply in my situation.”

  “All you need to do is concentrate on each statistic and it should give you all the information you need. It’ll be faster than me explaining each one.”

  “Ok, thanks.” He pulled up his Core Status menu and started looking at each statistic, finding that the explanation easily entered his “mind”.

  Reactor Power/Strength: Optimally, this statistic should be at 100 – on an undamaged Station Core. It represents the amount of power that the Zero-point Energy Reactor can provide to power drones, sensor orbs, defenses, and facilities. Based on damage to your Core, you are running at only 2% efficiency. Repairing and strengthening damaged sections with the appropriate materials will result in an increase in Reactor Power/Strength. This statistic cannot be raised by allocating points from Combat Level increases.

  Structural Integrity/Constitution: Optimally, this statistic should be at 100 – on an undamaged Station Core. It represents the near-indestructible defensive shell surrounding the critical components of your core, including your reactor, processing systems, and conversion systems. Due to damage sustained many years ago and with recent activity, your Structural Integrity/Constitution is down to 1%. Further damage to your shell will result in reactor failure – with devastating consequences. Repair your shell and internal components to increase this statistic. This statistic cannot be raised by allocating points from Combat Level increases.

  Processing Speed/Agility: Optimally, this statistic should be at 100 – on an undamaged Station Core. It represents the speed of construction/deconstruction of objects and materials inside your Molecular Converter and outside manufacturing facilities, as well as the operating speed of your drones. In addition, it affects the speed at which you can switch between multiple combat units and their response time. Because of internal damage caused by a leaking reactor and subsequent radiation, most of the systems controlling Processing Speed/Agility are running at a less than optimal level. Repair these internal systems to increase your Processing Speed/Agility statistic.

  Insight/Luck: This statistic is variable based upon the current occupant. It represents the chance to create new forms of technology, defenses, and biological life-forms. It also plays a small role on formulating successful defensive strategies against more powerful enemies. Insight/Luck can be raised by multiple discoveries and the execution of successful defensive strategies.

  Processing Power/Intelligence: Optimally, this statistic should be at 100 – on an undamaged Station Core. It determines how many drones, combat units, defenses, and facilities can be controlled at one time. Based on damage sustained to your internal systems, your Processing Power/Intelligence has been reduced to just a fraction of what you need to effectively defend yourself. Repair Processing Power/Intelligence systems to raise this statistic.

  Ingenuity/Wisdom: Optimally, this statistic should be at 100 – on an undamaged Station Core. It determines how efficiently you use your available resources and your ability to substitute missing materials for required projects. Due to damage to your internal systems, your Ingenuity/Wisdom is far below what it should be to construct a suitable defense. Repair your Ingenuity/Wisdom components to increase this statistic.

  Communication/Charisma: This statistic is variable based upon the current occupant. It represents your ability to communicate with sentient species, adaptability with neural communication, and can even effect how well you control your various units. Since there was internal damage inside your Core, the ability to easily communicate through various means is less than it should be. Repair and restore your Communication/Charisma matrices to increase this statistic.

  Sensor Interpretation/Perception: Optimally, this statistic should be at 100 – on an undamaged Station Core. It determines how you can interpret information sent from your sensors, up to and including environmental data, species categorization, and potential threats/hazards. Due to damage in your central Core systems, you are at a severe disadvantage concerning your potential sensor information. Repair your Sensor Interpretation/Perception systems to increase this statistic.

  Milton was happy to see this information, since it allowed him to break down what he would potentially be able to do in the future. It was unfortunate that he had gotten damaged before he was even able to do anything about it, but now he knew what to strive for. Armed with this info, he thought about what he needed most right now – a safe and secure place to call home for the next hundred years or so. And fast.

  With that in mind, adding points to his Processing Speed/Agility would increase the speed of his drones as well as the speed he was able to convert and produce sandstone blocks. The 2 points he was able to add only brought it up to 7 – but every little bit helped.[7] The sooner he got underground, the better.

  After he had placed his points, Milton was tangentially aware of some tiny repair-work being done on some of his damaged internal sy
stems, which he then asked ALANNA about.

  “When you placed some points into your Processing Speed/Agility statistic, the nanites in your system started to repair those specific damaged parts. Normally, on an undamaged Station Core, they would make minute improvements to increase the efficiency after learning what would be most beneficial for each specific Core. However, in your case, they are working to repair it back to normal. Only when all your statistics are back to where they should be will they start to increase optimal efficiency.”

  “Why can’t they just continue to repair me, bringing me up to ‘normal’? Why bother with these Combat Levels?”

  “Originally, the Combat Level system was supposed to act as a sort of upgrade program for fully functioning Station Cores, allowing them to customize how they wanted to concentrate on their defensive strategies. Only by having the experience gained with controlling units and defeating enemies would the different personalities inhabiting the Cores be able to decide what they wanted to improve. The Station Core designers put a limit on what the nanites could improve per Combat Level and locked out access to their programming to prevent abuse – which could result in unintended consequences, with the destruction of the Core the least of these consequences.”

  Milton thanked ALANNA for the information, silently thankful that she got through the entire conversation without throwing out any foul language. Although it was hard to tell, when he looked at his drones he thought that he could see a small improvement in their speed as they toiled away at the tunnel. He also noticed that the time it took for his Converter to operate was faster, if only by a fraction of a second. All those fractions of a second would add up over time, making the completion of the tunnel that much closer.

  Another thought occurred to him, looking back at the increase in his Combat Level. “How are my Combat Units able to have their attack and defense increased? I could understand if this was a game, but how does it work here?”

  “That’s easy. The Neurological Control Unit that is required for each of your units contain a healthy dose of nanites that can increase their physical attack and defense by strengthening their various body parts. These nanites operate automatically, infusing their bloodstreams to enhance their combat abilities. And before you ask, no, you can’t tell the nanites what you want to improve. Just like your own Combat Level, the nanite programming is based off your skills, achievements, and other combat-related enhancements.” That makes sense, I guess.

  After watching his drones work on the tunnel for a couple of hours, he pulled one away for a couple of minutes to help dispose of the decomposing corpses of the Scaly Bear and Lollipop Snake that were lying in a congealing pool of blood near his shell. He hadn’t done anything with it before since he wanted his drones to concentrate on the tunnel they were building. Now that he had a small stockpile of sandstone, he took his new ‘dozer’ drone away from its duties to tackle the large bear problem they had.

  And it was a rather large bear problem. The best way to dispose of it would be to throw it in his Converter, but it was way too big to fit through the hatch. His only option was to have one of his drones cut it up and feed the pieces chunk by chunk until it was converted to Bio Units. At first, he was excited – here was a creature that could really defend him if he was attacked again. However, the same problem with getting it in to convert existed, since he’d never be able to get it to fit out of his rear hatch.

  When the drone started cutting up the bear, the work progressed quickly – but he couldn’t watch. He had all but one of his sensor orbs face away from the butchery, and he only occasionally concentrated on its progress to make sure everything was going well. A long 10 minutes later, the last bear chunk was converted inside his Core and he pulled up his CUC menu.[8]

  Milton noticed that the option to create a Scaly Bear all his own was available, so he selected it to see if somehow it could be created smaller at first and then grown later. No such luck, as an error message made itself known shortly thereafter:

  Error!

  Unable to complete Combat Unit Creation for 3 reasons:

  Units requiring over 300 Bio Units must be created in a Bioconversion Laboratory

  Not enough Basic Metal Units available for required Neurological Control Unit

  Your Processing Power/Intelligence statistic is not high enough

  Total Bio Units you can effectively control: 500

  Total Bio Units needed for selected Combat Unit: 1500

  About what I figured – it appears that I’m hampered by one thing after another with all the damage to my system. At the moment, he could theoretically make another 17 squirrels or snakes, or any combination of them. Since he wanted to avoid being around any more squirrels if he could help it, he chose to create 17 more Lollipop Snakes, which collected outside of his shell, hissing and beginning to attack each other before he mentally clamped down on their aggression. I guess they are solitary creatures – either that or they are all hungry. In the future, he automatically dampened this aggression on his units as soon as they came out of his shell.

  Once they were all gathered, he tried to give instructions to them all, but apparently his damaged Communication/Charisma matrices wouldn’t allow him to direct more than one at a time. A minute later, all 17 snakes slithered away to find some food and to patrol the clearing, taking up the duties of their fallen predecessor.

  Feeling slightly more secure, he refocused his attention on the tunnel being built by his tireless drones.

  Chapter 9 – Roll on down to your hidey-hole

  Congratulations! One of your units has defeated Ugly Bald Mouse! You gain 1 experience!

  Current Combat Level: 2

  Experience: 398/750

  Milton had received a plethora of other notifications like that over the last three days, although they had been coming less and less frequently as time went on. His little snake army was devastating the local mouse population and he was worried that they had overhunted the clearing and would have to start ranging farther afield. Either way, he was gaining some free experience as they went around eating their meals.

  His drones had made an immense amount of progress as well, since they didn’t sleep and weren’t hindered by a lack of light during the nighttime darkness. He also found that he could see relatively well even during the wee hours of the morning – most likely because of the advanced technology of his sensor orbs. No matter the reason, he was probably only about a day away from finishing his massive tunnel. With a length of almost a half a mile, the 25-foot tall tunnel lined in sandstone made five major turns, bringing it further and further underground until he would be about 300 feet beneath the surface.

  He hadn’t had any other serious attacks since the Scaly Bear scare, with only a few more Lollipop Snakes and a curious-looking rabbit with large branching antlers. Arriving during the night, it had originally been chased into the clearing by one of his snakes and its speed was impressive, far outdistancing the reach of any of his roaming guards. He thought it was so adorable-appearing that he couldn’t get his self-defense laser to activate as it caught “scent” of his leaking radiation and changed course. It rammed into his shell without stopping – fortunately causing no damage due to its size – and inadvertently snapped its own neck with the impact.

  Milton thought that it looked like the famed mythical Jackalope, so the name stuck. Once its body was converted, he ended up creating five of them at a cost of 15 Bio Units each.[9] Along with his 17 roaming snakes, the additional Jackalopes were a last line of defense – his kamikaze skill would come in handy for quick retaliatory strikes.

  Other than growing bored during the whole tunnel-making process, nothing much of note had occurred – which was ok with Milton. He didn’t need any more surprises on the level of a Scaly Bear, at least until he was established underground. During one of the times when he had a stockpile of sandstone ready to go, he had instructed his “dozer” drone to try to put his destroyed drone and sensor orbs into his converter, h
alf-hoping that he would be able to create new ones. To his half-expected disappointment, he was informed by ALANNA that he would have to build a Manufacturing Facility in order to fix any damaged drones or orbs.

  To his surprise – and also disappointment – ALANNA wasn’t very talkative during the whole tunneling process. She would answer his questions but would rarely volunteer anything, instead standing around looking like she had a bad taste in her mouth. Finally, after a couple days of this, he decided to just ask her.

  “ALANNA, is there something wrong? Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “Nope, nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.”

  Now, Milton wasn’t very experienced when it came to the opposite sex, but he knew enough from TV and movies that he was in trouble. Whenever a woman said that, it meant that he messed up somehow – now he just had to figure out what he did. I have no idea what I could have done that could have caused her to be pissed at me. Maybe I didn’t catch on with everything quick enough? Let that bear damage my shell more than I should have? Maybe I should just drop it and let her get over it – especially since I don’t know what I did. He probably should have left it alone, but Milton didn’t want the only other “person” he knew to be mad at him.