Stellar Survival Quest
Page 18
As Nathan watched the man die, he felt nothing but contempt. He had lived longer than that each time he was exposed! The man should have vented his lungs and perhaps found some way to ensure Tsk would have flung him to fly near one of the arrays outside. But this guy just died.
The crowd shocked and clearly out of sorts stared. Some even threw up on the deck seeing the exhibition.
A lone southern drawl broke the silence, “Shit man that was harsh!”
The soft voice that answered exaggerated the last word as if she had a hard time saying it, “Yes that was indeed… harsh.”
Tsk ordered the marines to close the hatch, before turning to march back toward Nathan, drawing the crowd’s attention to him.
A sinking feeling grew in Nathans gut as he looked at the fear, confusion, and anger upon the Human faces. He knew that if he didn’t do something quick mob mentality would soon take over.
Standing up straight he lifted his chin and raised his voice to project across the bay, “hello, my Name is Nathan Rogers. Welcome to Parthigoth Gamma station. I am sure you have many questions and if my first experiences were any indication. You are all wondering what is going on and why you do not remember anything. “
Some muttering voices whispered, but most still kept quiet. Their faces still lined in a mix of emotions.
As Nathan went on. “When I first arrived I was the same. Just spawning can be very disorientating. However, I have worked hard over the last few months to make my little part of heaven here, survivable, if not comfortable. So, please if you will all follow Boov here.” He gestured to her as she stepped out of the habitat sealing it behind her.
“She will take you down the hall to a bay where I’ve set up some cargo crates as makeshift quarters. There you will find a tablet. Log in upon it and I would expect you will have a message from your personal Earth bound player.”
He took in a deep reassuring breath, “I was not expecting this many of you so I am sorry there will not be enough Tablets for everyone. Please share them for now.”
Boov moved over to the corridor as Nathan spoke, “Please follow this one.” Her smile and extremely cheery demeanor put some at ease. Those began to follow her as she left the bay. Others though still stood and took some more prodding from Nathan. Finally, one or two took forceful directing from a no nonsense Tsk.
Nathan gave her a direction as the last one left the bay, “Follow them and secure the bay. Do not let them wonder around Unescorted. Also, send a couple of your marines to search the rest of the module. See if there are any more loitering around.”
Tsk flashed her teeth and issued orders.
Nathan ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh when he was alone, “Well shit that could of gone better. What the hell am I going to do with so many people running around…? They will not stay in that bay for long. Once they all get a bit more comfortable I’m going to have a mess of grumpy people to deal with.”
Nathan briefly considered going to the control room and just sealing off the bay then opening the outer hatch to vent them all into space. That would give him a few more days at least. But, that was a temporary solution and would make them all hostile when they returned. Having that one dick come back would be bad enough. Having a small horde of them would be just Ludacris.
Instead, Nathan went to the control room and logged in.
He sat there staring at the last image of Bubba’s video. He had suggested starting a Galactic Entity. Neither of them really knew what to expect from it. But, perhaps by doing so Nathan could at least keep these people from just killing him and taking his station.
Navigating the menus, he found the option.
The screen shifted over.
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Entity Registration
Please Select the Type of Entity you wish to form.
State|Order|Enterprise
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Unsure of what each was Nathan pulled up some definitions and looked them over.
“Huh, well I do not want to be running my own little star nation out here. So state is out. Order sounds a bit sketchy to me. So I guess that leaves Enterprise, although I’m not sure what kind of good or service I will be providing. It is still the best match.”
Selecting it, another prompt appeared.
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Name:
Type:
Non-Profit|Private Enterprise |Partnership | LLC,
Qi’Bloc Company|Qi’Trimm Company|Qi’Pie Company
Owner (s):
Starting Capital:{DETAILS}
Starting Assets:{DETAILS}
Hire Local Employees?YES / NO
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Nathan stared at the screen for a moment before starting to fill it out slowly.
“Company name, himmmm. Rogers Inc.… No… Slayer Resources… No… Space Ex…. No… Damn this is hard…”
Maybe something to do with what I’m doing or planning to do. So what are my plans? I want to explore this station and fix it up... I want to … Shit is that really my only goal right now. Okay add that to my to do list. Create goals.”
“Erm … Company name… Oh, I have an idea… What was that old saying from the First Luna landing…? One small step. One giant leap for mankind. One Giant Leap... Bit of a mouthful Maybe OGL. Yeah that works OGL.”
He typed that in. Next was the type of Enterprise. The three company options were all greyed out for some reason so he ignored them.
“Right so no partners. I want to make some money so scratch Non-Profit. OGL LLC just sounds pretentious. That leaves only one option.”
Next, he moved to the capital section. There he hit the details button. A screen came up showing his current QOBOP balance. He was able to set aside any amount he wanted for the company. He could also assign any of the batteries and power cells for the company.
Biting his lip he moved over half the balance he currently had. That left him with about 500 in both accounts. Next, he selected the sections emergency power storage unit as the company’s resource. A warning flashed up.
***Warning***
Insufficient local QOBOP storage for this action.”
***WARNING***
The personal balance was red. Looking it over Nathan saw why. His power cells and Habitat did not have enough storage between them to hold 500 QOBOP. Sighing he transferred what would not fit into the Stations system. That left him with only 200 personal funds.
“That is okay. Remember by most people’s standards that is a fortune!” His pep talk didn’t really help but he confirmed the selection anyway.
Another warning came up.
***Warning***
A selected storage device is currently attached to a privately owned space station module. This process is not allowed unless the module is designated as a Bank or other financial entity.
***WARNING***
Nathan shrugged, “Meh, was planning to move the module to the company anyway.”
He swiped the warning away and clicked assets. Here a truly annoyingly long list of items appeared. It seemed every crate, screw, or turd not fully attached to something else was listed. He started with the big things first and moved down.
At the end, he only left the J class solar array. His power cells and personal effects as privately owned. The rest he moved over to the company.
Clicking confirm he looked at the last entry.
“Hire local Employees? What will this do exactly?”
Than waved his head back and forth from shoulder to shoulder thinking. “Eh, wha the hell.”
He selected yes.
…
…
…
A Message alert appeared on his screen.
He tapped it curious.
***System Message***
OGL seeks to hire you
Job: CEO/Sole Owner
Starting Pay: 10 QOBOP/Day
{JOB DESCRIPTION}
Accept?
YES/NO
>
***System Message***
Nathan selected yes and smiled as a new icon appeared on his homepage. The Icon was simple OGL, but he guessed that they could design a new logo and it would replace it.
A new message icon appeared under where his normal personal messages appeared.
***OGL MEMO***
Memo,OGL:
To: Nathan Rogers
Subject: New Employee
The Bio lifeform known as Boov, has accepted your job offer.
Job: Indentured Engineer I
Job Type: On Site full time
Starting Pay: 0.01 QOBOP/Day
Length: until terminated.
***OGL MEMO***
Each of the Marines also had a message. The four soldiers were given Jobs Security I for 0.025/Day. Tsk was Security Officer I for 0.3 QOBOP a Day. The surprising thing for Nathan was the Tree also accepted a job as an Indentured Scientist I for 0.01 QOBOP/day.
Finally, the last message really made him curious.
***OGL MEMO***
Memo,OGL:
To: Nathan Rogers
Subject: New B.A.S.E. Claimed.
A new Body Assembly and Soul Exchange has been claimed at
You can now set up administrative options, Respawn permissions, and racial limiters in the Enterprise controls for this module.
***OGL MEMO***
“Really the respawn spot is called a BASE/ that is well... I do not know, but wow, I’ll have to check this out later. Maybe I can block anyone not employed by OGL from respawning there. Then I can just vent the pesky intruders…”
Nathan sighed realizing how megalomaniac like he was sounding. Deciding he should take a break. He checked to make sure no new messages appeared, then he swiped back to the home screen.
With everything important all settled for now, he closed out of the terminal and exit the control room. The door slid shut behind him. Boov and Tsk met him in the corridor. Boov with her normal infectious smile and Tsk with her trademark glower. Her thin orange lips seemed to just be made for glowering, Nathan mused.
Tsk spoke up when they were only a few steps away.
“I accepted your employment offer. I also made the others do the same. A warning Human. If you are weak, I will kill you and take your throne for my own. We do not follow weak leaders. This system says you will pay us. This does not endear you to us. Only those with strength and battle prowess are worth following.”
Nathan snorted. He muttered to himself so his skill would not trigger, “Right so I need to fuck you stupid from time to time.”
Boov snickered and raised her hand. Nathan looked at her questioningly.
Boov lowered her hand. “This one is happy with her job. She did not expect to be paid by such a wonderful master!”
Nathan watched Boov bounce up and down excited for a moment smiling like a kid at a carnival.
As they neared the entry to Cargo bay C. Nathan looked down the hall toward the other two cargo bays. One of which now held a bunch of Humans.
Boov saw his gaze, “This one did some questioning while they were still in a good mood. Having the water and food on hand was a great idea master.”
Nathan glanced at her and nodded for her to continue.
“There are 23 Humans. It seems the system tried to keep the classes balanced because there is five Scientists, Engineers, and Merchants. Then four Soldiers and Pilots. 13 females 10 males.”
Nathan brow crinkled for a moment. Then it clicked there would have been five of each class if he was counted and one soldier didn’t go for a walk in space.
All told, there was thirty-one living creatures in his module. His life support system could handle that and his power supplies were fine. But, living space was going to be an issue and food another one.
With a sigh, Nathan turned into his cargo bay. He needed to do some planning.
As he neared the habitat, an alert pinged on his console, followed by another one from the hatch.
Lifting the tablet Nathan saw that someone was trying to gain access to the Station from outside.
“No it couldn’t be…”
“Tsk grab your other two marines and watch my back.”
Tsk hissed and growled as the two who had been idling around grabbed weapons and fell into line behind Tsk.
Nathan slowly approached the hatch. Hitting the shield into place, he entered the keys to open the hatch.
Stepping back rapidly he moved next to Tsk and Boov.
As the door opened, Nathan saw a monster standing there. It stood 8 feet tall, with six limbs caring a massive wrench in the top two pairs.
Tsk immediately raised her weapon and the others followed suit.
As the figure moved in through the shield Nathan saw, it was wearing a spacesuit. Then behind it on the walkway leading to the landing pads was a Transport much like the one Nathan had arrived on.
Nathan growled, “Hey nope... This is my station. I was here first!”
The figure looked up from a screen it had been reading, and then pulled off its helmet, revealing an apelike face. “Then you better get ready to fight for it. The Gul’Tar are here.”
Afterwords:
Thank you for reading this novel. I had a blast writing it and I truly hope you enjoyed reading it. This is the first book in a series of Novella sized books that I will be releasing involving Nathan and the gang. I’m already hard at work on the next installment, however I’m not one of these super authors who can write 10k words a day. So, it might be a little wait. Please be patient. Anyway once again thank you to everyone who helped me with this book. My sons Tyler and Andy, my roommate Raul and everyone who was an alpha readers. Thank you all!
If you like the book please leave me a review and tell a friend.
Also, you should check out the LitRPG group on facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Litrpgsociety/
Or the group with more LitRPG authors than any other.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/
Appendix I: Glossary
Appearance--(APP) – The characteristic that measures a life form’s attractiveness to others of its species. This is a measurement in all ways that a particular species finds mates. I e Humans: Physical, Personality, and Pheromones.
Engineer--(Eng) – One of the five primary classes. This clas uses PER,NER, and IQ as is’ primary attributes. The class focuses on designing, creating, and maintaining most items found in the universe.
Enterprise--A classification of a Galactic Entity. Enterprises have employees and an owner (s). Most Enterprises often strive to make a profit for their owners. A few Non-profit Enterprises instead work their business assets or services to help a group, community or some other cause. Enterprises have one underlying factor; they produce, or provide goods or services of some kind.
Epsilon Endi--A Star System approximately 12 light years from Sol. The system is a Trinary star system, with one primary K type star and two secondary Brown Dwarf stars that orbit it. The Stars are labeled as , A,B, and BB. The system has a total of 19 planetary bodies. 9 rocky core planets orbit Epsilon Endi A before the Binary stars orbit. There are 3 large metor belts also located In the inner system. Beyond the Binary B and BB stars orbit is another 6 large gas giants. Located further out beyond the systems extra large Kelgar belt are 3 dwarf planets.
Grit--(GRT) - The characteristic that measures a life form’s willpower, determination, psionic aptitude, and general sense of self. This attribute can help measure how far an individual will push himself or herself when faced with difficulty or diversity; in comparison to others of its species.
Gul’Tar--A race of beings who do not use the system beyond selling scavenged materials for funds to buy fresh meat; mainly in the forms of intelligent slaves.
Intelligence Quota--(IQ) - The characteristic that measures a life form’s Intellegence, problem solving, and creativity as compaired to others of its’ species. This also gives a base for an individual’s psionic streng
th.
Merchant--(mer)--One of the five primary classes. This class uses APP, PER, and GRIT, as is’ primary attributes. The class focuses on buying and selling of products and services. Additionally Merchants mainly organize and run all Orders, Enterprises, and States galaxy wide.
MESO store--Founded by seven races the MESO store now has trillions of sellers and items of every item and kind. Star Systems with large populations or in some rare cases a sponsored system will receive a MESO Printing Station in the solar system to print out and deliver most items ordered in a timely manner.
Nervous Response--(NER) – The characteristic that measures a life form’s quick reaction responses and manual dexterity, as compared to their members of its species. Both Reflexes and eye and hand coordination fall into this attributes domain, as well as others.
Order--A classification of a Galactic Entity. Orders consist of members and leaders. Examples of an order include clubs, secret societies, religious orders, cults, and liberal feminist movements. Created with a mission in mind: Orders strive to fulfil it, by means they alone dictate. Orders are often less formal than both Enterprises and States with members that can join or leave freely. Orders may use aspects from both other types of entities to further their mission.
Perception--(PEr) – The characteristic that measures a life form’s ability to observe and directly understand the greater environment, as compared to others of its species. Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, Taste, and Psionic Perceptions are all variables for this attribute.
Physique--(PHY) - The characteristic that measures a life form’s physical strength and endurance as compared to other members of its species. For some species, this may also indicate the value or quality of the individual’s resistances to damage.