The Station Core: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 1)

by Jonathan Brooks

  - Accumulate 50,000 Bio Units

  - Create 2 different effective hybrid Combat Units

  Difficulty of Goal: Average

  Timeframe: 5 years

  Rewards: +1 to Communication/Charisma and Ingenuity/Wisdom

  “Yesss! Ok, now give me rundown on what Combat Units you have available.” When he showed her his list[32], she immediately picked out two that were more than affordable. He was worried she wanted to start testing some of the heavy-duty creatures he had in his arsenal, so he created the creatures and sent them to the Biological Recombinator.

  Do you wish to recombine the DNA from a Greywiener and a Miniature Pygmy Wolf? Y/N

  Warning: Each unit will be consumed in this process.

  He chose yes, and another screen popped up detailing the different traits, good and bad, available with the recombination. Over the years, he had found that he could interface with ALANNA using neural communication, allowing her to see what he saw and – if he gave permission – to control it as well. She expertly manipulated the screen, choosing which traits she wanted and eliminating those she didn’t.

  He learned more by watching her in those few minutes than he thought he would have after days of experimentation on his own. First of all, there was a point system assigned to each trait. When you selected positive traits, the point total would increase; negative traits caused the point total to go down. Each combination of creatures apparently had a different point total that they could reach, with larger creatures having a higher threshold. When she had finished, he was confused at first because the unit produced had a negative number for its point total. And apparently, she had named it.

  Recombination Complete!

  Analysis of: Fluffy

  Miniature size (Reduced attack damage): -10

  Super-soft exterior (Highly-reduced defensive rating): -20

  Long, sleek body (Speed increase): +5

  Six legs (Speed increase): +5

  Blunted teeth (Reduced attack damage): -10

  High-jump ability: +20

  Young age (Less than 6 months old): -5

  Total point total: -15

  “It should be available to create in your Molecular Converter – let’s go fucking make it now!” He agreed since it only cost him 90 Bio Units and 10 BMUs, and by the time she turned to mist and arrived in his Core Room, “Fluffy” was just being pooped out. Wading through the water filling his room, the miniature wiener dog puppy was probably the cutest thing he had ever seen. He remembered occasionally – ok, more than occasionally – watching pet videos on the internet and he was always fascinated at the “Teacup” sized puppies that people could hold in the palm of their hand. This dog, though, had them beat – and ALANNA must have thought so as well.

  “Oh my god, he is so fucking cute I could punch him! Come here, you!” The puppy immediately ran up to her and jumped into her arms, licking her face. Milton couldn’t help but notice that with the dogs’ small size, it was perfectly matched with ALANNA’s diminutive figure. If you were to look at them without any frame of reference, they would have looked normal. This must have been what she had been hoping to achieve – a playmate of her very own.

  Chapter 31 – Discovery

  ALANNA was constantly playing with Fluffy, running through the tunnels, splashing through the water in his Core Room, and frolicking through the clearing above his dungeon. She seemed happier than he had…well…ever seen her before. Milton figured she had been programmed with the personality of a dog-lover, and with the presence of Fluffy she must have found that unknown piece that had been missing. Even when it grew up over the next couple of years to adulthood, it was still only about waist high on her – large, but not enough to stop their playing.

  While he was busy trying to ignore their antics, he had taken a risk and created two additional Quizzards for use in a hunting party. He needed to acquire a large amount of Bio Mass, so that he could convert it for use in improving his Combat Units through research and by recombining their DNA. And the fact that he would be able to increase his Combat Level didn’t hurt, either.

  Over the next five years, he sent his trio of Quizzards to rove around the border of his territory, attacking anything that got even remotely close. This did three things: 1. Acquired Bio Mass, 2. Removed any potential incoming threats, and 3. Permeated the surrounding countryside with so much of his radiation essence that it was near impossible for any hostile creatures to accurately follow it back to his dungeon.

  In addition to acquiring Bio Mass, his Quizzards had an additional benefit of acquiring more experience to raise his Combat Level to 11. With the extra 11 stat points, he placed 5 of them into Processing Speed/Agility and the remaining 6 into Sensor Interpretation/Perception since they were two stats that had been neglected a little in favor of others. While he didn’t see an immediate change in his sensors, he saw a marked improvement on how fast his drones would complete their projects. This, in turn, speeded up the whole mining process.

  While some of the powerful creatures he had seen outside of his “territory” occasionally got close, none of them expressed any interest in looking for his dungeon. He had learned his lesson on unbridled exploration, so he never pushed himself to encounter and gain additional creatures outside of his normal area of influence. New variations of the creatures he had already encountered were prevalent inside his territory, such as the Miniature Pygmy Wolves, but a lot of what he had seen further afield with his bird never made an appearance. From what he could observe, they were focused on attacking the Proctans who entered the forest, or – if enough of them gathered together – would send out “raiding parties” to the nearby village. He still didn’t know enough about this world and the Proctans to wonder why this was.

  He “slept” most of the time, only “waking up” once a year to check on their progress and to purchase any available research and try his hand at experimentation. He didn’t want to spend too many resources until he had a chance to figure out what he needed most, but he did create two different hybrids that he was quite proud of. One was a Scaly Pygmy Wolf – a combination of a Pygmy Wolf and a Scaly Bear. It was essentially a Pygmy Wolf with scaly hard skin and strong jaws with a tremendous bite-force; the downside was they were slower than they were previously. Milton thought that the reduced speed was worth having a stronger wolf that could take a whole lot more damage before going down.

  The other creature he created with the assistance of some research that he had unlocked in his Biological Recombinator[33], which allowed his to combine three units into one. He combined a Quizard, a Scaly Bear, and a Clawed Badger into something he called a Big Bad Quizard, or BBQ for short. The BBQ had the speed and size of a Quizard, the scaly-skin hardness of the Scaly Bear, and the rock destroying claws of the Clawed Badger. All-in-all, an efficient killing machine. The biggest downside was their sensitivity to light – they couldn’t see at all in direct sunlight. Underneath the shady trees, they were able to see with difficulty, but at night they excelled. The only other trait that was a slight problem was their diet – they ate the same as the Clawed Badgers, which meant that they were forced to dig at inopportune times for their meals.

  Current Short-term Goal: Feed Me! – Complete!

  In addition to Research performed by your Bioconversion Laboratory, the Biological Recombinator requires Bio Units to create Combat Units for experimentation purposes. Gather Bio Units to perform these experiments to improve your defensive capabilities.

  - Accumulate 50,000 Bio Units – 58,134/50,000 Complete!

  - Create 2 different effective hybrid Combat Units – 2/2 Complete!

  Difficulty of Goal: Average

  Timeframe: 5 years

  Rewards: +1 to Communication/Charisma and Ingenuity/Wisdom

  With the creation of his two hybrid Combat Units, and with the accumulation of more than 50,000 Bio Units, he also completed his Feed Me! quest, netting him +1 to his Communication/Charisma and Ingenuity/Wisdom stats. He didn’t receive an
y bonuses because he completed it right on time, but that was fine with Milton.[34]

  New Average-term Goal: Conquering Hero

  Now that you have had experience with using your Biological Recombinator and with an excess of resources, create an expeditionary force to conquer the Quizard Mountains to the East and start mining. With the concentration of ore deposits found in those mountains, you’ll be well on your way to completing your long-term goals.

  - Annihilate defending creatures in the Quizard Mountains

  - Mine and accumulate 1,000,000,000 BMUs

  Difficulty of Goal: Hard-ish

  Timeframe: 100 years

  Rewards: +10% to Combat Unit Attack/Defense, +8 to all statistics

  A little over five years after he had created the Recombinator, he had just gone “back to sleep” when he was quickly alerted that something unusual had happened. He had lost connection to a six-pack of roving Scaly Pygmy Wolves guards that were patrolling the Western border. He didn’t have a connection to anything out there, so he sent a sensor orb zipping through the air to check out their last known location while he quickly reviewed the recordings of their last few minutes.

  It seemed that they had somehow managed to find and surround a Picow, one of the domesticated farm animals that he had seen the Proctans raising for livestock at the nearby village. He watched as they swarmed the scared and defenseless animal, efficiently killing it by ripping out its throat with a few strategic bites. Once it had bled out, his wolves started to try to drag it back to his Core, since he had instructions to bring back any creature that he didn’t already have in his repertoire.

  As they tugged on the multi-ton corpse, a quiet chuckle emanating from behind a tree to the South caused their hackles to rise. As Milton saw what had made the noise, he was shocked at the presence of a male Proctan squatting and ineffectually trying to hide behind a tree. On further consideration, he realized that he wasn’t really surprised – the Picow most likely got away from him and he foolishly followed the animal this far into the forest. What did surprise him was what happened next.

  As his Scaly Pygmy Wolves approached the new “creature” to assess whether it was a threat – which was what they had been ordered to do – the Proctan turned and started running away, only to trip and fall on his wrist, most likely breaking it with a wet-sounding pop. This, of course, gave his wolves the impression that the prone man was prey, so they immediately ran up, knocked him down when he tried to get up, and then surrounded him. With a pain-filled expression on his face, the young man turned on his back and froze as he took in his predicament. In sync, each wolf started rushing in to attack, but just before they reached the doomed Proctan, he shouted, “STOP!”.

  The recording immediately ended since his wolves had all died from that singular word. Milton wasn’t sure what exactly the man did, but he was pissed. How dare he come into my home, kill my creatures, and get away unscathed! At that moment, his sensor orb had arrived at the scene and he took in the dead Picow with blood still slowly emptying from its slashed throat, his lifeless wolves lying where they had fallen without a scratch on them, and the Proctan man just starting to walk away from the slaughter.

  He was so mad that he didn’t even think about what he was doing when – in frustration – he shouted over his neural connection, “WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SCALY PYGMY WOLVES?!” Milton wasn’t expecting the man to hear him and was surprised when he stiffened in surprise, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he collapsed on the ground face-first.

  The anger ebbed away when he stared at the unassuming and unconscious Proctan sprawled out along the forest floor. Did I establish a new neural connection with him? Or is my presence just so powerful that it can affect the physical world? He immediately disregarded the last thought, delusions of grandeur were not his forte. Nonetheless, he was curious about what had happened and needed to find out more. Was it a form of magical ability that he didn’t know about yet? Or was it something else?

  Decision made, he dispatched his BBQ hunting party to the attack site and they arrived within minutes since they ran so fast. He had one of them gently pick up the man, while the other two grabbed the heavy Picow and struggled to pick it up. After almost being crushed by the massive pig, Milton decided that they should just drag it after them. Those two lagged behind the one with the Proctan, slowly dragging the huge corpse along the ground, creating a noticeable furrow in the dirt as it passed. The corpses of his Scaled Pygmy Wolves he left at the site of the incident and he fully intended to pick them later for “recycling”.

  While they were on the way, Milton instructed a small contingent of his drones to prepare a holding room for their visitor while he informed ALANNA of what had happened. She had never heard of anything like that before and was as curious about the mysterious stranger as he was.

  New Short-term Goal: Mysterious Stranger

  Who is this mysterious Proctan? How did he do what he did? Bring him back and interrogate him.

  - Bring the Proctan back to your dungeon

  - Find out what he knows

  - Assess if he is a threat

  Difficulty of Goal: Easy

  Timeframe: 2 Days

  Rewards: Knowledge – ‘nuff said.

  He wanted him nearby, but far enough away that if he somehow killed all his Combat Units and drones he would have a hard time getting to his Core and causing damage. So, about 200 feet away from his dungeon entrance he designed an underground chamber with 50 feet of dirt above that could be dumped into the room within a moments’ notice. Sandstone blocks lined the walls and floor and there was nothing else inside but empty air, which was provided by three very small chutes running up to the surface – he didn’t want the man to suffocate to death before he could get answers.

  The BBQ with the unconscious “package” arrived an hour before the others, which was fine with Milton as his drones had just finished the room and the man hadn’t stirred from his current state yet. Instructing the BBQ to deposit the Proctan on the surface, a drone dragged him the rest of the way down a narrow tunnel that they had created that led down to the room. Once he was inside, bonelessly splayed along the floor, his drone retreated up the tunnel, collapsing it as it went – but only after he had flown a sensor orb inside. He almost forgot that he needed some way to see inside and figured he could easily sacrifice an orb – or heaven forbid – the drone located in the ceiling that was next to a hair-trigger activation lever that would drop the ceiling down on the potentially hostile stranger.

  While he waited for the mystery man to wake up, he started his drones on processing the Picow when it arrived, cutting it into easily transportable chunks that were thrown in his Molecular Converter. When that was complete, he shut down everything requiring his attention except for the view of the room, brightly lit by the glow emanating from his orb. He was aware of ALANNA sitting on a raised platform near him, Fluffy taking a nap in her lap. He shared his connection to the orb with her, and ALANNA ran her fingers slowly through her dogs’ hair as they waited in anticipation of the man’s awakening.

  Chapter 32 – Speak now, or forever hold your peace

  Brint felt groggy as he opened his eyes, a bright light momentarily blinding him as he woke up. His mind was a little foggy, and he had trouble remembering what had happened to him. He tried to sit up when a sharp pain stabbed his left wrist, sending radiating waves of pain up and down his arm. Suddenly, the memories started flooding into him: the attack at the farm, the pursuit of the stray Picow through the woods, the small wolves finding and killing said Picow, the breaking of his wrist, and the use of an unknown ability when he was attacked by the wolves. What he couldn’t remember is what happened after that – he was drawing a blank.

  That was when he looked around at his surroundings for the first time, noticing that he was in a small stone-walled room and he was alone. He ran his uninjured hand over the floor, noticing that the entire room – except for the ceiling, which was dirt – was one w
hole piece of stone. He couldn’t see where the blocks were joined together; it was as if whoever had created the room had smoothly chiseled it out of a giant stone block. He had seen some pieces of stone made by Elemental Casters that were all of one piece, but he had never heard of anything on this scale.

  It was brightly lit in the room, which his temporarily addled mind had ignored until now. Looking for the source of the illumination, he saw something floating in the middle of the room, emitting a soft but strong glow that made it hard to get a good look at it.

  He got to his knees, careful to avoid jostling his wrist by keeping it held closely to his chest and stepped toward the floating object. He took two steps and stopped, startled by a voice in his head.

  “Attention Proctan Male. Please state your name and purpose.”

  He froze, abruptly remembering hearing something very similar to that voice after killing those wolves. It was angry before, and now it spoke in a measured but amused tone, as if it was trying not to laugh as it spoke. He stood there contemplating what he should say when he heard the voice again.

  “Speak now, or forever hold your peace. You have ten seconds before you will be annihilated.”

  Now he could definitely hear a note of amusement in the voice, but also a stern resolve as well. Brint decided that he better speak before he ran out of time, he had a feeling he would be killed if he did nothing.

  “My name is Brint, and…well…I don’t really have a purpose.”