Sigma 16 - Chapter 40 – Deforestation Mk2 (Patreon)

Talia checked the nav point for her CRD-X9 was accurate, then leaned back and closed her eyes. It helped with the lightheadedness.

The prospect of protecting herself against an unknown alien race that were armed not just with a dune buggy with a ridiculous plasma cannot bolted to the top, but with mobile anti-aircraft launchers was daunting. She’d have loved to open a dialogue with them, but Neo advised her that all common radio and communication signals were devoid of chatter.

Meaning they didn’t use anything galactic standard to communicate, or they were maintaining radio silence for some reason. That wasn’t a trait shared by the jungle, though, which periodically began to sing, or scream, with EM radiation at random.

There was a new sense of urgency, if that was somehow possible, to work faster. So instead of going to sleep and resting off whatever drugs had been dumped into her to help her survive her first, and probably only flight for a while, she’d strapped herself into a CRD-X9.

Dusky had alerted Dapple, and before she left, her companion spiders had climbed up to their favored position on the roof of her resource miner. The second drone filed in behind her as she made good use of the road she’d already cleared straight to the jungle.

There was plenty of Durasteel at her base, and she now knew where there was a limitless supply of High-Energy Matter was located, at least for her needs.

She also knew where she could get the Advanced Alloys and High-Conductive Material in large quantities, along with the more common Refined Silicates. Avoiding using that source had been something she had wanted to do, but survival was something she placed a higher priority on.

It was possible to replant trees later, after all. But if the Blues decided to missile the base, she’d be dead.

“Neo, is there any way we can make a deal with the Cortex AI to unlock more defensive things? We won’t be able to scan anything if we get taken out by the aliens,” Talia asked. The vibrations of the CRD-X9’s tracks on the packed earth filled the momentary lull before Neo answered.

[Informative: Cortex AI has expressed interest in User’s claim to the mining rights of the High-Energy Deposit in return for a large amount of Cortex Scan credits.]

She choked back a snort. “I bet it is. I’m not sure who could put a value on something like that. The material would be worth trillions over a century.”

[Notice: This unit would be remiss if it did not warn User that the offered deal by Cortex Inc. is extremely one-sided. An offer of 50,000 Cortex Scan credits has been made. However, an alternative exists to utilizing Cortex designs. Previously locked military schematics have been unlocked.]

Talia blinked in surprise. She’d never heard Neo argue against a deal with Cortex Inc. before, nor had he ever advised her on the balance of a deal. The fact that the military schematics had been unlocked somehow was very good news.

[Informative: A military schematic of comparable specifications is available for 87.75% of the Cortex Inc. schematic catalogue. Furthermore, with access to User research module, customization and development of User schematics is possible.]

“I know that about the Research Module, Neo. It was a priority, but the attack has changed things. Do we have an unlocked schematic for a base shield generator available?”

[Affirmative: Military Base Shield generator has the same cost and fabrication time as Cortex version. The only difference is a different color scheme and branding.]

Talia shook her head. Cortex had an amazing scam going on. Actually, the military schematics being locked made no sense if others had essentially the same thing available…for the right price.

They crested the last dune before the jungle came into sight and the spiders began to chirp happily on her video feed. She wasn’t sure how they would take the upcoming activities, but she hoped the vehicle lasers didn’t scare them too much. They’d gotten used to her multi-tool at least, and they had seen the vehicle lasers before.

But cutting down the jungle trees would be a whole ‘nother level of lasering.

Sure enough, the spiders knew the drill and hopped off once they reached the thick jungle edge. It was almost in the same location as where her ill-fated tunnel had been. She flipped to the vehicle’s sensor suite and pulled both drones to a halt. There was nothing on the seismometer, so the worm wasn’t active or hanging around nearby at least.

Still, Talia sent the second CRD-X9 in first to drill the passage. Nothing came out to munch on it, and it reached the other side safely. The puncture wound immediately began to regrow, and she had to laser the edges of the tunnel a second time to make sure it didn’t snag her vehicle.

The spiders followed along behind her, and she had another revelation about just how smart the spiders were. Despite having two identical vehicles, they knew which one she was in and didn’t get confused and followed the wrong one.

Powering up the mining laser on the drone in front, she carved a path forward that allowed the vehicles to avoid obstacles. As she expected, the glow bugs began to gather. “Neo, I’m going to blast them. Let me know if the other vehicle starts to take heat damage.”

She switched her vehicle’s laser to manual control, then pulled up its settings. She reduced the focal amount until the icon showed a wide field for the laser instead of the focused beam. It would reduce the amount of energy to a nearly useless amount for mining, but for bugs…

The bugs sizzled in the air, popping like little explosive firecrackers. Almost immediately, the bugs fled in every direction. Dusky and Dapple fled and hid behind a tree with a shriek, and Talia realized that the pops from the bugs had been loud. She’d just not been affected inside the vehicle and with her helmet on.

She shook her head. “I guess the acid they carry is explosive, too.”

[Affirmative: User should express caution. CRD-X9 units are not impervious to acidic or explosive damage.]

“I don’t think we have to worry about firecrackers breaking through the hull, though?” Talia asked.

[Informative: Although each explosion is minor, a compression and clumping of bugs could cause a larger explosion to damage soft and vulnerable outer hull components.]

“Okay. Avoid big clumps and thin them out before they get to us. Got it.”

She remembered the glow bugs’ reaction to the tree she had cut down before. That had likely been related to the gap in the canopy and the light pouring in. Whatever had engineered or evolved here seemed to have an extreme aversion to letting the outside in. Maybe it was a completely organic reaction to the excess light and dry air, or maybe it was something more.

Either way, she wanted to minimize the amount of trauma, so she began to look for a tree that met her requirements: it had to be one of the older trees, it needed to contain the metals she wanted, and it needed to be centered so other trees were close enough to fill the gap.

It didn’t take that long to find one. She pulled up her suit scanner and pinged the trunk.

[Resource Scan Results]

| Refined Silicates: 6,333 |

| Advanced Alloys: 1,452 |

| High-Conductive Material: 1,211 |

Talia reviewed the scan results and nodded. The tree seemed to be a perfect candidate for her needs and would fill up 89.99% of one of the CRD-X9s’ hoppers. It was a bit more refined silicate than she needed, but she had an idea for dealing with that.

“Alright, Neo. Let’s start the mining process with this one,” Talia instructed.

[Affirmative: Initiating mining process.]

The AI took control of maneuvering both vehicles, placing them at separate 45-degree angles to the tree. A panicked shriek filled the air as the lasers began to slice into the massive trunk.

She checked the outer video feed and frowned as Dusky and Dapple seemed to be in a panic. Hopping around and running circles around the tree they had hidden behind earlier. On one of her control panels, a warning about external EM radiation appeared. Bringing the spiders might not have been a good idea if they were sensitive to the emissions, but she wasn’t sure how she could even tell them not to follow her.

The two spiders disappeared into the brush as the tree finally came down. A strange feeling of loss filled her. They had been her only friends and companions so far on the planet, as weird as the relationship had been.

She hoped they would come back.

But not so much that she’d give up chopping down the trees for the resources she needed to survive.

Light began to pour in from the hole above. Before the bugs could be attracted to it or the fallen trunk like last time, both vehicles began to mine at the material voraciously. When the glow bugs appeared, she would set her laser on dispersal and fry them. She only had to do that twice, because it seemed the swarm appreciated the danger of the laser and didn’t want to get popped.

Or maybe they somehow sensed the deaths of their fellows? She shook her head and told herself that she shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that everything was intelligently sapient. Anthropomorphizing was not going to help her task.

She moved to locate a second tree, searching for the same criteria as the first. This time she let the AI autopilot locate one. After confirming that it hadn’t messed up, it came down as well. There was a second EM spike, and she felt a pang of concern for Dapple and Dusky. There was no sign of the spiders as the drones worked, and she hoped they were alright.

Both vehicles were nearly full, so she directed them out of the jungle. Rather than slowing down or risking the tunnel regrowing around the second vehicle, she spaced them out, and each drone blazed its own tunnel out.

They met up on the road and continued for a short distance down the road before Talia brought them to a stop.

“Neo, I want to dig a pit here to store the surplus refined silicates,” Talia ordered.

[Affirmative: Initiating excavation process.]

“We’ll leave everything here and go back for more. Once we have a full load of the rare stuff, we’ll haul it all back to base.”

[Affirmative: Preparing for another resource collection run.]