A Universe From Nothing A No Man’s Sky Tale | Ep. 2 – Almost Paradise

As if a cosmetic spider set the perfect trap. Travelers love the unknown and will seek it out without fully assessing the risks involved. For them at a sub-conscience level discovering the unknown in a multiverse of hard crunched data sets that have been known for almost an eternity is the ultimate prize. Even when they are not the keeper of such vast knowledge of it themselves.

Previously

Enjar the Traveler awake with his life support failing on an unknown plant. In a universe that has a usually set of rules, it plays by. If you have not read episode one I recommend doing so before proceeding.

Space

I finally did it I made it into space. The adrenaline still pumping through my veins makes me gleeful for an adventure and the fear of not knowing where I was subsided for now.

While there are a bunch of flashing lights in the cockpit I take a look out the windows. Stretching my neck to check every visible corner I have I looked left, right and center. I was hoping space would be filled with a lot more than just dust and rocks. While I had no clue what I was expecting this, this was not it.

I turn my attention back at all the flashing lights, buttons, nobs and other things on my control panel for the ship. Some of them are still clearly labeled while others whatever they said have long been worn off.

I press one of the red buttons and nearly wet myself at a loud laser sound popping off and taking out a nearby asteroid that was approaching my ship. Another button next to it allowed me to collect the space derby I had just created and the ship's computer informs me I found a couple of units of gold. I took aim at another asteroid and blast it to smithereens as well as collecting all different kinds of metals.

I turn my attention to a giant red leaver and pull it. Nothing happened. It’s quite clear a number of functions are either broken or flat out missing. I guess the former pilot of this ship did not buy many of the upgrades. Perhaps they were torn off and lost from the crash itself. I continue testing out and playing with anything on the dashboard that looks like it could be activated for quite some time.

One of the smaller red leavers suddenly accelerated the ship and pushed me back so hard into my chair I thought I would have the wind knocked out of me. The asteroids start wising past my ship and out of sheer terroir I noticed a giant one right in front of my path. I barley pitched the ship in time to go right over what would have been certain death.

I slam on the breaks and the stars and objects around me suddenly come back into focus. Holy shit she has some get up and go to this ship. Curiosity boggles down on the mind at what the giant red leaver does. Perhaps I am fortunate it did not in fact work. Who knows where I would have ended up and if I even have the resources to refuel t. Floating dead in space is not a future I wish to undertake. For now, having a pulse engine is good enough.

A loud pulsar sound erupts from the ship suddenly startling me as I pressed down a green button. The computer reports back an unknown signal has been discovered on a nearby planet. While there does appear to be other planets in this solar system this is my first real lead to something.

I point my ship at the planet that has a signal displayed on my heads up display and I punch it. In only a few minutes I’m already at the bounders of space and the planet’s atmosphere.

The Beacon

I easy my ship down and land next to a beacon. It appears damaged from what I can tell at a distance it must have had an uncontrolled entry into the planet.

I perform a local scan to see what is out there and start reading all the information the ship is giving me.

I am on a grassy planet that has mild temperatures even at night times making it almost a paradise. This is a welcome site comparable to the one I left that had ice as far as the eyes could see. With massive blizzards making it impossible to survive for prolonged amounts of time outside of my ship with the thin layer of active protection my suit has.

There is a decent amount of wildlife. I’ve always wanted to see an alien. Perhaps I’ll be the first one in the entire universe to discover it and I can name it after myself. Naming can wait for later and my mind focused back on reading what else I can gather amount the plant.

After a bunch of boring stuff, I come across Sentinels are inescapable. I try and query more information about what a sentinel is but the results keep coming back as DANGER, WARNING, DANGER. Truth be told the computer systems have been somewhat glitchy who knows what kind of damage it suffered on the other planet.

After feeling it was somewhat safe I exit my ship and run-up to the beacon. It has a silvery metal cylinder shape with a single access panel on the outside. The propulsion system seems to be damaged beyond repair.

I pried the panel off since I did not have a screwdriver with the right kind of bit. Outside of that everything else seems to be within my ability to repair with hopes of restoring power and working out what this thing main purpose even is.

After many hours of splicing and connecting wires to the right colors together the device itself came back to life. The computer system had no password and allowed me to have full access to what remained. I could not work out what or why it was even here in the first place. I did find a blueprint that gave instructions on how to build a base computer for shelter.

Hope flooded my soul at the endless possibly having a base would mean. I had been cramped up in a small cockpit to escape the weather and to sleep in. There was hardly any room to stretch and even harder to get a good night’s rest. Not to mention there was no bathroom or other comforts a base could provide.

It was getting dark again so I spent another night sleeping in my ship with plans in the morning to start scouting for an area to put down a base.

Almost Paradise

I got up quite early and gathered some resources in the local area to ensure I had enough fuel to do a few laps around the planet. No idea what I’m even looking for but I’ll know it when I see it. I spent the next few hours looking and I could just not decide where it all looked like a paradise to me.

I ended up settling for a small flat area that was along the side of a giant hill. It was not too far from a lake a good half hours walk away. There also seemed to be lots of resources nearby for me to gather. Good enough for me.

I started the 3d printing process of creating a new base computer. I had gathered all the resource where needed. I just now had to wait a couple of hours. I took that time to start cleaning the land around me of any trees, rocks, or anything else. Not knowing quite what was going be needed in the future everything was kept for the time being.

A ding like a kitchen timer went off and I returned to assemble all the parts together while following the blueprints. Someone had taken a lot of time writing little notes in the margin of the plans “the picture is misleading, make sure part 542 is facing outward” and so on. After what seemed like forever I placed the tripod the main system was going rest on down and put the computer on top connecting it with bolts.

I then download the software part of the blueprint and pressed the ON button. The device emitted a burst of energy scanning the local area. It then declared on the scene this plot of land was available to be claimed.

My mind raced with questions. Does this mean there are others? Who is keeping track of what everyone owns? Am I going have to pay some kind of galaxy tax on my new plot of land? Most of these questions where never answered.

While scrolling through the operating system I found a folder that contained a bunch of blueprints this time for the door, wall, ceiling, and foundation parts of a base. It required carbon to assemble it. So I laid out my plan and allowed the device to contrast my new hut. Nothing fancy simply a couple of units wide. A place for me to finally sleep at night.

While I had no bed I slept on the floor. It seems that was not important enough to include. It was the first night in a while I did not fall into an uneasy half-asleep state. I dreamed I was dreaming and I would wake up at any moment now somewhere else. That somewhere else, however, was just white light with nothing else.

The Sentinels

I awoke to a loud sound of electronic humming. Forgetting the reality of my current situation in this universe I fell back into my dream state. That, however, did not last long as this time I could swear I heard the sounds a scanner makes. I left the house with my multi-tool in hand on the weapons setting just in case.

There it was an oval-shaped metal device just hovering in midair. It was scanning some kind of plant life that was dark green in color. After some time it lost interest in it and it moved over to some metallic outcropping of rocks. It did not seem to even notice or care about my existence so I started to walk back to my house.

Suddenly, it felt like every single atom in my body was on fire. I had been hit with an extremely powerful and intrusive scan. Before I could even scream out in pain several laser shots were fired striking my back and depleting my personal suit shield a little.

I sharply pivoted on the balls of my heels and faced down my unknown assailant. Its red eye pierces my soul. Oh, that horrible soulless red eye. It must have murdered countless millions without a single ounce of remorse.

I returned fire and we dueled it out. Trading blow for blow. Before my suit’s shields research seventy-five percent it fell out of the sky and what was left of it rolled down the hill. Well, I thought if that was a Sentinel they sure don’t put up much of a fight.

After checking the wreckage and taking what looked useful I started my way back. Not even two steps in and I heard the sound of a telescoping antenna extend out. Before I could blast it to bits it must have gotten out a single. Two of its friends appear almost out of thin area up on the hill next to me.

This time around one of them seemed to have an extra layer of platting. They also did not wait to start firing at me out of revenge. Again it did not take too long before I took them both out. My shields now almost depleted I made a dash back to my house.

Another set of Sentinel this time three chased me back to my house. I took a few direct and painful hits to the back but I made. I was just hoping to hide inside to give my shields some time to recharge. Perhaps give me some cover to return fire from.

I waited and waited and waited. As if I had gone inviable the Sentinels just stood outside scanning the local plants and rocks. There was no way I would be spending the night with them just buzzing around out there. I had to know if they had “forgiven” me so I took one step outside.

They seemed to not notice me at first. Whatever yellow flower they were huddle around scanning seemed to be keeping their attention. One of them then turns and I get hit with another scan directly to the face. They opened fire and this time I knew there was enough shielding on my suit for me to make it to my space ship.

I made it to my ship with some shielding to spare and jumped into the cockpit. It slammed shut as if the ship was aware I was in a hurry. The engines fired up and I started to ascend into the clouds to get off this rock.

Once I made it into space my communication systems informed me there was an incoming transmission. Was it the Sentinels? Who or even what knows to where I am? I struggled with the very thought of responding. It was unknown. It could be anyone or that system could simply be malfunction. I gave the system a heavy bash with the backend of my multi-tool. That did nothing I was still getting an incoming transmission.