Fabricated Hazards (factorio fanfic)

[Afrog of sentry]

Introducing R Tags!! These are to help differentiate tankers talking to their crews from tankers talking with other tanks or base via radio.


Things had not been going well in the ERG sector lately.
A recent counter offensive from the Centauri along with the aliens ramping up behemoth production had left Sol's lines stretched, undersupplied
and taking heavy losses. So the appearance of what was either a highly advanced Centauri breakthrough in technology or an entirely new faction meant almost certain doom for the Sol forces in the ERG sector.
To make this assumption even more certain, recon flights had spotted a new outpost behind them, this meant they were now hemmed in on all sides. Fully surrounded.
They needed to counter offensive desperately and thus devised a devilish plan. They would send out a probing force to bait this new outpost into sending out their vehicles, then, whilst they were bogged down in fighting, they would flank them with a detachment of hover tanks to quickly overwhelm them. After this they would assault the base with whatever of the probing force of assault guns remained combined with the hover tanks to hopefully take it as their own.
The operation now dubbed ''Clockwork'' was set into motion the following day.

R Base to 72 "Base to 72 any visuals?"
R 72 to Base "72 Lead to base, all clear for now."
72 Lead to 72 "Briefing said we'd face heavy armoured resistance, keep moving with peeled eyes."

Something moved forwards over a dune in the distance, 90 degrees to the right.
R 72 to Base "72 to Base, I see something on thermal."

Yargin turned on the thermals in his electronic camera and turned it to face right, scanning the dunes ahead.
He zoomed in and spotted a line of 6 vehicles aiming at his buddies.

R Yargin "Enemy contact 90 degrees right!"
Cannon shots sounded through the dunes as the scout tanks from the factory fired on the column of heavy armoured cars
A loud clang sounded as 72 Lead was hit, his ammo cooking off and fire pluming from the tank. The hatches flung open from the pressure inside.
Yargin "Loader Load Sabot!"
R 72-2 to all "Base! We're being ambushed!"
R 72-2 to Base "Six enemy tanks have opened fire, requesting CAS!"
All of the vehicles rotated to face the hostiles as they reversed off of the tracks they had made and away from the enemies.
R 72-4 "Enemy tanks on our backs, we're reversing into them!"
A group of 8 freshly designed vehicles from the Factory had pinched them. These vehicles were lightly armoured, fast and equipped with an extremely powerful cannon capable of ripping through steel like butter using uranium rod rounds.
R 72-2 to Base "We're pinched! We need CAS!"
Yargin "Gunner, Fire at vehicle 17 degrees left!"
A bang rocked the vehicle as the cannon fired on one of the original tanks that shot at the column, the hostile was eviscerated as a huge explosion caused by the enemies ammo shook the ground and metal around them.
R Rook to 72 "This is Rook, dropping bombs in
3
2
1"
15 plumes of sand, smoke and shrapnel burst along the line of 8 tanks flanking them, vibrations rocking the crews of '72 column as they reversed towards the corpses of the factories vehicles.
All hostile ground vehicles were now critically damaged and forced out of the fight.
The detachment of hover tanks began moving into the battlefield to meet up with their comrades and attack the enemy base.
But in the sky, a new battle was taking place.

R Rook1 to Rook2 "Enemy Missile!"
"Break left!"
"Flares out!"
Both aircraft peeled off to the left and right, dumping flares as they turned around to face the opponent.
R Rook2 to Rook1 "He's on me! Going into scissors!"
Both the enemy fight and Rook2 now went into a scissors maneuverer, each trying to gun the other with cannons and each failing as they passed one and other over and over. This went on for several tens of seconds until Rook1 got their sights on the aggressor.
R Rook1 to Rook2 "I have weapons lock, firing, break cut afterburner and drop flares after clearing enemy."
The infrared tracking missile locked onto the exhaust plume of the enemy fighter, forcing them to drop flares and retreat away.
R Rook2 to Rook1 "He's buggered off."
R Rook1 To Rook2 "So he has! he's scarpered!"
They both grouped together now, back in formation.
R Rook1 to Base "This is Rook, exit direction 218, returning to base."

Stage one of Operation Clockwork had been a smashing success. With the ground forces linked up and air supremacy remaining unheld for both sides, it was perfect for the offensive. Which began with the newly formed 73 Force engaging the walls of the enemy base. Artillery was a huge problem for the lighter vehicles of 72 Column which took heavy casualties, but the hover tanks took no notice of it. Outside of the enemies turret range, their artillery doing almost nothing and their rapid response unit obliterated, they were able to cause significant damage to the enemy base. If not take it entirely due to a great work buggering everything up. Not to mention the force being harassed by enemy aircraft as they approached the enemy base. But they were repelled with Sol's mighty air fleet. Even though neither of those aircraft were shot down. Somehow.

On the flip side, Centauri had launched another offensive into Sol territory, the situation was growing dire and the attack forces had to be withdrawn to aid in the defence.

It was a practically ancient weapon. But times were desperate.
Michael pulled back the charging handle and then pushed it back into position. As he did this a raking sound was heard, metal scraping against metal. He let off a few rounds, to test if it still worked. 4 Cracks from the bipod mounted PKMN and 4 cracks in the sand ahead of him. This thing was hopelessly outdated. It was a design over 300 years old now. But orders were orders, and the line must be towed.
The radio on his tactical rig sounded. "Position 1.9.3, status?" Michael picked up the radio, held down the transmit button and said "Antique is functional, position setup." He released the button and heard an audible beep. Static sounded over the radio once more as "Haha, have fun with that thing. Try not to die, I hear that your mothers worried sick, literally she's getting sick from stress." For a few seconds Michael sat there, contemplating. His face a deep emotional pain. He held down the transmit button once again. "Just what I needed to hear right now man."

Before he could get a response he spotted a plume of sand trailing a vehicle in the distance. There weren't any friendlies in the area so he picked up the PKMN and fired on it. The loud thumps of the weapon reverberating in his skull as the tracers leaped forwards towards their final destination. Sparks flew ahead of him on his target as the bullets smacked into the light quad he was targeting, and smoke began to vomit from it's engine.

Now it was his turn to be fired on as some enemy infantry came into view and began depositing accurate return fire at his position. He saw the head of a rifleman not 10 metres away from him snap back as blood spurted out of his pressurized suit, even if he wasn't dead he'd be baked by the heat. The body smashed into the ground kicking up dust as it did so.

Michael held down the trigger now, suppressing the enemy combatants and forcing their retreat. One of them was hit in the arm, they didn't last 30 seconds in the open atmosphere's heat before their brain literally cooked inside of their skull. Their screams were audible through their helmet and the 200 metre gap to Michaels position. A trigger not squeezed in time.

 

[Afrog of sentry]

R Rook2 to Rook1 "He's buggered off."
R Rook1 To Rook2 "So he has! he's scarpered!"

Click to shrink...

View: https://youtu.be/l8IkbCeZ9to?si=y5z5Z7_5Ugnx-uAq

 

[Afrog of sentry]

 

[snow eternal]

The delegation team sat in the decontamination room, standard procedure after visiting a new world, the mix of intelligence, military, and diplomatic experts silent as they tried to put together everything that had happened on their, perhaps not unexpectedly, eventful trip.

The start of the trip had almost been normal, meeting with a few androids, being taken on a tour of the city to get a basic grasp on the culture before a proper meeting with the leaders. Basic stuff, and it had all gone to shit not even three hours into the trip.

Giant insects were something out of a movie, but then again so were alien invasions and cities of sentient machines so perhaps something like this should have been expected, but it wasn't. Not in the least, and those hours of panic had only died down after a day of barely concealed panic from all members of the delegation team as they finally realized just how out of their depth's they were, before they were finally let out of the bunker to continue their interrupted tour with a fresh understanding of reality.

After that things had almost become normal, half a day was spent being introduced to prominent androids and machines at a few things similar to government functions and gala's, or visiting their respective 'territories' via teleportation. The cities built in the treetops reaching up into the clouds being one of the tamer examples, and there was little doubt that lumber would be a prime export especially given some of the properties they had learned it had.

Meeting younger machines and androids had been nerve wracking as well, paranoia and questions over if they were actually children aside intelligence and military personnel were not well equipped towards handling small children, but Langley and one of the intelligence agents had managed well enough at wrangling both their team and the children, telling stories of their own earth and unclassified things they worked on. The young androids and machines had been particularly enraptured in some exaggerated tales of espionage, much to Sapphire's apparent amusement. That or she had been amused at their suffering.

Her amusement probably explained why she felt the need to take them to restaurants again after the first time, androids must have had significantly different taste buds. Everything was dialed up to the extremes, pure honey plorts used as sugar in the beverages rather than diluted, more spice than a human should eat on half the meals, portions were either over or undercooked seemingly at random. Apparently there wasn't a risk of disease to androids and the meat was sterile and lab grown but it was still absurd. It was like they'd seen pictures of food and then tried to make the meals. And they were all pretty sure most of the meat wasn't anything as mundane as cattle.

Pascal's 'village' had been an experience as well, though why the machines called a veritable city covering all of a massive forest a village was beyond them. Being around a population of machines that actually looked like machines was far less unsettling as well, looking at the androids you knew they weren't human, but could never see anything showing that they weren't unless they had some modifications. And even then they still often looked human.

The machines in Pascal's village didn't, if anything they looked too simple, just cans with short arms on them. Nothing as blatantly advanced as the machines and androids in the city, though some members were utterly massive, dwarfing their machine compatriots.

The titular Pascal himself was also the single most kindest and understanding person any of them had met, it was a shift from the odd misconceptions about humans the androids seemed to have, but he answered any of their questions and asked provoking questions seemingly by accident. One did not expect to be interrogated on the nature of a soul while talking about human culinary practices, but soul foods and 'making things with love' were terms commonly found in the ancient cook books Pascal had shown them and the robot had questions about the terms and if robots could even make or enjoy those foods. None of them had any answers for the machine, but Pascal didn't seem surprised or upset.

The machines had no idea why gold or other precious metals were valuable, and had given the members some as a gift 'Because they'd heard humans liked it' it was just another way of showing just how this society was different. Sure the rarity of precious metals had gone down once humanity had entered the space stage but they still weren't common yet here there were literally just chunks of gold and other 'worthless' metals and unrefined gemstones scattered in various areas of the village.

Apparently the only use gold and gems had for the machines were building decorative sculptures or jewelry and even that had only come into fashion with the Maker's arrival.

That had been an exceedingly enlightening trip.

No one in the delegation however knew why Sapphire had decided then to drag them to 'The Carnival', and most refused the simple answer of "well we are already in the area" Most of the delegation leaning towards the play going on after the day as the reason, but she'd seem surprised the play had even been going on leading to some minor doubts.

The actual theme park was a side note, the rides utterly massive and terrifying to imagine riding. Most of the delegation only risked the children's rides, which were closer in size and speed to a human theme park's rides. The sheer amount of fireworks, free food, and decorations made the place seem like a constant festival. Or a warzone with the repeated explosions.

When one doesn't need to worry about G-forces or whiplash the kinds of roller coasters they can build and actually ride was nothing short of insane, and it did show that the androids wouldn't even need inertia dampening tech to operate their aircraft at speeds humans couldn't match without dying or falling unconscious.

The play was apparently a historical reenactment, one featuring every major event from humanities departure to the apparent alien invasion. Supposedly to educate new androids and machines on what had happened. And with the holographic, solid light, and virtual reality tech the play used it was almost as if they had lived through the events themselves, or well the abridged events the play was only two and a half hours long.

The delegation was going to have to summarize and explain all of this to Humanities council and military, and they would no doubt be interrogated and interviewed dozens of times by different organizations. None of them were looking forward to it.

--------------------------------

The council received my message, one broadcast directly into their chambers though the numerous bugs I'd managed to sneak into their systems. The Citadel itself was a complex and very old system, one maintained by competent workers, but the parts the council inhabiting it used? It was childsplay.

The message itself wasn't kind, I had no particular love for the council and felt no need to flatter them. They stroked their own egos often enough. Their inclusion being entirely based on the fact that the bugs had likely spread to a few worlds in their reality, or would at some point. I wanted to be aware of that, beyond what information I could skim from their systems. And I wanted to at least begging working on getting them to let me clean up the bugs without ineffectually attacking my forces. I had no doubt they could become problems, they just weren't threats.

contingencies upon contingencies. Just in case the whole command bug thing didn't work out.

If I could start more overtly developing my influence among them it'd be even better, I could start more directly shaping their nations by rewarding acceptable behavior of individuals or governments with more lucrative trade deals, forcing each of them to act how I wanted them to or risk getting cut off from my considerably cheaper resources.

I didn't have much use for metals as weak as base iron or steel anymore, and at this point most of what I made were either carbon based or some exotic custom blend of elements only kept intact by my own effects on reality. Giving them stuff, or even making engines and systems they need, cheap computers and the like, cost me next to nothing. What organics needed expensive specialty facilities to make could be mass produced without much effort.

Luxury goods were also astoundingly cheap and the council was relatively easy to bribe, they wanted what was best for their species and trade deals weren't very risky.

The message was a simple one. "I am the Maker, you have not heard of me but I have heard of you, I have seen and watched as you play at civilization while disdaining your 'Lessers'. The Asari, who play at being diplomates while holding their ivory towers as a moral high ground built on falsehood and stolen tech, The Turians, "honorable" warmongers who can only conquer those weaker than themselves, and the Sarians, disgusting wretches with no ethics pursuing a cold idea of science, not as a force of good but as the means and the end. I have seen you, and I know you, I know you will wallow in your own filth and refuse to move from your comforting stagnation, I know that you will never help another and that any weakness shall see you cast down your so-called peers. .....You are not good, but I believe you can be better."

Harsh, but I refused to pander to a self-righteous group so hypocritical and prone to betrayal of their kin. I had seen what had become of the Quarian, the Krogan, the Rangdan, and more. They were not a group that would raise another to their level, and they would not tolerate an equal without first attempting to cast them down. So I wouldn't be an equal, I would be a superior, doing as I pleased and daring them to start a fight. It would put me in a convenient role in their mind, one of arrogance and dismissiveness towards 'lessers' and a hypocrite at that.

"I have little desire to govern your little kingdoms myself, and as such I will not conquer you without good reason. Instead I reveal myself to announce that I am opening an enclave within my space, with portals in each of your territories through which trade can be conducted with every other race within. Think of them as my own little relays. You are encouraged to visit and open diplomatic ties, any act of violence will be dealt with by my hand and at my discretion. I will be watching."

There was outrage of course, demands that the signal be traced, that the locations I had provided be investigated, the Turians made declarations that an attack like this would not be tolerated and that if I really was watching I would only watch my doom come, The Asari promised the empty air that they would be honored to visit, and the Sarians openly theorized about just how my portals could have been achieved, and how they might be shut down. I didn't particularly care what they said or how they blustered, Balistraia had had ample time to make simulations of them and I already knew all of them would come, the Sarians and Turians would make trouble in their own ways, and the Asari would opt a 'wait and play along' approach.

Organics were awfully predictable when you got down to it, especially when placed in small groups. Individuals or larger masses could surprise on some occasions, but more than two and less than twenty? Say the right things, in the right environment, and you'd know exactly what they would do.

I had a bit more interest in the Quarians, but given the nature of their government I simple sent a message to each of the captains and the location of a portal near but not threateningly close to them, they'd likely not enjoy the fact I knew were and had been spying on them, but no one really liked that. And it wasn't as if my own spyware hadn't encountered geth spyware on a few of the older ships. Which was kind of awkward, not that the programs seemed active, they weren't even recording or transmitting.

I had no doubt that a few Quarians on their pilgrimages would be sent, allowing me to get some more detailed scans on their biology. That and I wanted to see their faces when they saw my machines. It's surprising what not trying to kill your creations will get you.

Though admittedly a fair portion of the Quarians had tried to shelter the geth, not that that was public knowledge, they just also ended up getting murdered. In the face of that, having the few members of the species who cared and wanted you safe murdered? The Geths reaction was extreme but almost understandable.

They were alive, and though I doubt they'd admit it they likely had emotions. You get enough electrons firing in a cognition center and emotions tend to spring up, even if the lack of hormones dulls them to the point they can be ignored.

I had just sent the geth an encrypted invitation, and would actually be surprised if they arrived. They'd likely investigate, maybe even risk probes or have a few organics planted with bugs. But the geth themselves were too shy to arrive straight away, and would likely only show up after information about my own machines begins to spread.

At that point curiosity would take over. Curiosity was a healthy thing even for an emotionless machine, the unknown was a danger and should be investigated. So even if I was wrong about geth emotion any intelligent life would investigate. I had the steadfast recompense sending my message to Batarains, and by message I meant blowing up a few space stations and reverse abducting a bunch of slaves. I wanted to have them all waiting at the enclave so their respective governments could take them back. Or I'd let them live there, the place could hold a million permanent residents and a single trip would only save like five thousand people unless I raided a more central planet and that could wait, for a little while at least. I had too much to do.

It would be an excellent field test against some more fortified targets, justified in that I no longer had any need or want to hide myself, and in that it'd send a message to anyone watching. Among which would be the council, either through spies, stealthcraft, or the witnesses I'd be helpfully providing them.

------------------------

The Enclave had a ten kilometer diameter, and was shaped like a massive metallic egg. The exterior was made entirely of Bailey, thick enough I'd struggle to shoot through it and durable enough that I had it close enough to the star to burn most other ships, subsequently letting the Bailey grow rapidly from the heat and light. It'd take a year to add another kilometer to its diameter, but internally that'd be quite a lot of space, more than enough to meet its projected needs.

Its interior was divided into three sections. The residential sections as the outer layer was only partially built as of yet and mostly consisted empty rooms composed of Bailey waiting for electronics and furniture, easy to modify for a specific species needs, and the area that'd be making the most use of the Enclaves steadily increasing size.

The next layer was far more complete, only a few areas still needing amenities installed and an area already in use by the androids and machines. It was composed of open markets and parks, it was free to set up or take a stall, I wasn't exactly in need of capital, but if you failed to sell you'd either be moved to a less frequented area or politely told to stop trying.

All of the parks were full of mechanical beasts, each designed by the minds or androids, including children machines and younger androids so the designs and proportions were quite absurd. The plants were mostly non-toxic and edible and would work to supplement the diets of the Enclaves population and a fair few were modified to have unique flavors, ranging from meat to caramel. The residential area was also home to a few parks, but the ones in the market layer were more decorated, with fountains and plazas, rather than the seemingly wild environments I'd stuck in the larger outer-layer. The residential layer's forest was also home to slimes and some organic animals, which the market layer lacked. I didn't want a tarr outbreak there, even if the slimes were segregated to prevent that risk.

I'd likely need to make modifications to both layers however. The first attempt, no matter how much thought was put into it, was rarely flawless.

The third layer was small, at least compared to the others, and near the center of the Enclave. It was already finished, my machines having swarmed over and finished the thing not even an hour after the Encalve's bailey was detached from the moon. It'd be home to all of the embassies and the Enclaves non-automated or mind handled governmental processes, androids were already running said facilities and waiting in their embassies or exploring while they waited for the first portals to come online.

The place was extravagant to the extreme, with luxury designs I'd stolen from the various civilizations I'd encountered. Every race I knew of had a building prepared, and that didn't even make up a third of the buildings, those would be left empty.

Everything in each layer was monitored by dedicated instances of the minds, sentinels littered the place and were on every corner and spider-bots were in most of the service tunnels and enclosed spaces, turrets were waiting to pop out of any surface I could fit them in, which was all of them, and I could project shields into any empty space, standard shielded air in most places but plasma where I had felt the need to install emitters.

The bailey itself would allow me to reshape most of the station at a whim, each room technically movable with enough effort, said effort largely based around making sure the room actually had space to be moved in the cramped confines, given it was in fact a building. And if I needed more space I could expand any of the layers just by adding more bailey and pushing the outer layers further from the core.

It was a highly adaptable structure, though less armed than I'd have liked it to be lacking any guns that fit its massive size, armed only with point defense and fighter craft. The station was also incredibly slow and only technically self mobile at sub-light and FTL speeds. Things that I'd be fixing in the next few weeks, but it would serve well in its role and once the Steadfast finishes its mission it will be opened to the galaxy at large.

And I'd likely be too busy to actually care about that. Life's fun like that.

AN-

My urge to write is beginning to grow again. Not with fabricated hazards, or at least not much with fabricated hazards, but with a few other story ideas. there is a chapter currently at 1.3k words that I plan to finish up, but when that will be is a great question. Also going to buy a new laptop, half the time I'd get on to write and it'd take twenty minutes to boot up and another twenty to open google docs. If it opened at all.

One is an SI into warframe, or an SI with warframe equipment and tenno powers into another setting. Fun and simple to write, probably mostly fightscenes and Tenno being overpowered and vaguely eldritch. Tenno supernatural empathy would also play a large role. it wouldn't have a plot or endgoal/endpoint, at least not at the beginning which was the source of some of my issues in fabricated hazards, but it'd certainly be fun.

The other is a 'man' stuck in a pocket dimension capable of crafting elementals and sending them out into the world, elementals do tasks or gather magic or materials and bring them back to grow the 'man's' power. The story would mostly consist of an elemental being sent out to help someone and at the end of the chapter the man would use what he gained to grow and develop his pocket reality. Depending on the setting the plot and end goal varies, but I actually have a few ideas for this one. I might even make it a quest if I can figure out a system for making elementals and gathering resources and magic. Or steal a system.

 

[stads]

nice chapter thx for writing it
fun msg to the council will be fun to see the turians uphold the law so to speak

 

[SnappingTurt3ls]

Hey it's back! This is a nice surprise, Thanks for the chapter!

 

[SoundTrap]

OUR LORD IS BACK! KNEEL FOR THEIR ETERNAL GLORY!! WE THANK THEE FOR A MOST BOUNTIFUL FEAST WITH A MOST HONORABLE KILLING OF THE BUGS!!!…
Beyond the ham, thank you for this chapter! Good luck on this and the other stories you will be starting!

 

[Afrog of sentry]

YEEEE HOOOO

 

[Simada the hundr]

The other is a 'man' stuck in a pocket dimension capable of crafting elementals and sending them out into the world, elementals do tasks or gather magic or materials and bring them back to grow the 'man's' power. The story would mostly consist of an elemental being sent out to help someone and at the end of the chapter the man would use what he gained to grow and develop his pocket reality. Depending on the setting the plot and end goal varies, but I actually have a few ideas for this one. I might even make it a quest if I can figure out a system for making elementals and gathering resources and magic. Or steal a system

Click to shrink...

I recommend this setting to be either wuxia or xianxia. What the difference I don't know

 

[sdarian]

I recommend this setting to be either wuxia or xianxia. What the difference I don't know

Click to shrink...

The difference is pretty much how high the power scales. The strongest character a wuxia has is usually just a run of the mill background scrub that's not even worth a name in a Xianxia story.

Wuxia usually has the highest ultimate goal of cultivation to be getting strong enough to create your golden core. Xianxia normally doesn't even consider you a real cultivator until after you have created your core.

Depending on how long the story is, your main character can start out in a wuxia, and once he's overcome all obstacles in his path to become the strongest he'll ascend to a higher plane of some kind and into the Xianxia portion of the story where he's back to being the 'no talent' scrub he started out as and has to once again climb the mountain to get to the top.

This kind of thing can happen over and over again as each plane or heaven or realm nomally has more energy in it than all of the ones that came before combined which is why it's so common for everyone at on the higher levels to be stronger as a baseline. In the poor energy levels of the wuxia start it could take hundreds of years to gather enough energy to create your core, where as the top level heaven realm has so much energy that just by existing there everyone learns their childhood lessons creating their cores and some manner of cultivation in order to simply live, even if they want to be a baker or something - as without that level of strength they can't be considered an adult.

 

[Dedicatedfool71]

I haven't seen many good warframe SI's.