First mission
After returning back to the control room, he called the assistant BETA, after calling out to it, the assistant came online along with all the systems of the ship. "Beta, please give me a briefing of my mission." Alpha asked. "Ok" Beta replied. The badge that he was wearing started flashing as if he just got a mission, tapping it, the system screen appeared came into view but it was a little different.
[Current mission: Fly to a nearby planet called Dentra and gather titanium using a particle miner which should be found in the storage room after this message has been read. Good luck]
That was the whole mission, it was a very simple mission but he had one question. "How are they going to give me a device after I read my system message." Alpha asked but Beta didn't reply, so he headed back to the storage room and as the system said, right at the center of the formally empty storage room there was a strange device, the device looked like a small but wide cylindrical container being supported up by four legs, there were four rectangular shaped objects attached to the side and on top of it was a small red button. "That there is a particle miner, the main part is the cylinder which has three purposes, first it can scan for any type of mineral within a certain depth in a planet's surface, then secondly it can create a small hole in the ground leading directly to the mineral, it's final purpose is to break down the minerals it finds into particles which are stored in the quantum boxes attached to it. It's as simple as that." Beta explained the device to Alpha. "My question still stands, how did it get in here, I was sure this place was empty." Alpha asked. "It doesn't matter, we have wasted enough time, let's go." Beta said. Alpha then walked back to the control room and sat in the seat at the center of the room. "Do you want to fly on auto pilot or manual flight?" Beta asked. "Let's try this, I'll undock, then you fly to the planet." "Ok." In manual flight mode a steering wheel appeared in front of him as he skillfully undocked the ship from the citadel docking bay, once in the vast space outside the ship switched to auto pilot as it started slowly flying in a certain direction set by the navigation system.
After five hours of flying he finally got close enough to see the planet he was heading towards. It was a planet that was roughly the same size as the earth if not smaller, the planet lacked anything attractive as the thing was yellow with a hint of orange signifying it was a dessert planet, slowly the ship approached the planet, after another three hours of flying the ship had entered the planet atmosphere and had descended to a good few meters above the surface and even though it was obvious, he was still right, it was a dessert planet. Visualize a dessert wasteland planet, a vast and barren expanse dominated by endless stretches of desolate, arid terrain. Towering dunes of fine, golden sand extend as far as the eye can see, creating a surreal landscape that seems to undulate in the heat.
The sky above is a relentless expanse of shimmering waves, mirroring the scorching temperatures below. Occasional gusts of hot wind carry grains of sand across the surface, creating fleeting, swirling patterns.
Sparse vegetation, adapted to harsh conditions, consists of resilient, drought-tolerant plants that dot the landscape with intermittent bursts of muted green. These hardy survivors endure the relentless sun, their roots reaching deep into the parched ground in search of elusive water sources.
The dessert wasteland planet is a place of stark beauty, where the play of light on the dunes and the vast emptiness evoke a sense of solitude and endurance in the face of unforgiving conditions.
Picking a good solid spot on the dessert planet to land on was easy, after flying over the surface for a while he deployed his landing gear and slowly but firmly planted the ship onto the dry dessert ground. He then went to the storage room to grab the machine. As he entered the room he went towards the machine and tapped the button on the machine, immediately the machine came to life as the legs started moving out of the room towards the control room. "Beta, lower the ramp." He said. "Roger that." Beta replied and the ramp at the side of the control room lowered opening up to the planet known as planet Dentra, the dessert planet. After waiting for the device to walk itself out, Alpha took his first ever steps on another planet, but before that he activated the nano suit which although looked like a battle suit had many uses including exploration of planets which are unable to support human life, although the planet looked like a person could survive on it he didn't want to take any chances as information from the ship said that the planet had very low oxygen levels.
After taking his first steps on another planet he looked around and realized that the machine had continued moving forward, scanning for resources while he was marvelling the scenery around him. "Beta close the door, I'll be back soon." He said. Although there was no reply, the ramp rised and filled the gap leading to the control room. After that he started running after the machine as it was quite fast and had moved a distance away.
After a few minutes of walking the machine suddenly stopped at a certain place as it let out a small beeping sound to let the young pilot know it had found some minerals. After 30 seconds of beeping the legs extended outward as the cylinder sunk a little and hovered a few centimeters from the surface of the planet. After the movements of the machine seased completely, a red beam blasted the ground and continued to pour out in a steam for a few minutes as after the initial head start through the soft sand the beam had hit solid dried up land and slowly the progress became slower and slower, after almost an hour the beam finally stopped being released at which point a blue beam followed soon after which didn't seem like it was destroying but rather absorbing, if you looked very closely you could see very small substances flying at very high speeds towards the mining device. This process took another hour to complete, keep in mind, Alpha had just been standing there looking at the machine for two straight hours, after the quantum boxes were filled the machine returned to it's normal state and started moving back to the ship, "why was I assigned such a task?" Alpha asked as he followed the machine back. "Wait a minute, Beta, you knew how long it would take for me to return, why didn't you say anything when I said I'd be back soon." He asked. "I didn't want to stress you out." Beta replied. "That's bogus, you are lying, and here I thought machines couldn't lie. Am on my way open the door before I get there, I'll drive the ship manually." He said as he followed the machine that was heading towards the ship.
After a few more minutes he got to the opened ship. After entering the ship he watched as the machine went to the storage room and powered down. "Sorry to inform you but resources need to be secured before takeoff." Beta said to which Alpha begrudgingly went to the storage room and detached the quantum boxes and placed them on a nearby shelf before heading back out and deactivating his suit he sat down in the control seat, checking the system he noticed something in the storage capacity and stored items section of his system.
[Storage capacity: 60/100]
[Stored items: 40 units of titanium, 1 particle miner (20 units)]
"Now that is just ridiculous I didn't even know how the damned machine got onboard and all of a sudden it claims twenty storage points, why." Alpha asked a little annoyed. "Well, per the mission given to you, any equipment, tools or resources acquired through the mission is automatically yours, so I suggest you get used to having low storage." Beta replied. "Ok, but do you mean to tell me that the quantum boxes weigh nothing at all?" He asked. "Actually, they assimilate whatever particles are stored within." Beta replied. "Ahhhhh" Alpha yelled as the ship control went back to auto pilot and started the takeoff sequence forcing Alpha to fasten up and pipe down. It took another eight hours to get back to the citadel, in all Alpha wasted eighteen hours on just gathering titanium and he did not enjoy that mission one bit.