Ep. 5 - Tests, to Space and Beyond

After entering my quarters, I decided on what to test exactly.

'I should check how my new weapons and armor work. Improve my body, my sparrow, and, if possible, my ship. Even if I can't work on my ship, I can build some interesting gimmicks to then add. This should work. Let's get a move on.'

"MoonRay, I will begin with my tests. Nothing should go wrong, but on the off chance I explode, be ready to revive me." I said to the floating matchstick. After that, i pulled up my interface and went to the inventory tab. There, in the section for weapons and armor, I found some marked balls. The weapon balls had the initials of the type of weapon: AR, HC, SR, etc.; on the other hand, the armor balls had the symbol of the part they will cover: helmet, gauntlets, chest armor, leg armor. I did not find a class item, then I remembered I didn't ask for it. I guess I will create one myself after I decide on my gear.

First, I checked the weapons. I could either set each ball to become a certain weapon by default (for example I set Monte Carlo for the AR ball. When activated, the ball will automatically turn into the Monte Carlo) or I can actively think about the weapon I want (I think about the Mythoclast, I get the Mythoclast). 'This will come in handy.'

"Are you done playing around? This is exactly how you usually explode. Though you usually don't play with balls." MoonRay said, taking me out of my thoughts.

"That sounded wrong on several different levels. Even so, you are right. I should go onto the armor." I said, doing exactly that.

The armor was more straight forward. I attach it to myself and it turns into generic under-armor. I then need to think or set the piece I want to equip. Actually, the under-armor itself is considered armor so it has the same stats as my new cheat stuff. Without wasting too much time, I set my helmet to be the 'Eye of Another World', since I liked the design. I toggled all possible perks. I then set my gauntlets to be the 'Karnstein Armlets' for the same reason. I also toggled all possible perks. For my chestpiece, I chose the 'Phoenix Protocol', same stuff as the helmet and gauntlets. Lastly, for the leg armor, I chose the 'Transversive Steps', same stuff as the rest.

About an hour passed after first examining the balls, mainly spent deciding on a color scheme as that could be modified as I wanted. I set two predetermined color schemes: black and red, which was less conspicuous and could potentially be used for infiltration as the red was only the linings and details on the armor, and white and light blue, which I will use in direct combat as it would not matter either way. Plus, the glowy bits on my armor glowed in my secondary color (red or light blue) depending on the color scheme. Spending time on that was worth it. Seeing no reason to take off my armor except the helmet, I decided to keep it on and continue with my tests. It was comfy, after all.

I went onto probably the next most important test after the gear: my body and creating materials. I started testing by making some gold. Nothing too complicated though I noticed that the speed at which I make the material depended on the quantity of Light I put in it and, probably, the complexity of the material. This meant that I could create any material given enough time or enough power. Since my power came from a part of my body, the Akashic Engine, I had perfect control over it, so I made it step up a couple of notches. I immediately started producing a LOT more Light, speeding up the creation of gold. I stopped after getting a kilo as it might be useful if I end up in some Universe similar to mine before reincarnation. After this initial test, I got serious. My secondary thought process had already scoured through most advanced knowledge on materials, so I knew which ones to choose, but then I had my Eureka moment: 'What if I… combine the best of the best and make a new element. Theoretically it can work, I have the knowledge about the pros of each material and I know what I want as a final product.'

Thinking along that line, I started up my production skill, imagining exactly what I wanted from my material. I also overcharged my Akashic Engine, to speed up the process. 'Based on the quality of the material, it will take a lot of time. To make enough for my body only will take at least ten hours. This will be boring.' And so I waited, and waited, and waited some more, until I had a sizable mountain of unknown metal at my feet. I then touched it with my hand and started assimilating the metal. Several small cables with what looked like syringes at the tip came out of my fingers and started absorbing the metal, ignoring all laws of physics. 'I can blame it on the Light, so I shouldn't even think about it.'

After about an hour, I assimilated all of the metal, changing my entire body. The old material went into the Akashic Engine and turned into energy. 'So eco-friendly!' With my stupid thoughts out of the way, I moved onto my 'side' experiments: making gimmicks for myself, my sparrow, and my ship. 'I will start with myself. Oh, how much I love my mechanical body. Yeah, let's add some concealed blades in my wrists, along with holographic projectors like Cayde's map. A personal Stealth and Phantom Drive for invisibility and short range teleportation; this will be useful. A bunch of sensors and scanners along with an anti-gravity device to aid my movements in battle. Hm, that's all I can think of. I will miniaturize them all and assimilate with them.

Now onto my sparrow.'

"MoonRay, I am ready to work on my sparrow. Do you mind trasmating it here?" I asked, already knowing the answer. Almost immediately, my Ghost obliged and the sparrow materialized in the room, then I started cracking on it.

'Ok, a weapons system is needed for sure. Small calibers are useless as I can just use my Sidearms or Hand Cannons while driving. I should add a version of the walkers' laser cannons. Maybe some land-air missiles after some modifications. I will also add a Stealth and Phantom Drive like in my body. Oh, and a shield generator.' And so, my sparrow became a monstrosity. Aesthetically, it was still sleek as fuck and cool looking, but the capabilities of this thing were monstrous. 'If this was in the game, I could solo a nightfall with it.'

"MoonRay, I am finished with this. You can trasmat it back to the ship. How much time passed by the way?" I asked my partner, who was currently floating behind me, overlooking my work.

"About 15 hours. You said something about gimmicks for your ship before, didn't you?" she answered.

"Yup, we already have state of the art propulsion systems, weapons systems, and a stealth drive. I wanted to add some more scanners mainly and connect a small satellite to the Universal Jump Drive display in my cockpit, so that I can always track this universe. I don't know how the jump itself will work, I just know that the display works as a sort of navigation system for the jump." I said, thinking back to the information I gained upon waking up. 'Man, my wishes were on point. I am already an excellent pilot and know the ship inside out. The same with my weapons and armor. Seriously OP.'

For my ship, I created a new version of the trasmat device to give it more range, a few scanners of different varieties, and started working on how to enlarge the space inside. The 'A Thousand Wings', like all other ships, has a living quarter, storage space, and the different systems (weapons, propulsion, cloaking, etc.) but the problem is that they are really small. While the storage space can be dealt with with my new interface and infinite storage, the living quarters are seriously cramped. Since I am an exo and don't need sleep or food, theoretically up to two people can travel on the ship.

To counter this problem I searched for solutions outside of technology or, to be precise, not mechanical. You see, in races like the Hive, the rituals count as technology, which kind of makes sense. This means I know magic. 'Fuck Yeah!' With the direction of my search established, it took about ten minutes before finding the appropriate race's magic. The Spindals' (shitty name but let's overlook that) magic consists of inscribing runes onto surfaces. With my cheat ability of creating blueprints for whatever the fuck I can think of, I combined all sorts of magic languages (including the Hive and a few other races with shitty names) to create the appropriate runes: space enlarging runes! They work similarly to bottomless pouches in fantasy: a small thing gets enlarged to astronomical levels while keeping its original appearance. My runes enlarge the area marked with a factor of about 5:1, meaning that each meter becomes 5. My ship has a pretty damn small living quarter, so the result will be about 500 square meters and I can increase it if needed. I already planned to add a decent sized workshop and a couple more beds, in case I meet someone that wants to come with me to another universe during my travels. Creating the gimmicks took another two hours, so I decided to do something useful for at least a couple of hours: using the Light to cultivate! or whatever it is I can do!

Deciding to do just that, I trasmated the results of my hard work to the ship's storage area. I would install them in space the next day. I then laid on my bed and started up my Akashic Engine, 'flooring the pedal' so to speak. I began flooding my system with Light while thinking about how I came up with this wish. 'If I remember, in the Nasuverse there is the concept of 'mystery' and the higher an object or person's 'mystery', the stronger they are. This is a very degraded explanation but I am sure I might be able to do something similar with the Light.'

Every single atom of my being was flooded with Light. My initial reaction was 'Hey, this is like a buff. It makes me better as long as I consciously pour Light in my body.' then after a few minutes I started seeing some changes. 'It feels as if the buff became permanent. Obviously it is only a minimal increase in my 'parameters', but it is the result of less than half an hour. I feel that it shouldn't be so quick yet it kind of makes sense if I think about what I remember, in the Nasuverse, mystery grows with time. If I think of it as passively increasing the concentration of magic in the body, then I am absorbing the equivalent of years worth of magic actively. While they have to actually live long enough, I just have to consciously pour Light into my body. If I did so for a few days straight, nothing in that universe would ever be able to harm me. I don't know how it works in this universe, but I better increase my 'mystery' just to be safe.'

I decided to continue 'cultivating' until it is time for me to start my trip.

"Guardian, you spent a total of 26 hours in the Tower. Maybe we should depart. You can continue on the ship" MoonRay said.

"Thanks, MoonRay, I completely lost track of time. Make it so that my HUD displays the time as well, in the upper-right-hand corner." I said while getting ready to leave.

'I say getting ready, but the only real things I need to do is turn my new armor back into under-armor, get my old gear from Banshee-44, leave a message to my fireteam, and head to the hangar. A quick word with Amanda then off I go.' I thought to myself while checking myself in the mirror. Looking at my reflection I remembered I was now an exo, so nothing in particular had to be done regarding my appearance. I already changed the armor back to under-armor so I left the room. I headed directly to Banshee-44, who was currently polishing yet another rifle.

I greeted him normally, "Hey Banshee! How are you doing today?"

Banshee looked up and responded, "Hello Guardian. I am doing fine, thank you. I presume you are here for your gear. In perfect condition as always I must say."

"Yup, thanks Banshee. See you again, though with my mission it will take some time." I said, while retrieving my gear and waving at him. 'He's a good guy.'

"Stay safe, Guardian." I heard from my back. 'Yup, a good guy.' He then continued, "Otherwise who would buy the ammo packs, I got a surplus here."

'I want my thoughts back. He's thinking only about business!'

While going to the hangar, I quickly stopped by the Postmaster and left a message. I stood there waiting for confirmation, which came soon enough: "Confirmed. Message to: Clover Anastasia, Tetsu-9, Mikael Tear, Sara, 'Pops'. Content of the message: 'Don't have too much fun without me!'. Is everything correct?"

"Yes." with a simple word, the message was stored, and my fireteam will receive it upon reaching a safe zone or the Tower. Either one is fine and depends on their personal settings in regards to messages. I, for one, had MoonRay receive only messages from friends and teammates while in safe zones.

Anyway, back to my trip. I left the Postmaster and headed to the hangar. There I found Amanda. Exchanged a few pleasantries and told her I'd be away for a prolonged period of time. The hangar's robots would send an alert if a Guardian takes too much time to return, so it is procedure to inform Amanda or any other higher-up of your departure. 'This is much more fleshed out than in the game. Then again, it's real life. I still need some time to get used to everything, even with 'my' memories.'

Thinking about all the details I discovered since coming to this universe, I went to my whip and trasmated into the cockpit. I then launched out of the hangar. I wanted to look at the city from the sky at least once, so I took a nice, slow tour with my ship. After a complete circle around the city, I started ascending. Man, experiencing the feeling of being pressed against the seat is something amazing. I left the control of the ship to MoonRay, who plot a course to an empty sector outside the Solar System. It would take a little less than two hours to reach, so I took my time and installed all the gimmicks I made the day before. I also connected by satellite 'waypoint' to the UJD display, so that I would be able to find my new home universe in the future. Seeing that I still had some time after finishing that, I started applying the runes I designed to the ship. I started from the living quarters. I didn't enlarge the cockpit since it was a pilot-only type of thing. On the other hand, I decided to create an 'observation deck' in the living quarters' new common room. I created a new set of runes that connected the surface of the table to the view the pilot gets in the cockpit. Basically this means a direct streaming of what there is in front of the ship.

After about two hours, I reached the target sector. I released the satellite, hoping that by the time I come back it won't be destroyed or stolen by some alien ass. I did include a cloaking device so I could be a little more comfortable with leaving it here. I then started the UJD and took my first real step into an exciting new life.