Age of Space

Nagata maximus had stayed away from mind altering substances for days now. Naturally a bit paranoid from years of substance use to begin with, his last escapades did not help. Turns out taking the equivalent of 800 million credits from terrorists made you nervous. Right? Who’d think of that when it was just lying there in perfectly untraceable cryptocurrencies!?

He’d been spending his time helping out his nephew, it helped take his mind off the constant fear and worry. The guilt he’d been living with after finding out what happened to Holder and Xena, also seemed to ease when he helped the kid.

He’s only 18, he’s too young. The truth would destroy him, his inner self almost seemed to religiously chant every time the question arose.

Once again, as always Nagata arrived at the same answer: I will tell him when he’s older.

Scanning over the latest list he’d arranged; he adjusted his bohemian style floral long coat and made the call:

[Ahh, Uncle! How's the search coming along?] He heard Ronin ask over the line.

He quickly double checked the information he'd gathered. Everything was in order. [Yes, eh, good day. I’ve been looking into spaceship factories available for purchase. Here, I’ll send you a few lists covering some facilities at different price ranges.]

There was a brief pause, as his nephew read over the file.

[The premium quality ones look good; I've got credits to spend now, after all. Seeing as you've compiled the list, got any recommendations?] Ronin's excited voice rang back.

[The two most expensive properties are a little too high profile right now I'd say. I know raising your profile is important in brand marketing, but given that you're currently trying to hide your wealth... Having the press showing up at your door is probably not a good idea.] Nagata answered back, sounding thoughtful.

[Alright, I see them now, they’re from formerly famous companies. Caused quite the stir when they shut down.] Ronin agreed.

[Indeed, if you look down to entry number 5 however, we have an interesting option. The facility has a square shaped warehouse around 600 meters both in length and width, which should leave plenty of space for whatever you want to build. The factory itself being 300 meters long and 200 meters wide, is set up for ship construction up to the corvette size.]

After settling on checking out the offer, they hired a real estate agent and set up a tour through the facility with the owners.

“As mentioned, the facility comes with an ongoing security contract providing protection against both robbery and surveillance. Ah, here we have the 3D-printer. It's a second addition Hazamaki-S3, designed specifically for precision work for corvettes and smaller ships.” The tour guide explained as they walked across the complex.

“What does that mean? Precision work for smaller crafts?” Ronin interjected.

The tour guide smiled like a shark; it was almost as if he'd been waiting for just such a question. “The printer focuses more on creating high quality components instead of creating many cheap low-resolution parts. This means you can theoretically use this bad boy to print out almost anything. For example, it can print out the components needed for an antimatter reactor. No normal printer even gets close to that level of precision. It also has several inbuilt and paid for blueprints for common ship parts used in corvettes and shuttles. Finally, this specific model offers more manual control for the operator. It is also a good match for our more precision focused assembler."

Learning how to 3D-print on a precise machine might be harder, but more rewarding in the long run. Ronin's eyes shined as he began thinking of what he could make with this thing! The possibilities were almost endless.

“And do these machines come with an instruction manual?” Nagata asked.

“Naturally. We also have an existing relationship with their supply companies. Any minor issue you encounter with these machines, will be solved for free. More serious faults that require a more physical presence so to speak, will have to come out of your own pocket.”

“Is that an alloy compressor?!” Ronin exclaimed, noticing a large machine at the southern end of the factory.

“Indeed, unlike most other companies, we here at Ainz and Co. decided to develop our own compression formulas for outer hull alloys. Although it requires more work, it's much cheaper to produce certain alloys in-house, as opposed to buying them off the market.”

Limping quickly up to the machine, still injured from earlier, Ronin's eyes lit up as he spotted the acid bath. “A high-pressure compression chamber! It's also primed with so many different acid solutions! Oh, and here is the after-bath chemical treatment.” Finally, while walking over to an enormous hydraulic press, he couldn’t help but burst out:

“The final compression mechanism!’’

“You missed the cold working and heat treatment addons, but yes this machine can do most of the work for the properties you wish in your alloys.” The guide corrected.

“Why doesn't the production belt of the 3D-printer lead to the alloy compressor?”

“Each machine is, for the most part, its own closed system. That is, the different machines spend a different amount of time on each job. That's why, during a production run, we cannot do everything in one go. You would generally print out the parts first, strengthen the relevant alloys, then begin the final assembly.” The guide patiently explained.

After discussing a little more on how the 3D-printer worked and how they'd go about printing out electronic components, they made their way over to the design studio.

As the tour guide started gesturing at the various tools, he began: "This is a fairly standard design studio. What we have done however, is a comprehensive upgrade to its computational ability, allowing us to perform accurate simulations on how well the designed ship will do before it's even assembled. Before printing a single part, you can get an accurate model of how good your design actually is.”

Ronin had everything he needed here, Nagata was right. This facility was set up like a small scale, top of the line crafting studio. Instead of buying a generic mass-producing factory and employing hundreds of employees, he could start small here. If he bought this, he could begin training and designing years before he finished the academy!

I wonder…

“Does this facility have access to the quantum net?” Ronin asked.

“No, something like that is way above Concordia's standard for factories like this.”

Figures...

The guide scratched his chin before continuing “We do however have the infrastructure available to set one up. It will double the price of the property though. The quantum net is not exactly common this far away from the galactic heartland.”

They actually have it!

After finishing the tour and paying a hefty sum of 70 million credits, Ronin decided to contact the VR capsule company "Real world gaming". What made these guys special was how their VR company simulated the game experience in the real world. Be it through electrical stimulation, oxygen deprivation, heating or cooling systems, their equipment could allow your body to feel, in the real world, what you experienced in the game. Why would someone want to feel pain, having to exercise and freeze in the real world when they were just playing a game?

Well, studies had shown how the introduction of VR technology had drastically increased both the obesity- and mortality rates of humans across the galaxy. Productivity had also gone down, and it was all in all, just a big disaster to human flourishment. The "Real world gaming" technology on the other hand made you healthier, it also had a higher neural resonance affinity, so the games felt more real.

"..."

Dialing up the company with the implant, he arranged for an installation in the factory he'd just bought. Turns out the latest version cost over 5 million credits and required a 10 by 10 meters area of free space, as well as 3 meters in height. This thing was huge!

[Is this really a VR capsule? Why do you need so much space?] He complained when he found out.

[Mr. Maximus, our product isn't exactly a capsule. It's more of a chamber and we really can’t have this thing be any smaller. For a complete, real world sensory simulation experience, we can't budge on this!]

[This takes up a huge area of the building, it will interfere with my work.] Ronin complained, having no clue whether or not it actually would.

[Listen, it's not the capsule that requires the space, it's the simulation environment for your body. For an optimal real-world experience, this amount of space is needed. From equipment which increases gravity, the difficulty of breathing, the real-world pressure felt when hit in-game etc. Top of the line equipment takes space Mr. Maximus...] The "Real world gaming" sales relationship manager said, exasperation trickling into his voice.

5 million credits... That was about 1/4th of what a spaceship factory cost without the quantum net!

This really is a plaything for the rich! Who could afford something like that? Ronin would never have wasted credits on something like this if he did not feel like he had to. His unwilling predilection for ending up in trouble had to stop. He’d killed 6 people now. The first man, Darth, was in self-defense. The others though? Maybe, but he went to the 101st district looking for a fight! It was not the same circumstance, it was worse. Much worse.

“...”

Heading home, Ronin spent all his time training. Working on the stances when his body could handle it. He did sit ups, pushups and pull ups when he had energy and studied spacecraft construction when he was tired.

Every 8 hours, he did the stance exercises; it seemed to be the limit before something within him burst and broke. Every time he did the stances though, energy flowed through his body, repeatedly tempering it, again and again. By the third day, he’d done the routine 18 times and was starting to get used to it.

"..."

Just a bit more!

Feeling as if he was approaching a threshold, he pushed on, straining with every ounce of willpower he had, he locked in the 3rd stance.

As if a release had been opened within his body, energy flooded his systems. And with that energy came the energy from the alien artifact as well. There was always a large improvement when he completed a stance and locked in the next one.

Strength began flowing out from deep within, every part of his body was saturated by it. His ligaments became stronger and more elastic, his bones tougher, his thinking speed faster. Maybe from the sudden burst of energy, his body also began healing itself faster as well. The only remaining injury, the burn wound in his stomach, changed. From a 4 cm deep tunnel it swiftly began healing into something akin to a surface scar.

He also worked on his mental palace. The internal model of the Goliath Class Mothership "The Worldmaker ED-07" became more stable as he slowly began repairing the cracks until as much as 10% of the damage was now healed. His memory also became a bit clearer and easier to access.

By the seventh day, he’d reached halfway towards the 4th stance. Clenching his fists and very satisfied with the progress he’d made, he put on the uniform, ready to head towards the academy. It was finally time! His class was finally doing practical exercises related to spacecraft construction.

As for the battle lust? Turns out all the hard work he’d put in had helped out a lot. In 7 days, each day spanning 50 hours he’d only gone out one time to fight. Being smarter about it this time, he had opted to climb the apartment complexes, reaching the territory of the rooftop bandits before he began hunting.

“Guys! It's the maniac again!” One man shouted.

“Run!” Another had commanded.

“Sir I promise, I will earn an honest living from now on! Please stop chasing me!” One of the bandits had actually pleaded.

Yeah, they’d remembered him. Turns out he’d somehow become a big of an urban legend in this community. These guys fortunately had no dangerous weapons, so fighting was much safer for both him and them. Batons and knives? No problem! He was nice that way. Since he was not in danger of dying, he could fight more conservatively, controlling his strength so that no one died this time. He had noticed that his battle lust decreased less after a less risky fight, so he’d been running around for hours looking for more bandits to beat.

With the academy uniform equipped, he headed towards the gravity assisted jet-bus. Dino the bus driver, jolly as always shouted:

“Ronin! It's been two weeks since the accident and all I've seen and heard was a text message! Almost thought you died boy. Well, anyways, good to see you again. Going back to the academy?”

Ronin shuffled back and forth in between the crowd going into different vehicles, quickly entering the jet-bus so as to avoid creating a jam.

Spotting a free seat in the front, he huffed back apologetically:

“Can’t say it was a smooth ride back that day, the shuttle actually got hit by a damn rocket.”

“Rocket?! Haha, stop exaggerating, fortunately for me I was off duty that day, so I never got to see the fireworks. Heard a lot of ships incurred damage though. Come to think of it, many people have been exaggerating what happened. A cousin of mine also spoke of rockets.” Dino the driver mumbled at the end of the sentence.

They called them rockets because that's what it was! Damn the ruddle government for calling it fireworks!

“It was a rocket.” Ronin mumbled back exasperatedly.

”Sure, sure whatever you say Ronny.” Dino chuckled.

Ronin still couldn’t forget the blatant lie about the attack that day. Fireworks? It looked more like a war zone. The Concordia network had been scrubbed of any footage of what happened as well. It should have been clear to anyone with a brain that this was a cover up!

Oh well none of my business. Politics is what politicians should worry about.

He leaned back in his seat and put on some electronic music: BADUMPH, BADUMPH, BADUMPH… as the groovy electronic beat began ramping up, the soft female voice in the jet-bus began to count down: [Strap yourselves in, engaging thrusters in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.]

VHROOM!

As the G-forces ramped up as well, along with the beat, Ronin closed his eyes, a wide smile erupting on his face. How can anyone think about annoying and boring topics like politics when something like this is out here!