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World Factory | HFY Prompt Fic

Name of Human Government


  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .
World Factory 9
Day 36

I needed a better source of food. The crystals, while edible, put a larger amount of minerals in the body than it actually needs, it is edible, but too much of a good thing can turn bad. So how do I fix this? I needed something game-changing, something that will help me in the long term. Huh… I just had an idea.

I went to my forge immediately to put my theory to work. I began extracting liquid from the aluminum and carbon crystal experiments. The liquid aluminum and carbon settled into the sandstone bowls I had made. I started testing by adding an electric current to the liquid. Hmm. It turned into jelly. The state of the liquid changes based on the amount of energy available then. If it has less energy it turns into a liquid, if it has more energy it turns into a solid. This means if I attach a cable to a whole crystal, I should see it generate energy. Let's test this.

Fascinating! I didn't actually know that these crystals had electricity flowing through them. It's quite minor when spaced out the way it is. Not enough to actually shock. More like a potato than anything. However, its state gives me an idea. This is a direct method of replicator technology, transforming energy into matter! Which is insane! A replicator has been the dream of Engineers for decades, yet. I have the answer in the palm of my hand. The creators likely do not even know the gold mine they have been sitting on, using it solely for material extraction. Not to mention, I think I can actually already started thinking of an idea for a replicator. The crystal material while anomalous, doesn't really matter. What matters is the process. If I can nail down the process that the crystals use, I could maybe imitate the process with normal means.

I'm already getting ideas, first, let's make a microscope so I can fully observe this crystal. With any luck, I will develop a life-changing technology.


Day 37
Turns out this isn't as simple as I thought. The process itself wasn't too complicated, it was simple energy manipulation. Well, as simple as energy manipulation could be. It thrived in null spaces, and vacuums. It also needed a base to absorb and convert from. It was infact creating more of the mineral it collected. If it absorbed enough of one kind of mineral it would change color slightly towards the mineral's typical color, which has me wondering why the crystals aren't just black or grey since they have a bunch of mixed minerals. Instead, their default state is a blue glowing crystal. Which is fundamentally strange to me.

Regardless I would have to stop with this for the next two or three days. I've finally accumulated enough plates and wires from my foundries to expand. It was time to make a construction base. Aka it was robot time! I stretched before leaving my lab. I walked along the surface towards my foundry. The stack of plates was similar to piles of credits in my eyes. They would fuel my expansion even more. Once I get a Construction Drone factory up and running I could have them build for me as I lay down more and more blueprints. Of course, I would have watch them to make sure they work. I have to code them all from scratch after all. A neural network should be enough to get this up and running. The factory won't only produce bots though, it would provide me with motherboards, and other advanced technological bases. Everything I needed to make computers. The first thing I'll need to build is either a server base so I can coordinate the bots' actions and an antenna for a local area network. I would need to get a satellite up eventually.

Day 38 to 46

The Ants have gotten more comfortable in my area. Coming up to my base almost daily now. They are seeming built-up affection to me. This is also the safest zone for them on the surface, as the massive worms patrol most of the area outside of my zone. I've been really enjoying hunting down the giant worms recently, they have so many valuable parts for expanding the factory. Sure they are terrifying and highly dangerous, but they are also VALUABLE! That means that even if they are dangerous, I am going to hunt as many as I can.

Annoyingly enough, my power reserves are starting to dip, the construction of the robot facility sucks much more power than my upside-down engineering base can produce, and the gravity mills were not producing nearly enough energy. This place was in a dead system after all. Oh, I found the star of the system! It's nearly invisible to all scanners. Its dead core was in the center of this one-planet system. Nearly invisible to all scanners due to the lack of any heat being produced. But the surface is most definitely made of thick glass now after it had cooled, causing the lights of my base to start reflecting off it. Hmm… I should probably check how much power my lights are draining. I got a bit tired of it being so dark all the time in this area so I built them practically everywhere.

Regardless, if I go to the core of what is left of the star I could harvest the glass and make solar panels! Or not. What the heck would I make solar panels for when I don't even have a sun? Hmm. Regardless there has to be some nuclear material up there, I need to make either a cold fusion reactor or a nuclear reactor. Frankly, despite my wishes for a simple cold fusion reactor, I am starting to think it will be easier to just go nuclear. Despite my premade plans for a fusion reactor. No, stay away from nuclear, if something goes wrong it could destroy the factory. I got no choice but to start construction on a Fusion Reactor. It will likely take me a few days to months to fully program the construction bots, but I can make some simple commands to have a few construction bots bring me the materials as I build the reactor by hand.

Yeah, that is the plan. Hmm, I'm going to need a ton more copper to make the inner tubes of the fusion reactor. I'll worry about it later, I need to go finish up the base of the reactor, lay out some sandstone concrete, and get construction up to standard.
 
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World factory 9 is out now. I'm excited to get started on this again!
 
Why not build a nuclear reactor (or more than one) on the dead star? That should be far enough from the factory and the engineer. Transporting energy should work, though it might be less efficient than the fusion reactor...

Love the story. Thanks for the update :)
 
I just came across this story and I like it so far, however I saw a slight inconsistency. The handler girl is said to be both in stasis already and also waiting on him to finish before she can enter stasis;
My handler, the girl, is currently in stasis, and everyone else is either a robot or busy. There are a lot of people on this ship, around six hundred crew members, give or take. However, most of those crew members will be in stasis unless they are needed.

I'm going to take a random guess that she can't actually enter stasis until I do cause she is my handler.
 
Why not build a nuclear reactor (or more than one) on the dead star? That should be far enough from the factory and the engineer. Transporting energy should work, though it might be less efficient than the fusion reactor...

Love the story. Thanks for the update :)

Currently, the MC is landbound, he can launch small things into orbit, but he doesn't have a method of transporting them to the star. Basically, he doesn't have a ship that would allow for it.

I just came across this story and I like it so far, however I saw a slight inconsistency. The handler girl is said to be both in stasis already and also waiting on him to finish before she can enter stasis;

This is why the MC was surprised later when the girl showed up while he was working.
 
World Factory 10
Day 47

The foundation took a day to finally finish the sandstone concrete, it is a rough thing to use. Especially since I can't use water in it and I was relying purely on compression. Although, now that I think about it I could have possibly used the crystal fluid as a binding agent. Hmm, too late now. I will experiment with that in the future. But more importantly, a foundation was in place. One that could be used to build the first fusion reactor to fuel my factory. I would be using liquid metal as a replacement for water, which is highly dangerous, and most definitely not recommended, but my water supply is limited to only a couple dozen bottles. I'm going with mercury as a fuel source. Although I had a couple of other elements I could use, Mercury is what I had the most of to line the inner tube.

— New POV

Edith System - Edith Prime, World Factory

Shen smiled, looking across the data. His factory was built upon a natural garden world. It had tons of silicon and oil beneath the surface, which was used to great effect. The Factory was the lead producer of computer technology across the entire Humanity Alliance space. As such, his political power and leverage were impressive. Most importantly, he was an S Ranked Engineer.

"Poly, what are the survival chances for my junior."

A feminine mechanical voice sounded out, "There is a less than 10% if we take offense to his presence and attack them. An estimated 60% chance of survival and growth if the Factory Engineer is left alone."

A glimmer appeared in his eyes. "Then let's light a fire. Get the void ships to attack. Show the might of the Void Race in one go, shall we?"

"Yes, Creator."



Deep within Dark Space, Dozens of drones received a signal and powered their engines. Their creator had issued an order. It must be fulfilled. Railways, appeared in the void, as the standard FTL used by the human race was put into action.


Day 48

A feeling of dread spread across my back… Something was threatening my factory. SOMETHING WAS THREATENING MY FACTORY. I must protect it. This feeling wouldn't be so intense if it was something the security sentinels could deal with in fact I'm feeling the danger from the sentinels themself. Where, what is causing it, If I remove wireless access the feeling from the drones disappears.

So, something with wireless capability, but not just wireless. I was still feeling danger even after black boxing the sentinels. The Ants? No, they were still friendly, a couple of them were following me around as I was panicking. It's something farther away. I don't know how much time I have to prepare. I just got this massive feeling of dread. I need a weapon, I need something NOW. What do I have access to?

The Crystals! I have access to them. I need to weaponize them. Somehow. I ran to my lab, and a trail of ants chittered behind me as they saw me moving about. I couldn't do this safely, I don't know how much time I have, but I needed something now. I started by grabbing the crystals, and some uranium from storage. I jury-rigged radiator, something that would launch particles from the uranium at the crystals. The effect was extremely promising, as out the other end a beam of light as a radioactive laser blasted through the wall into the ground, turning it from mixed sand into molten lava. I had a weapon prospect. I just needed to harness it. This weapon was cheap and easy to use.

The Ants were backing from me, still chittering as they watched, but not willing to approach the machine I made. I ground out pieces of uranium, making small projectors, these would project into crystal lenses. Firing more of these beams. I drafted out a frame for a new turret and went to work, constructing my new weapon. I started using cables to connect it to my mainframe as I began to black box everything, locking out all wifi signals, and relying completely on wired. I started to spread these turrets throughout my factory. As I finally attached my twentieth turret. The feeling of dread disappeared, replaced by anger. Something wanted to destroy my factory, the factory I had put my brainpower into, the factory that was growing and accumulating resources day by day.

I need to finish building that Fusion Reactor. Even if it is just a frame. Something was threatening my factory, meaning I had to accelerate my plans. I started to plan out multiple lines, multiple foundries, and blueprints that cluttered my vision as I upgraded my earlier plans, focusing more on speed than long-term efficiency. I needed to grow as quickly as possible. I do not know what that feeling is, I do not know why I trust it so much. But I can not ignore it. I needed an army, I can tell that wireless transmissions are dangerous for some reason, maybe the encryption isn't strong enough? I do not know. What I do know is that I need to prepare. So I will prepare. I slung my crossbow over my shoulder. It was time to hunt for worms.
 
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Wait, why is another factory world attacking our main Boi there? Is there something I miss there?
 
Yeah, off the top of my head, I'm getting vibes of an interior conspiracy. Feels like the established superpowers don't want anything to change if that change could dethrone them. Killing your inventors, sounds like manufacturing wholesale or escalating conflicts. This reeks of corrupt aristocracy or something. Massive factory worlds, yet surrounded on all sides. Every other race has a certain tech, but humans don't? All the innovations coming from S-ranks? That's what I'm feeling, anyway. Probably wrong.
 
Ah, shite. So basically an elite trying to preserve their power? Or a plot to incite a war? Or both!?

Aiya, that's a shit sandwich if I ever see one.
 
Yep, the authorities are going to get the war they want.
 
My brain is malfunctioning while I'm writing, and I don't have the time to backtrack per the moment, can someone let me know if I've dropped the name of the human government yet?
 
I'mma be lazy and leave this up to vote, which should be the name of the Human Government.

The Human Federation, aka the H.F.

United Allied Nations, aka U.A.N.

Human Industrial Complex, aka H.I.C.

The Coalition of Allied Planets, aka C.A.P.

Vote at the pole on top.
 
Where is the MC getting all this info about the attack, it's vectors, and his ability to deal with it? I get that he's brainwashed to be extremely attached to the Factory and do everything to defend it but when did he become clairvoyant?
 
Where is the MC getting all this info about the attack, it's vectors, and his ability to deal with it? I get that he's brainwashed to be extremely attached to the Factory and do everything to defend it but when did he become clairvoyant?

No clue, I wrote that on a day that I was super tired, I'll work around it though and work it into the story.
 
Just an idea if you are having trouble, you could retcon in a bunch of discreet, low tech satelites that the factory engineers are provided without their knowledge. Add in a nanoscopic or such implant to connect to, and you could give them 'vibes' about possible problems, and it would seem entirely natural. It could also serve as a kill switch, monitor, and enhanced cognition engine. Whatever you want. The reason they don't tell the engineers is so they aren't tempted to disassemble them and so they aren't aware they are collared.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, but I already have a plan regarding it, I'm thinking of tying it in with the way they figured out he was a S Rank Factory Engineer. Cause I haven't shared that information either.
 
It's weird, whenever I start writing and splitting my time between streaming and writing, something IRL happens. Like on the day that I was talking about name dropping the empire, we cut down a tree in the alley, and now I'm working on clearing all the limbs....
 
World Factory 11
Day 49

I kept pushing my efforts. The threat of something unknown pressed me to keep improving. I kept building more and more turrets and relied on cables for information transfer instead of wireless transmissions. More messy, but more secure. I was doing three things at once now, in the morning I ate a ration bar, and I would start working on the reactor for about five hours, then after that, I would begin to lay down more sandstone foundation, which I would either use to plan an expansion or as a base for a new Praton Turret, The effect the crystals have when exposed to radiation is quite insane.

Hmm, how should I put this? Whenever a radiation particle touches the crystals at a high enough speed, the kinetic energy transfers to the other side of the crystal, except it also carries a ton of ionized particles, forming an energy beam. I call this effect Praton Launching. The name is just something I thought of, with no particular reference. This is also a massive solution to my energy problem. The base of the fusion reactor I was building had changed. I was going to project the energy generated by this effect into a thermal grid, this grid would constantly absorb the heat and energy generated and power the base. This was both cheaper, and stronger than a normal fusion reactor of the same size. Generating up to seventy thousand megawatts per day. A cold fusion reactor only produces around sixty thousand, and a normal fusion reactor produces around forty thousand. A nuclear reactor on the other hand would only produce around ten to twenty thousand megawatts per day.


The turrets fire up to two thousand megawatts of energy for the small size of the crystals used. Which is enough to fry almost any electronic device if it is delivered in an instant. The only exception would probably be the Golden World Factory, which is the center of the Coalition of Allied Planets communications, mostly due to the amount of armor protecting the servers there.

Heh, now I'm thinking about all the World Factories in the galaxy humanity has managed to build. Most World Factories are the size of a small continent and rarely grow beyond that size. Yet some truly embody the idea of a World Factory. Massive Gigastructures that were formally planets, were completely reconstructed into Factories the size of a world. There were only around fifteen of these planets thus far, but their industrial capabilities are what allow us to be at the same level as opposing empires. It is what forced the peaceful ways that are currently in play. They are the reason World Factory Engineers are so valued, because all World Factory Engineers desired that possibility, converting their entire world into a factory that worked in complete tandem to produce insane quantities of items. One day, this desolate world of mine will turn into one of those factories. My factory will supply Commanders on the frontline with an armada of ships. Preventing anyone with dark intentions toward humanity from making moves.

I had access to a ton of military designs. If there is one thing about military designs, it is that they are designed to be cheap. They were strong sure, a military ship had stronger armor and thicker armor than civilian ships, but their internals? The most advanced device in a C.A.P. ship was the FTL drive. Even the stasis pods were cheaper than civilian ships. Reliable, but cheap. Why am I mentioning this though? Simple. I can build them. I may not be able to build an FTL Travel Stream Drive. But I can make something capable of orbital flight. I haven't looked deep into the military blueprints I've been building until this point. Because there wasn't much of a point. The goal was to build a functioning factory, after all, I figured I'd have some time to prepare before I was attacked. My factory is currently extremely small. Only covers a few miles, and that is because of piping and transport. I need to expand on what I have currently and then start using the military blueprints I have access to I could make mass producible orbital fighters and such. I've already started refining the framework turrets I had already built using the blueprints I had access to fixing many of the issues they would have had.

Once I get the reactor up and running, I'm going to expand the smeltery, and up plate production, so I can make more smelteries, and I will keep doing this until I'm producing a surplus of materials to build with. I am manually building a few fighters as well, hopefully, it goes well.
 
I wanted to post a larger update, but as I mentioned early, been getting real busy IRL. Hopefully I'll get back to my normal schedule of streaming and writing soon.
 
Just had an idea, while doing some research. It may not have been possible, timewise, for a star to have become an iron sphere naturally. Stars that would have died this soon in the galactic life cycle would have either nova'd or collapsed, given that the faster a star dies, the more massive the star is. For a star to have little enough mass to fuse to iron, it would take billions of years to die. Also, your planet might be too close to the star, given the red giant stage of life and the massive expansion thereof. Maybe you could swing that into more of the 'constructed system' idea you have going on? Where the system star was poisoned to death in order to be placed there? If you go that route, the star would have more valuable materials than simple iron. Could also run it as a hidden dyson sphere? Where the construction is hidden to protect themselves, and they build the planet so that they could still have industry without being spotted. Given the Kardashev scale, they could easily destroy almost any civ around, especially given the engineering and physics know-how needed. Other than that, really loving the Praton energy idea. Easy energy density using crystals is always attractive as an idea. You can toy around with composition, angles of reflection, angles of refraction, crystal computing, dimensional tunneling/extraction, pseudo-organic growing structures and components; such a robust and atmospheric tech choice.
 
Support meh
By the way, if you haven't already I recommend following me on kick, once I get to 75 followers I will be able to make some supplemental income via streaming which will help me out in the long run. I seem to have more time today so I'll try to get another update out today if possible.
 
World Factory 12
Day 50
The Ants have started to make exits nearby, they seem to have ingeniously made the exits curve around, to keep the atmosphere from leaking out while they exit and enter the factory. They don't bring me as many crystals anymore after a small pile had formed. Although when I start using some they will refill the pile. It is definitely fascinating to watch.
The worms started appearing nearby again, and so I started hunting. What is annoying about them is that they are starting to get bigger. I replaced my clockwork gun with a tension spring gun. It's more powerful but harder to load manually, so I attached an automatic loader to it with a generator attached. It was heavy-ish. Well, as heavy as it could be in a low-gravity environment. So easily manageable.
I looked at the meter on my scanning device. The underground vibrations were growing. I threw a clapper across to where I would jump next. The clapper was a bunch of metal plates that when they landed would constantly clap together for a few seconds, causing vibrations in the sand.
I lined up my tension gun, the tungsten bolt ready to fire, and I waited patiently. Suddenly a massive worm erupted out of the ground swallowing the clapper, these worms were similar to earthworms, meaning you had to hit the clitellum for an instant kill, or they will simply heal after a few days. Luckily I had a very expensive and advanced engineer suit with a hud. Once the worm was halfway out of the ground it slowed, as it began to turn to go back into the earth, leaving the clitellum fully exposed. The bolt launched, sending me skimming across the sand as the recoil hit me. The worm fell over and split apart, the tungsten bolt tore a massive hole in the worm at the splitting point. I smiled, there wasn't a single part of the worm that wasn't valuable to me, the skin was covered with what I have now realized is oil.
The oil allowed for a very important and useful thing to be made, plastic. Polymer-based materials require sources such as natural gases, oil, or plant life. It is integral for producing certain computer components and devices. Cheap as well. It would most definitely be helpful in the long run so I try to store as much of the oil the worms produce as I can.
I started up the loading process for my tension gun as my drones began to pull the parts of the worm to the dissection area, where I would tear it apart and turn it into raw material.

I felt a sense of danger. I followed that sense with my vision, as I stared into the sky, dozens of black ships appeared. The lights of my factory reflect off their hulls. The threat was here, Green beams of energy started launching from my base, attacking the ships. Five ships were hit in the first exchange, and the impacted ships exploded instantly, detonating from the inside. Then the ships returned fire. And despair hit me as I recognized what the attack they used was.
The Rod of God attack, a singular pole launched at a high velocity with a small rocket engine at the back. The impact of the rod would instantly destroy my factory, I had time, only a minute until it impacted, as it starts off pretty slow. But there was nothing I could do to stop it. I ran towards the nearest ant hill.
50 seconds to impact, I jumped into the opening, gripping the sides with my hands as I pulled myself down, I think the ants sensed the danger as well, they were returning underground too. We dived under the surface, going as deep as we could into the tunnels. I started to actually feel the weight as gravity began to increase.
20 seconds to impact. I followed the ants as we pushed deeper into the sand. Danger at our backs, and despair in my mind as I did what every engineer despised, I was abandoning my factory. Leaving it to the mercy of the Rod of God.

10 seconds.
The ants began huddling together. I joined them. They actually held onto me as well.

3… 2… 1…

I blacked out.

—Edith System, Edith Prime, World Factory

A feminine robotic voice echoed out towards Shen, the World Factory engineer of this world.
"Subject: Nick Shekin, Deceased."
Shen didn't talk for a moment. "Too bad, it seems that he didn't live up to expectations," Shen spoke before laughing. "Then again! Who would live up to my expectations, after all? An Emperor can have no comparison!" He waved, showing an image of a factory engulfing the entire milky-way. And in the corner there was a list of names, many of them crossed out, and a new crossed-out name was added to the list. Nick Shekin.
 
World Factory 13
Day ??
Bzzt, bzzt

I groaned as I tried to move, I was buried, and my equipment had most definitely short-circuited. My hud was barely functioning, but luckily life support was still on. I felt something tap the back of my head, I tried to move, as much as I could. The tapping increased a bit, and I felt the sand around my exosuit begin moving. Something was digging me out. After a minute of enormous patience on my part, the person that found me began pulling. I was holding onto something, but I didn't want to let go of it. My vision cleared as I was pulled out of the sand. A massive ant was pulling me, twice the size of a normal space ant. It began digging around me as its antenna touched my hand, and I watched as the rest of the ants were pulled out of the sand.

Unharmed. Each ant was moving around unharmed, none had died from the collapse. I couldn't help but smile. It seems I grew more attached to the ants than I started, they began nuzzling at me. Using their antennas to check my body. Realizing I was unharmed they chittered excitedly. There was an atmosphere here. For a moment, I was happy. We had lived after all! Until depression hit. My factory had been destroyed, and I had abandoned it like a coward. My baby was gone, and couldn't expand anymore. I sat down listless. The excitement of surviving is completely gone.
What is a Factory Engineer without their Factory? They are no one, a waste of space. Worse than trash, they were unusable and unclean. They were nothing but blights upon existence. My mind shut off, as these thoughts kept rattling in my head. Repeating constantly.


Drone #403 tried to get their friend to move. The friendly two-legged one was unresponsive. They had brought them back to the main hive after the destruction of the two-legged being's hive. The Queen and Warriors said that they couldn't do anything for their friend. The two-legged friend's mind was broken and scattered according to them. So Drone #403 did what Drone #403 did best! It took his friend to gather more food. Nothing made the drone happier than gathering ore of the glowing food. Maybe it would make their friend happy and responsive again too. Drones 403's friends agreed. They helped put the two-legged one on 403s back as they began hunting down food.

With normal tunnels collapsed the Worker Drones would have to rebuild the expansion leading to the two-legged ones home. This would obviously take time, so they decided to take the two-legged one to the abandoned tunnels. The one claimed by the predators. The two-legged one terrified the Predators, as they kept getting hunted whenever they entered the two-legged one's territory. Causing the Predators to only send adult Predators there, who were also hunted. They had seen the two-legged one take down a grand Predator just before the threat had arrived. Just the mere presence of the two-legged one would cause the Predators to flee the tunnels.

That was proven correct as they felt the Predators flee the area after they took their friend to the tunnels. The blue light of food echoed off the walls. So Drone 403 did what Drone 403 did best. They collected food.
 

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