บท 16: The Erchius Mining Facility Incident (4)
Ark Outpost
Present day...
"Give me the coordinates of the Lunar Base I will use my teleporter to there," John said to Pete.
"Alright, but it's better for yer to use the teleporter of the Shopping Complex. While yer goes there retrieve my shipment I'll start fixing the ship." Pete said while he was commanding his Penguins to gather up materials.
"Okay..." John agreed.
Pete placed a Data Chip in his PIPS and uploaded the coordinates inside it, he took it out and gave it to John, "The coordinates are inside. Go to the 2-Stop Teleshop, the teleporter is there, yer just needs to pay a small fee. When you arrive at the Lunar Base search for a guy named Clark. He is the Overseer of the facility, pretty easy to find him."
John took the Data Chip and was about to leave with Lenny when Pete called him out, "Lad!" Pete took a box from his inventory and gave it John, "This is just an armor, and weapons from my old' times. It is nothing much, just a Tier 1, but is still better than the standard Protector uniform and pistol."
John took a look inside the box and saw the glimmer of the metal armor, "Thanks, but it is better for me to use the uniform. I am a Protector I must use it all the time."
"Well, there is nothin' I can do about it then." Pete shrugged his shoulders, but still decided to advise John, "I will warn yer, be careful when usin' the uniform, there a lot of people who hated the Protectors, but refrained from takin' action because they were afraid of the Terrene Protectorate. Now, however, they will never let go the opportunity to kill a Protector."
John appreciated the concern and thanked Penguin Pete for the armor and weapons.
"He gave me nothing..." Lenny sadly commented.
"Because you are annoying." John immediately retorted.
"Whatever... Let's get this done with. The sooner we fix your ship, the sooner we can find Oscar."
"Who said I was going to help you in your vendetta?" John stared straight at Lenny.
"If you don't help me, I'm going to stay by your side all the time." Lenny slyly smiled, "It's not like I have money to buy a new ship."
"Oh... God..." John gave up and went to find a hotel. They needed to rest and prepare to go to Lunar Base 12. They delayed the shipment for a whole 2 weeks and all the communication with the base were dead, something must have happened, better to stay prepared.
Outside of the Shopping Complex, just at its right side, there was a small luxurious building. The sign at the top was written with the words "Royal Hotel".
John entered the building and he saw that it was indeed beautifully made.
The inside was all made of marble and there was a painting of all kinds of the landscape at the walls and skillfully sculpted statues as pillars. John looked a little closer and saw that the statues weren't representing humans, but instead what looked like a robot.
"Happy. Welcome customers." John and Lenny were greeted by a robotic male voice.
John looked at the reception and saw that it was a Glitch that was the receptionist.
Despite being incredibly advanced robots, Glitch society is quite literally medieval. Built by an unknown race eons ago to simulate organic life and society, something went wrong and the Glitch got caught in an unending loop where they would not advance past the "stone castles and agrarian villages" stage.
The Glitch themselves look like something constructed in the dark ages, their simplistic exteriors belying the stunningly enhanced programming that keeps them running.
They also have a very simplistic kind of speech, they first say how they are feeling at the moment and then proceed to properly speak.
It was no different for the Glitch in front of John. He had a black colored frame and simplistic looks for a robot.
"Hello." John greeted the Glitch, "I would like the most basic room you have, for just one night."
"Glad. The most basic room is 300 pixels for one night." The Glitch cheerfully said.
John's eyes twitched, Lenny who was beside him also gasped when he heard the price.
"Alright then..." John helplessly said. He took his PIPS and placed a cable inside it, then he connected the cable at the payment machine that was in the Glitch's hands. Soon the pixels were transferred, John now has only 1.7 thousand pixels.
The Glitch gave John the key and proceeded to bring them to their room.
The moment they entered the elevator John was able to see that the hotel wasn't as simple as it looked. Even though it had only one floor at the top, it had more than 10 floors under the earth.
The Glitch pressed the button "U1".
The buttons in the elevator went from "F1", floor 1, "R", reception, and then "U1' to "U10" for underground floors.
Soon they arrived and the Glitch gave the key for the room 103 to John.
Each floor had about 5 rooms so basically the Hotel had about 50 rooms.
John and Lenny entered the room. Inside he was able to see that luckily the room had two separate bedrooms, one for John and the other for Lenny.
The room was very simplistic. It had the basics, a bathroom, a small kitchen, a living room, and the bedrooms. The whole place was built using wood and marble.
"Good." Lenny was obviously satisfied with the room, he was happily smiling, "I will be sleeping. When the time comes to wake me up." He slammed the door of the bedroom shut.
John ignored him and sat down at the living room. He took out the box that Penguin Pete gave him and took a more careful look at the items.
It was 3 pieces set armor. It had the head, chest and leg armor.
The head armor has, in fact, a headset that featured a fancy and useful augmented glass visor.
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Name: Scouter's Visor
Type: Tier 1 Heavy Armor
Durability: 87%
Energy Storage: 100 UE
Energy Regeneration: None
Special: Visor that gives the most detailed information about what he is seeing.
Upgrades: None
Additional Description: The most simple Steel Armor given to the foot soldiers of the USCM.
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Tier 1 Armors are made primarily of Steel. They can offer protection against Tier 1 Weapons and reasonable protection against Tier 2 Weapons.
...
"Hm?" John was surprised after he looked at the description that his PIPS gave him about the head armor, [A USCM armor? Penguin Pete said that this armor is from his old days. That means he was a member of the notorious USCM? That would explain why he was so afraid of Esther.] He thought.
The USCM and the Terrene Protectorate were always at odds. But everything change in a single week, the USCM suddenly disbanded, no one knew with details what happened. The ex-members told everyone that all the higher-ups died and that the internal fight for the next leadership had led to the disbandment of the once second biggest human organization.
The USCM was at odds with the Terrene Protectorate because they were a group of warmongers that fabricated all types of weapons and sold them to whoever had the money. This led to criminal organizations having the opportunity to get their hands in extremely powerful and militaristic weaponry.
After the disbandment of the USCM. Most of their members became outlaws, mercenaries and bounty hunters.
...
[Alright let's take a look at the rest of the armor set.] John started to take out the other two pieces of the armor, starting with the chest armor.
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