As Tala settled Vector Free into the space between several dark, blocky spikes of the asteroid, she took a moment to appreciate that, persistent danger and lack of showers aside, the situation she was in was fucking awesome.
She had a fucking starship!
Sure, the main computer was inconveniently restricted and Vicki was a little... weird. But they were better company than a lot of people she'd known.
She'd gotten away from the enemy fleet by occluding herself with the ion storm. Then she'd spent everything in her shields to push the disabled fighter at the enemy with her tractor beam, while she burned as fast as she could before cutting her engines.
The plan worked better than she'd hoped.
With the enemy fighter craft in the lead, their lack of long-range sensors or maybe just being trigger-happy or paranoid made them fire on her former pursuer. What was left of his ship wasn't even a blip on her long-ranged sensors - her best investment of Vessel Points so far - as she cut her engines and drifted at a steady vector toward her destination.
Before she could rest, however, she needed to solve her fuel situation.
And maybe leveling up would give her more options.
"Let's start with Vicky," she said.
Vicky had been her shorthand for the Vector Free before Vicky - personality/ghost/glitch/her only friend right now - had appeared. It was a name close to this universe's Human Common word for 'computer,' which was pronounced: "VaccEval."
Sadly, the Computer didn't respond to Vicky. Just "Computer" or "Vector Free".
"Computer, show me our spoils after that last fight. Ship menu only."
"Working..."
In front of Tala's eyes appeared a menu. It had taken some getting used to, but she was getting much faster at navigating now. And less accident prone.
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ICONOCLAST CLASS EVOLUTIONARY VESSEL
ASNV - XC 1
Hullform: Scout - Basic
Level 4
Pilot: Tala Amihan Sisson
Species: Human
Homeworld: Dirt
Copilot: /ERROR/ // 01000100 01100001 01110100 01100001 00100000 01000011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01110101 01110000 01110100 01100101 01100100 // 2
Species: /ERROR/
Homeworld: /ERROR/
System Connection: Nominal
Turning Over Interface
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System Interface
Performance Level: 11
Ship Level: 4 / 11
Available Ship Levels: 7
Experience Markers:
Evade Station Class: Civilian - 0 EP
Destroy Enemy Vessel 5 or More Levels Above Current Ship Level - 500 EP x 4
Survive Outnumbered Combat Situation: 100 EP x 4
Evade Enemy Fleet: 100 EP x 46
Tactical Evasion Combat Kill: 200 EP x 4 Anti Fleet Combat Multiplier, Solo
Total EP For Combat Action: 7800
Pilot Level Multiplier: 1
New Pilot Multiplier: 1.5
Copilot Multiplier: %ERROR%
Total EP Available: 21508
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Four? Hadn't Tala only destroyed three? Maybe hurling her opponent's wreck at someone had gotten an extra kill. It took her a minute of going through the logs to make the numbers add up. In terms of enemy ships, they did. In terms of her Evaluation Points - the big numbers thrown out by the All-Mighty-System of this universe - those never stacked up.
Vicki - the personality, not the ship... unless she was the ship? - somehow affected the System more than she did the ship, and somehow that played out into giving out some random addition to the EP every time a big event occurred while she was piloting. It wasn't a lot, but it wasn't nothing. And it had saved Tala's ass, like the day she first got here when-
"Active Scan Warning" the computer interrupted.
"Shit," Tala swore. Her imminent trip down memory lane would have to wait.
"We should hold off on leveling up the ship until the scanning stops," Vicky advised. "Leveling right now would put out a lot of energy."
"Shut down everything but life support," Tala said. Her instincts as a pilot told her to land, but that was relevant to air flight, not space. Mostly it was remembering old submarine movies and the unnatural instincts granted by her current pilot level that informed this decision.
As the computer complied, the ship went silent except for the increasingly noticeable hum of air. One "button" on her visual interface pulsed yellow for startup, for when she needed it.
At least now she had some alone time with the System.
She opened the Ship Menu, and browsed her options.
The upgrades were sorted into four categories: Command, Operations, Engineering, and Science.
Currently, the evolutionary options for the Vector Free highlighted now that she had the EP to get one.
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License Qualification Requirements:
Command Scout
Ship Equipment - Communications Array Level 10, Command Network Interface Level 5
Pilot Skills - Multi-Craft Coordination 10, Scout Tactics 5
Fighter Craft
Ship Equipment - Primary Blaster Level 10, Secondary Weaponry Level 5
Pilot Skills - Gunnery 10, Combat Maneuvers 5
Repair Tug
Ship Equipment - Fusion Torch Level 10, Tractor Beam Level 5
Pilot Skills - Machining 10, Science 5
Survey Vessel
Ship Equipment - Sensor Array Level 10, Shields Level 5
Pilot Skills - Science 10, Sensory Interpolation 5
Sufficient EP for Evolution
Selecting Vessel Type Will Automatically Spend EP
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What to pick...
Looking at her options, she noticed a little arrow with "Plan" written on it.
"Now that's handy," she said to herself before selecting it.
Her options for the future certainly looked like they would branch out.
Command Scouts evolved into Command Corvettes or Communications Corvettes.
Fighters evolved into Heavy Fighters or Heavy Bombers.
Repair Tugs could become Manufacturing or Combat Repair Tugs.
Survey Vessels could become Reconnaissance or Light Science Vessels.
Tala highly suspected based on some of Vicky's - the construct, not the ship's - rather fragmented memories that the Vector Free had been either a Command or Ops vessel. It had been hard to tell from the "Point Shedding Log" that had walled her face with text before she'd accidentally deleted it. Now she was thoroughly regretting that little screwup early into her learning of the interface. How was she supposed to know that in this universe, a triangle in a box was "trash" not scroll?
On the next page, her options got even more diverse.
The Command track would evolve the ship into a medium Networking, Consular, or Light Carrier ship.
The Operations track would evolve the ship into a Dropship, Artillery Ship, or Gunship.
The Engineering track... was no longer worth considering. It was just medium options of the classes before, and a Mining Ship. Big whoop. As much as she had fun messing with the tractor beam - she spent her first twenty minutes with it making an asteroid go forward and back while giggling to herself - she didn't know how long its utility would last.
Lastly, the Science track. Her options here were Advanced Reconnaissance, Medical, or Science Vessel.
Clicking the Plan button again produced a new message: License Level Too Low.
"Well girl, looks like you're gonna have to take a leap of faith here..." She didn't know why the System would only let her plan two evolutions ahead, but she was beginning to get an inkling of what she wanted based on the requirements for each license she could see.
Tala closed her eyes and considered her options.
Having already ruled out the Engineering track, she contemplated the Command track. A quick survey of the required skills told her that nowhere in there were drones or anything of that sort with the options available. In other words, she'd be wasting her time without a fleet around her. And last she checked, no one around was up for forming a squadron except to capture Vicky - the ship, not the ghost.
Some of the requirements had excited her, like "Advanced Computational Warfare," AKA hacking and counter-hacking, but overall she just couldn't justify it. She didn't even know if she'd want to wind up leading a squadron or humanity or whatever it was that happened to protagonists in these situations.
So she ruled out Command.
That now left Operations and Science as her two available tracks.
Operations options were pretty straightforward. Point and click adventure with the biggest option being "Make [Thing] Dead [And/Or] Tiny Pieces." The sheer breadth of weapons options that would open up to her left her speechless. There were missiles and guns and... well that was pretty much it at first. But with lots of variations between different energy weapons, kinetic options, and what she thought of as "elemental" effects. It also had the most options for armor, although all of the shields were labeled "Basic" for some reason.
Then there was Science. The nerd in her was already geeking out over getting to flying a starship. And the Science options down the line seemed so much cooler and more versatile. It had the most options for shield types, with resistances to kinetic and energy effects. The most advanced sensors, including ones that would let her see enemies coming from lightyears away, and the track had something she desperately wanted to try out... assuming it was what she thought it was.
"Computer Query: What is the nature of the photonic negative shielding?"
The ship's computer answered almost immediately. "Photonic Negative Shielding - Restricts most spectra of from low to ultra-high ranges from interaction with the ship through the shields. Sensory data will be restricted to ultra-low bandwidth and subspace detection and ranging."
"Are you telling me it makes my shields into a fucking cloaking device?!" Tala asked next.
"Working..." The Computer responded, "Yes, Photonic Negative Shielding Is "A Fucking Cloaking Device."
Tala's heart was beating faster after learning that. She quickly double-checked her options, but only saw passive stealth options on the Dropship and Heavy Bombers, pretty late on the available tracks.
On the other hand, the Science Track would give her the cloaking device before the third evolution option. She would be sadly restricted on weapons until Vicky's third evolution, but she would gain a lot more EP and Pilot XP from doing science stuff. And she would be more capable of using space and everything in it as a weapon if she really needed to.
She had a choice, but it really wasn't a choice.
"Survey Vessel: Here I come!"
A moment later, a message popped up on her screen.
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Ship Evolution Selected. Evolution Timer: 50 Ticks.
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Everything around her began to glow bright white, and suddenly gravity ceased to apply to Tala as the ship around her began to grow in size and form, taking material from the nearby structures.
"Warning: Scan-Lock Detected," the Computer announced. "Multiple Scan-Locks Detected. Total Locks 30. 31. 33..."
"Fuuuuuuu~ck!" Tala groaned as she waited for her ship to finish evolving.