No Man's Sky | Diary of an Inter-Galactic Traveller - 004 - Radioactive Planet Adventures

🌌 Dear Diary,

I meant to leave this planet, I really did. I was in my ship, ready to take off, when I noticed the launch fuel gauge was at the half-way mark. I decided it would be better to take off with a full tank, so I got out and collected the bit of di-hydrogen I needed in order to synthesise the fuel.

And then, I thought, while I'm about it, I may as well restock in other materials as well. It was still night time (and thus still quite cool), so I thought it would be worth spending extra time on being safe by collecting some backup materials.

I got my refiner out again, and left it running while I went out and collected more for it to work on. I now have a decent amount of pure ferrite, condensed carbon and 5 di-hydrogen jellies, required for the launch fuel. At the same time, I found several oxygen and sodium plants, though I had to use some of those just to keep my life support and hazard protection going as I was working.

After some time (morning had come fast), I noticed something peculiar on my scanner and went to check it out. What I discovered were as beautiful as they were interesting... Large blue crystals, floating oddly just off of the surface. They were making a humming sound, and when I tried mining them, nothing happened.

A quick scan of them revealed why: They require an advanced mining laser, which apparently I don't have. I immediately put that on my to-get list, though I have no idea where to even start looking for such a thing.

The blue crystals were quite far from my ship, so after using yet another sodium dose to keep my protection up, I started heading back, when I stumbled upon a canister I hadn't seen before. The little red ones always accompany the common green rectangular boxes that often contain valuable relics, but this one was round, and I couldn't open it. My visor informed me that an "Atlas Pass Level 1" was required... I shrugged and moved on.

So I made my way back to my ship, thinking it was about time I moved on and finally went to investigate that third planet!

I took off, but then as I was flying, ready to gain altitude and get to space, two things happened...

First, I noticed on my ships information HUD that I had discovered 6 out of the 7 species of animals on this planet, and that if I discovered all of them, that I would receive a very generous reward in credits.

This, of course, made me think twice before flying off into space, and so, as I was flying slow, trying to decide if I would stay to find the last little critter, I suddenly flew over a building! And it was something much more interesting than the two little bunker-like constructions I'd found on the ice planet.

~~

I landed in the kindly designated landing area and got out to investigate. My stomach was in knots with the prospect of what I might find inside.

Alas, I was disappointed... Mainly because I didn't find anything living within it, besides a few plants. It was mysteriously empty but still very clean and orderly. And in the center, there was a terminal of some kind, which reacted to my touch.

It asked me a riddle, of all things! A very simple number sequence, more a code-cypher than a riddle, which I easily cracked.

Upon doing so, a holographic matrix image burst out in the center of the room, showing the coordinates of some sort of monolith, not on the planet, which were transferred to my visor.

After looking around a bit more, and finding nothing else but two doors which were locked (this time requiring "Atlas Pass Level 2" passes), I made sure the coordinates were securely stored in my visor and went back outside.

Before taking off again, I decided to take a look around the building. Besides nearly killing myself by falling into a deep cave, nothing interesting really happened.

The 7th species was nowhere to be seen. I did find another one of those odd knowledge stones though, and learnt the Korvax word for "Korvax". Apparently, it's "Korvax" ;P The name of the alien race I met in the space station.

So! Back to my ship. I took off and was pleasantly surprised to see that the fuel needed for launching was used from the little machine at the designated landing space, thus my own tank remained full.

I decided to do some low flying, in order to search for the missing species. And that's when I noticed that my pulse engine fuel was at less than half and required Tritium or Pyrite to recharge.

At first, I panicked slightly, because I hadn't yet seen anything on my scanner called either of those things. But after consulting my ship's information database, I discovered that apparently tritium is abundant in asteroids, so I'll mine that as soon as I get off this planet.

After about an hour of flying aimlessly over the surface and not seeing any animals, nevermind the elusive 7th species, I came across yet another building, differently shaped, with a different kind of landing bay.

Again, the excitement built up in my stomach, and this time, I was not disappointed! As I entered, a Korvax "entity", as the files refer to them, sitting behind a desk, waved at me!

I tried talking to it but it didn't seem very interested in conversation... It kept repeating the same thing, a request, it seemed, pointing to my backpack. I eventually tried giving it some pure ferrite, which made it suddenly seem more chipper, somehow. A few seconds later, my visor informed me that my standing with the Korvax had increased, so I must have done something right! =)

That was when I noticed two more things in the room: A case, containing a new weapon, and another Korvax! Standing behind a counter. I quickly looked at the weapon and discovered just how poor I really am (it was being sold for 2 million credits. I had 20 000.)

And then I went over to the second Korvax. He was offering different kinds of trades, most of which I couldn't afford. But then something caught my attention: An Advanced Mining Laser technology module! And I could just afford it (being sold for nanites, not credits - hmm, I forget how I obtained the few I had).

So with that in hand, I was very happy when I made my way back to my ship. Again, I looked around, finding no sign of the 7th species (I wonder now if they live underground), I decided to grab a few more di-hydrogen crystals before finally taking off towards that third planet.

As I was doing that though, I somehow angered a little sentinel bot, and the critter actually started shooting at me! Surprised, I ran, fast, back to my ship, but even after entering, he kept at me! So I took off, sped my way outta there, and am now writing this because I don't want to let too much happen between entries, else I'll be writing entire novels of lengths no-one would want to read.

Thank you for being there, unknown reader. As I've said before, you keep me sane.