Seeking a Home

[James Knight]

Now that he knew he was stuck here in the Omniverse, and that no amount of clever technology he could develop could do anything about the problem Veritas sighed. The dangers of the place were known to him now that he had earlier in the day went to the library and done some research on the subject of the place. Apparently there were a lot of "Verses" which represented the various places inside the Omniverse. One of them was "Camelot" while another was from Star Wars, namely Coruscant. There were also a couple of places he was not going to visit again. One of these was the Ashen Steppes because it had a pest problem. Well, pest problem could be the right term if you counted black monstrous, feral secondaries as a pest problem that were swarming the Ashen Steppes. Given that, his original attempt to build a home there had been a complete and total disaster in and of itself. Of course this didn't count the heat and general unpleasantness of nothing growing there. What he needed was somewhere new to call home. While he didn't like the idea, perhaps he could take advantage of the number of Storm Troopers and by building a base on Coruscant, use them as his security system. 

"The idea does have merit,"  sighed Veritas as he looked out the window of the tiny, run down apartment on Tier Four that he had rented for himself. It was not in the best of shape, but would do as a temporary base of operations until he could create an actual one for himself. What he'd also need were tools, perhaps some blasters, or an energy blade. In either case he knew he was going to need more equipment because his survival was going to dictate that he did have the equipment he needed. 

"Of course,  I'd need to be better equipped to survive here,"  He said,  sighing.  Powered Armor might be a good investment in the future because it could endure a lot of things that he couldn't normally. Science could be a useful asset, if he were able to get his hands on the components he'd need in order to build well, anything for himself really. Still he knew that if those black pests that had invaded the former area he thought he'd call home came here, he'd need something in case they overwhelmed everyone else. Unfortunately he would have too many neighbors, but it was something that he could live with, if push came to shove. Ideally, though he'd find somewhere else to call home, somewhere that he hadn't been before. 

Growling when someone in a nearby area lit a firework, he thought about using the laser pistol he had to destroy any more fireworks people had left nearby. What was the cause of this annoyance, and racket? He didn't know, and it was grating on his last nerve. 

Going over to his work table, he'd begin working on an invention of his own. One of the first things he had done when he was here, he'd built a blacksmith type forge for himself. It seemed it was time for him to experiment, to see what he could create for himself. Various tables lined the apartment he was renting. The tables made the place hard to sleep in, but had the tools needed to perform electrical work, and circuitry work on them, as well as various parts and components. Approaching one of them, he'd pull out the tools and start to assemble one of his inventions. While it looked like an old-school revolver, this was actually one that was high tech. Sure it was not the blasters the Empire used, nor nearly as good, but that wasn't it's intended purpose. It's intended purpose? To allow him to survive no matter what would happen. 

Originally he had received it from someone else, but he had dismantled it and rebuilt it to serve his own purposes. When he noticed a roach in the tiny apartment, Veritas made a mental note that he was going to see about sicking one of the Storm Troopers on the person who had last done maintenance of the place he now called home.

[James Knight]

The situation was one that he could not in good conscience allow himself to tolerate. Originally he had been attempting to build some sort of device in order to allow him to lift items that he couldn't carry, a tractor beam of sorts. His first attempts had been complete and total failures, but now he believed he was getting closer to a breakthrough on the items in question. Firstly though he had work to do on actually building a device like that, one that could allow him to lift items that were heavier than what he was used to. While he did have an idea of what he wanted and was going to build for himself, he was not entirely sure it was a wise idea. Perhaps doing so would bring the Storm Troopers down on his head like a ton of bricks. The mere thought of such was unpleasant, and he wasn't sure he wanted to deal with that. Even with the technology it wasn't enough, which was what brought him to what he was currently building. A set of high tech shoes of sorts. The shoes were meant to provide him an ability to stay airborne should he need it, something that he drastically lacked. Being airborne would allow him to dodge a lot of things that were headed his way, if it came down to it. And if he were to have his goal of building a floating citadel? Well perhaps he could use the shoes as a means of getting up to them. Nonetheless, he couldn't allow himself to focus on his problems that he had now, but only on the solutions. The first of his problems was that he couldn't lift very much with the tools that he had now at his disposal.  Answer? Build a Tractor Beam. With the thought clearly in mind, he'd begin work on the Tractor Beam as the shoes were complete and total flops. The colors mismatched, the designs were nonfunctional and he had a headache from trying to build something like that. Groaning in frustration, he'd sigh before he'd look at the designs he had made for the tractor beam so far.  A belt-like device was one idea that he could use, and that might come in handy for himself. Gloves on the other hand could also have their merits, should he choose to utilize them. 

Unfortunately, it seemed he couldn't make up his mind. Did he want to go with an article of clothing for the Tractor Beam, such as gloves? Or would a belt be more his style? Were accessories better at concealing technology inside of them, than clothing? Those questions rattled around in his head, as he considered the implications of each one of them. On the one hand, if he were to use clothing a Strip Search would probably render the technology a moot point as he wouldn't have it on his person. Accessories also shared that flaw. Perhaps some sort of implant might be a good choice, but then again it might not be a good choice as well. In any case he did need to make up his mind on what he was going to do currently, going forward.

[James Knight]

"Not powerful enough,"  said Veritas as he chucked aside one of the batteries that he was trying to implement into the Tractor Beam Device that he was trying to create for himself.  "This would cause the device to overheat, and possibly explode."  A grimace was on his face as he mentally envisioned the results of the device, should any part of it malfunction. Apparently he was going to have to take the time to build something proper, something that actually worked for his own personal usage. Going through the various batteries that he'd ordered using the Dataverse he groaned once more when he realized what he hadn't. None of them were suitable for his intended purpose. Lifting items heavier than his own weight, or even close to his own weight was going to require that he had more technology than he currently had. And therein lied the problem, he didn't possess a base, so he couldn't go as crazy as he wanted with the inventing. Stepping over to where the second variant of the technology he had been working on was, he sighed as he looked it over. It was an implant about the size of a Tennis-Ball. Surgery to put it inside his body was going to be painful, but if it worked he should be able to use Tractor Beams out of his hands to lift items that he couldn't normally. Unfortunately he wasn't sure if such a device could work. Further testing was definitely required of that particular make and model.

Frustrated that he couldn't use that one, he carefully stepped over to where the next one was. It was a gun metal gray belt, with a dim "ruby" of sorts in the center of it. The purpose of the "ruby" was to focus the beam of the Tractor Beam through it. Most likely he was going to have to put the device through further testing, probably. Assuming of course he could find an energy source for it, which was the crux of his problem right now. Developing the technology that he needed in order to allow himself to do the things that others could was going to be a headache, in and of itself. After all, the inventing process was not meant to be easy. Few things in life were easy, especially the ones worth doing. Above all he was going to be careful and avoid making any noises that could draw the Imperials to his location. The last thing he needed was any sort of trouble from them, should they hear an explosion due to him working on a tractor beam, or any similar equipment for himself. Explosions drew too much attention to oneself. There had to be some way he could build his equipment in peace without any sort of interruptions or interference. While it wouldn't likely work, he could at least make the effort to learn how to work quietly.

[James Knight]

Implants were not an option.There were too many things that could go wrong with implanted pieces of machinery. Electromagnetic pulses could mess them up in ways that could cause him splitting headaches, or pain in other areas if he were to implant it in any area of his body. Glitches were possible as well, because the device could malfunction. Dropping heavy objects on himself because of implanted machinery malfunctioning was not a wise idea. Keeping the technology outside of his body would be for the best. However this did limit his inventiveness because he couldn't put devices inside of himself. Cybernetics were never his strong suit anyway, so he wouldn't know where to begin in installing such. Pulling out the blaster he had on his person, he'd destroy the prototype implant with a blast. It would make a small bit of noise, similar to what a firecracker would when he blew up the object. 

Since the implant idea was out, this left him with many options. A rig could be made that could allow him to use the Tractor Beams to lift items he couldn't normally even try to do  so, but was going to take time and energy. Neither of which he was actually willing to spend. 

Dismantling some of his earlier inventions, Veritas sighed. What was it going to take for him to build something that actually worked? Only his laser pistol still functioned, and even then it wasn't as good as the ones held by the Storm Troopers. 

One of those would need to be acquired by him so that he could disassemble them, and see how they worked. 

Machinery like that was not going to be easy for him to build, he knew that much. 

"Let's see. The Storm Troopers have some sort of laser-blasters in their possession. I've got something similar, but mine is less powerful even if it is from my homeworld,"  He admitted.  "So.. how do I lessen the gap between the technology of this place and my own? I suppose I could build an exoskeleton, a suit of powered armor perhaps. No, that's cliche... and dull."  admitted Veritas.  "Maybe I could build something else, perhaps an energy-blade of some sort, or a Shield Generator? Both of those ideas do appeal to me. Unfortunately I wouldn't know where to begin on them." 

"Maybe some sort of inverted magnet-technology would be a good place to start, if I'm to be honest. It would certainly be the easiest, though I am not entirely sure," admitted the refugee from his world.  "Testing it out is going to be a royal pain, and that's saying the least about what I'll have to do with the device, if I were to even be able to finish,"  He'd look with disgust at the inventions he'd failed to finish, all prototypes for the tractor beam he was trying to make, to take a short cut. True he could achieve the same by simply doing body building, and making his body stronger, but he hated working out with actual weights like that.

[James Knight]

"Useless!"  

A beaker of an experimental fuel source that he had been working on in an attempt to power the technology he had been attempting to create was hurled into a wall where it exploded without making noise. During the break he had built a sound dampener as well as a barrier around the outside of the apartment in order to contain any noise that could come from the explosion, as well as any damage. Hopefully his efforts to make sure that he didn't have unwanted visitors would pay off and no Storm Troopers were going to come out of the wood-work. After all, right now he wasn't sure he could handle much of anything. All he had to his name was a blaster from his original home that admittedly was not that good. Examining the filthy, disgusting apartment that he was using as a temporary base of operations, Veritas made several mental notes. One, when he got out of here and had a place of his own made? It was definitely going to be fumigated for bugs several times, in order to make sure it didn't get infested. Second, when he built himself a proper HQ, said base would not be in the Ashen Steppes. The environment of the place was inhospitable to all forms of life and had a bit of a pest problem. 

A bit of a pest problem was putting the situation that he had heard about on the Dataverse mildly. Whatever "Darklings" were he had no desire to encounter or otherwise meet up with them. Furthermore he had no desire to have to engage one in combat. Lastly he also had no desire to be dubbed a "hero" for saving people from the Darklings. It was not how he rolled, and he'd not deal with such an issue himself. Let the so called "Heroes" handle the menaces that made up any and all trouble for the Omniverse. Let them waste their efforts in a futile attempt to save a place that was going to have monsters running rampant. While they wasted their time doing that, Veritas would have more time than they did, in order to work on his plans. And boy was he going to need it. 

With the shoddy resources that he had access to in the apartment, it was going to take forever for him to get anything done. Of course most of what he had as resources had been raided out of dumpsters, or trash cans by him because he didn't want to waste the effort to synthesize items. Since he didn't wish to do that, even though others who had been dragged here against their will knew how to do so, Veritas had decided that he was not going to do that. Hard work was it's own reward, a reward that he would gladly learn and make his own.