Player:Saberfysh

As an Explorer

As a Port 80 mayor

As a CMC Mining Engineer

Saberfysh, also known colloquially on the server as "saber", appeared on Rev.10 of the Reddit Public PvE server circa November 2012, where he seems to exist exclusively on. He was first known as a citizen of Port 80 in Rev.10 under the guidance of Loganran and PopeAdam and wrote the first book on the history of Port 80, multiple copies of which can be found across the world in Rev.10 under the name "Port 80 Journal." By Rev.11 he was appointed a mayor of Port 80 and became involved in supplying and assisting public works such as roads and services. He was also the successor of Port 80's Rev.9 Drunk'n Pumpkin Bar & Pub, running the building from Rev.10 all the way to Rev.14, serving food & drinks to tourists.

By Rev. 15, he became a world citizen, digging rail tunnels, rescuing starving noobs and running trade routes between multiple cities. This was also the same time he joined Solace as a dragonslayer and started the Caledonia Mining Colony (CMC), complete with backstory that ties into the original lore of the Unity spaceship first conceived by PAdmin buzzie71. This story came to a conclusion through the CMC starlogs on the Nerd.nu Minecraft forums on January 9th, 2016.

List of Activities

Rev.10

• Built Port 80 Drunk'n Pumpkin Bar&Pub V2
• Participated in Port 80 Quadruple Wither Fight
• Built Port 80 City Billboard
• Built Port 80 Lighthouse
• Moved into Port 80 Tower apartments, 3rd floor.
• Interior Design for Port 80 Tower Lobby, Gift Shop, Lounge & Restaurant
• Funded Pearl Islands railway project
• Interior Design for Loganran's mansion and various offices
• Donated Gold and Glowstone to Tsitrin
• Wrote Book: "Port 80 Journal"
• Donated Wool to Rose City's flower wall
• Gave food and city tours to countless noobs
• Worked on Miogre's sandstone cliff house
• Built Port 80 Fireworks Tower for Marcus & Muffin Munitions Inc.

Rev.11

• Built Port 80 Factory
• Built Port 80 Drunk'n Pumpkin Bar&Pub V3
• Participated in Port 80 Sticks-only Wither Fight
• Funded iron blocks and obsidian for the Port 80 Nightclub
• Funded birch and snow for Port 80 Office Tower
• Donated Redstone to the Golden Gate Bridge
• Built roads for Port 80 West Commercial District
• Worked on Miogre's Library Manor
• Moved into Port 80 South Apartments, 10th floor.
• Built Port 80 7-11 Convenience Store
• Collected Jungle Leaves for Port 80 Jurassic Spleef Park
• Dug rail lines to Argoth and Seneca
• Funded quartz for Port 80 Lighthouse

Rev.12

• Built Port 80 Basecamp
• Built Port 80 Train Station
• Paved main roads near City Center
• Built Port 80 Drunk'n Pumpkin Bar&Pub V4
• Renovated Port 80 Hotel
• Donated clay to Port 80 Venice district
• Dug rail lines to Spawn & Pico
• Funded quartz for the Church of Miogrelism
• Built southeast public housing projects
• Funded sandstone for Sutolotus Tower
• Paved water at Port 80 Spleef Arena
• Built Port 80 Ender Pearl Shop
• Decorated the Port 80 train station's rainbow PARTY HARD drop tunnel
• Participated in Port 80 Shovels & Hoes Wither Fight
• Woodcutting duties for Kalmos' CARBON rail line
• Built Port 80 Goodwill Armor Shop
• Donated massive wood to a girl in Demacia
• Dug rail lines to Alias and Baktun
• Built house in Southern Venice District
• Wrote Port 80 Journal #2

Rev.13

• Built Port 80 Basecamp
• Built Port 80 Factory
• Invented a quad-core Furnace Cube
• Donated 11 stacks of redstone blocks to the CARBON rail system
• Built Port 80 Drunk'n Pumpkin Bar&Pub V5
• Built Port 80 Ender Pearl Shop
• Built Port 80 City Metro Line
• Decorated Nether Portal Rail line
• Defeated Argoth 5-1 in a spleef match with fishing4monkeys and ghrey303
• Funded wool for Port 80 Potion Shop
• Installed city streetlamps
• Hauled ice blocks from the Ice Machine west of Rose City
• Funded glass for Port 80 Post Office and the North Tristram Automation Tower
• Linked rail lines to Moria Village and Glothek's Giant Cruise Ship
• Dug 3600 block DEEPS rail line to Spawn
• Participated in Port 80 Wither Fight
• Completed northern seaside pier with fishing4monkeys
• Expanded City Metro to South Lake and North Shore residential
• Funded materials for the Minecraft Travel Aid (MTA) branch office
• Fetched dogs from Seneca Granary

Rev.14

• Built Port 80 Town Storage and Fountain
• Terraformed Port 80 City Centre
• Built Port 80 Crop Tower
• Donated 6 stacks of redstone blocks to the CARBON rail system
• Built house next to Port 80 Rail Station
• Built Port 80 Drunk'n Pumpkin Bar&Pub V6
• Built Port 80 Horse Parkade, Armor shop & Enderpearl Vending Machine
• Donated meat to Rose City
• Cooked 7 double chests of stone with the double furnace cube
• Dug rail lines for Port 80 Metro
• Decorated Port 80 End Portal tunnel
• Funded Red clay for Miogre's Quartz Amphitheatre
• Converted zifnab06's Zigloo from dirt into ice
• Built 'Kimagure Orange Rose' cottage in Rose City
• Built automated Pumpkin machine in Whiteoak
• Completed Skyrim Quest: DaemonDexter's Final Moments; received half worn diamond pickaxe and sword
• Donated 5 stacks of rails and 20 stacks of glass to Narissis for the noRTh Rail System project
• Traded 2 saddles to gilmanboy1 for one Skeleton Horse
• Built 'Nittouryu no Kyousan-ya' house in Argoth
• Donated 12 stacks of bricks to Argoth
• Completed the Port 80 Iron Grinder Tower
• Donated sandstone and redstone blocks to La Sable
• Donated ice to Freyhill's cardinal road project
• Donated glass, redstone, gold, rails and stone to Millenia Systems' noRTh rail project
• Completed zifnab06's Port 80 Zigloo

Rev.15

• Built crash shuttle in mountain valley
• Slayed the Enderdragon in 7 hours with Solace and friends
• Donated a stack of slime to Solace
• Built Caledonia Mining Colony
• Built rail line to spawn, then to Tizadrienne Estates
• Built cottage in Argoth NW rural district
• Donated 7 stacks of redstone blocks to CARBON
• Built rail line to Haven in exchange for horses
• Built Post Office and mansion in Tsitrin
• Built Watch tower in Rose City
• Donated 12 stacks of clay to Rose City
• Funded 17 stacks of red clay to Miogre's underground ruins
• Had photoshoot with buzzie71 in the Caledonia Mining Colony meeting hall
• Shipped 51 stacks of glass to Solace
• Traded Fortune and Silk touch picks in exchange for a beacon
• Funded 3 double chests of black wool for the End Spleef Spire

Rev.16

• Slayed the Enderdragon in 4.5 hours with Solace and friends
• Built CMC airbase with help from Buzzie71, Therandomnatrix, and Miogre
• Traded 1 stack of Iron blocks for 3 stacks of Quartz Blocks
• Built rail lines to Solace and Spawn
• Donated 19 stacks of glass to Solace
• Received 3 wither skull from Solace to craft a Beacon
• Traded 7 stacks of Andesite for 'Mall' music disc
• Built CMC Supply Depot
• Traded 68 stacks of orange clay for 3 stacks of Sea Lanterns
• Built Galantes MK2 shuttle
• Published CMC starlogs

Quotable Quotes

• "Damn creepers, GET OFF MY RAIL!"
• "I guess Logan is allergic to Minecraft Communism."
• "Put your sword in her pumpkin pie."
• "DEMACIA!!"
• "The server will crash if you don't give PubliusCanis enough cobbles."
• "Here's some derp. Now climb!"
• "Oh god. Faceplant."
• "You know Thrawn, it's really sad when people are stealing dirt and torches from the town storage."
• "Barfing Potatoes!"
• "Noooo, YumYumSticks!"
• "PARTY HARD PARTY HARD!"
• "Meanwhile, I'm surrounded by about 30 chickens and none of them will lay eggs. LAY, god damn you!"
• "Epic lag."
• "Feather Falling boots -- no more construction mishaps."
• "Zomg, dimminds!"
• "Azunyan~"
• "Trust in the power of Sutolotus."
• "Restart. REPLANT!"
• "After all that wood I splurged into her, yes. Oh yes."
• "This Pumpkin Pie isn't alcoholic enough!"
• "Ceiling totemo is watching you."
• "Lol you crashed the emerald market."
• "No please, faker-senpai!"
• "Damnit rain!"
• "Bacon strips and bacon strips, and bacon strips..."
• "I feel like I just completed a Skyrim quest."
• "Yeah, if people didn't open my gate and let out all my horses, that'd be great."
• "Hello Comcast! Beat it with a stick."
• "This server is brought to you by Walmart -- rollbacks ALL day."
• "We build nukes every other rev just to stroke the Argoth/Brom rivalry."
• "Hail mooshroom!"
• "Level 16? You don't even have runes."
• "Your privilege level is SHITLORD with a score of 145."
• "Get Flumped."
• "We need Campbell's to sponsor the server; it's not chunky enough!"
• "It's that time again. PANTS!"

Book: Port 80 Journal (Rev.10)

The Journal of Saberfysh Port 80 Citizen

-Nov 12 2012-

After spending the first 3 days wandering at the base camps of the main cities flooded with people and chests of raw materials, I have decided to settle down at Port 80 after speaking to the mayor, Loganran. It all started with me wandering around spawn as people came and went, frantically building dirt forts and finding food, basically minding their own business in the starting days of the world. While most leaders were missing or didn't care about me, Logan was this quiet mayor standing on top of a partially built city hall and greeted me personally. I didn't know much about the previous world, but he and his delegates PopeAdam and MisterKrabs were probably the most decent people I had met up to that point. They were friendly, peaceful, and demonstrated intelligence that was hard to find during my initial wanderings on PVE rev10. Up to that point I had only heard about how political the big cities were with each other, especially Brom. Port 80 was the peaceful small town by the ocean free from all the chaos, where everybody knew each other and there was a sense of deep friendship amongst the folk coming from the previous world, PVE rev9.

Being happy with the location and the people, I asked Logan if I could settle here and make a Seaside Bar&Pub near the hill facing the shore. He approved. As soon as I made a plot, random kiddies circled around me and set me on fire. I was like "WTF" until Logan came over and explained that in PVE9 they had a bar called the 'Drunkin Pumpkin' and that people had excited yet high expectations for the building. I was a bit nervous, but had an idea they'd be proud of.

The next morning after finishing the exterior of the pub, I heard that Seneca and some others had found the End Portal and had slain the Ender Dragon. Talk about fast... and here I was still farming bricks, lol. It was at this time unfortunately that Port 80's beaches were being griefed and looted. Most people had no idea how much dirt/cobble/sand I went digging for just to keep the city stocked and repaired. The sand theft got so bad we put in some grief modreq and I ended up putting sand into a dedicated box just for mayor Loganran so he can finish building his house. But that wasn't all. Denbert, Hans, and pom32456 all got robbed the following week, leading to some tough times and tighter vigilance. I just kept digging, knowing that everybody needed it as much as I did. I even said to thrawn21 (admin) that it's kinda sad how people will steal SAND and DIRT. Happens every rev, she said.

Despite that I eventually finished the interior of the Bar & Pub, and opened up for business. Everybody loved it, from residents to travelers. The guy handling Port 80's farms, that_fish_dude, helped me with finding music discs and installed my very first food dispensers. We sat there at the bar, with Port 80 Graggy Ice, Loganran Honey Mead, Coldstream Winter Lager, and Krabs' Red Ale all on tap in 4 different colours, drinking... bottled water. We laughed and said that one day we'll get a brewing stand and sell people REAL drinks. And so we will, my friend. We will.

-Dec 15 2012-

We're about a month into the rev now. Things are finally starting to settle down. Most of the major cities have laid down nether rail lines and local lines to small villages, although some here at Port 80 aren't done yet. This place is just like a feel-good MMORPG. You don't trade with villagers, you trade with people, with anything, for anything. You can trade a saddle for diamonds, even. Every act of kindness begets kindness in return. An admin once said to us that not only are we all "carebears" compared to the other servers, we're at times even more creative than some people on the creative server! Some of the veterans and mods had built these absolutely genius contraptions to grind ender pearls, blazes, and iron golems, that it blows my mind away how they even figured out a design for these things.

I also forgot to mention my encounter with PubliusCanis, the guy who made that epic skull in the desert and got it posted famously on Reddit a few months back. According to him it took roughly 138,000 cobbles to make it, which is close to 39 double chests full of rock. Respect, bro. Respect. He was a cobble-skinned man, dressed in diamond armor and elicited tributes in the form of people barfing up cobbles when they saw him. He is the Chuck Norris of cobble. No joke.This time of course he decided on building the Statue of Liberty off the shores of Port 80, which I felt was a great honor to behold. He eventually became a Port 80 citizen, making the town about 35-40 people.

One of the kids I met on Day 1 named xxDriztenxx apparently made it big. He found a mycelium island, the rarest biome, 800 blocks away from spawn. He has now claimed the entire island, naming it Kanada. I never thought he would get that far.

Back at Port 80, work was underway on building a villager breeder and a spleef arena, so we can dig each other out. I kept promising AleaMinerva that I would help her mine, but when MisterKrabs said we were going to have a QUADRUPLE wither arena battle on saturday, I spent most of that time brewing health potions in preparation.

The night before, the admins held a hunting contest at spawn, basically a multi-stage obstacle course to capture the fictional villain Dr.Sign, in exchange for a glowstone prize. Rev7 had a similar thing called the 5K. I died over 40 times before giving up. It was worth a try; glowstone was rare because the big cities took most of it. Wellspring's mayor, Ozomahtlii, won after 6 hours.

We gathered later that day, loaded with potions and weapons to fight the Wither boss in our battle arena. Our combined strength crushed the Wither in less than a minute, and the Nether Star we looted became Port 80's Town Hall Beacon.

Around this period, Hans also moved away from Port 80, to travel the world and write books. With the Town Beacon in place, I turn my eye to finding the rest of the music discs. Even now as I write, I'm chilling on the 2nd floor of the pub listening to the latest addition to the jukebox. "far."

Sometimes we spend so much time building and scurrying that we forget to just relax and enjoy the world. Moments like these are priceless. Entertaining and inspiring visitors with food and drink is a very rewarding experience. Some of them even move in. That's how I know our work isn't done. The city can still expand. For now, we celebrate defeating the Wither, and soon we'll have an Xmas party. Better start wrapping presents under our Xmas tree.

--Jan 20 2013--

Happy New Year, everybody! We all survived the Mayan apocalypse of Dec 21 2012. On the other hand though, we're 2 months into the rev and for a while things really slowed down during the holidays as everybody vanished due to Xmas. With Logan off and Pope left in charge for the week, I farmed their Xmas gifts and then built the Port 80 Lighthouse. 48 hours later, Hafget from across the shore responded by turning his fort into a tower as well. Derp!

I gave my cache of iron blocks to PopeAdam, my gold blocks to Loganran, and diamond armor for Krabs. I also gave Fire Resistance Potions which provides them with lava immunity for their recent nether trips. I then made a quick trip to visit Hans' house in Brom and checked out Pico's jumbo Xmas tree after their party ended. By the time I came back the next day, the Port 80 Xmas tree was taken down.

That wasn't the only thing taken down tho. Slide23 (mod) had a tough xmas; his IRL house burned down. His family survived, but he lost everything else. We fixed his golem grinder and gave him all our support as a community.

After lots of downtime, Port 80 was suddenly vibrant again for the new year. I decorated Logan's mansion, zifnab began building our boat, and the gold was used to make rails for the new 4v4 Spleef Arena. Around this time some Coldstream district residents began taking notice of the arena in their neighbourhood, eventually becoming Port 80 citizens. In a very short time we began seeing new faces. Syphon_fire, freezeman, smellykid50 and Miogre began to follow SuToLoTuS into the city centre, hanging out with us and our newly formed Spleef team in earnest. SuToLoTuS had spent the better part of Xmas building the now famous Port 80 National Bank, a looming tower adorned with Lapis, Gold, and Glowstone, topped off with a piston door made of diamond blocks. The man is rich; very rich. If you're in Port 80, it's next to the train station. At one point the there were so many noobs from spawn that I had at least 8 of them following me on a city tour. In 3 days, they ate all my food. 9 stacks of steak, potatoes, carrots, and half a chest of cookies. Noobs are hungry ppl. Never forget.

During this time I had walked into a 12-year-old kid named Black_magic12345 who was homeless and came to my pub for food. He was so delighted to have found Port 80 that he wasted no time settling down... by building a netherrack derp shack on our shore. I managed to find him, clean up the mess, and moved him into Port 80 tower, 5th floor. Turns out he was new to the server, and he like many others were joining for the 1st time asking for direction and food just like in the old days. Another newcomer named Miogre borrowed some of my wood and made a cottage far out east before he became a resident and moved in to the tower as well. Krabs was 1F, Syphon_Fire was 2F, I was 3F, Miogre was 4F, and Black_magic was 5F. With all the new residents moving into the tower, I strove to get it furnished, designing the lobby, gift shop, and installing mailboxes for everybody to use, before building the underground restaurant. Logan later gave me a sponge for display :D

Admittedly I was feeling lazy after working on the tower for so long that I went traveling the world for a bit. After visiting Ra, Andromeda, Vinhaven, Port Aperture, Seneca, Walla-Walla and Necropolis, I couldn't write much; I only took pics. It was when I walked into Tsitrin and Kalmos that things got more interesting. Tsitrin was home to the Ice Maker 3000, and as long as you had a silk touch pick, you can haul back ice as a souvenir. The houses there were very unique, just like in Port 80. Kalmos was a well fortified town known for its 4 cardinal town themes, the fabled combination lock Kalmos Vault Heist contest, and the mayor, Asterix1806. Asterix is a smart man and an attentive historian. People joke, calling him Papa Asterix.

The highlight of my trip tho was at Pearl Islands. Archzinno, a very talented mayor, built the sky city in 2 weeks and challenged Socarch26 to a pro spleefing match. I did 2v2 with them after and it was the most fun I ever had even tho I was 100% noob.

It turns out spleefing matches between cities is the big ticket as the rev draws to a close. It's a sign of a city's maturity and success, where there is room for culture and sport. Kisa_Gitana even made a mini putt-putt golf course at Pearl Islands. Seeing a third of the server population come to Port 80 to spectate a spleef match is what makes me proud of my city. PopeAdam said that it had very humble beginnings in Rev8 & Rev9, but Rev10 is where we truly became a city. I'm glad I was part of it. After the server upgrade to 1.4.7 added fireworks, every city had been firing up the night sky in celebration, causing massive gunpowder & dye shortages. Here at Port 80 we made a large party hall underneath the pub's floorboards, complete with confetti and disco ball. While new towns like Baktun, South Road, Pandora and Atlantis are still being made, we're ready for our end-of-rev party to say goodbye to the world we created, awaiting its next rebirth.

Let Rev10 be the rev where Port 80 became a successful, legitimate city, full of fond memories and a bright future ahead of us. See you all in Rev 11!

-Saberfysh

Port 80 Citizen

Special Thanks: Loganran, PopeAdam, MisterKrabs, that_fish_dude, SuToLoTuS, Archzinno, Miogre, hansheilmann, xxdriztenxx, PubliusCanis, zifnab06, wyatt8740, Asterix1806, thrawn21, gdavison, Denbert, TheRandomnatrix, pom32456, Socarch26

Book: Port 80 Journal: (Rev 12)

Welcome to Rev 12, everyone! It's been a full year since I last wrote on our adventure, and much has changed. I've gone from being a citizen to being a mayor of P80. Everybody else is here too: Logan, Pope, Krabs, Freeze, Hafget, evolve90, Miogre and fishing4monkeys. This time, instead of settling in front of the spawn mansion, we had a bigger plan: for the first time ever, we were moving away from spawn. In style!

But, like everything we do early rev, those plans quickly went up in smoke. We circled the map for an entire day and found no sandy beach or shoreline, just a swamp ocean in the SE lined with snow and ice. Much troll. Such foil. Can not haz cheezburger.

We eventually made a campsite at the edge of the world @ -1900 +0, as nether portals were found one by one. The surprises this time were Kalmos, Driftwood, and a portal split between 3 cities: Wellspring, Pinkwool, and Praha Way. 9 hours later, the enderdragon was slain. This beat the previous record of 11 hours, and it was NOT Seneca. The dragonslayer's name and the egg's location remains a mystery, and Seneca's killing streak was ended by an unknown player. No answer was found.

We stayed at our campsite until the very next day, when fishing4monkeys found a beautiful river basin in the east at +1200 +0. Immediately we saw the potential of building here. It had a winding river, a mountain, and was close to Port Aperture's portal. This coincidence prompted Port Aperture's mayor, Raymond0412, to offer an alliance with us. Fishing and I thought about how this would benefit our citizens, so I said yes. We carved out the valley that night and called everyone over to their new home.

By day 3 we realized we were surrounded by neighbours. The southeast was a lively place, and soon Logan met with Metal Mountains and Port Aperture in the jungle to sign the MPA80 treaty, which soon joined the Southeast Alliance (SEA). Everybody was doing alliances. Seneca, Brom & Endor became Senebraum, Wellspring & Pinkwool became Pinkspring, then there was MPA80 and SEA. They say this was the rev of alliances... I say it was the rev of lava lakes and falling into random ravines.

Lacking a shoreline, we started improvising around our river basin. Logan decided to go Italian and we made it into a Venetian canal. This led to the Straight Tower of Pisa and a mafia room in the 3rd floor of the Drunk'n Pumpkin Pub @ +1235 +60. Shortly after the pub was built, a Port 80 legend came back to the server: SuToLoTus. We hadn't seen him in a year, and quickly introduced him to our new friends. He made the Sutolotus temple @ +1260 +160 in just 3 days. That's how legendary he is.

Fishing4monkeys was the newest mayor of P80 for a while until kp910460 came along. She had wandered here from PA, and eventually built a house, the south road, and the Port 80 radio station. Logan made her a mayor by the end of the month. She couldn't have come at a better time. Within the week, Pico, Rose City, Vinhaven, and PA were hounding us for rail connections, and we forgot about rails completely. First time away from spawn, amateur mistakes, lol. I made a station right away, and With Bogien1's heroics, we got the whole gang to finish digging the 5x5 rail tunnel to spawn, while Logan finished the main roads and Pope built us an iron grinder to supply us with rails. That was a moment of true team spirit.

After the Spleef Arena, Lighthouse and Church of Miogrelism was constructed in front of the waterfall, we had our first Wither fight in Hafget's mine. This time we used shovels and hoes as weapons. Yes, because we fight dirty that way. No swords here. It was hilarious how half of our noobs got blown up instantly by the wither summoning by standing too close. "Death spam incoming" were Logan's exact words. After a good 10 minutes though, the rest of us came through and took it down like gangsters.

I spent Halloween in Demacia @ -100 +500, dressed up as Garen from League of Legends. I got group photos with Yestermaday, YumYumSticks, MarcusPSL, and JiChoi, knowing this was going to be one of the most exciting revs Port 80 has had yet.

-Dec 14 2013- I had trouble writing after the server upgrade to 1.7.2 a few days back. Around this time last year, slide23 lost his house to a fire. This year, we lost 2 people IRL: head admin JohnAdams1735, and Rose City's mayor, SourPickleEater. Around the same time, one of our major partners in the alliance had died off. Port Aperture was no more, and its remains were inherited by a young upstart village named Whiteoak, which quickly renovated the rail station and whatever was left.

As beautiful Port 80 has become, things have been understandably solemn. SPE lost his life a few days ago in a car accident, and JA's loss a month earlier has devestated many. Memorials and statues have been made in memory of both. I remember a time when Rose city was just a 4-person village off to the side of Necropolis in rev10, and I donated the red wool that became their flag. Now, Rose city is one of the biggest towns on the server, and a major central rail hub in the Southeast Alliance. They built the Rose City Express to other cities long before Seneca and Argoth even had their stations up. Listening to Tyrangiels and theclefe now, I realize how far Rose City has come under SPE. The loss must be hard for them.

Port Aperture's death comes as a mystery to us as well. What once was a large portal town known to be one of the 4 major cities on the server came to a sudden and abrupt end. Their successors at Whiteoak consisted of only 3 people: Rokku117, SwitchViewz, and Ghrey303. I spent the next few days visiting their village, learning that they were a sister city of PA that specialized in wood and plantation machinery. They had a huge sugar cane tower that reached up to the skies, and a tree machine that would thresh out all the leaves and pump out logs to the side via piston action. For a tiny little town, they had the technology, and the potential. But I sensed apprehension and worry in their words; they had big shoes to fill, and weren't sure if they could do it. I knew then that this was where the spirit of the MPA80 alliance had to kick in. Sure, the alliance in name was no more, but anything from nether roads, to trade, to rails, we were probably going to help them with it.

Here at Port 80, we did our part to keep the place cheerful. Logan built a giant Xmas tree for the Secret Santa party, and I ran everywhere in a santa suit handing out cake and pumpkin pie. I imagine JA and SPE still wanted us to celebrate their lives. Before this, we were still making lots of progress. We had a just finished building Port 80 University, an armor shop, and a new apartment building in the South. We also hosted a spleef match against Argoth and lost badly, but people couldn't stop saying how beautiful Port 80 was. Up until the spleef match, nobody outside of the alliance knew where we were. Soon, it was on mumble, and it was in chat. Schererererer from Braum said it was the best Port 80 he's seen yet. People began to notice. This was a good thing, because we are hosting the Secret Santa party in 6 days. It got the party the exposure it needed.

I spent the next few days decorating the tree and taking a group photo with the mayors, all wearing santa hats. To top it all off, I decorated our rail tunnel in rainbow spirals. I call it the PARTY HARD [tm] tunnel. Now anybody who visits our town can sit on a minecart, press a button, and PARTY HARD just like us. We're gonna get drunk again this year too.

-Feb 6th 2014- Happy 2014, everyone! Yes, compared to what happened this holiday season, I'm definitely sober enough to write again. Between a double chest of pumpkin pie, fireworks, and two bottles of Italian red wine, I was so drunk after New Years' that I was spouting gibberish I can't remember, looking right at my screen with pie in my hand thinking "this pumpkin pie is not alcoholic enough!" Only, I actually typed it out in chat like a blithering moron. Go home, Saber. You're drunk.

The X'mas Wither Event on the 24th made us a huge killing. Basically the admins unleashed wither skeletons on us and we had to defend the overworld from the invasion. All the zombies were baby zombies wearing colored elf clothes, and the wither skeletons were in santa suits and masks too. Killing them dropped a mixture of turkey, eggnog, player heads and cake, but they also dropped wither skulls. This was also the first rev that PvE had voted on switching server difficulty to hard mode, so people were being shanked left and right by evil santas. Luckily, Pope had the foresight to pick an open field NW of town to attract the incoming horde, got 3 skulls and made a regeneration beacon on-site. Soon we had a bunker next to it. As Logan, Mio, KP and fishing came on to join the battle, we made a wooden perch for KP to snipe monsters with a bow while we manly men ran out to charge against the evil santa hordes doing manly things. By the next day we came out with lots of skulls.

All those beacons proved to be handy for the next 2 months, as Logan set our sights on a new stretch of land I call the Northern Expanse. Up to this point we only had Port 80 University built there, but after we finished the northern roads and rails, the north was taking on a life of its own, with the creation of the Pixel Lounge, North End Amenities, the gorgeous mansions of Logan and Mrsslats, and up to the very north, Fort Hafget. Others like MirkaFortuna and AisakaTaiga lived in the Northwest.

This was also the time spleef league morphed into a touring sport called Spleef Club. People would come to Port80 to place bets on a free-for-all spleef tournament. The prizes were nice too; fishing4monkeys won a free copy of Starbound.

Pope and I spent a lot of time together, leashing donkeys from Whiteoak, mooshrooms from Sapphric's spawn preserve, breeding villagers for P80 Courthouse, to completing the Church of Miogrelism @ +1200 -40, which was nearing 8000 total quartz blocks. Few will realize the sacrifices made to build this church. On Jan 6, Pope died to a zombie 25 times in a row, because it stole his diamond sword. Countless books and rare materials line the lower halls of this place. It was one of the city's masterpieces. I was convinced that it contained close to a third of the known quartz on the server. The rest was at kitcatbar's Ivory Tower @ -1480 +300, and various Braum buildings such as @-1540 -1080. But none of these would top what the server announced next.

For the first time since rev6, Reddit PVE declared the next UberProject; a massive spaceship of redstone & glowstone the entire server was involved in. 12 days later, there were 154 double chests of stone, 44 in dirt, and 33 stacks of redstone blocks. I didn't know what the final design of the Uberproject looked like @ -1600 -500, but I helped at the digsite several times and donated redstone regularly. All I know is, I'll be there again when construction of the ship itself will begin.

I'm now standing at the precipice of a rev about to end. Rev13 is coming! As I left Port 80 on a world tour, I reflected on how much has changed since I became a mayor. Many old places like Deerside, Wellspring & Pearl Islands were gone, But many new places like Rose City, Whiteoak and Catsenberg @ +400 +1800 emerge to fill in the void, alongside big attractions like Wonderland @ -1200 -1900 and Braum Opera House @ -1650 -1400. Kalmos, Argoth, Pico and Seneca keep on going.

As a mayor, I finally know what it means to build a city here. When I think about how I miss those old places, memories of their legacy fuel my spirit to carry on this heritage, to be a proud part of Reddit PVE. Likewise, we inspire others after us. Fishing and Pope agreed that this rev was better than anything Port 80 has done before. Whenever I come back, there's no place like home. In us, I saw a dream realized. This was our bright future, borne from a single sojourn from spawn.

SPECIAL THANKS: JA, SPE, Zomise, theclefe, YumYumSticks, Yestermaday, JiChoi, TheRandomnatrix, Asterix1806, Twitchy1138, fishing4monkeys, LoganRan, PopeAdam, kp910460, evolve90, Hafget, Sutolotus, AisakaTaiga, twilexis, kitcatbar, Rokku117

Caledonia Mining Colony (CMC) Star Logs (Rev.15 & 16)

CMC Starlog: Prelude

Caledonia Survey Expedition 1690E75 ESCAPE Shuttle #04 Serial Number EZ01JY-9G0651 Firmware Generated Log 2615 AQ 22 -- ETA 26:03:57

] #####DANGER: HULL BREACH REPORTED#####

] ##Depressurization detected from SCDIM

] ##Shuttle SCDIM compiling report...

] ##Bridge Deck Nodes 1-11, 20-39, 47 offline

] ##Main System WARNING: Full ARL collapse, oxygen garden reserves vented

] ##EVACS calculating personnel locations and escape routes...

] ##Airlock state down 12B 20A 43C

] ##Shuttle LS/NAV/SS activating...

] ##SCDIM received authorization for fast launch override.

] **ALL PERSONNEL: Please proceed to Escape Shuttle 1 2 4 5 9**

]

]

] > Shuttle Rear Hatch open.

] > USER INPUT: LAUNCH EJECT

] > SCDIM is authorized for fast launch override.

] > Security code bypassed.

] > Pressurizing cabin...

] > Decoupling maglocks...

] > LS/SS status OK

] > Performing fast launch override.

] ...............................................

] > NAV state resume.

] > Reorienting craft for NAV target 1690E75.

] > Thrusters activated.

] ##WARNING: Atmospheric Re-entry detected.##

] ##NAV deviations unrecoverable, crash state imminent!

] ##Redirecting maximum power to SS...

]

]!@$%!#234$!#^@^3()@$%@#3441%!#$%@232#%#@$%@#$%@#%@!@#$%@%$#@

]!@$%^%#*$^&*&@%$%!#$%$#^&*%#21514!#$^%@#####################

---

CMC Starlog #001: Emergency Transmission

This is a manual transmission log aboard escape shuttle #4 for mining expedition 1690E75.

26 hours before arrival of prospective planet 1690E (Zeta Sextantis), the SS Galantes was attacked by unidentified forces in the local planetary system.

Sensors did not detect any incoming craft, nor any recognized hailing frequencies before the attack, suggesting non-coalition forces of alien nature. At present, the SS galantes and the attached science vessel holding Professor Irving, Geologist Ardones, and Dr. Galahad have not been accounted for by the SCDIM, suggesting a high likelihood that the ship is missing, disabled or destroyed.

We are declaring worst-case scenario. Enacting contingency clause 13.06A (Destruction of Craft and Crew Members) until this message is received, ETA 1803 days. Attached are logs from main bridge confirming wake from cryosleep was successful 10 days before final approach, and Captain Moliot confirmed our bearings as 4.5 light years away from Caledonia.

As the current shuttle has lost contact with all other nodes, the rest of the team will be presumed dead within 7 days, with any detected survivors inheriting chain of command. Failure of main scientific objectives is imminent, and it is unknown if the same forces that have attacked the spacecraft will discover this shuttle, currently en route to the planet surface after resuming navigation.

Should destructive forces or critical LS system failures occur in the next several days, consider this log the final words from the crew of the SS Galantes.

Saberfysh, 2nd Lieutenant & Mining Engineer of the Caledonia Long Range Reconissance Mining fleet, 75th division.

---

CMC Starlog #002: Solitude (audio log)

Technical verbosity will never describe this... this... nightmare.

We all knew what we were coming here for... we knew what sacrifices were being made... but nobody back home really knows what the abyss will throw at you... until you dive deep into it. And this time, we're in deep.

I don't think I've wept this much in a long time.

Seven days have passed. The SCDIM has spoken. This run was a full wipe. Except for me. Moliot, Ardones, Galahad, Irving and my crew are all gone. All that's left is the shuttle and a mangled version of myself... alone on a faraway planet, stranded and in pain. All in the name of money... to fuel this blasted civil war against the Gamilans. A younger version of me might have given up. But nothing is worth this many lives, and I will make this right... especially if it means I get to see Mylene again.

I tried to force open the airlock to the cargo hold once I saw the bad landing angle. It's more than what the SS system can handle. The cockpit would snap on impact, but the jammed wings would at least brace the cargo area. Pulling off this stunt cost me both my legs. The others would probably die trying. The only reason I'm still alive is because the LS has not failed, and nanobots from the shuttle's medkit have stopped my bleeding and are putting my shattered legs back together piece by piece. There's enough supplies for a few people here, so I will last a while longer.

Still, the past few days have been mixed with various shades of pain, loneliness, and dread. Irving's initial scans confirmed that various cubic lifeforms were found on this planet. If they are dangerous, or even sentient, I cannot guarantee my safety.

I'm going to need a Tobit drone from the upper case once I can stand up again.

Until then, I'm in no mood to think....

---

CMC Starlog #003: Surveyor

It's been ten days since the nanobots put me back into a walking state again to use the service terminal. Right now, I don't walk the same, and probably won't be quite the same. Things have been bad early on, but there may still be hope. The first set of Tobit drones have come back with useful readings. Sadly, Irving and Galahad aren't here to read the junk I don't understand, and life is not the same without Hans and the rest of the gang.

In any case, Ardones was right; the spectrograph from the Polonius telescope back home suggested a world rich in minerals, which the Tobits found within 10 metres of surface scraping. Gravity is at 1.2G, and the rotational period is 1.08 days, but the dense gases and higher temperatures make for a highly volatile atmosphere that's unsuitable for breathing. I'll need to stay in a suit, but at least the Sephirator only needs to do filtering. The same would apply for the lab.

There's enough resources here to build a full-size compound 150 metres away if I let the Tobits make more copies of itself. They've been able to neutralize all the wild creatures making strange noises during the night cycle. None of them seem intelligent, which is a relief... for now. One major concern is that some of them explode on provocation. I still need to make sure that doing this won't draw the attention of the enemies that shot down the Galantes. I'll need to send the drones out of range for further observation and have them return on their own. It's up to me to continue the mission. It's what the rest of the crew would've wanted.

---

CMC Starlog #004: Encounter

I once mentioned that loneliness was an unsavoury prospect, but it appears that I've asked for more than I bargained for...

I have been spotted. By sentient lifeforms. Three of them, covered in various bits of gem-like coverings, found the crash site and spent time wandering around the shuttle. I'm not sure if all of the Tobits made it back safely, but those things have likely given my location away... to sentient beings.

The nearest Tobit managed to spy on them from the side of the crater and escaped detection. Surprisingly, they are also bipedal and appeared to be communicating with each other, but didn't seem intelligent or aggressive enough to force the shuttle open.

Still, there has been nothing but tension since then. I don't know the total indigenous population, but there's enough for them to band together in some social unit. That has me concerned. Until I can determine whether they are friend or foe, the safety of the shuttle might be in peril. They might call in reinforcements to pry open the very thing keeping me alive. A single bombardment attack would wipe me off the map.

I've set the shuttle to SS-assisted lockdown, and have the tobits dropping in resources through the vacumn chute to load up the Sephirator and replicate a standard-issue gun from the Armory database. Given that I'm exposed in the open either way, staying here any longer would be a ticking time bomb. I'll need to make a gambit and have the drones multiply, then hide them in the nearby cave for a potential ambush. They'll be needed to build a fortified second location, barring my survival.

If they come back with similar numbers, I'll be ready. Let's hope nothing worse comes along.

---

CMC Starlog #005: The 71st Buzzie

I knew a revisit was in short order once the shuttle was discovered. Sure enough, another individual came to inspect the shuttle, and a Tobit spotted its approach. This one made the mistake of coming alone, I thought. My newly nanolithed gun was charged up and ready.

What I didn't expect was something in a neon green jumpsuit with a decorative mask.

Holding in one hand, it presented to the shuttle door one of my damaged drones. That drew the ire of all the other Tobits and it was quickly surrounded as they clattered out from the cave in droves. Knowing I had numbers on my side, I lowered my gun, turned on my Sephirator, and let the rear shuttle hatch slowly open. From the other side, the masked green suit put down the tobit drone, pointed an arm to itself, and uttered "Buzzie".

What this creature did next was utterly astonishing.

Using a few Tobits nearby, it demonstrated to me that its species can count. Then it proceeded to show basic mathematics, and what looks like a writing system on a powered silica tablet, followed by a line map of their star system. Whatever this "Buzzie" was, it was displaying technological understanding beyond any of the cretins that had visited the shuttle prior. It knew enough about science and its starspace to attempt knowledge exchange with me. I repeated the same process in my own words, and established that this planet we had codenamed Zeta Sextantis is called "Pee-Vee-Ee". To Irving, this would be a scientist's wet dream; sentient beings who were not impulsive, bloodthirsty animals. That's already a step better than the Gamilan Emperor.

Eventually, I had a Tobit project a holograph of the compound it was going to build. The Buzzie studied it carefully, handed over the tablet to me, and then left. Moments later, it returned with a small group of diversely clothed individuals, highly curious of my equipment, but in the end coming to some sort of agreement and began stripping the nearby terrain of obstacles.

It's now highly likely that I'm not dealing with the same creatures that destroyed our ship, and that they're capable of working together. What baffled me was how they haven't arrested me, and how all of this was happening at Buzzie's behest. It's also very strange how Buzzie appears so advanced but the others are relatively primitive. Perhaps he has a commanding role on this planet, or is worshipped like some god. The lack of paperwork and bureaucracy implies an absence of central governance. If there is culture going on here, I have yet to understand it. I've been completely wrong about them so far, as all of this has happened with absolutely no bargaining, no violence, and no intimidation.

No matter, I suppose. I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Right now, all of this is an unlikely gift. These Tobits now have some work to do. And I have a lot of alien science to unravel.

---

CMC Starlog #006: The ATLUS Terminal

I have bore witness to something greater than any mineral find in my life. I could've spent my days, boring people with the Sephirator, the CMC arcology, the hired natives from various factions that mined here on behalf of the expedition, and the atomic eccentricities of redstone and glowstone on Zeta Sextantis, but it all pales in comparison.

It all started when Buzzie handed over an etched beryllium alloy, tinted green from vanadium impurities. He told Tobits that it was the key to something, then left, saying it would be a while to transport 'it' over here.

Weeks later, Buzzie returned to the Colony with a few natives hauling in a highly ornate but inactive terminal of some kind. Labeled the ATLUS, it was one of the remaining pieces of cargo that Buzzie had recovered from very specific ruins before pirates were able to plunder the site. He figured it would be safer behind airlocks and security bots on the upper floors of the CMC instead of a random cave in the forest. Once upstairs, he put the emerald key inside and it beamed to life.

The ATLUS terminal functioned like a giant information kiosk, filled with reams of texts and pictoral diagrams. Over the past few weeks, Tobits was able to decipher the native writing on Buzzie's tablet to act as an interpreter. I was shown various images of his kind, common minerals I had mined, as well as complex charts about redstone and glowstone, which matched what the Tobits found in the lab.

It is here that he loaded up an old satelite map, showing the geography of their planet and the locations of known major settlements around the world. Once again it baffled me how all of this information existed in Buzzie's hands. The populace as a whole struggles to travel around the planet, let alone map it from the skies. How did any of this get done previously?

But Buzzie wasn't done. He then presented Tobits with a diagram of a highly advanced fusion reactor conduit called "R.E.G.E Fuel."

This revelation blew my mind. And caused Tobits to shutdown. Twice.

Liquefied redstone, known as "Flux", could be concentrated in a highly rare oceanic compound called "Sponge" under a hyperbaric chamber, then encased in nanolithed "Circlestone" to contain its raw energy and lethal radiation. It was then used to spark nuclear fusion. Both in its capacity and speed, it can provide enough energy to achieve faster-than-light travel, but cracks in the casing could cause an explosion hundreds of times stronger than a nuclear mining bomb. Manufacturing of this fuel was a gargantuan task, and only 3 units were ever made.

They had spacefaring technology that would surpass anything the Caledonians have invented. How this race was once so advanced was beyond me. All of this became clear when he brought up more information for the Tobit to translate from the ATLUS.

Roughly two centuries ago, scientists on this planet constructed a monolithic spaceship called the Unity. Its maiden voyage had gone astray from a warp drive malfunction, marooning it on an unknown planet which killed its entire crew. The ship's system then cloned its crew and managed to refuel itself for a return trip, but it was attacked and stolen shortly after by an alien race who called themselves the "Storm." An army of strike fighters were sent to fight the Storm, but the Unity was destroyed in combat and caused an explosion in space that scorched more than half of the planet's surface. This calamity obliterated the majority of the population and set their entire civilization back a few hundred years. All that's left is a lawless dystopia filled with buccaneers, drifters and mercenaries who have never been to space, and pillage technological relics for personal gain.

This was no frontier planet. It was a cradle of civilization. Any money we would make from mining it raw is worthless compared to this discovery. According to ATLUS, the Storm attempted to do the same thing before they stole the Unity instead. Since then, they've been circling the star system, preventing any further exploration. I now finally understand why Buzzie went so far to assist with my settlement. Just like me, Buzzie is a survivor of a Storm attack. He needs my technology to help him rebuild and liberate this fractured planet from the Storm. He's the 71st Buzzie because one of the cloning bays from the Unity has been keeping him alive to protect this valuable data.

Irving would've proclaimed this as one of the greatest discoveries of all time. The colossal amount of information coming out of the ATLUS terminal contained a summation of an entire species that has long been lost to chaos. Nobody else back home would be able to know about it... unless I get myself off of this rock.

He then presented a bound document, which the Tobit interpreted as a draft of a ceasefire treaty that allows multiple leaders to sign. To serve as neutral ground, the treaty stated that the official meeting would be held here at the Colony. It was the first attempt at diplomacy that I had seen. Being the only person left to hold chain of command, I motioned my approval. It is clear that breaking free from the Storm will need something far more advanced than the ship I arrived in.

---

• • CMC Starlog 007: Diplomacy**

Within days, faction leaders from various parts of the world converged at Buzzie's call for the treaty signing at the Mining Colony. At first, they were amazed by the advanced techology that ran though the CMC, but soon I noticed that some of the attendees didn't exactly like each other. It was hard to reel them in as they stared each other down, for their factions had been adversaries for decades, fighting for scraps on a shattered planet. Perhaps out of jealousy, or the fact that I did not speak the native tongue, a few of the rougher ones yearned to have me gutted and my gear stolen, but there were enough Tobits guarding the facility to discourage any foul play.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Buzzie to shift their attention to more important matters. With the treaty in hand, and the incomplete satellite map projected by Tobits, Buzzie explained the situation to them, summarizing the story behind Unity, the ATLUS terminal and the Storm. I learned slowly through Tobits that this meeting was a wild mix of high-profile merchants, commissioned explorers, wealthy political rivals and marginalized scientists that Buzzie could trust. Soon, they were seeing schematics of the Unity, the Mining Colony, and the vast amount of ingredients needed to be mined for R.E.G.E fuel. All of this, once thought impossible for PVE to recreate, could now be made with the advanced mining technology I had brought to the table, both literally and figuratively. I was met with wide eyes the moment they realized what I could do for all of them.

Having broken the barriers of distrust, crucial intel was shared with each other for the first time about the planet surface, including uncharted resource veins and locations of old world relics, along with various groups of mercenaries and information brokers that could threaten the plan. The meeting soon became a lengthy summit that went into the night, leading to discussions about the Caledonian homeworld, the nanolithed weapons, the Sephirator, the use of Tobits, and the medikit nanobots that came with my shuttle. All of it was liquid gold to them and made them excited about how much profit could be had.

It was then that I stopped and told them that this ceasefire treaty is more than just a simple business transaction. A brief pause ensued. Without Buzzie's help, I had them seated calmly again, then conveyed to them, in a broken manner with my own voice that I was the lone survivor of a harrowing mining expedition, the Storm threat is very real, and that my ultimate goal is to return home with my discoveries to end a bloody civil war. Fortunately, this story of profound loss was not lost in translation and resonated soundly with the motley crew in front of me. All of them at some point in their lives had lost a version of someone like Ardones, Galahad, Irving, and Captain Moliot. Even on a planet without the Gamilans, it was a plain fact that war never changes.

Everyone who came to represent their group signed the treaty that day. They concluded by consensus that Buzzie and the CMC crew would be relocated to another region on the planet high in R.E.G.E. fuel materials. There, an airbase will be constructed to research and produce spacecraft capable of evading the Storm and reaching Caledonia. In exchange for protection from greedy mercenaries and bandits, all of the technology both here and at the airbase would be shared with everyone to combat the Storm, under Buzzie's command. All future encounters with my species would be met with peace using a customized hailing frequency.

Captain Moliot, you would've been best for this, but I hope you'll be next to me in spirit. Not only was this an astonishing First Contact with an alien species, it may be our best chance to liberate this planet, turn the tide of war back home and organize the coalition into something bigger than all of us combined.

CMC Starlog #008: Artifact

Construction of a state-of-the-art spacecraft facility has finally begun after five long days of travel through the wild frontier, 1700 miles away from the Mining Colony. With the way that I busted up my legs from the crash landing, I'm glad there's transportation. As expected, sounds of the large convoy crossing the land had caught the attention of countless monsters along the way, but none of them were a match against the forces escorting us. The site of the airbase was in a deserted mesa, known for high temperatures and very little life, so there weren't many settlements in the area. Few would dare to venture out this far, but we had the technology to survive in it and extract the rich resources lying underneath.

The long trip gave myself ample time to understand the people and the logistics behind the project. New Argoth had a long history in weaponry, Solace would assist the CMC in mining materials, and Millennia Systems would build the supply lines to connect both places. A few individuals were also involved in maintaining security, but spearheading the whole initiative was Port Aperture, the beleaguered scientists who were most in line with Buzzie's quest, having spent generations salvaging thousands of technical documents from ruins and wreckages across the planet. They were the only ones intelligent enough to understand the knowledge contained in the ATLUS terminal, and were quickly applying this in the laboratory. Already, prototypes of R.E.G.E fuel reactors were in progress. They could probably get even further if I knew how to program the Tobit drones. They were designed more for mining and can only run the complex blueprints Irving had uploaded, but their spectrometer readings and nano-weldings were providing the crucial precision needed for research and testing.

On the mining front, initial scans of the mesa had returned extremely high values of ore. The Tobits have been working nonstop, switching out only to de-dust themselves before plunging back in. Within the first 60 metres down they had struck upon ancient ruins coated in a heavy silicate oxide the scientists called "Quartz." This mineral had the unique quality of capturing solar power when flattened and focused with conventional glass, but it was inferior to the redstone flux the scientists were trying to recreate.

However, there was an interesting find from that expedition -- an impermeable crystalline beacon recovered from the underground ruins, labeled in a presumably ancient language. A strong but harmless beam will shoot out of it when activated with any variety of gems -- a light so bright it almost blinded the PA scientist who first inspected it. We don't know much about it yet other than the fact that it's very old and that it might be something very important. For now, there won't be time to analyze it until the rest of the station is up and running. Buzzie and I will need to keep track of everything that is going on, but the main priority is the ship itself.

• • CMC Starlog #009: Research**

Something tells me now that I'm wandering deep into uncharted territory.

Back home, I knew all about the shuttle systems, the Polonius telescope, the SS Galantes, and all sorts of Caledonian protocols. But in spite of the CMC, the medicial nanobots, the Sephirator, Tobits, and cryosleep, I've reached the point where it seems the only skill unique to me on this project is the asteroid mining experience. The science here is taking off and getting complicated very fast.

Tensions were rising between the scientists debating over which proplusion method was the fastest or the safest. A few designs for the prospective R.E.G.E reactor are still in play. They had gotten far enough to obtain sponge and synthesize it into a power source, which is now the main reactor being used to power the rest of the facility, but the final engine for the ship itself needs to be both strong enough and stealthy enough to avoid Storm detection. The mainframe they've built from an ATLUS blueprint is processing massive amounts of physics data, but the general consensus so far was that it won't be able to recreate long-range warp drive in something this small.

Voxel theory. Rarity inverters. Redstone schematics of the Unity and the Illuminated Fleet. It is at this point that I leave the science to the scientists. The only thing I can do is share some basic specifications about the Galantes, the concept of cryosleep and the shuttle I landed in, in hopes that it can be retrofitted easily with some of the mining outfits back home. Buzzie has assured me that the team understood this and that ample amounts of what I mined here can be brought back safely inside a special container called an Enderchest, which eliminates weight problems and ensures that exotic minerals such as Redstone and Sponge do not fall into the hands of the Storm.

Knowing that work on the engine could take months, Buzzie and I directed our attention to the ancient artifact. ATLUS had identified the engravings as the protolanguage of an old religious tribe from 19,700 years ago. So far, it had only shot out an intense beam of light in reaction to a variety of gems, but the inscription contained a cryptic message implying that "vast knowledge" of the "Angels" could be obtained if the beacon was activated with a "Keystone."

Buzzie and the other explorers found this a fascinating find, and very soon I had the Tobits memorize the inscription and sent them off to scour the underground for other ruins with the same markings. I may not be Professor Irving, but I was going to get to the bottom of this. It was definitely closer to my specialty.

• • CMC Starlog #010: Star Map**

The Tobits had continued their fervant pace of mining the past several weeks. Now digging far from the base, they began detecting ruins made of the same materials underground and inside them discovered crystals of various sizes with inscriptions from the same protolanguage. Many of these brought back to the lab were incapable of causing any effect other than a giant beam of beacon light. That was, until the past few days when Tobits reported a hit on something big. A large beryllium pillar braced with the exact same markings as the beacon, found amongst the underground rubble of an old temple near the ocean. Was this the keystone, I wondered?

Some Port Aperture scientists immediately recognized the location as part of the Southeast Alliance from a few centuries ago. According to old texts, this was a region comprised of prehistoric buildings that once had a third of the entire planet's known collection of quartz. However, because the terrain shifted as a result of the planet scorching, it was now covered in deep ocean. Few pirates have had the technology to reach down deep enough to extract anything, and much information about the buildings have been lost.

Once again, Tobits proved crucial to the extraction effort. The crystal was transported back through the tunnels, carefully de-dusted, and placed in the lab for study. Due to its size, scientists elected to move the beacon to the crystal instead to do the experiment. Sure enough, they hit the jackpot. And that's when everything changed, even for the great Buzzie himself.

This crystal projected a star map of the entire galaxy.

I had seen diagrams of the galaxy before while working for the Polonius Observatory, but never a detailed, interactive map pointing out major star systems and notable alien species throughout. We are certainly not alone in the universe. The star map was pointing to life... everywhere.

This discovery unleashed more questions than answers for everyone on the team. What else is buried here? What in the universe made this planet so special? How are there so many things from so many eras located just on this one planet? What does that say about the other planets, or the local starspace alone? Exactly how advanced was the race that made this map? How accurate is this map, and how did they have so much cosmic knowledge of the galaxy's layout? Are these beings the first of their kind, or were they colonized here eons ago? The possibilities are endless, but this is proof without a shadow of doubt that there are far more advanced beings in the universe who have traversed the stars, perhaps to a greater degree than the Storm.

Unable to comprehend level of data, Tobits could only photograph the star map for future reference. The Port Aperture team, along with Buzzie, made it a mission to decipher the map and the language it was written in.

---

CMC Starlog #011: The Seifer

Buzzie and few scientists had spent the first several days going virtually sleepless over the discovery of the star map. What they quickly realized was that the map could enlarge specific areas and provide small visual summaries about the system, markers of any known sentient species and their technological levels. It was not hard to use, but it was hard to understand, for most of what was important was written in an alien language, and there were far too many things in the galaxy for them to comb over in a short amount of time. After Tobits scanned the map regions and selected a few places in the galaxy that resembled our immediate starspace, they decided then to narrow down their search only to things that resembled Angels, Keystones and the Storm.

The first thing the PA scientists did was go through their old texts, where they dug up and revisited an obscure, partially damaged book about this ancient tribe, entitled the "Seifer Raziel, 3rd edition." It was transcribed from the protolanguage by an archaeologist from the Luminon era, centuries before the Unity was created. As it was never related to the Unity Project, ATLUS never had this information other than a linguistic record. However, this book had better translations, and a more complete syllabary of the protolanguage runes. It was a torn up analysis of the original Seifer Raziel, which the author concluded was a highly guarded religious item that acted as a diary for the 'Angels' themselves.

What was once considered nonfiction reading material suddenly became very important for the task at hand. Eventually, after lots of cross-referencing between ATLUS and uploading every last page of the salvaged text, the PA scientists deciphered correlations in both languages, and began to piece some of the language together. They knew that once they could interpret what each symbol meant, they could start scouring the star map for specific keywords.

Meanwhile, a couple of New Argoth officials well versed in nuclear weaponry and navigation were studying the map with Tobits to determine our precise location and found diagrams of various starships these beings had either encountered or had built themselves. They studied the designs with the PA scientists and concluded that they were not using any method like R.E.G.E. fuel, but that some power source was running an engine that didn't appear to have a fuel tank. They are hoping that when a translation comes through, that they'll be able to understand what's going on and perhaps crack the dilenma behind their current designs.

---

CMC Starlog #012: Origins

By the time New Argoth finally pinpointed our map location with Tobits, ATLUS had translated much of the language on the star map using the book. A few days later, Buzzie and the PA scientists completed their search and gathered the rest of the team to share what they had discovered.

The original Seifer Raziel was a planetary record of an alien species called the Cyreens.

According to the Seifer Raziel, the protolanguage engravings were a simplified creole of the Cyreen alphabet; a derivative which they coined as the Ogrian language. The Cyreens were a nomadic race that colonized and terraformed planets in this system thousands of years ago, in an attempt to recreate their lost homeworld. They left Keystones and star maps on worlds like this, but always in separate areas underground. The Ogrians just happened to be a primitive tribe on this planet and were culturally uplifted by this spacefaring species out of goodwill. During this period, the Cyreens were not considered gods, but instead collectively worshiped as 'Angels'.

All of this came to an abrupt end when the Cyreens fled the entire system, as for the majority of their existence, they had been on the run from a strong, evil race called the Ilraths, who had destroyed their homeworld. The Ilraths were servants of the Shrikes, an evil empire of slavers residing in the galactic core. The Storm are one of several thralls that guard the Ilrath region. After destroying the Cyreen homeworld, they continued on, assigning the Storm to garrison and extract resources from the territory. The last entries were terse references about escaping to the Thrawnian Expanse, a large empty sector in the outer rim of the galaxy. It was assumed that the Ogrian civilization fell shortly after.

Whatever this book contained was probably dismissed by others in Luminon as ridiculous rabble, but to us it made perfect sense. It allowed Buzzie to use and read the star map properly, and as it showed us, there were records of these places. PVE and its neighboring worlds occupied a sector known as the Sapphric Veil. The Thrawnian Expanse was near the edge of the galaxy, over 9,000 light years away. There were markers of the worlds the Ilraths enslaved while chasing the Cyreens, showing that they largely ruled a region of starspace which included the Sapphric Veil. Caledonia was outside of the Ilrath region, whereas PVE was very close to it, suggesting that the Storm had expanded their territory in recent millennia under Ilrath command. Unless they decide to expand in another direction, Caledonia will be in the path of Storm enslavement too.

For days, all of this had weighed heavily on me. I'd never even imagined that the people here and in Caledonia were insignificant players in a grand ploy for galactic power. I was just a mining engineer borne from a colony locked in civil war, whose entire crew was obliterated by the Storm on a long-shot expedition. Suddenly, I had the fate of our homeworld on my shoulders, and while I really want to go back, I wasn't sure how much I could accomplish even if I made it back home.

It was then that Buzzie reminded me that there was plenty of hope. This discovery allowed New Argoth and Port Aperture to interpret the starship diagrams they had looked at earlier. They finally understood what they were looking at, and it was almost as astonishing as R.E.G.E fuel: a plasma engine that produced infinite thrust with a magnetically controlled tank of Xenon or Krypton. All it needed was a power source that could pump electrons into it, and plasma would magnetically shoot out the other end indefinitely. It was highly scalable with R.E.G.E fuel, which could do this far easier than nuclear fusion, and work in all kinds of shapes and sizes. The same design in a different shape could double as laser cannons. While it couldn't replace a warp drive, it was silent, efficient, and could certainly get close to the high speeds needed to evade the Storm and reach Caledonia.

The scientists immediately went back to work with their new discoveries. This was the breakthrough they were looking for.

---

CMC Starlog #013: Finale

It is done. The fated day has arrived for the last of the 75th Division. Though I was the only man left standing, we were going home.

Construction of the shuttle has finished, and all of the test flights by the Port Aperture team had been successful with the new plasma thrusters. The maiden voyage for the Galantes MK2 was about to begin.

Collapsible wings. Redstone proximity brakes. Cryosleep cabins. A R.E.G.E reactor tube anchored with solid gold and diamonds. A reinforced cockpit and cargo bay coated in nanolithed quartz, storing extra materials for Tobits. It was a pinnacle of engineering, but even more valuable was the new technology and acquired information from the Star Map about the Cyreen, the Ilrath and Shrikes. Tobits won't be able to store everything, but the scientists have uploaded the data from ATLUS and pieces of the decoded star map onboard the shuttle. There was an incentive to come back when more of the star map was analyzed. They were also confident that based on the theoretical speed of the craft, I could outrace my original distress signal and make it back first.

Buzzie was immensely grateful for everything that I had done for his kind. He was convinced that the creators of the map had something to do with sentient life all across the Sapphric Veil, either as a monolithic influence or even as indirect ancestors, and that he would inspire others with that same spirit on PVE. He would oversee further research at the facility and one day might make warp drive possible again. With enough time, everything that we discovered here would help him build advanced defenses and consolidate the populace in his cause to revive the Unity Project and combat the Storm.

As for me, it's goodbye to this world and back to the first one. It has been long since I've sounded like the stolid, matter-of-fact mining engineer that once led a team. I've been deeply fascinated and moved by this planet, constantly on the receiving end of one discovery after another. While I return with a newfound apprehension of space itself, I hope PVE endures for many more ages as this historic first contact will prove useful generations later. If I survive this journey, I might be a little older, but everything I present to the coalition will turn the tide against the Gamilans and probably usher in a new age for Caledonia.

The natives here call it PVE. I'm not sure what the coalition will call it when I return, but I have a feeling the word Zeta Sextantis is going to be a famous planet name for what might be one of the greatest find of any Caledonian Long-Range recon mining squad.

Mylene, if you're still alive, please wait for me. I'm coming home.

• • THE END**