#now i want to play this game again

[adrenaline-whump]

I was recently reminded of the awesome game No Man’s Sky, which in turn reminded me of a short bit of writing I did years ago...

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10394.120.49.11

Experienced captains will warn you not to head out into the black by yourself. Most people lose their minds in a couple months, sometimes weeks. Having no one to talk to messes with your brain. You start talking to your ship, talking to the stars, talking to nobody. That’s not too much of a problem, though, is it? As long as you can keep functioning.

I’m fine by myself. I talk to things that can’t talk back, but it doesn’t seem to bother them or me, so who cares? Still, I should have been more prepared before I took off into the unknown. I had my one dinky little wreck of a ship, and I was tired of being stuck on one planet, however nice it was, so I saved up some cash, bolted a hyperdrive to my wreck, and set off.  

Did you know there are actual space pirates? I didn’t, and that should give you a clue to how naïve I was. I nearly had my tail shot off more than once, until I bought some decent armament to return fire. I wasn’t expecting that to be my introduction to the universe. I’d had all these ideas about how exciting it would be to explore empty solar systems and be the first to see glorious planetary vistas.

Well…it’s exciting, all right. You don’t know exciting until you’re a mountain range away from your ship and your exosuit calmly informs you that a storm is approaching, so you spend the next several minutes running for your life, frantically looking for caves, and trying to punch repair commands into the suit.

Those alien vistas aren’t what the travel brochures advertised. OK, the brochures were all in my head, I grant you. But I was picturing strange new creatures, towering mountains, bizarre vegetation, a brilliant moonrise over a lambent sea.

So yeah, that alien sea’s beguiling glow is because it’s radioactive, dammit. The critters are strange, alright – my favorite one so far was a thing I called the pogo jelly, since it looked and acted like a very bouncy dessert. But a good number of those critters will attack you on sight, and you usually don’t know which, until one starts trying to rip through your exosuit to get to the tasty flesh inside. You start to question your life choices when you’re standing on top of your ship like an idiot, staring down at the weird things with big teeth swarming around your landing gear.

Not to mention the Sentinel problem. When I set out, I knew about the Sentinels, but I didn’t realize they’d spread to every damn corner of the galaxy. Those little floaty buggers get ticked off and trigger-happy if you start shooting critters. Or mining. Or looking at plants. Or just standing there minding your own business, in some cases. Thank god the ship is able to analyze the transmissions they use to communicate with each other. The other day, I landed on a planet, my ship told me the local Sentinels were “very aggressive,” and I took off again and named the planet “Nope Central” as it receded behind me.

There are times when I miss my first planet, to be honest. Sonora. It was dry and didn’t have too much interesting going on, but it had its own kind of austere beauty. I actually did try to go back to it, early on, but I couldn’t find it. Maybe it’s for the best.

I feel like I’m a little less naïve now. I found an interesting planet awhile back – holy balls, that place was inhospitable. I named it Hell Is Windy. Constant heat, constant storms where it just got hotter and hotter. But man, I made BANK on that planet. I bought a new ship financed entirely by my exploits on Hell Is Windy. There are times when I think I should have stayed there. But, honestly, that kind of environment wears on me more than being alone.  It’s exhausting, being constantly keyed up, trying not to make the mistake that will leave you dead on an alien planet where no one will ever find your corpse. “He almost made enough to buy that hyperdrive upgrade” would be a dumb epitaph. So I moved on.

The new ship isn’t bad – more cargo space, more guns to discourage the pirates. I keep drooling over nicer ships, but I don’t have the cash to spring for one quite yet. Actually, I’ve gone a bit in the other direction. I found a jungle world – almost what I was envisioning when I first set out. The planet isn’t constantly trying to kill me, and it’s got pretty views and all that. I’ve built myself a base of sorts. Now that I’m putting down roots, it’s time to work smarter, instead of wandering aimlessly around the galaxy. For now, anyway.