Houston didn't really have a sense of tiredness anymore, being a robot — but he did feel something close to it as the sun came up, having just finished reading *Rugged Machines 1* and the *T1 Printer Handbook*. The fun thing he'd learned about the T1 printer was that it should, in theory, still have battery power right now — assuming the battery itself was undamaged — since the handbook described it as having a battery solid enough to last thousands of years.
"Guess the future was pretty reliable, huh." Houston mused, looking at the T1 printer in front of him as bits of sunlight crept into the wreck with the rising sun.
"Alright, first job of the day — let's find a way to repair this thing. Should theoretically be possible, as long as it isn't too far gone. This thing's supposed to be pretty tough." Houston began examining the printer, dismantling its outer casing. According to what he'd read in the handbook, the unit looked mostly intact — except for what seemed to be a damaged power dampener.
"Robots should have a version of this that could probably work, right? I recall reading that in the robotics book. Guess the guy outside is pretty useful, huh — first an arm, now a power dampener." Houston grabbed a tool and made his way over to the offline robot, arriving in front of it a few minutes later.
"Sorry, buddy. Have to borrow something from you again." He said, dismantling its chest cavity until he found what he was looking for — a power dampener. "Whoever made this thing was a genius. It's basically an all-purpose, general-use component." Houston mused, recalling from the handbook that a lot of components in basic machines were designed to be interchangeable — the civilization behind this tech had clearly valued convenience and easy mass production.
He started walking back toward the ship, turning over what he'd just been through — dying, then waking up as a robot. *Did becoming this affect my mind? Realistically, I should be panicking right now, if I were still human.* Houston thought, with a flicker of suspicion — but he decided to just go with it. He'd always been that type of person anyway.
*Well, there's not much I can do about it either way. So why worry? Being a robot's actually kind of fun.* Houston decided, pushing the thought to the back of his mind.
He stepped back into the wreck and stood in front of the printer. "Time to fix this thing." Houston said, installing the power dampener with the tools he'd found the day before. "Yep — perfect match." He noted with satisfaction as it slotted into place, the damaged unit swapped out clean.
He sealed the housing back up and stepped back. "Alright. Time for the big reveal." Houston said with a smile, powering the machine on. A whooshing sound rose from somewhere inside it, and the screen flickered to life. "Alright — it's still got power!" He exclaimed.
"Let's see what this thing can do." Houston thought, tapping the screen to bring up its interface.
**T1 Light 3D Printer**
*{Recycling Section}*
*Can refine basic materials from scraps.*
"Whoa. This thing is insanely useful." Houston murmured, examining the recycling section before opening the manufacturing menu.
*{Manufacturing Section}*
*Available Blueprints:*
**G81 Multitool** — A multitool designed for all kinds of purposes.
**G81 Scanner** — Can scan for basic information.
**P7 Handgun** — A basic kinetic handgun that fires kinetic pellets, with a capacity of 15 rounds.
**Kinetic Pellets** — Standardized Empire kinetic pellets, compatible with various kinetic guns.
**CK6 Basic Drone** — A basic, all-purpose drone that can be easily customized for various roles.
**Rudimentary Chip** — A rudimentary chip with a 90 GHz computing speed. Early Empire tech, long retired.
*There are a few other basic blueprints besides these.*
"It's a short list — but these blueprints look insanely useful. And what do you mean 'rudimentary'? This chip's like twenty times more powerful than most chips back on Earth." Houston said, scanning through the list.
"I should be able to make the multitool and the scanner easily enough — they only need a few basic materials. The scanner will also need a rudimentary chip, but that's simple to make too. The recycling section should give me everything I need." Houston planned it out, then headed outside to gather scrap to feed the machine, finding a handful of glass fragments along the way and feeding those in too.
"This thing is incredibly convenient. Just feed it junk, and out come usable materials. I wonder how they even built this." Houston mused as a stream of basic metals and refined materials started coming out of the machine.
He loaded in the needed materials, selected the rudimentary chip and the multitool, and hit manufacture. "Let's see what these two turn into. Alright, now — how do I charge this multitool? Good news, it came with a battery. Bad news, it's got no charge. Oh, wait — solar charging mode. Very convenient." Houston thought with a smile, setting it outside to charge while he turned back to the scanner — feeding the rudimentary chip back in and hitting manufacture. A few minutes later, it was done,He laid the scanner besides the multi tool and after around 10 minutes it was about halfway charged.
"Alright. Let's test this out." Houston aimed it at some leftover basic material, and the screen lit up with information.
**Ceramic Steel** — *A rudimentary basic material. Decent for everything.*
"Looks good." Houston hummed, examining the readout — then, on a curious impulse, pointed it at himself.
**Unknown Model Industrial Robot** — *An industrial robot of unknown model.*
"Guess it doesn't know what I am, huh. Industrial robot, though — explains why I'm built so tough." Houston said, a flicker of disappointment crossing his robotic eyes.
He stepped back outside and found the multitool halfway charged. "This thing charges insanely fast." Houston noted, deciding to test the scanner on it as well.
**G81 Multitool** — *A multitool for all purposes. Designed by AC Tech.*
"AC Tech again. Guess that's a big corporation out there somewhere." Houston thought, glancing up at the sky and wondering when he'd finally get to see it for himself.
"Well, now that the basics are sorted — let's try building that drone." Houston thought, recalling the model shown on the printer's screen: something like a robotic spider with four legs. "This thing'll make gathering materials a lot easier. Let's get to work."
He pulled up the material list and found it needed considerably more than anything he'd built so far. "Probably won't finish gathering enough scrap until tomorrow." Houston calculated, eyeing the sheer amount of ceramic steel the build would require.