In the universe that the Architects have created, they created numerous laws that its inhabitants had to follow.
The law of Cause and Effect is one of them.
Arbitrarily summed up in a few words, not sleeping is a cause and brain fog is the effect.
The law of cause and effect is a whole lot more complicated than the aforementioned explanation as there may be multiple causes that influence the development of brain fog, but it served decently enough as an explanation for the law of cause and effect.
Using the previously mentioned explanation as a comparison however, when a large enough amount of influence from other sources is the cause, the generation of a rift is the effect.
The exact reason for the generation of these rifts was explored by Doctor Albert of the Einstein family of the First Civilization, but to sum it up in a way that doesn't take up half the page, Rifts are holes in the Weave that allows Aether to flow in and replace all the Aether lost to both the Void and Blackholes.
Sometimes these Rifts were large enough to allow people to enter and explore the insides of the weave that had rules but that's a story for another time.
The story for this time is a time where two grey haired individuals were in the process of a rift run.
A process that although would fulfil their needs for Aether, would also expose them to something that they are wholly unprepared to meet.
---
"So..."
[So what?]
"So do you think we can make the rest of the trip on the Driller?"
[If you have a miraculous way to make something that's on 1% power drive the rest of the distance then be my guest.] Exaggerating the swing of her limbs as she got out of her seat and bowed towards him, Ester shook his head.
"Just say that you can't do it and I'll believe your lies."
[...This bitch?]
Seeing the eyes filled with mock anger as she bonked him on the head, he rubbed his sore head for a moment before tossing Eva her kit.
"Anyways, you put on your kit Eva, I'll prep the empty crystals and the extractor."
[Power Sling?]
"If you can find them in whichever corner they're hiding in then by all means be my guest."
[You'd be surprised to see all the random shit I just found when the Project forcefully reorganized everything]
"I'll be expecting them in the same state that we lost them in the haze of bad choices and incredibly shitty drugs."
Eva shook her head. [You give someone an inch and they'll take the mile.]
"If I wasn't a greedy optimist I would be a depressed pessimist" Ester retorted, adding on soon after the words. "Also, depressed pessimists are kind of dead, or about to kill themselves."
[Point taken.]
Finishing their banter there, Ester turned his attention away from the metal legged woman and towards the task at hand.
Prepping the Extractor and the variety of different sized Aether crystals.
The variety of different sized Aether Crystals was simple enough to gather as all that Ester needed to do was grab them from his work stations drawer and dump them into the numerous pockets of the two bags.
The larger bunch of Aether crystals the size of his torso that was once powering the entire Driller was a bit of a problem mostly due to the size of its containers, but with some effort and elbow grease, Ester was able to shove all of them into one bag.
The problem was the Extractor.
Staring at the contraption, its form resembled a contemporary vacuum cleaner that he sometimes found in the mountains of trash during his scav hunts.
Of course the design of the Extractor were a whole lot different from a Vacuum cleaner as it doesn't have a removable filter module that would be replaced when to much dust accumulated, but the idea behind their concepts were similar as one sucks up dust through a mouth while the other sucks up Aether through a brush.
If there was one leading difference between the Extractor and the Vacuum cleaner however, it would be the fact that vacuum Cleaners weren't the same size as him.
There might be vacuum cleaners the same size but as of so far, Ester hadn't seen any of them.
He circled the tall contraption.
Usually speaking they would drive as close as possible to a rift then drag the Extractor forwards a few more steps before turning it on and repowering all of the crystals.
The problem here is that they were unable to do that.
This was half because Project Void Buffer messed up the terrain forcing long arduous detours around the large yawning chams in the ground and half because the drill bit that would allow them to bypass such obstacles was damaged to the point that if they tried to, they were more liable to get stuck underground.
And despite how much Ester liked being in a confined space with Eva, he didn't desire to spend the rest of his life underneath the trash of the trash planet, starving to death under mountains of plastic and steel.
'So I have to somehow shove this big ass thing onto the hover cart while leaving enough space for Eva to get on it.'
Grunting as he dragged the large machine over to where the cart lay innocently buried underneath piles of clothes, Ester shoved the clothes out of the way with a foot before placing the Extractor onto its top.
Pushing it some more so that the threat of it falling became smaller and smaller, to make sure that it stayed stock still on the hover cart, Ester procured a rope made of shirts and pants before tying it down around the Hover carts supporting struts meant for things like this.
There was a proper rope hook thing that was supposed to go through the supporting struts, but just like the Power Slings, it had been lost in the haze of bad choices and shitty drugs.
[Are you ready?] Eva poked out of the engine room bearing two power slings.
Ester raised an eyebrow, replying "As ready as a Power sling with loaded slugs. Where did you find them anyways?"
[Inside the water filter system.]
"..." He blinked. "Like inside the mess of pipes or inside inside the pipes?"
[The second one]
"No wonder we couldn't find them."
Briefly recalling the appearance of the water filtration system which was continuously repaired with half measures instead of full replacements, Ester caught the Power sling that flew his way.
Slipping his hand into the gauntlet like contraption, it fit snugly onto his clothed flesh with all the grace Tarnished and rusted metal could.
"Are we sure that these things still work?"
Ester tested the trigger and felt it resist ever so briefly before giving way when he pressed down some more.
"I don't think 2 years did these things good."
[Only one way to find out no?]
Having slipped besides him at some point, Eva's fingers snaked through his bag before retrieving two of the three remaining Small Grade Aether crystals.
Tossing one his way while taking the other for herself, Eva slotted the battery into the corresponding slot on the Power Sling, eyes dimming as it failed to produce the short scream of air it was known for.
Conversely, Ester was surprised to find that his Power Sling was still able to function as it let out a short scream when the air was forcefully propelled through the tarnished barrel.
[Lucky.] Sulking slightly as she dropped her Aether battery where she had first retrieved it, Ester locked the weapon over his forearm, slipping his hand out of the grip where Ester was able to form an opened hand.
"Ammo?"
[Here ya go.]
Tossing over a bag, Ester caught it with his left hand and raised an eyebrow when he saw that it contained mostly nuts and bolts.
Catching his questioning stare, Eva raised an eyebrow in return.
[I'm sorry your majesty, are nuts and bolts to peasant to fit your tastes?]
"Yes." Ester shamelessly replied as he tied the bag to his waist.
Eva rolled her eyes as she walked to the air lock. [Well I'm sorry your majesty but-]
She stepped across the threshold. [-you'll just have to slum it with the rest of us trashies.]
---
The surface of the Trash Planet had characteristics that were shared no matter whichever hemisphere you were.
Besides the shared trait of trash covering the lands and the brand new shared trait of chasms both big and small everywhere, the characteristic of rough terrain was shared on every single hemisphere.
There were many reasons for this but the most common one was the fact that Dumpers didn't exactly give a damn about where they dropped the trash, except for areas over bodies of water, when the Dumpers opened up their cavernous bellies and dumped trash the trash they dumped tended to be unequal in size.
There were rare occurrences where the Dumpers had the discontinued stock of some mega corp, but they were rare for a reason.
A rule of thumb is to just assume that since the ground will be rough everywhere you go, bring thick boots or thick treads.
Things that hovered were exemptions of this rule of thumb though.
'I wonder where all the Dumpers that are the prime cause for all this rough terrain are though.'
Swiveling his gaze left and right as he directed the hover board and cart past the numerous hills formed from trash, Ester's gaze lingered momentarily on the ominously spinning purple tornado in the distance before disengaging.
'It's weird.'
Ever since he could remember, Dumpers were as much of a constant in his life like the presence of poisoned air and clouds that had no end.
And although the number of Dumpers had visibly decreased thanks to Project Void Buffer, thanks to whatever Pig was calling the shots up there in Space, Dumpers continued to visit the planet already flying off of its orbit.
So no matter what, it seemed strange that there were no Dumpers no matter where he looked.
'Just where the void are they...?'
[Pay attention my one armed idiot, we're here.]
Feeling a poke in his flesh, Ester turned his eyes towards the rift and let out a sigh, his worried thoughts being tossed to the back of his mind.
"No matter how many times I see it it's pretty."
Rifts came in many different forms thanks to variety of different forces that could come together to form them, but thanks to what seemed like a mix of the electroaethermagnetic storm and pockets of gravity, the rift in front of them took the form of a tree.
Seemingly resembling those plastic Christmas trees that Ester sometimes came across during his scavenger hunts, the rift glowed brightly with ribbons of ethereal light.
Spots of light adorned the tree like decorative ornaments, shifting shapes from crystalline insects to round baubles, at the top of the tree like Rift a particularly dense concentration of light gathered like a star.
And right at the bottom of this Tree of decorative elements were box like crystals.
Stopping at the edge of the Rifts influence, Ester felt a smile climb onto his face for some reason.
---
12 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
+++
Fix your posture NOW
Now that message has been sent this Tree wants to just blabber about some stuff.
For Christmas this tree got a diary that looks as old as his great great grandfather (No clue how he's alive.), A Coca Cola shirt (Not sponsored) and a 3D printed armadillo (That is extremely fun to fiddle with.)
Something else of note that this Tree realized is that he should not get involved with card games (6 loss streak broken only by coming second last in the last game)
Merry Christmas everybody, please burn my enemies bodies in moderation since we don't want Santa to have a burnt bum coming down the chimney.
Merry Christmas again from a tree
Tree