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RimWorld => Stories => Topic started by: BugPowderDust on November 21, 2018, 08:06:56 AM

Title: The Siege & The Antigrain (with pictures)
Post by: BugPowderDust on November 21, 2018, 08:06:56 AM
(https://image.ibb.co/dzpz4q/0-Base.png)

Haeron was bracing for winter. The fourteen colonists were feeling positive (apart from the two who were off their heads- more on them later), the freezer was full of food, the walls were strong, the turrets were ready.

Erisen, their chief scientist, had started to research the components of a basic ship to get them off the planet. The hope was almost tangible, morale was good.

Then another raid came. One particular nearby faction had started to get a lot smarter with their attacks- The Eaters Of Intestines. No-one knew if their moniker was truth or just a ruse designed to instill fear in enemies. No-one wanted to find out either.

This time, they dropped in at distance. Mellor, the colony's unofficial but popular leader, squinted up at the sky.
"Oh shit." he cursed.

Dickson, stood next to him, followed his gaze, grinned.
"Heh, more of these fools to kill. They never learn."

Dickson loved violence, and he was very good at it- fast and deadly. 'Thank God he's on our side', Mellor thought, not for the first time.

Thirteen drop pods had landed south of the base, and, now observing through binoculars he always carried, Mellor saw they were quite well equipped. At least two were equipped with marine helmets and one had a Doomsday launcher. He sighed, and hit the alarm.

---
(https://image.ibb.co/dRkiVV/1-Pirates.png)

Tom cursed as he climbed out of the drop pod. He hated these damn things, always hurt his back. He glanced around and scowled. Looks like all the women were fine. Of course. Nothing bad ever happened to *them*. Damn he hated women.

Out of the thirteen who dropped, eight were women- eight!! Their leader, Lucky, was going through a positive discrimination drive, and it wasn't going down well with most of the men. Of the five men in the group, two others were like Tom and really hated women and all they stood for.

He glared at Chatal, who similarly hated all men, and got to use the Doomsday Rocket Launcher. This had been Tom's weapon of choice, but now he had one of the heavy, inaccurate LMGs. Piece of shit. Oh, and two of the women, Johnston and Ally, had the coveted Marine Helmets. What did he have? A cloth tuque.

Chatal returned his glare and flipped him the bird.

Tom hefted his LMG onto his shoulder, and the group headed out to drop site B without a word being spoken. No-one really much liked each other but they had a job to do- kill the colonists, and take their supplies. If their base was any good, they would have that too.
---

"They're both....what?!" Mellor exclaimed in surprise.
"Um..Zeiph has had a breakdown, and is just wandering around punching people since him and Kimmy split up. von Schield is puking and shivering in his room- he's coming down off GoJuice." Red responded. Red was sort of his number two, a big man who was utterly reliable.
"Great" muttered Mellor. "That leaves us with twelve? Eleven as Burton 'doesn't fight'" - he did air quotes. Red nodded.

Looking again through his binoculars, Mellor saw that they were receiving another drop, in a recess of a mountain. It looked like they'd received new equipment- mortars.

(https://image.ibb.co/iEPAAV/2-Siege-Setup.png)

"Ah crap. They're going to siege us. So, we have three options. One, we go out out to them and fight them at a numerical disadvantage with terrible cover. Two, we sit back, take the beating and wait until they move in. Three, we use The Weapon." Mellor said.
"Boss, that's... untested- we don't know what it does really" responded Red. "We don't even know it's range or effects"
"We had basic instructions, and honestly, we don't have a lot of choice. Plus...I'm kind of curious about it. Once we...test it, we know what it can do. And, we may even be able to get another"
"You're the Boss" replied Red, ruefully.

Mellor ran out to the mortar. He wouldn't ask anyone else to do this.
(https://image.ibb.co/bw8sPq/3-Load-Mortar.png)
.
(https://image.ibb.co/gzb1HA/4-Targeting.png)
As he loaded and targeted the AntiGrain warhead, a shell from the pirates went over his head and impacted their store-room. It appeared to be an incendiary shell, as the store-room burst into flames. He saw his friends running to douse the flames as the shell launched after the mortar had locked co-ordinates. "Now we see" he muttered. Flight time would be a few seconds.
(https://image.ibb.co/d0NacA/5-Shell-Fired.png)

---
Tom picked his teeth as the mortars finished being constructed. The one firing incendiary shells got the first shot off. Another day, another siege. These colonists wouldn't be much of an issue, just a waiting game really. He heard a distant "crump" as their shell landed and looked up. He saw a silver shell moving incredibly quickly toward them, and opened his mouth to shout...but never got any sound out.

(https://image.ibb.co/m9n8xA/6-Impact1.png)

The impact was massive. The shockwave tore off limbs and extinguished life. Chantal was vapourised as her Rocket Launcher combusted. Tom was shredded from head to toe. Three survived the blast in the mountain recess, one of whom, Callahan, had his right arm and left leg blown clean off. He wouldn't be a survivor for long. Suyu had lost an eye with massive torso damage. Tkoi escaped without a scratch- she'd be known as 'Lucky' for the rest of her life. Three others had been constructing defences on the other side of the mountain, and had escaped  by blind luck. Everyone who could, ran screaming soundlessly.

(https://image.ibb.co/iMeAAV/7-Impact2.png)
---

Mellor gaped at the results. The shot landed a little short so not everyone had been caught in the blast, but DAMN. They had to get another one of these. He got the others together, then they went to recover materiel and the wounded






Title: Re: The Siege & The Antigrain (with pictures)
Post by: kclace on November 22, 2018, 11:06:02 AM
Wow, and I was wondering what exactly an antigrain warhead does ... now I know.

Great story!
Title: Re: The Siege & The Antigrain (with pictures)
Post by: BugPowderDust on November 23, 2018, 05:30:17 AM
Thanks :) it was my first time using it, although I had a vague idea of it's capability!