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Fifteen


The pods were down and open almost before we realised that we were being assaulted direct from space. The six pods quickly settled and six heavily armed pirates came out  firing from the hip. Lupe and myself were the nearest and we both hit the dirt as bullets zipped about. Some of the fire was from the pirates but most shots were from our fixed defences. The pirates were quickly overwhelmed, I did not even get a shot off. All the pirates were dead. They had landed smack in the crossfire zone of six fixed machine guns.

'I'm hit.'

I looked round to see Lupieri sitting up but holding a bleeding, limp arm. One of the pirates had managed to get in a shot and found a target.

'Ok Lupe, we will get you straight to sick bay and get you patched up. No more fiddling with gadgets for a few days for you.'

'The Counts been helping me, he's good with tech but don't let him near my clothes. He's seen my boots and thinks he should have them.' He said as we gently carried him to the sick bay.

We got a good haul of light armour and some weapons from the pirates. Once stripped the bodies were hauled away and we quickly buried them in the growing cemetery. We would need to devise some kind of crematorium to dispose of bodies if attacks like this were going to be the norm. I talked to the Count and he said he would start work on a few ideas whilst Lupieri was recovering. The next morning I went straight to the sickbay to check on Lupe and found a worried looking Sissy who was sitting at a small table as was checking our now small amount of meds.

She looked up. 'We need more supplies. We need to go on a major wood clearing exercise and see if we can sell it to a passing space trader.'

'Not been many of them recently and just the one slaver for a month or so.'

' Well, Lupe has not woken up yet to hear the bad news that we only have a few basics left for wound treatment and nothing now  for infection. Gotta keep that wound clean and good.'

I went to talk to Cirnernos about the timber idea and he suggested we have a joint effort of logging, him cutting and me carrying. I grudgingly agreed, he was a much quicker lumberjack than myself. He would also do the dealing when the time came. His liquid charm and loose tongue made him a good salesman. As we worked I attempted to get some background information out of him but he spotted the attempt and obfuscated with jokes and wild anecdotes. I didn't get much out of him but it did help get the arduous job of felling and lifting done.

Several days later we had gathered over 1400 units of wood and took a much needed break from tree cutting. I decided to call a meeting to discuss the buying priorities and it was decided that medicine was first then slaves to offer freedom and settlement. Weapons and armour we now had and we could sell some if desperate. The only problem was that no ship had been detected in near space for some time and without that the goods we had were near worthless.

Lupieri still had not regained consciousness and our fears were confirmed when during a night storm screams were heard coming from the sick bay. I rushed from bed near naked and realizing so, quickly half stumbled into some homemade trousers. I rushed to the source of the terrified, anguished commotion. I flung open the door to see a crazed Lupeiri thrashing in his sick cot. He was frothing at the corners of his mouth and sweat covered his face, his hair a wild mess. Jagged lightning outlined his crazed form as he writhed and shouted out a wild incoherent ranting. I hurried to the medicine stock and was fumbling through boxes when a dishevelled Sissy ran into the room.

'He's delirious, a fever, he's real sick.' I gabbled.

'I was hoping to all against this, that wound is infected. All I can do is administer a shot of sedative and analgesics. We need better medicine.'

The next few days went very slowly and still no detection of a trader. Lupe slipped into a coma.

I was doing some tidying in the kitchen when Sissy quietly came up to me.

'Lupe just died.'

Fourteen.

An hour or so later I heard voices and figures emerged from the darkness. I quickly counted them. All of my companions were all there and looked untouched. They carried a large amount of assorted weapons, armour and survival meals.

'It was easy, only one guard. He died quick and the rest soon after. Most of them didn't fire a shot back. We can go get the rest of the stuff and dispose of the bodies in the morning.' Said Cristobal. I saw he was lugging a new Light machine gun.

'Are you all ok?' I enquired.

Sissy looked up smiling.

'Yep not a scratch, didn't feel too good just shooting those sleeping men but they were out to kill us and no point in waking them all up and asking them if they wanted to surrender because they won't.'

'Is that the pirate thing, no surrender?'

'Yeah, unless unconscious, no surrender. If you surrender easily then whoever you are attacking are a whole lot harder to overcome.'

'We had better build our outpost bigger and more defended and we need more people. Maybe we should start buying and releasing slaves from the slaver ships? Ones that want to be free, that is, free to build a life here.'

'You serious?' Said Sissy.

'We could think it out and put it to a vote.' I replied.

In the morning a party went to recover as much usable material from the battle site and we started to build a few solar panels to further enhance our power supply. We also ran extra cables. We saw how easily mortar fire could cut them resulting in losing essential power. Not so bad in the case of the nutrient dispenser supply but dangerous if it was the juice to a bank of turrets.

Cristobal and Sissy got back to digging further into the hill whilst Lupe alternated between researching new gadgets and then attempting to build them. We had a few visitors at this time from another outpost a few dozen miles away. They stayed and chatted for a while. We talked of possible collaboration and trade but they were very reserved and we both gave little real information away. It was mainly just basic anti pirate talk. Just after they had left a vapour trail showed that a crash pod had landed behind a low hill. I quickly made my way to the crash site and found a man outside the pod. He was lying prone, battered but alive. I quickly gathered him up and brought him back home. I took him straight to the sickbay and Sissy took over.

I visited the sickbay later that day and our drop in guest was still unconscious. Sissy was administering some of our precious medicine.

'How's he doing?'

'OK, he will live. He does not seem to have any infections or bad wounds. It’s mainly heavy bruising and a twisted ankle. Not sure what use he will be though. Look at this'. She handed me a wallet. Inside was an electrocredit chip. It was registered to Count Frantz. This guy was a serious aristocrat. He would have been used to a life of luxury in the glitter worlds. He might be ok for hunting but what else?

'That's all we need another near useless mouth to feed.' I said as I exited the sickbay.

Over the next few days I worked in tandem with Cisernos on convincing Count Frantz to join us. He had told us of some shooting and adventuring experience so might be of some use as a guard if nothing else. On the third night of discussions and with the promise of a good room and a big gun Count Frantz joined our group.

Over the next month things went smoothly. We built another geo-thermal generator and had a sudden death to all our crops when blight hit them. Luckily we had a good crop in and the wild berry plants were in full fruit so we just replanted and carried on. Towards the end of the month we had a very odd day. I was out tending the young plants when there was a strange drop in pressure and a lot of the native creatures were spooked. All apart, that is, to the tortoises, they all went mad. Well mad as far as a large slow moving target gets. They came ambling from all directions and came in a bee line at me. I called to the others and we had a couple of hours of target practise. At the end of the massacre there were dozens of dead creatures all around the outpost. Tortoise stew was likely to be on the menu all that week.
It was as we were picking over the dead animals that a loud sudden boom overhead announced the arrival of  half a dozen assault pods heading straight for us.

Thirteen.


I was looking after our patch of vegetables which now included ripe berries when the first mortar bombs fell. The first had hit the kitchen and dining area. It was early in the morning and Sissy had been cooking breakfast for all of us. It was a job she seemed to enjoy. It was a busy part of our small outpost most days. I dropped my hoe and ran towards the kitchen. I could see flames and billowing smoke already coming from the roof; dust and broken bits were all over. As I reached the area of most devastation a second mortar fell into the vegetable patch very near to where I had just been. I felt very odd for a second and then remembered why I was staring at the gaping hole in the wall and the pile of rubble. I clambered over the pile and fell inside the remains of the kitchen. I could see that the nutrient dispenser had been destroyed and the wood table was burning with the chairs part cinder and part smashed wood. I looked around for bodies and saw none.

At that point the door to the kitchen area opened and several faces including Sissy's stared out.

'I think we are being bombarded. The pirates have changed to a new tactic.' Cristobal said stating the obvious.

'I thought you were under that.' I blurted out.

'Ahh, that's sweet. I finished in here and was starting to get on my mining stuff.'
'We need a plan. I got two rough mortars made. We can try them out and see if we can dish it back out.' Lupieri said.

'Ok, you set them up. Two of us should go and see what they are up too and how many of them there are.' Cristobal said as he was picking up his rifle.

'I'll go.' I said feeling a little too brave for a short second. I picked up my R-4 charge rifle.

We slowly entered the jungle after first camouflaging ourselves as best we could with some dye Lupeiri had made some days earlier using  juices from the vegetation. He was investigating paints but it made pretty good jungle disguise as well. The usual animals were scampering around the trees and through the brush as we carefully passed. There was no sign of the foe except a plop and whoosh of an occasional mortar shell heading towards our camp. We followed the sound in a general South direction and after a few thousand feet we heard a voice shouting orders. We stopped to listen. The voice was a few hundred feet off and was ordering shells for the mortar to be readied for use.

We crept closer and worked our way round to a point where we could see our adversaries. They numbered eleven in all and were a ragged bunch of desperado's more than cut throats. Most were armed with small pistols or improvised weapons and only one possessed an automatic rifle. We could see that they had built two medium mortars and had a good amount of ammo although not a lot of food. There was a single crate of survival meals in the middle of the lightly sandbagged gun pit. One of them was obviously injured as he lay on the ground groaning. Several others were arguing.

We retired back to camp to make a report and as we did so the first of two missiles went overhead but this time they were towards the pirates. It looked like our own mortars were ready for use. We held a short council and after a short ethical debate we decided that we should go kill them and kill them quickly and thoroughly. Wewould wait until the very early morning and then attack the pirates as they rested for the night. Considering we were outnumbered two to one we gambled that our R-4's would sway the battle. I didn't like the idea of attacking people whilst they slept but survival is all. I tried to get some sleep until my firewatcher stint but tossed and turned as I felt we would be engaging in a dirty business that night.

We assembled clothed in darkest garb we could get together and used up all Lupieri's paint which upset him until it was pointed out that it was much better used if it helped save our lives and if we didn't take out the pirates then we would have little of the base to defend. With no base there was no need for any Art. We pulled straws as one of us would have to remain behind as a fire watcher as half of the missiles had been incendiary types bursting with a napalm like ferocity.

The straws were gathered and we all pulled from Sissy's hand. I looked away and then down: a short straw, I was going  to stay behind. I felt shocked and then relived but suddenly fearful and wanting to go as if it all went horribly wrong, I did not want to be the one left behind. I did not want to face a band of pirates alone. Horrible visions of torture flooded my mind.

The hours waiting for their return seemed very long and I tried to busy myself with little chores. The outpost come base was very large with just myself wandering it. I remembered that I was on fire watching duty so I snapped out of my day dreaming and wandered around from cover to cover just outside of the camp area. The odd missile was still coming over but most burst helplessly into the cliff. I only had to douse a small fire that briefly threatened a secondary power line.

It was the minutes after the sound of a distant fire fight that were the worst. I just sat staring into the dark forest expecting pirates to burst from it in their hundreds. It was just darkness with the occasional howl of a Monkey. Then I felt better as I realised the mortaring had stopped. Had we had Won? This Time.

Twelve

We hurried over to the stricken Minstrel and between us gathered him up and carried him back to the sickbay. Sissy looked him over and saw that apart from his back injury he had also suffered a gunshot wound from one of the R-4 charge rifles in his left leg.

'I know my jokes are bad but there was no need to shoot me!' He groaned as he fell into a deep sleep.

Embarrassed I shuffled off to bed. I was the only one directing fire at that machine. I must have accidentally shot him. At some point we would have to put some rules down about gun safety as I could foresee some more friendly fire incidents whilst defending ourselves or even when hunting. The night was still wild with thundering skies and high winds so we decided to leave any investigating of the wreckage until the morning.

Thankfully the terrible weather had abated somewhat as we investigated the remains of the crashed ship part and the mechanoids. Most of the parts had burnt out during the night leaving a tangled mess of metals. We recovered a good amount of scrap metal and some silver along with an intact sealed unit that Lupeiri thought might be part of the ships computer system. We carefully extracted this and carried it back to the base and placed it into a secure area we had made as we hacked rooms into the cliff. The two mechanoids were now just hulks of twisted junk with a little recovered metal and little else. The one that Cisneros had kicked had burnt out in the rain but we could see a large dent in the panel that he had contacted with his feet. It looked as though that had destroyed delicate parts underneath and shorted electrical mechanisms.

'I saw things like these in the war museum, there are different types and they are called Scythers. Fast and deadly if not dealt with quickly. Always best to rush them. I think our minstrel has met these before. There is more to him than he is letting on.' Lupeiri said bending down and sifting the remains for further treasure.

As we were talking we heard the familiar whooshing sound as pods re-entered the atmosphere. Six vapour trails descended to the ground into the thick jungle some miles off.

'Better warn the others and prepare for more unwelcome visitors.' I said un-slinging my R-4 and finding a good look out spot in the rocks nearby.

'How's laughing boy?' Cristobal asked Sissy as she took up a position in the rocks next to him.

'He's going to recover in a day or two with the med-shots I gave him. That back needs surgery that we can't offer though. It looks like he has had that back injury for a long time and unless we get a proper surgeon he will have it for a good time yet.'

We watched and waited and shortly saw the signs of a small group of pirates advancing on the base. We stalled our violent welcome until the first of our turrets reacted to the invaders. Then we let loose with all we had. It was a short battle and in a few seconds there were six dead raiders just in front of the tree line. When we went to investigate we saw that this was a badly armed bunch with four of them using bottles filled with fuel and a basic wick, two had small knives. We were delighted to find that these two were dressed in military armour vests and one had a very attractive Iguana skin jacket, this Lupieri found fitted him perfectly. I snaffled an armour vest and Cristobal got the other one. The rest of the day was spent in constructing another geo thermal power station over a freshly discovered vent that we had found close to the base. Soon we had cables running and it felt good to have an alternative power source.

'Within a few days I think we will be able to move from the sleeping shack to our own rooms in the caves. We will all feel better when we have some space' Said Cristobal.

'Wood plank floors will be good. Those rock floors are bad for the feet and chilly.' Sissy Chipped in.

It was as Sissy and Cristobal were carving out a new room that they happened across a large vein of metal ore. The vein was opened up and the cavern that was excavated looked to be a good place to start a new battery store.  Another smaller room was made to house a general workshop for lupeiri as he had ideas about making mortars, researching improvements to our machine guns and even making the goo from the nutrient dispenser a little more palatable. By this time the minstrel was up and moving about and fool that he was he started cutting down trees almost as soon as he was out of his sick bed. We now all had a room of our own and that lifted our collective mood a fair amount. We cleared most of the rubble and laid wood floors. The outpost was now starting to look like a home.

It was early one morning when our fragile peace was once again shattered when from out of a clear blue sky a mortar bomb fell on our shack. It fell directly on the spot where Sissy was preparing breakfast.

Eleven

I awoke in the middle of the night and thought I must be dreaming as I was sure I could hear a rich baritone accompanying a tune being played on an old time hurdy-girdy. I did not know the song but it sounded like folk music from the past. I looked over to the other sick bay cots and saw that they were still occupied by Lupieri and Cristobal. I then heard Sissy laugh, clapping her hands. I was awake and not dreaming. There was someone else here. I crawled out of the sick bed and half walked and half staggered to the door. Upon opening the door I was surprised to see Sissy clapping her hands to the performance of what looked to be a medieval troubadour. He was dressed in a minstrel's motley complete with bells on his many cornered hat. He had cymbals on his knees and was holding what was indeed a wooden hurdy-girdy. His right hand worked a revolving handle as his right hand fingers found the notes on the strange stringed instrument. He stopped his playing and leapt up with a flourish of a bow almost to the floor whist doffing his cap to me.

'Cisneros at your service squire. I have decided to join your merry band as minstrel, pun maker and entertainer. I was passing this sad looking castle and I said to myself, Cisneros this is a palace that needs your mirth and your fine singing voice. A tune or three is what they need here, a joke, a pun and much merry laughing fun.' He said with a giggle and then a bent over to release a massive fart.

Sissy clapped her hands again and turned to me.

'Isn't he wonderful? He's funny and he sings and plays and is another hand to help, what with you three out of action for the time being.' She said.

'We put any new member choosing to a vote, not just invite anyone to join. Anyway he's obviously mad. Who would be wandering a place like this with just an old instrument whilst singing his head off? I am having trouble believing all of this.' I said shaking my head.

'Don't you worry lord, I do not only sing finely and play a canny tune but also cut trees and hunt wild beasts and I'm a young sixty-two sapling with many a warm spring yet to come. Although I do have a bad back that gives me a fair amount of gip from time to time.' He then launched into another song and resigned I fell into a chair to listen.

Over the next few days Lupieri had recovered enough to be up out of his sick bed and back to doing some light work. Cristobal thankfully was also recovering and was off the danger list. Sissy had found it necessary to amputate his left pinky finger as gangrene had set in and if it spread elsewhere he was likely to die. So off it came. He was indignant and cursing but came to accept to reality of the situation and thankfully did not seem to hold a grudge about it. The addition of the fool to our group had been less of a problem than I first thought it would. He was a remarkable cutter of wood and a very good hunter. Very soon he provided a great deal of fresh meat and well cleaned skins. His constant merrymaking though was getting tiresome after a while. He tended to repeat jokes, made puns of near everything and seemed to only know half a dozen songs.

One night a few days later we were all sitting around playing cards. We played with a deck that Lupieri had made from dried snake skin. Outside the wind was howling and rain was yet again lashing at the door when there was an almighty crash of thunder that shook the room. Shortly after we again heard that dreaded droning that had sent the boars mad. We dashed from the table and quickly I explained to the minstrel the danger we were in. We took up defensive positions with guns pointing at the door. We were waiting for another onslaught of pigs and listened intently for the spitting fire of our defence turrets to start, but none came. There was just the low, maddening, droning hum.

'We need to take a look outside.' Cristobal whispered.

Slowly we opened the door just a chink and looked into the blackness of the storm. Nothing. We edged outside, In the light of the jagged forks of lightning we could see the outline of what looked to be part of a crashed ship outlined against the dark night. It was just a few dozen yards from our camp.

'What the hell is that?' Sissy said.

'Is that where the sound is coming from?' Lupieri asked.

Cristobal aimed his rifle at the hulk and before anyone could stop him, he loosed off a shot and then another.'

The bullets clanged in the darkness and suddenly just a moment later two strange, fearsome robotic mechanoids burst with great speed straight at us from out of the darkness. One of them levelled a charge lance straight at me. I dived to the ground and the bolt of hot plasma missed me by just a few inches. To my left I could see Lupe and Cristobal taking aim. I pulled out my R-4 charge rifle and brought it up to eye level. I aimed carefully and squeezed off a burst and I saw at least a few hits. What shook me most though was the sight of our foolish but brave minstrel as he dashed from cover right up to one of the mechanical monstrosities and bashed if squarely on its metal snout.

'Die you tin sack of crap.' He screamed as he scissor kicked it in the area where if it had been a man, the man would be unlikely to father children. The mechanoid staggered backwards and fell over and the minstrel also collapsed rolling around. 'Oh bugger, my sodding back.' He screamed in horrible pain, oblivious to the danger he was in.

'Try and shoot the other one.' I shouted and a volley of shots resulted in the remaining monster exploding in a shower of multi coloured sparks.

'Can someone help me up, I can't move. I think I might have slipped a disc.' Moaned the troubadour as he thrashed around next to the strangely bleeping robot he had disabled.

Cheers. I think it should look ok now. I'll go back and fix the older episodes as and when I have time. Will have a new episode tomorrow.

Think they are all fixed now.

- tomorrow  ' Songs, Sissy and the Scythers!'

I will keep the story going till the end of the colony. Is there still a formatting problem for some readers with the speech quotes? If so I'll try writing them direct to the forum despite my difficulty in doing so

Ten.
It was the morning of February the fourth that we gained a new member of our colony when Sissy made it known that she wanted to join us. I had been talking to her on and off throughout the morning as I skinned and cleaned some of the smaller creatures that we had bagged around our camp. In front of me were various lumps of meat from squirrels, monkeys, pigs and even snakes.

'So you have a good amount of medical training? You can make stuff out of furs such as these and have a little mining experience?' I asked.

'Yeah I was based on a mining depot ship for Hardacre industries for a few years and took some of the free surgeon and nursing courses they were offering. It's pretty boring on those hulks and doing those courses filled up the time.'

'We could really appreciate your kind of skills you know. We can give you the first of these rooms we are carving out of the rock for yourself and one as a sickbay that you will be in charge of. Why don't you chip in?' I cooed at her. 'You will be well fed, warm and safer with a better chance of getting out of here. That boy out there thinks himself to be a genius and says he will build a rocket one day and blast off of this rock.'
She smiled and laughed and I could see that idea was obviously mad but she seemed to be thinking deeply. For a long time she looked to be turning her options over and then suddenly said. 'Ok, I'm in.'

I went and conferred with Lupieri and Cristobal.

'I trust her and think she could be a useful addition, four can fight and work better than three.' I bargained.

'She's a pirate and I don't trust scum like that. One night she will creep up and slit you throat old man.' Cristobal spat onto the floor.

'I think she's alright, for a pirate that is and will be cool.'  Lupieri chipped in.

'Well that's two to one and I count that that's a vote to free her, keep a good watch on her and well, let's just see how it goes.' I said.

'She isn't going to be any good at hauling stuff, she's a skinny streak of pee, no meat on her.' Cristobal grunted.

'She says that she is a trained medic and that she can mine, she worked for Hardacre.' I countered.

'We will see about that, she can help me and I'll be the judge as to whether she can mine or not.' Cristobal said as he picked up his tools.

I led the girl out into the sunlight and she winced at the sudden change from darkness to light. I cut her bonds and gave her the pile of clothes that had belonged to the male pirate.

'You might want to see if any of these are any good for you as it looks like we need help mining some rooms out of this rock. You can start by helping Cristobal here.'

'So you have done some mining.' Cristobal asked condescendingly.

'Yeah I did three years on asteroids and one on a comet in the dread rings.' She replied confidently.

He tried not to show it but I could tell that Cristobal was impressed. They headed off together to drill where Cristobal had already made a start. As they headed off Sissy turned round.

'Thanks for releasing me and accepting me it's a good present as it's my twenty eighth birthday today'.

It was as they were mining that a strange low droning sound started up and a odd panicky feeling enveloped my whole psyche. I staggered and held on to the bench on which I was cutting furs into strips. It was a feeling I had never encountered in the past. Part fear, part dread and revulsion with a rising panic. My head pounded and my vision wavered. I glanced around and could see that Lupieri was suffering in the same way as he tinkered with yet another machine gun.

'What's going on?' He shouted at me.

'I don't know but I think we should get inside.' I shouted back.

Thunder cracked and torrential rain fell as we started to run towards the shack. We had only gone a few metres when about a dozen enraged pigs threw themselves at us from the jungle. A pig barrelled into me and I felt it's tusk burrow deep into my left leg. As I collapsed to the floor I could see that bullets from the turret guns zinged and pinged all around me. Some were hitting the pigs, thankfully none were hitting me as I slumped into unconsciousness. As the light faded I could hear Lupieri screaming for help.

I awoke with Sissy bending over me. I could see Lupieri was bandaged and asleep in the cot next to me. Next to him was Cristobal. He was heavily bandaged. He looked to be in a bad way.

'Sorry, I done what I could, the pigs are dead or dying. Whatever it was, It's over and I think you and Lupieri will live. I think the big miner might die though, he is infected with something and after treating you all there are only a few medical supplies left.'   She said as she finished inspecting the tusk wounds in both my legs.

'Thank you. I'm glad you joined us when you did.' I said.

'So am I, It wouldn't be much good if I was still tied up and you three were dying out there full of hog tusk holes.' She grinned as she left the room.

'Men.' I heard her say as she closed the door.

Nine.

Sissy was squatting on the floor in the far corner of the cell. Her hands were clasped tightly around her knees and she was gently rocking backwards and forwards. Her eyes were not leaving the cold dark stare of the dead man who was crumpled facing her on the floor. I gently placed the food tray onto the edge of one of the rough beds we had made.

'What happened here Sissy?' I gently enquired.

She looked up at me and then back to the corpse. 'I was asleep, I woke up and he was dead.'

'Did either of the other two come in here since the last time I was here?' I asked.

'No, I don't know, maybe, I was asleep as I said.' Her voice was distant and small like a distracted child.

I bent down and closed the dead man's eyes and then started to strip him of his dirty clothing. It was as I pulled off his leather jacket that I saw the thick dark pool of Congealed blood around his waist. I probed a now obvious hole with a finger and fresh blood squirted over my hands and onto the floor. He had been hit by the machine gun here and it was a injury I had not spotted when first dressing his wounds. It was this which had done for him. I looked over his bed and saw that a huge amount of blood had seeped into the furs we used as blankets and a large dark pool had formed on the floor under the bed.

'This is my fault. I pretty much murdered him by not spotting that wound. I'm no trained doctor but I should have spotted that.' I said to no one in particular but saw that Sissy was watching me intently.

'I'm not sure if I was dreaming but I think I remember something or someone moving around in here, he was alive then as he was groaning. It was dark and I was frightened. It might have been a dream though as there is little to do but sleep when tied up in the dark.' She said accusingly.

'I will fix some lighting so you can see. Why not make a pledge to help us and join us? I promise you will be treated well and as an equal.' I said gently.

'I'll think about it.' She replied coldly and started to pick over the food.

I picked up the body and staggered out of the door with it and dumped it onto our waste pile. It could stay there until I could get a grave dug. I then went and explained the situation to the other two. A I talked I looked to see if any clue from them betrayed an interest in the death. The only reaction I got was a sarcastic one.

'So you're our self proclaimed doctor and you have managed to kill one of your two patients.' Sneered Lupieri.

'Looks like it. Just hope I don't have to slice into you, so try not to get shot.' I said as I stomped off to dig a shallow grave.

When I got to a likely spot I glanced round and could see Lupieri And Cristobal watching me and talking in low tones. Suddenly a cold feeling crept across my body. Was I wrong? Did they now think I murdered the pirate? Was one of them trying to cover up an involvement? Were they plotting to do the same to me? Was I going insane and conjouring up fantasies when the man had simply died of his wounds?

I could hear the sound of Cristobal's mining tools hammering out as he started to make rough passages and rooms in the cliff behind our rough ruin of a shack. When I had finished making the grave I stared into it for a long time imagining that it was my own last cold home that I was digging.

Eight.

I awoke to a soft bleeping sound and a strobing blue light that was flashing from our communications console. I leapt from the bed and pulled the headphones from their cradle. The ship contacting us was from the robotic weapons trading concern Boxon. The stuttering generated voice in the headphones listed the inventory of the ship. Amongst various guns and tribal weapons they had two R-4 charge rifles and that is what we urgently needed. The problem was that the price was far higher than the value of the metal ore we had found so far. I awakened my companions and told them the news.

'We need to do a good scouting of the area and see if we can scrape more material of value together, we must get those rifles if we are to hold off any serious attacks by pirates.'

They both nodded in agreement although I got the feeling that Cristobal would rather be back at his cliff face mining and Lupieri was staring at his hands.

'I will stay here and try convince the pirates to help us.' Said Lupieri.

I eyed him warily ' Ok but no funny business, no abuse. Agreed.' I said firmly.

'Sure.' He replied.

'Ok lets go off seperately and in different directions and see what we can find.' Cristobal said making for the door.

As we stepped out heavy rain was falling steadily and thunderheads were growing darker. We stopped suddenly as the gun turret to our left started to turn towards the jungle edge.

'Another pirate?' Enquired Cristobal.

We peered into the rain which had reduced visibility to a few hundred yards. A strange bellowing honking bark permiated the gloom as a flash of lightning ignited the tops of some trees a mile or so away. In the flash I saw one of the hog like creatures charging out of the brush towards us. It had only gone a few feet when the turret spat out a stream of bullets and the pig fell screaming to the ground.

'Not a pirate but dinner for tonight. Wonder why it suddenly decided to attack us, every other one we have seen has been very docile.' Cristobal said hefting a rough bag over his shoulder.

'I'll head due south and circle west back to here and you do the oposite.' he said as he strode off.

It was after dark when I returned and Cristobal was squatting on a log talking to Lupieri. A array of goodies lay on the ground in front of them. I poured out the contents of my own rough bag. We had both found nuggets of pure silver that had been scattered on the ground and Cristobal had also found some nuggets of gold. We had a dozen more pre packed survival meals, some high grade uranium ore and some more metal ore.

I made contact with the combat supply ship and arranged to swap nearly all our treasure and one of our pistols for the two R-4 rifles. I then made a call with some food on our two prisoners. As I opened the cell door I saw that our male prisoner was sprawled face down on the floor.
I checked his pulse. He was dead.

Shocked, I had to come to the conclusion that one or both of my companions was guilty of murder.

Have a colonist wearing 2 sets of power armour - also noticed one wearing two different types of duster

Performance artist colonists able to distract enemies with strange dada inspired site specific installation performance pieces using strange headpieces and weird clothing. 

Seven

It was a splendid if simple meal. I felt better being able to transport a little bit of civilization to this cesspit of a home. My companions seemed to
relax a little whilst eating and Cristobal told us a little of why he, a lowly space miner, came to be on a ship that was hi-jacked.

' I was on a recce mission for my boss, a big man in the plas-steel mining world. He had reasons to think a big asteroid of plas-steel was orbiting the glitterworld we were heading to. He didn't want his corporate rivals to figure this out so got me dressed up as a Urbworld businessman who had got lucky and shoved me some cash to splash. He told me that as soon as I got to the glitterworld I was to hire a small support ship and check out the asteroid. That's a different life now though.' He sat back and picked his teeth with a small piece of hog bone and stared whistfully at the leaking roof where drips of water still deposited a small puddle on the floor.

' This place isn't going to be much good for too long.' I said.

' Nope, we got to dig into the hill. It will be safer, less damp and will give more protection from all sorts. I think we should start in the morning.'

Suddenly he was on his feet with his gun drawn. 'I hear something outside.' He said as he crept on all fours and peeked out of a gap in the wall.
A low singing, whistling tune was being hummed, it sounded human. It did not sound like pirates.

'Well I be damned, looks like a couple of natives or something. There are two guys out there in the dark dressed in furs like bloody Tarzan.'

Lupieri and I both tentativly crawled guns ready and peered into the dusky edge of our camp. Sure enough squatting just outside the range of our guns sat two men of indeterminate age. One was humming a strange but charming tune from what seemed to be his throat. I put down the rifle and picked up a roasted leg of the hog and opened the door. Slowly I approached the men and held out the sweet smelling meat. The men approached smiling and without much fuss broke into what could only be a greeting chatter. They quickly devoured the meat. We had made some friends. It felt a lot better to know that we were not completely alone here. We had figured out with the help of some sign language and pictures drawn in the earth that they called themselves 'The Crica of Koala' or something like it. The older man was an elder called Legua and the younger man a warrior called Riesling. We got the idea that they lived about ten miles to the west of us and that they had already met and dispatched several pirates in the last few days. This convinced us that we had to build more defences and start to dig and to dig deep into the hill behind our rough shack. After a hour or so and with much bowing and back clapping the tribesmen retreated into the jungle.

'We should build a good thick wall to slow down a concerted attack. An attack could come from the pirates and we should be prepared just in case those types turn nasty.' Said Lupieri thoughtfully, 'with some of these trained on it', he patted his machine gun. He was growing up very quick. I noticed that he wasn't puffing up his quiff any longer.

It was raining heavily again as we started work again next morning. It was the ninth day we had been here. The sky was grey and a thick fog was obscuring visibility.

'At least this weather should cloak us from more pirates while it lasts. They would have great trouble locating us in this thick fog. I suggest we start on the cave first today, best not to go wandering off getting lost in the fog.' I said.

Lupieri picked up some metal pieces that Cristobal had brought back from his mining expedition and started to make more guns. I decided to check on our prisoners. The girl was awake and I gave her some of the roast pork which she hungrily woolfed down. She ate watching me with untrusting eyes and I started to try and find out more about her. If I could make her less afraid we might get ourselves a new ally. I was sure that not all pirates were psychopaths. I hoped that some were just unlucky in life and given another chance could be very useful indeed. By the time I left the hut I at least found out that her name was Sissy. 'Odd name for a pirate,' I thought as I closed the door on her. Our other friend was still unconscious but I left some meat for him, cold on the floor. I would start to work on him soon.

Six

' If we are going to get these guns working I need some fresh mined metal, there is not enough scrap around here for me to finish more than this prototype.' Said Lupieri as he fingered a freshly made auto trigger.

'That's my job then. I have been making a rough mining kit from some of the scraps and there is a small ore outcrop up north a little way I saw it when I was going to meet our new guest.' Replied Cristobal.

'Well one of us needs to go check out that new pod crash.' Said Lupeiri nervously.

'I'll go.' I said a little too positivly making me sound very nervous indeed.

'Anyway you need to stay here and get those guns going. First things first though, I have got to eat. I'll be glad if we get that stove fixed up and going. I'm getting a bit tired of these dried rations.' I picked up a packaged meal from the stack on the stockpile and slowly began to eat as I watched Cristobal head off towards his prospective mining site.

Lupieri was shaping a bit of metal, once he was satisfied he slotted it onto the side of the tripod bound gun.

'Well I think that's done, it should fire automatically if it detects any enemy. It's controlled by a chip I salvaged from the crash pod. I just hacked a script for it and; well lets hope I got it right and it don't go shooting up the wrong targets, like us for instance.' He mused.

I got behind a boulder and suggested he do the same before he turned it on. From behind our boulder we carefully peeked over the top and were relieved to see that the gun had not trained itself on us. It was just scanning from side to side. We watched for a few minutes and then suddenly it stopped scanning.'

'Aw damn, what the heck is wrong. I'm sure my script was good. My script like my art, like my reflection is always very good.' Said Lupieri as he started to rise from behind the boulder. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

'Unlike your common sense. Look, way out far in the distance to where the gun is pointing, someone is walking towards us.' I whispered.

We watched as a man walked quickly straight towards our position.

'That man has bad intent. The gun is pointing straight at him and he has not seen it.' I added.

Closer he came, ever closer, not stopping or even scanning, he looked to be armed with just a small knife.

'Get ready to jump him if that gun don't...'

My words were cut short by the suddden stacatto stutter of the quick firing gun. We watched facinated as a line of bullets hit the advancing figure right across the body. He stood still looking shocked for a second and then fell flat, flat and square on to his face.

'It works.' Said a fascinated Lupieri.

We walked slowly up to the man both pointing our weapons at him as we approached. As we got nearer I could see that he was still breathing. We gathered him up and soon he was bound by the hands, sedated and sharing our other prisoners rough cell. I quickly checked him over and found that his wounds were unlikely to kill him, so I patched him up from the med kit and gave the girl another sedation shot.

'Best to keep them quiet until we figure out what to do next with these two.' I muttered to myself as I exited the cell.

A few moments later Cristobal came bursting out of the jungle pistol in hand.

'What's going on?' He shouted.

'We had another visitor, but my Art installation here got him.' replied a proud looking Lupieri patting the guns barrel.

'Great kid, well done, that's very well done. I have found a good seam of lovely soft ore, I think we can easily make a lot of good stuff out of it. I suggest that I mine it, Walter carries it and you make more guns, a lot more guns. If those pirates we got are just scouts then we are likely to see a lot more of them before too long.'

'Ok, but we got a couple of jobs we must get done here first, like making sure those two can't get free and maybe build a basic stove. I don't think I can eat too much more survival food. If you two can get a stove built, I'll cook us all a decent meat meal.' I said.

Lupieri pulled some round objects from his pocket. 'I found these eggs under a tortoise creature, how about Pork, egg and chips?'

Five.

It was evident that we had crashed quite high up in the mountain range. The crash landing of our pods had cleared away only a little of the verdant jungle canopy. Tall spiky trees with bushy tops stood in little clumps like giant woolly matchsticks. I could see large snake creatures hanging in grotesque coils from the branches of several of the trees, as well as some moving between bushes thick with red berries. Carefully I crept up to one of the bushes to inspect the berries. They looked quite juicy and I pulled a small clump of them off a branch and squished them between my fingers. The pulp was bright, bloody red and juice dribbled from them. I picked a few and tucked them away. If they proved edible they could be an important supplement to our diet as there were many bushes full of the bright fruit. As I slowly made my way under the canopy of branches I kept a wary eye on the trees above me. I did not want one of those huge snakes dropping on me in surprise. I still did not know if any of the animals we had seen were dangerous, although none had yet taken much notice of us. I decided that I would do as Cristobal had said and try bag one of the pig like creatures. They were the most edible looking of the animals seen so far. A plump, slow moving target, just what a poor shot like me needed practice on.

I settled down behind one of the bushes and waited. Very soon a likely looking specimen wandered into view. I sighted down the barrel of the ancient rifle and 'crack' my shot rang out, echoing off the mountains around me. I looked at where my prey had been and saw that I had missed. The animal was still peacefully grazing the same patch of grass. At least the sound of the gun did not seem to register with these animals. I carefully took aim again and this time hit it in the head, it made a few odd noises and then fell on its side. It was as I was hefting the thing over my shoulder that I heard a ripping, tearing noise above me. I instinctively dropped to the ground with the dead pig on top of me. Looking up I could see a boiling, streaking line of vapour crossing the sky. It could only mean one thing another escape pod was re-entering the atmosphere. Hefting the hog over my shoulder I tried as best as I could to hurry back to Home.

I dumped off the animal near to a rough bench Lupieri had knocked together from odd ends of logs.

'Cristobal has gone to investigate the pod.' He said, looking with some distaste at the mangled head of the pig.  He looked relieved when I told him that I had some small experience of cleaning hunted animals and while Cristobal was off looking for the pod I would make a start on getting some meat from the animal, saving what of its skin I could. If I cured it well it would at least give me something to write on.

It was two hours or more before we saw Cristobal emerge from the undergrowth carrying a figure over his shoulder. He was near exhaustion and covered in sweat and small scratches. He dumped the figure on the ground.

'Guess we had better make some kind of hand and leg shackle, dig a hole and throw this one in it.' He said.

I was horrified. 'We can't do that. Why do that?'

'She might be one of the pirates who destroyed the ship, you idiot.' I felt foolish and started to blush a little.

'Of course, I was not thinking. There are plenty of psycho's amongst pirates. We will build a holding cell, putting people, pirate or not in holes in the ground is not humane. If we lose our humanity we loose everything.' I said.

'I hope she's not a pirate though, I kill pirates but she's pretty.' Cristobal leered creepily.

We gave her a knockout shot to keep her sedated for a few hours and set about building a rough cell out of a mixture of stone blocks found around the clearing, along with logs and pod remains. Whilst Lupe and Cristobal fussed over the new prison, I investigated the berries I had brought back. A quick test showed that the berries were packed with vitamins and trace elements. I extracted the seeds and immediately dug over a small area next to the potato patch and planted the seeds. Hopefully they would provide us with another source of food. It was then that another pod vapour trail whooshed down to land a few miles off into the jungle.

'Better build a bigger prison.' Grinned Lupieri.

Screenshot of colony taken just after this story point.