Expedition Log, Day 71
If there is a god in this horrible universe, than he is on our side. Four against eleven, and we suffered no losses. I can still hardly believe it. However, we are a little worse for the wear. Rubio went down during the fight, and Nick just barely patched his wounds in time to keep him alive. I don’t think the blood will ever leave the bedsheets. Vas doesn’t smile anymore. It seems like he’s operating sheerly on the fear of death. Hell, I thought I might lose it myself during the fight. Vas set me up with a sniper rifle in the eastern nest. Only when I arrived there did I realize it was the same nest where Hiroshi went down just six days prior. His body still lay limp over the sandbags. It took all I had not to break down completely. Still, we’re alive. Vas showed impressive command during the fight. We held M-24 sniper rifles during the initial assault, but he ordered the switch to M-16s and charge rifles when they got up close. Even Carlos hadn’t thought to do that. Reflecting, it was probably his conventional military training. But out here, we don’t have a full squad, each trained with their chosen weapon. It’s just us, and there’s nothing conventional about our situation. Vas knows that. He even had the turrets back up before I could even give the order. I suppose it’s habit by now. We also hit another stroke of luck. A traveler passed by shortly after the raid, and I had Nick detain him. Ruthless, I know. But at this point, it’s stick together, or die alone. He’ll come around eventually. We all do.
William Salt
Expedition Leader
Expedition Log, Day 72
Raiding party, southeast. This is insanity. We can’t hold this pace.
Salt
Expedition Log, Day 73
Again. We did it, again. This time, only one turret went down, we captured a raider, and not a single colonist severely injured. Well, calling them “colonists†at this point seems wrong. Perhaps...family. And who knows, maybe together, we can actually do this. Two raids with no losses. Maybe we can survive this catastrophe. Maybe there’s a reason to hope.
William Salt
Expedition Leader
Expedition Log, Day 76
Three days, and not a raider in sight. We’ve can finally breathe. We can finally sleep. Hell, I found time to clean the base for the first time in what must be two weeks. Since my last entry, our captured traveler John finally decided to join us. He’s no Tigress or Hiroshi, but he’s certainly better at tending the plants than Rubio or I. In addition, some poor soul seems to have met the same fate as us; shipwrecked on this backwater planet. Sadly, he’s a bit in denial, so we’ve had to keep him locked up for a while. I’ve talked to him a few times since he woke up, and I’m fairly sure we’ll be able to get him to work soon. Slowly but surely, the bedrooms are filling back up. I’ll see to it they don’t empty again.
William Salt
Expedition Leader
Expedition Log, Day 79
Things were going pretty well. The last captured raider and our fellow shipwreck survivor finally joined us. That brings our force back up to seven, almost as many as before. I finally felt safe again. It’s funny what a simultaneous solar flare and raider landing can do to that feeling. There’s a chance electronics will start working again before the raiders stage their assault. We can only hope. I surely have no need to repeat what happened last time we fought without auto-turrets.
William Salt
Expedition Leader
Expedition Log, Day 80
I don’t give a boomrat’s ass if it uses our last few pieces of metal, Vas will be getting a large, decorated room in the excavated mountain. The man is a god damned hero. However, I should start from the beginning. Every streak of luck eventually runs out; the raiders began their assault well before our electronics came back online. Turns out that when push comes to shove, John the farm boy and Roughchild the glitterworld lackadaisy won’t put up their fists and fight. That left Vas, Nick, Rubio, Allen, and I to man the walls. Their snipers manned the westward rock outcropping (we’ll need to expand our no man’s land), a total of six in all. Meanwhile, seven more made a rush for our lines. While repelling their blitz, lightning struck the base walls behind our central sniper’s nest. Twice. Never the same place, my ass. I’ve heard it said that luck is zero sum, but this is the first time I’ve believed it. Luckily, Roughchild came through and put the fire out, while the rest of us gunned down their forward assault; they managed to take out four disabled turrets in the process. The next few minutes were nervewracking. The raid degraded into a sniper battle, and I retreated inside, out of my skill level. Nick and Rubio joined me, breathlessly, a minute later, struggling to transform their injured hobbles into sprints. Finally, Vas opened the central door. His sheer momentum and the wide eyed look on his face said it all. I could see Allen’s body draped over the sandbags through the open doors, but there was no time to grieve. Vas fitted us with shotguns and blaster rifles, and positioned us to cover the two entryways. Vas’s last count put them at five practically unwounded soldiers to our four badly injured colonists. We sat with sweat coating our respective brows for what seemed like a lifetime...until we heard the most comforting sound. Auto turret fire. Sure enough, the lights flicked on, and everyone let out a sigh of relief. That is, until we heard the following and familiar sounds of two auto turret explosisions. Six for six. None left. Loud banging on the entry doors soon followed for the next minute, and then...nothing. An eerie silence gripped the room, and time seemed to practically stand still. No one dared move. My eyes flitted around, and a saw a group of hungry, tired soldiers, who seemed ready to drop their guns and fall asleep on the metal floor given any opportunity. The raiders were going to wait us out, and they were going to win. I can only assume Vas saw the same thing I did. Before I could encourage him to consider his own life, Vas had palmed a frag grenade and positioned himself behind the door. As he stepped forward, the door flicked open. A watched as my sole remaining partner from our original shipwreck...as our commander...as my friend...stepped into the doorway and hurled the grenade. Bullets flew, pinging the dirt and the metal, but only one found Vas, and it went clean through his shoulder. He quickly flung himself against the inside wall. Boom. The sound of an explosion. The footfalls of boots on the dirt, growing quieter and quieter. They were retreating. We survived. Vas, you god damned hero.
William Salt
Expedition Leader
Expedition Log, Day 83
Raider attack. They rushed our weak side.
Today, I buried William Salt.
Vaska Neemor
Expedition Leader