Chapter 2: A Harsh Reality

[litenthadark]

Prologue: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=10072.0
Chapter 1: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=10119.0

March 2nd

As the sun rose, rain still continued to softly patter the ground around us. My entire body was sore from the previous day's events, but there was more to be done. First things first, I checked the wounded. Many were able to stand, while two were still unable to move. Many of them were still slightly disoriented, so I took the time to speak to each of them, getting to know them.

The one-armed woman that had helped me the name before was named Inessa. She was a civil servant from Urbworld. I didn't really get much else out of her, other than she was good with a sword. Her broken jaw made it impossible to talk, so everything that we talked about had to be drawn in the dirt with a stick. She seemed to already come to terms with her missing arm, and seemed more focused on the job ahead. As I talked to the others, she left to scout around the side of the mountain we hadn't checked yet.

The woman who had lost a chunk of her shoulder and her eye was named Aletta O'Connor. She was like me, a settler who had been determined to return to Terra to sign up to travel to a new planet. She was extremely proficient in Construction, Growing, and Mining. She would be a huge help for our group.

The man who had the misfortune of having his arm cut off and foot smashed was named Yuto Kane. He was a teacher, who traveled between colonies to teach. He seemed like a laid back guy, and really had a way with words.

The man who had been in shock about his arm was Thomas Lyver, a young Glitterworld surgeon. However, with a missing arm, it made any surgery or medical work impossible for him. He was extremely frustrated about it. He didn't really feel like he liked any of us... like he was above us.

The woman that was dragged behind the one-armed woman was Laura Green, but she told me her nickname was "Princess" among her friends. She was a housemate, skilled in all forms of manual labor, and had decent knowledge of cooking and medical procedures. She was nice, and seemed like she was ready for anything. She also had a bullet wound that had stopped bleeding, but the bullet remained lodged in her leg. Without medical supplies, it might effect her.

The last person I talked to was the one missing both of his left limbs. His name was Max Atkins. He had been traveling with O'Connor, sharing the same dream of settling on a new colony. He told me that no matter what happened, he didn't ever want bionic limbs, even if they were the only way to fix him. I nodded, and told him we would find a way.

Shortly after I finished talking to Max, Inessa returned with a box full of potato seeds. It looked like we wouldn't starve after all. We quickly began planting, knowing they would take some time to grown. However, something appeared to be bothering Inessa, and she motioned for me to follow her while the others were busy.





"What? How did they die?" Inessa pointed towards the reactor, which had a small red light pulsing on the side of it. I had only seen that light in training scenarios. It meant the containment field was broken. They died of radiation poisoning. "Damnit... ok, listen Inessa. I need you to keep the others away from here. I'm going to stop it." Inessa shook her head violently, a look of concern on her face. She quickly grabbed her jaw. Shaking her head had caused her jaw to bounce around. "Look, I'll be fine. I promise." She stared at me, then nodded slightly, but she still wore the same concerned look on her face.





I knew I would only have a few moments until the high radiation levels would kill me. I needed to do this right. Every single one of the ship's reactors were equipped with a newly developed system should something like this happen. The system caused a small internal explosion, which ejected a gas teeming with small nanobots designed to eat radioactive isotopes. It was used to clean up Chernobyl back on Terra, and from that point forward it was a requirement on all ships with a nuclear reactor as a power system.

I sprinted in the direction of the reactor, still sore and winded from the previous day. About halfway to the reactor, my head started to swim, and my vision began to get blurry. 'Fuck... I'm going to die' I thought, unsure of whether or not I was going to make it in time. I finally slammed against the reactor, unable to slow down due to how disoriented I was. I pulled myself up, only to realize that the reactor's computer had landed face up. I pulled my body up and began to climb, feeling my body getting heavier and heavier. I finally reached the top, and crawled over the warm metal to reach the computer. I typed in the password for the failsafe, and as black began to cling to the edges of my sight, the sound of gas caught my attention. Blue gas poured out of every vent on the reactor, and suddenly, i began to start getting better.





As the nanobots ate the isotopes, they also consumed the metal casing of the radioactive power core, and it began to slowly disintegrate around me. I rolled off, landing hard on my back. A few moments later, my body felt normal again, and I was able to stand. I wasn't ok, but I was good enough to walk, which was important. The reactor core was dealt with, and wouldn't be bothering us anymore. As I returned to the camp, most of the potatoes had been planted, and Inessa smiled when she saw me return. "Well look who decided to show up. Fuckin' walking around and not helping us." Yuto said with a smile.

March 3rd

A rather uneventful day. Most of us spent time gathering any metal we could find, and tended to the crops. Poor Atkins just laid on his makeshift bed, unable to move. I wish there was more we could do for him. The good news was that we had found some mining tools in a cargo container that had survived the crash. There was a wall filled with compacted steel that we would be able to use to start building a real home for us here.

March 4th

I found Inessa crying today. I sat with her for a good 3 hours and just talked. She mostly nodded, every now and again smiling or writing something in the dirt. I wanted to fix her jaw for her, so badly. But there was nothing we could do at that moment. Later that day, the other Thomas and I argued over possible ideas for food. He suggested we go out and search for another crash site. I wanted to scavenge nearby bushes for what we could find, at least till the potatoes finished growing. I won popular vote, 3-2. He wasn't too happy.

March 5th

Two strange people visited us today. They told us they were from a nearby tribe, the "Norbals". They were friendly, and told us as long as we didn't present a problem to them, we'd be left alone. Maybe as time passes, we could be friends, or allies.





I was taking a nap after a hard day of mining through more of the rock when I heard yelling. "GOD DAMNIT STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! YA LITTLE SHIT!" 'Sigh... Yuto.' I ran towards the screaming, laser pistol ready. The sight I found was far more amusing than it was scary. With one arm, Yuto had managed to climb a small tree, and a boar was at the bottom, pissed off. It smacked the small trunk with its tusks. "GET OUT OF HERE YOU SHIT!" I unintentionally started laughing, which didn't make Yuto happy.

"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU LAUGHING? KILL IT!" I fired my laser pistol at the boar. The first shot was off just to the left, and the boar did not like it at all. I turned and rushed me, and I fired two shots at its head, both connecting. It dropped like a rock, the sound of sizzling flesh filling the air. Yuto climbed down. "Next time you're getting chased by a psychotic fucking animal, I'll laugh a little too. Maybe make myself some popcorn first, sound good?" "As long as you can actually kill it, I won't mind." Yuto glared, then softened, nudging me with his arm. "Hey, you technically saved my life. I ain't complaining." "Well... what was all that then?" "It was fucking stress. Just say you're welcome." "You're welcome." He smiled and hobbled away.

March 6th

Our food supplies emptied, and the potatoes not yet ready to harvest, we desperately scavenged from bushes around the area, looking for any edible berries we could find. Luckily, in the area we found many raspberry bushes. About 4 hours of harvesting later, everyone had eaten their fill of berries. Only problem was, we still had about a day on our potatoes, and our food stock was still completely empty. Thomas was infuriated.

"I don't know which one of you imbeciles made him lord of our little village, but as you can see, his naivety of our current situation is going to get all of us KILLED!" "Thomas, calm down. We put it to a vote. Your idea lost. It's that simple." "No, it's not that fucking simple! Your grand idea to scavenge for food bought us a day. A DAY. I hope you'll be this cheery when we start dropping like flies from starvation. In fact, let's put it to a vote which one of us drops first, huh?"

Princess interjected "Look, we all need to relax. You both had good ideas, but maybe searching for other crash sites tomorrow might be a good idea, just in case." I nodded, agreeing with her. There wasn't as much food as I thought there would be, and this situation was getting out of hand. "Glad to see all of you have finally realized that I was right to begin with." He smiled smugly. Yuto punched him. Hard. "Listen you fucking prick. This is not a contest. This is SURVIVAL. If you can't get your head out of your ass and start working WITH us, you're fucking gone. We don't need an asshole like you weighing us down with your negative attitude and fucking intelligence tests." Thomas stayed on the ground for a moment, surprised at what had just happened. Finally, he stood up, and walked away, sitting down about 100 yards from the camp. I decided it was best to leave him alone.

March 7th

We had spent the entire day searching for food, other crash sites... anything. But we found nothing. We were exhausted, sore, and hungry, and had almost given up hope. Then, as the sun began to go down, Inessa pointed something out that had just broken through a small cloud. It was a cargo pod! "It's landing in the next clearing! C'mon!" Princess sprinted ahead, and all of us felt the same second wind that she did. Even with a bullet lodged in her leg, she still moved insanely fast. Reaching the crash site, we quickly extinguished the few small fires that had started, then set out checking the crates. "YES!!!"





Canned food, and lots of it, greeted our tired eyes. We began to haul it back towards camp, the second wind we had felt when we had seen the pod starting to fade. Thomas and Princess decided to lay back down, while I ran back to the crash site. Inessa was still there, and when I got there, I saw her trying to eat. It was heartbreaking. She had the can open, and could only pour a little of the food into her mouth at a time, and carefully swallow it. As I walked up to her, her eyes widened in surprise and she stopped eating. "Inessa... it's ok. You don't need to be embarrassed. It's temporary, ok? We'll get your jaw fixed." Her head dropped, and she carefully continued to eat as I filled my backpack with cans and set off back towards camp.

March 9th

Things are finally starting to look up for us. We harvested the potatoes, and managed to build a working cook stove, as well as a solar panel to turn sunlight in electricity. Food would no longer be an issue for us. The wall we constructed out of steel would keep out the cold and the rain, and allow us to feel a lot safer. Hopefully, things get better from here. Also, another group visited us today. Not sure who they were with, they just said they were checking us out to make sure we weren't planning on attacking anyone. They were friendly enough and left without any incident.

March 12th

We finished the cold fridge. It was just a simple room, airtight, with a cooler to make sure anything inside was frozen. This would keep food from spoiling, and allow us to stock up in case anything were to happen. Also, an eclipse has started, leaving us without extra power. We're running on battery power now, but luckily the only thing we have on is the cook stove. Thomas suggested we leave the cooler off for now. I'm sure a day or two won't spoil any of the food we have in there.

March 14th

I heard gunshots this morning. Everyone else slept through them because of the rain, but I distinctly heard a lot of gunshots. I stepped outside for a minute to make sure. All I knew was that if the source of those gunshots decides to cause problems here, I would have to deal with them. No one else is going to die.






"THOMAS! Come quick!" I dropped the food in my hand and followed O'Connor outside, looking at what she was gesturing to. A naked man carrying a rifle. He appeared disheveled, and had two bullet wounds in his side. It looked like he had been bleeding for awhile, but that didn't seem to affect him. That's when she caught my attention. Inessa was hiding behind a tree, not too far from the man. My vision narrowed, and suddenly nothing else mattered but stopping him. I ran, and ducked behind a natural corner in the rock.





"OH HO HO, ANOTHER TOY FOR MY COLLECTION! I WONDER WHAT I'LL DO WITH YOUR BODY! MAYBE STRING YOU UP BY YOUR FINGERS AND SEE HOW LONG THEY STAY ATTATCHED!" I stuck my head out, trying to get a good look, and a chunk of rock inches below my head shattered. "NO NO LITTLE PIGGY. DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO HURT DADDY." I turned around the corner, fired a few shots, and ducked back. One shot had hit the man in the stomach. He screamed, then fired again, the bullet sending dust and rock in the air around me. 'That's a long reload time...' "STOP PISSING DADDY OFF LITTLE PIG, OR DADDY WILL JUST HAVE TO KI-" Not wanting to hear his voice any longer, I turned around the corner and fired my weapon till it needed to recharge. He was dead, his face and chest a steaming pile of liquefied skin.





Inessa looked towards me, a strong expression of thanks on her face. My heart was racing, and my adrenaline still pumping as I walked back towards the camp.

April 2nd

Side note: Months are only 15 days... or 14 in this game. One of the two. I don't remember.

Things are really coming together. We have three real bedrooms now, which were given to Princess, O'Connor, and Inessa. Thomas grumbled about it for awhile, but got over it once Princess sent him a flirty wink and a thank you for letting her have the bed. Everyone is smiling today, and cracking jokes. Even Atkins, who has been stuck laying down for so long had some comments on how crappy Yuto's arm hole looked today "WELL LET'S SEE YOU CHANGE BANDAGES WITH ONE FUCKING ARM" "I can barely move. I have the pretty ones do it for me." I hope that this continues.

April 5th

The power went out early this morning. We got a little carried away with finally having light again, and didn't realize that the single solar panel was unable to store enough power during the day to keep everything lit up at night. This was going to be an issue. However, on the plus side, we finally had a small medical room. Atkins has already settled in, and we gave him a notepad from my old drop pod to write on. He has an amazing knack for artistry. He sticks the drawing to the walls using some glue mixture Thomas came up with. At least he has something to help pass the time.

More gunshots. This time it sounded like at least 4 or 5 different guns. This was bad. I remembered seeing a military crate crash on the night I landed, so we sent Inessa and Thomas to check it out. They came back with several weapons. I remembered how Inessa mentioned she was good with a sword, so I handed her the blade they found. Thomas, who was a natural shot, received one handgun, while O'Connor, a decent shot, received the other. Yuto picked up the single shot rifle from the crazy man we had killed a few days ago. We spent a few hours constructing sandbags, and set up watch. Then, we spotted them. A group of six armed people, headed towards our camp.





Inessa took up position inside the door, waiting just in case any of them found their way inside. O'Connor, Yuto, Thomas and I set up behind the sandbags, ready for a fight.

(continued in reply)

[litenthadark]

It happened faster than any of us were ready for. Bullets from a rifle at long range began smacking against the sandbags. We returned fire, aiming at any of them that were brave enough to move out of cover. Yuto took a round to the shoulder, but kept firing. O'Connor took a particularly nasty hit in the chest, but sat up, returning fire. "YUTO! Get O'Connor inside, NOW!" "No! I'm fine! Just keep fucking shooti-" Another round struck O'Connor in the neck, then another in the lung, almost simultaneously. He fell on his back, gurgling as blood poured out of his throat. "FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Yuto was hit again, this time in his good arm. The next bullet grazed his head.

Two of the pirates were dead, but fire was still coming from a rifle that was well out of our range. O'Connor had stopped making noises, and was still. One pirate got brave and ran from cover. Thomas stood up and fired, pumping three rounds into him, from chest to head. "Nice shot!" "Thanks!" Thomas ducked back down, and the top of his skull suddenly exploded, covering Yuto and I in blood. "GAH!" Another round hit Yuto in the stomach, and he fell, writhing in pain. I quickly grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him through our colony doors. Inessa's face was already plastered with worry, and seeing Yuto's bleeding body and the trail of blood that followed him turned it into fear and anger. She hid next to the door, and waited.

As soon as a pirate started trying to break down the door, Inessa opened it, and a female pirate ran inside. She completely missed Inessa, and ran towards another door, attempting to pry it open. Inessa ran over, and growled as she swung her sword at the woman. The woman took a nasty slash to her arm, but attempted to hit Inessa with her weapon. Inessa deftly blocked, but the weapon smacked against Inessa's hand. That was going to leave a serious mark.





Inessa finished the woman off, running her sword through the woman's stomach. The woman yelped, then let out her last breath. Her comrades, upon hearing her death scream, began to run. Inessa, charged with fury, chased after them. "That crazy bitch has a sword!" "Fucking hurry up and go! We need to get back and report this to the others!" Inessa caught up to one of them, and stabbed her in the leg, forcing her to trip and fall. "MELLOR! HELP!" The man simply kept running, ignoring her cries as Inessa shoved the sword into her skull.






As Inessa slowly walked back to the camp, I walked out of the infirmary and outside. She looked at me, then at the bodies, and broke down crying. I grabbed her, and didn't let go until she stopped. Princess cried as well when she heard about what had happened, and Atkins... He simply told me to leave. That man seemed steely enough to get through a lot, but he knew O'Connor personally. That had to hit him hard. Yuko was unconscious, but Princess said he would recover. He was a tough bastard.

April 6th

On the morning of April 6th, we buried Thomas and O'Connor. We decided it would be best to bury them on the south part of the lake. The ceremony was short, and I even helped Atkins out so he could be there. No more tears were shed. Everyone had already shed enough.

I keep thinking, what if there was something different I could have done? What if we had been smarter? Or had better defenses? Then maybe they would still be alive.





Something hit me though. Something I'd been fighting against since the second I touched down on this unknown planet. The harsh reality of our situation was that no matter what, no matter how hard we tried... we were already dead if we didn't find a way off of this planet.

[End of Chapter 2]


Hope you all enjoyed chapter 2! I really enjoyed writing it, and hope to see more feedback! Thanks for reading!

Prologue: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=10072.0
Chapter 1: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=10119.0

[Mechanoid Hivemind]

Get chapter 3 out asap!!!! i almost cryed at the end

[litenthadark]

I really would like to get more feedback before i post chapter 3. What do you all want to see more/less of? Do you like the current storytelling style? Do you enjoy how i develop the characters? I want to make each of these chapters enjoyable for everyone, especially since they are long and do take a bit of time and thought. I don't want it to sound like I'm demanding attention, I just want to write stuff that other people enjoy reading as much as i enjoy writing

[apljee]

What mods are in use?

[Katavrik]

Great story. The pirate raid is really dramatic, since i know how the CombatRealism works. Those colonists survive crashlanding, but were killed in a raid.

[litenthadark]

What mods are in use?

AdvancedLamps
AutoHauler
AutoHuntBeacon
Biodiversity
Canned Food
CentralHeatingMod
CombatRealism
CombatRealismDefence
Core
CrashLanding
Crawlies
EdBInterface
EdBPrepareCarefully
EDC_Trader100
EMPpistol
ExtraResearchTables1.4
GCRD-Auto Doctor
GCRD-Core
GCRD-Source
Industrialisation
LessIncidentTrolling
Mechanical-Defence-2-Master
MoreHair
Norbals
ProjectArmory217 (Modified for Combat realism)
SurgeryExtendedAndBionics
Turret Collection
VeinMiner

That's all of them :3

[litenthadark]

Great story. The pirate raid is really dramatic, since i know how the CombatRealism works. Those colonists survive crashlanding, but were killed in a raid.

Yeah. I felt that it was too simple to explain who died and how. I wanted to do a play by play of the combat, making sure it felt and read as real as possible

[tuver]

+1; I think what you are doing is working fine.

[litenthadark]

+1; I think what you are doing is working fine.

Thanks man

[MyNameIsSpyder]

GJ

[Dante King]

I love it! Better than my stories