Brandon, Squirrel Slayer!

[muffins]

It was the second year after landing and the original colony had grown to some 30+ members. Brandon, one of the first three colonists and a god-like miner and unofficial mayor, was given an uzi so he could defend himself on this rough planet. Brandon wasn't in the militia and had no military experience so had little skill with a gun, however no-one wanted to risk losing our top miner. Hence he was given the gun.

A brutal heatwave struck in early summer and the half-completed cooling system and ventilation shafts had to be finished in a hurry. One such ventilation shaft to the north on the colony was currently unfinished and unsealed and would allow enemies to bypass our defences completely and enter the colony itself. Not a problem we thought. We'll just plug the hole if a raid comes.

Then we got a warning that some of the squirrels had gone psychotic. Unworried, we turned the colony's defences on and posted a guard at the hole. I mean, they're just squirrels ... right?

After a little while our guard, fully kitted in power armour and toting a charge rifle, was screaming for backup. A group of visitors were being attacked by squirrels just outside our north gate ... a lot of squirrels. Dozens and dozens of them. They were swarming the visitors in a furry wave of teeth and claws.

The visitors all fell to this heaving wave of biting, scratching psychotic squirrels, but their deaths gave us just enough time to get four more people to the opening. Only one was militia, and one of the civilians was Brandon, our god-tier miner and mayor. Others were running to the opening but the colony was a sprawling hive so those five took on the first wave of squirrels by themselves.

Five colonists with automatic weapons against a bunch of squirrels? What could go wrong? I mean ... they're squirrels ... squirrels.

They lined up across the opening to the ventilation shaft and sprayed lead at the squirrels as they came on. However, there were just so many squirrels, and they just kept coming! In a moment our five brave colonists were being swamped by dozens of squirrels. one militia guard fell and the other was in a bad way ...

"Withdraw! Quickly! Down the ventilation shaft!"

The second militia guard didn't even make the shaft, while our best grower fell only a few paces down the shaft herself. Brandon raced down the shaft, clambering over rocks with a mass of squirrels close behind him, and took cover behind a rock just outside the hole in our defences, determined not to let any squirrels enter the colony. The other colonist still walking was too badly injured to fight so staggered past Brandon, bleeding everywhere, heading for the hospital.

There was only room in that ventilation shaft for one person. That was Brandon with his uzi. Five more civilians managed to get to the hole as the squirrels poured down that ventilation shaft, but all they had was a Lee Enfield, a pistol, a club, a short sword and a knife. They crowded the hole in the chamber north of the ventilation shaft in the hope that they could mob any squirrels that got past Brandon.

Brandon held his ground and sprayed non-stop death down that shaft. Squirrels died in the shaft, squirrels died in the hole to the colony, and seven squirrels alone died on the very rock Brandon was taking cover behind. Only four squirrels got past Brandon and they mauled three of the five civilians guarding the hole pretty badly before going down.

When it was all done, 42 squirrels were dead in total, of which around 30 died either in the ventilation shaft or in front of it. Had the squirrels gotten past Brandon they would have mobbed the disorganised defence in the colony's hallways and passages one colonist at a time. Brandon single-handedly saved the colony.

The hospital didn't have enough beds to treat all the wounded and three colonists almost bled out. A mob of squirrels can cause a huge number of injuries to a single colonist. However, no-one died and no-one lost body parts.

Brandon, you're getting a bedroom made of solid gold.

Here's a screenshot of the aftermath.

[muffins]

However, no-one died and no-one lost body parts.

It seems that I spoke too soon. Our top grower (with 20 skill) who went down in the ventilation shaft must have caught an M16 round to the head in the initial panicked crossfire at the shaft entrance. She can barely walk with just the 30% of brain left in her noggin 

[popster99]

wow just wow

[milon]

Brandon is my hero!