The Frozen Wastes of Zaurak ->Chapter Two: Desperate Times

Started by Vaporisor, May 11, 2016, 09:55:28 PM

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Vaporisor

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue: The Frozen Wastes of Zaurak
Chapter One:  Building Walls
Chapter Two: Desperate Times


Hi there everybody!  I had a fair bit of fun with my first roleplay story project with the convicts and am liking the story progress with the choose adventure, I have decided now is the time to do my most extreme story yet since the psychopath chronicles wrapped up.

This time, it is a third person narrative I hope to do in a novel style.  Less images unless necessary, and more writing and descriptive imagination.  I have had a seed concept on back burner for a very long time.  So incoming is what I feel is the most extreme play I had found and hope to share it all with you.  To bring the harshness that keeps me loving rimworld so much.  I have no idea how it will go, or how it will turn out, but it will be great! 

I do not know how long it will turn out or how long it will take.  But the time spent writing on the other two far exceed the gameplay time.  I hope that this results in a short story anybody can enjoy.  If at any time you have questions or feel information is lacking, just give a shout, will try to work it in for you!

So without further delay, I am going to be starting writing the prologue in just minutes here, thought it probably will take a fair bit to get it finished and posted.  To help in knowing when I add more chapters, I will edit the main title to state the most current one.
Stories by Vaporisor

Escaped convicts!
concluded
Altair XIII
Frozen Wastes

Vaporisor

#1
PROLOGUE:  THE FROZEN WASTES OF ZAURAK

"Come now my goat, I have done these trips multiple times, what do you fear?"

"I fear not the trip my lady Emma.  However I am sworn to serve you and the thought of leaving that duty to another does cause me fear.  For any misdeed towards you is my responsibility, even if in suspension"

The two walk towards the ship in the hangar.  It is quite small compared to the others around.  The craft is a specialized one designed for travel between remote worlds.  This style ship is sometimes referred to as a tomb ship.  One that carries the dead to a new life.  Once common several hundred years ago, advancements in technology and development in the core has seen their use nearly disappear.

The goat looks at the other ships.  Sleek and stylish liners that whole families can travel with without needing sleep.  Advancements in hydroponics and engines make travel between most systems done within a year or two.  Communications systems permitting messanges to be delivered within days from these advanced ships to the glitter and urban worlds.  In some of the more advanced trade lanes, it is even possible to hold direct communications with only minutes of delay.

Their ship however was bare skeletal plasteel.  Within it's lattice lay the cryptosleep sarcophagi tomb chambers and the barest of passageways between them and the control room.  It reminded the goat of the rodent tubes that he had seen in the animal stores.  Tubes, sleeping area, and a small captains area. 

The goat seethed with resentment.  While others at the mansion got appointed to lavish luxuries befitting of working with politicians, actors and great scientific minds, he was stuck being the pack animal for an eccentric writer.  One who felt a whim to head out to the wilds to find a new muse.

The young goat watches as a lady walks towards them from the direction of ship.  "Greetings!  You must be Emma and Andreu!  Ship is all ready for your trip to the rim!"

Emma lets out a shallow cough, "Ahem, that is Ms. Rhiadra to you and no need to be formal with the indentured.  You may refer to him as Goat.  Who might you be?"

"Ahh, sorry about that.  My name is Veronika.  Veronika Beasley!  Feel free to call me Beasley!  Pleasure to meet you.  I am the janitor for this here ship.  Oh!  But don't let the title fool you!  Technically the computer AI and the maintenance mechanoids are the ones that run the ship, but I keep it all going smoothly and squared away.  For over three hundred years I have watched over this ship!"

Goat stammers, "Three hundred?  How old are you?"

"Now now, not polite to ask a lady her age.  But I was born on the standard galactic year of 5089!  Most of that has been in the crypts of course.  Honestly, I sort of pity you young people.  Seeing five hundred years of development has been grand.  This ship is like having a time machine without the fiction!"

"Quite interesting.  Now if we may, we are getting older standing here.  Can you show me to my bed?  I have fans that are willing to wait the decades for my next book, but I doubt they will be so patient if they knew it was spent gabbing with you."

"Very well, if you can come with me."  Veronika leads them to the access hatch of the ship.  "Mind your head, it is an older model.  Built for travel, not for comfort."

The three walk under the ship to the ladder leading into the structure.  The tube measure approximately a metre in diameter.  Goat is surprised as to it's actual size once at the ship.  The design is an old style tug.  At the lead is four story tall antimatter reactor with twined thrusters on each side.  Trailing behind is the scaffold system.

"So safety and rules.  Even though you will be entering cryo before we leave dock, please head straight to your rooms in the middle level. We have four rooms which you can see to either side of the spine tube.  Two on left, two on right.  I ask you take the rear two since I will need one of the forward rooms for the trip.  I will have to periodically get up to access the ship so a close proximity to reactors and the service riser is helpful."

"You will notice that each tomb has an escape pod hanging from below.  Do not go in the escape hatches at all!  They are automated.  If you sit down, they will seal up and lock.  You cannot just open them.  The only way to open is by hitting the explosive releases.  In which case, we will need to get a new pod in and that will delay departure.  The riser to the top level?  Do not go up there.  That is where the AI core is as well as all the power systems.  It is crawling with mechanoids.  Go the wrong place and you can get yourself cooked."

"Your lecture is not needed.  I have no intention of knowing more about this ship other than going to sleep, and waking up.  Come along my goat, we have work to do.  Let us sleep and in a few minutes, we will be on a new world to experience new stories to share with the core!"

Beasley leads the two into the ship and opens up the hatches to their rooms consisting of a crypt standing upright with a hatch on the floor.  "Should an evacuation occur, this main door will seal and that hatch door there will open.  Just jump in and hit the only button right in front of you.  That will strap you in and then hang on for the ride.  Believe me, if that is open when you awake, don't wait to ask questions."

"You are filling me with confidence Ms. Beasley"

"No need for formalities, just Beasley will do!" Beasley says with a smile.

"No, to not show proper respect would be unfitting of one of a goat.  You will continue to address her properly."

"Yes, my lady."

But now, is time to sleep.  Lie down and once I have confirmed you both are secure, I will then turn control over to the AI and we will be on our way.  See you in a couple minutes!"

Rhiandra is first to be placed in Cryptosleep, followed by Andreu, the 'goat'.  Anxiously he awaits his first cryptosleep.  What will it be like?  Dreams? A long sleep?  Will it take long?  He blinks a few times then his eyes gets tired and he closes them for but a moment.

Andreu is suddenly deafened by the shriek of tearing metal and banging.  Alarms are wailing that the soft lighting of the room is replaced by a bright red glow at his feet.  Panicking, he steps out and finds himself floating over a pit!

"Both of you!  GET OUT NOW!  GET IN YOUR PODS!"

Andreu panics and does what the disembodied voice says.  He grabs the handle on the hatch in front of him to pull himself into the pod.  His feet slide into a pair of tubes that immediately latch onto his legs once the feet reach bottom.  In front of him is a large red button glowing brightly.  He presses it.

Large straps deploy across his chest and cinch him in while bars press down onto his shoulders.  His vision goes red as he suddenly is shot downwards.  After several seconds, the forces end, and the disembodied voice comes back.

"For the love of transcendence! What the hell was that?  Hang on everybody.  The system didn't have time to properly scan where we are.  I have no idea where we are going to land, hang on for turbulence, we are about to enter the atmosphere!"

The pods begin to rock violently as they come into contact.  The interior temperature beginning to rise rapidly despite the heat shielding.  What was a roar of breaking the atmosphere at supersonic speeds become deafening as pumps and coolant canisters vent to prevent the occupants from cooking.

Andreu's mind is in a whirl.  He just got on the ship.  Now his head is swimming with overload of noise.  A headache from the blood rushing in as they launched.  Now he finds himself feeling quite heavy as though he is being crushed into the floor of the pod.  Despite the anti g-force pressure from the leggings, he soon blacks out.

He wakes up, his head spinning.  A harsh thump clears his mind and he realizes the whole pod is tumbling then stops with a thump.  It bobs itself vertical and stops. 

The voice starts again, "Everybody, stay in your pods as I check conditions.... Oh no..." the comms cuts out.

After several seconds, it starts speaking again, "When we hit these doors, we are going to have to work fast.  We are at an elevation of six thousand meters so air will be very thin.  We will have a very short window to get our shelter set up before hypoxia kicks in."

"I hope this is wrong, but I am reading an outside temperature of minus ninety-two celsius.  We will be dead within the hour if we do not get ourselves secure."
Stories by Vaporisor

Escaped convicts!
concluded
Altair XIII
Frozen Wastes

Vaporisor

#2
CHAPTER ONE:  BUILDING WALLS

"I don't get it.  This isn't possible!  The pods are supposed to lead us onto habitable lands.  This isn't even survivable let alone habitable.  Give me a minute to get a read on our surroundings.  The pods can protect us from the elements for a bit, but we cannot stay in them.  Especially once we pop the hatch"

The pods whistled as the cold air surrounded them.  Their hulls pinged and crackled as they rapidly cooled.   As the minutes went by, frost started to form in small pockets on the inside of the pods.  The retaining harness cycled heat directly to the body, but the air started to rapidly cool.  The ceramic insulation mostly consumed or damaged on final landing.

I am going to die!
I am going to die!
I will freeze to death! 
Become a corpse!

"Ms. Rhiandra!  Be quiet.  We will get out of here, but we have to work together as we only have a short window.  The command system jettisoned some basic shelter materials and they landed to the south of us.  They are not designed for this weather though.  I am reading some sort of structure to the south of us.  It seems to be exposed to the elements, but with our supplies, we might be able to seal it up and start a fire for some heat."

"But you don't understand, I-"

"I do understand.  The rate these pods are pumping heat, we will out of power within an hour.  We get out, we get covered, then we can go from there.  Goat, you and I will focus on sealing up the structure.  Rhiandra, you will get the fire going."  The small info monitor on your pod is removable.  It will lead you to your supplies and to the waypoint I set to the structure.  Do not hesitate at all.  We have maybe an hour before we are too cold to work.  On the count of three, blow your hatch, and run!"

"Three"
"Two"
"One"

The hatches shot off with a blast and at the same time, the restraints opened.  The shock of the cold air hitting felt like a wall.  They gasped for breath, but felt no air.  To Beasley, it is what she imagined being jettisoned into the vacuum of space must feel like.  Even ready for this, she found herself falling to the ground.

Her hands started to freeze almost imediately upon contact with the surface.  Recoiling, it was then she realized they were not on ground, but were on ice.  Glancing, she saw the other two.  Andreu was struggling to get to his feet while Rhiandra was huddled into a ball inside her jacket.

"Move!  NOW!"

Rhiandra grabbed the survival pack out of the base of her pod and ran over to the supply pod arriving same time as the Andreu.  "You grab that pack and set up the door, I will take this one which we can use to patch the walls."

"The sun's out.  How can it be this cold?  Where are we, I can hardly breathe!"  He glanced over towards the nearby structure and saw a hunched over figure with a pack flung over their back run into the building."

"We will figure it out later.  We don't got the gear for this.  Lets move"

The structure was a small stone building.  Andreu found the remains of a doorway on the southside and set about placing a new one while Beasley put covers over the holes the broken wall sections.  It was all done in less than an hour but already frostbite was setting in.

"There, the wall's fixed.... come on... warm up... that is a massive fire and even it can't keep this place heated? Rhiandra, can you- Rhiandra?"  Beasley looks over and spots Rhiandra collapsed by the fire.

Beasley hurries to by the prone figure, "Andreu, get over here!  She's got severe hypothermia, we gotta get her closer to the fire!"

For the next couple hours, the trio stay huddled in the confines of the building trying to build back up some warmth.  Eventually, the fire manages to gain advantage over the cold and they start to gain some heat.  Eventually, their unconscious companion comes to.

"Welcome back to the living.  Care to tell us why you are only wearing your jacket?"

"I wanted to be comfortable as I slept, that is all.  How was I supposed to know that we would end up crashing onto a planet that is cryo storage in itself?"

"You have done travel before, I figured I didn't have to explain basic protocols.  Either way, we only have a couple weeks of meals before we completely run out.  It looks like we landed straight on top of a massive glacier of some sort, but there are many peaks sticking up above the ice sheet.  If we can seal off and heat up some of that, then we might have a chance."

"How can I help?" Andreu asked, speaking for the first time since they finished securing the ruins.

"We have more shelter supplies as well as some fabrication tools.  Basic survival kit stuff.  Feed in basic alloy bearing rocks, and it will output a woven structure to what we need.  From walls to doors, all we have to do is lay out the grid and operate it as it fabricates out the structure we need.  We can make use of that to extend the walls of this building out to the cliff face and put up a roof.  After that, we set up some power and heaters, then maybe get some fast yield crops into whatever ground we can thaw."

"And what about me?  I cannot go out there dressed like this!"

"You have to, we all have to pull our weight or we all die.  If anybody is going to die, it will be the one least contributing first.  I recommend you get out there and haul."

"What?  Me?  Hauling stuff?  Never.  Goat, you haul us material, I will work with the wall.  That way when I start freezing to death, the shelter is nearby.  you have clothes on, you can run back to the pods and get the junk."

"Whatever, so long as you are working.  You okay with that Andreu?"

"Don't call him that!  He is lower class and you dare address him-"

"We are going to die and he works harder than you, I will address him how I feel.  ...Rhi-an-dra...  Andreu?  Can you bring the supplies here and keep an eye out for other useful stuff?  This didn't appear to be the only ruin, there might be more."

"No problem.  I got it covered.."

"Harumph...  Just hurry up so I can get to work then, goat."

Rowr?

"What the-" A startled Rhiandra asks, "A cat?"

"Yes, this is Rosebud.  My traveling companion."  Beasley coos to the white cat, "Poor lil' boy lost his ears to the cold."

"Well, your cat, his food comes out of your rations then!"

For the next two days, the party hurries to establish a perimeter wall to the mountain as well as build some solar and wind generators.  Overall, it takes four solar panels and two wind turbines to stabilize the power system and start heating the small space.  The whole time, the limited supply of fuel logs dwindle rapidly with the size of fire required to keep them warm.  Eventually, and with the help of five heating elements, they are able to keep the cold at bay long enough to plant some basic food crops.

"Hey guys!  Good news.  I was finally able to extract the drives from my pod!  There was damage to the connector which is why it never uploaded to my pad.  For now I cannot get the data, but with some work, I think I can devise a way to rig it up so we can get the data. "

"Well, that is a relief.  I want off this rock.  I already have enough information for a whole series of novels.  If you get us back, I will make you rich!"

"Knowing where we are is the easy part.  But letting somebody know where we are and getting off is something else.  Remember, we were heading to the rim.  It could take years to scrounge up the equipment and materials to build an interstellar transponder.  Even longer to get a transmission to somebody.  No, unless somebody is looking for us and comes close enough to pick up the pod beacons, we will never be found."

"You really have to work on your people skills, you know that?  This place is intolerable enough as it is without your positive motivational speeches."

"Is realism.  If you keep to your delusions, it is only a matter of time until you snap.  You snap, and I snap.  Get it?"

QUIET!"

"WHAT?"  Both women shout in unison?"

"Do you hear people?"
Stories by Vaporisor

Escaped convicts!
concluded
Altair XIII
Frozen Wastes

Vaporisor

((Hi hi!  Sorry about the delay.  Some real life stuff came up.  These take a bit of time to write so this and the other got delayed as that stuff got sorted out.  It did interrupt my train of thought so this chapter is a little smaller and a bit heavy on dialogue, but I have some good gameplay notes now. 

I have info and synopsis for a couple new chapters and hope to be back to a regular schedule.  The oops when I was starting out, I was able to correct and Rimworld has given me some excellent inspiration now.

But about the delay?

I am terribly sorry folks :'( ))

CHAPTER TWO:  DESPERATE TIMES

"There is nobody out there.  There cannot be anybody out there.  Why would anybody be out there?" Scoffed Rhiandra, "It must be the wind."

"Ma'am. There is no wind.  The skies are clear and air is so cold that not even clouds can form as well.  Sound can carry much further in this cold air, so just be quiet and listen! Ms. Beasley and I will check it out.  Ma'am, you do not have any protection from the temperature so you should stay."

"I wouldn't have come anyways."

The two survivors step out into the biting cold. The cold immediately hitting them.  First reaction is to cover their faces, but it is no help.  There is no windchill.  Just straight air sapping their strength.  Straining, they hear shouts echoing down the valley.

"Leave them, we need to cross!"

"They'll die!"

"They are already dead, as we will be!  Do what you will, I am not going to join you!"

The voices echoed off the cliff faces of the glacial valley.  The pair quickly ran after them and came across footprints in a snowdrift.  The trail was difficult to follow across the frozen ice that made up the ground, but it was just a short time until they came across the grizzly site.  Before them lay an open expanse of ice.  Wind blowing through.  The pair watched as snow gathered on a line of bodies strewn across the expanse.  In the distance, two individuals disappeared into the mountains.

"Andreu, we will never catch them.  We will be dead before we get across.  I am freezing already.  Lets see if we can find any equipment on those bodies.  That over there looks like a pack muffalo as well."

They split up and checked the few bodies close to their side of the valley.  The goods carried were of limited value.  Some meal packs, and medicine, but mostly trinkets and decorative weapons.  Andreu however was able to take the clothing off the corpses not yet frozen.

"Hey! This one's alive, we should bring him back.  Maybe get some info?"

On the ground all frostbitten and collapsed against the muffalo corpse was a young man.  Andreu picked him up and hoisted him over his shoulder.  With the other arm, he grabbed the clothing collected and began making his way back to the shelter.  Beasley following with assorted supplies.

Back at the colony, Rhiandra found herself wandering with nothing to do when the doors swung open letting a blast of cold air in.  She took cover by the heaters as Rhiandra dropped a bundle on the ground.

"Can you close the door?  Not all of us have sythread."  Rhiandra paused, "What do you have?  You actually found something in this place?"

Andreu stepped into the shelter and Beasley shut the door, "Grab the meds.  We need you to look after this guy and then us.  Damn.... My hands are hurting!  Andreu, take him to the old building.  If he wakes up, I want him contained."

"Well tell me!  What is going on.... where did you get those clothes?"

"From somebody who needed more clothes.  Looks like a caravan was crossing the glacier for some reason.  Darned fools were freezing to death and left a trail of bodies across the ice sheet.  That guy we brought was left behind like the pack animals and goods they had."

"Wait, wait, wait?  You mean these are used clothes?" Rhiandra asks with disgust, "I am not wearing these!  I would rather be naked.  I can stay in here running the garden as you guys go and make snowmen or do whatever you do out there.  If it is as bad as you say, why would we even need to.  We can stay in here until rescued."

"If we get rescued,"  Andreu adds after returning from the storeroom, "You said it yourself.  There is nothing out there.  Stuff breaks down and these heaters are not exactly high precision manufacturing.  We don't have the wood for fires.  If you do not wear the clothes mam, then imagine what happen if we lose power."

"Fine, I will.  But this is no way to treat the deceased.  Looting corpses like filthy maggots.  We should at least bury them if we are able to; maintain some balance of civility"

"You really do not get the situation you are in.  There is no rescue, we don't know where we are.  The fact we are alive is a miracle.  If you were on a regular transport, you would be dead already.  The old cryptosleep ships were expected to end up in long term survival situations with years between the stars.  Andreu, did you notice anything else odd out there?"

"You mean those mounds on the sheet?  I saw them, but I could not tell what they were."

"Escape pods.  Littering the sheet.  We are not the first people to crash onto this planet.  Those were pods, and bodies.  Pods designed only to keep a person alive until rescue, but no supplies to help survive like we had.  If you land here in a modern escape pod, you die.  Even if we could dig the ground here, there is no possible way we could bury everybody."

Rhiandra leans back against the cave wall and crosses arms, "You are paranoid.  Modern pods would never let a person land in a hostile place like this.  Is why they don't need supplies.  You just float out in space and wait for the beacon to be picked up.  Besides, it is so cold out there that who knows?  They could be hundreds of years old or more."

"I would agree with you in any other circumstance except for the fact that there is one nearby.  It wasn't there yesterday."

"How is that possible?  I means ships do go missing from time to time, but the number of mounds out there?  Even if it takes decades, one of those beacons should have been detected by now!"

"I don't know, but we have got to get access to those logs."
Stories by Vaporisor

Escaped convicts!
concluded
Altair XIII
Frozen Wastes