The End

[Incendax]

They built a memorial for Zei, though they didn't have the body since somebody made a rash executive decision and cremated her only moments after her death at the hands of raiders.

They gathered around the sacred bear in the middle of our endless strawberry fields, the last of the bonded pets of the original three colonists, and pummeled her into unconsciousness. Her great fuzzy brown body was loaded into the cryosleep chamber at the ripe old age of 22. Perhaps a glitterworld would have the medicine to prolong her life indefinitely.

One by one the colonists crawled into the cryosleep pods themselves -- sixteen pods for fifteen colonists and a bear -- until only Iry remained outside. In those final moments he succumbed to a booze binge and drank himself into unconsciousness.

When he awoke later that evening the sun had set. The looming ship waited for his command to launch, but he calmly enjoyed one last lavish meal while C-beams glittered in the dark near Tannhäuser Gate and tore apart a vast horde of rabid raccoons.

He set the pigs free, and gave Deficiency one last rub on the head for good measure. The sow had been born without a hoof, but she never let that get her down. They would do well here in the wilds, or maybe not.

The AI registered it when he finally crawled into his pod. It was the same one that tried to murder them only last week. As the rocket blasted off into the endless empty of space, it took a picosecond to wonder why they trusted it with their lives. That's just the way the cookie crumbles on Rimworld.

THE END.

[LordUbik]

And that's a really good narrative.