Alkurah

[Anon]

I'm expecting for this to be going off the rails and then some at one point with the all the mods I'm using. This story might go off the rails even further depending on the storytellers. I'm giving myself a grace period using Phoebe for one season before switching over to Randy for the rest of it. Just a heads up not to take this too seriously as it will be cheesy in some way, but there will be violence.

<sub>P.S. I got a bit creative with the lore because of said mods. I tried my best fitting them in, but some liberties were taken. Also, I totally learned my lesson on doing huge parts at once last time.

And I have a moment when I didn't notice that I have been misspelling one of the character's names until now.</sub>

   Candice Roughchild slowly raised her pump shotgun as she slowly eased herself inside a dark opening. She cursed out loud while tripping over a boulder. The red haired woman heard a bustle near her followed by a scream. "Please don't shoot!"

   Startled, Candice pointed her shotgun at the left side where she heard the voice and barely she made out a face of a woman with the dim cloudy sunrise outside that nearly matched the color of the snow. The woman raised up both of her hands and shook. Candice lowered her shotgun and said, "Telling by your wounds either you had a workout with a warg and outran it with luck, got too close to a bear and didn't maul you to death thanks to luck, or was in one of those spaceships that crashed into this forest without losing a limb because of luck. Which is it spacer?"

   The woman weakly laughed. "My cryptosleep casket pod crashed landed into this forest along with the rest of the ship, so option three I guess? Name's Reika Graves...and may I ask what year it is?"

   "May I?" Candice gave an exasperated expression before continuing,  "The year is 5500, date and month is the third and Aprilmay, and you are in knee-deep into a dangerous part of the woods near a dangerous mountain. In dangerous places like this, there's no time for asking for permission to ask questions." For a brief moment the woman with the trench coat paused to watch Reika's reaction to her words.

   Reika looked frightened for a second while lowering her hands but they still shook. Then she stood up while grabbing on to her leg and said, "I can't stay here long then. They will find me if I stay here too long."

   "Who would be still lookin for you after that?  If you're talking about slavers, they're more likely to be too busy trying to save their own skins surviving this forest," Candice said, "Speaking of which, do you have some kind of branding mark on you?"

   "I don't think so." Reika said. She raised up both of her shirt sleeves looking at her arms and raised up her pants' legs to look at her legs for any markings. "Last thing I remember is going asleep after eating a meal and having to sign some kind of agreement contract before I could be assigned a cryptosleep casket to be transported to another planet away from home."

   "Did you read the fine print?" Candice asked.

   "Of course I read it!" Reika said. She winced in pain before sitting back down at the corner she was laying on earlier. "I had to before I could get on board." Reika's voice lowered to a whisper at the end before adding, "But, I didn't know what I had really signed up for until...the crash happened."

   Watching Reika's face turned pale at a thought, Candice raised an eyebrow. "So you didn't really read the fine print then?"

   "You gotta help me miss," Reika said, "They WILL look for survivors if there's even a hint of any."

   Candice raised and rested her pump shotgun up to her shoulder. "There's a few things my Salt and Pepper can't solve, but you can't be running slow either when it's time to get running. Think you'll recover tomorrow?"

   Reika nodded. "Yeah. I'll be ready then."

***

  "Holy hell tenders," Candice said, "That's must be one heck of a crash burning off a part of this forest like that." Candice stopped walking when Reika stopped in front of a wrecked piece of metal by the pond ahead of them. Frantically, she wiped out the ashes uttering something under her breath. "Hey, I dunno what you're looking to see but we can't be lingering around here too long."

   "I'm looking to see if they can get any ideas that anyone from the cryptosleep casket pods have survived," she said.

   Candice extended an arm out with her palm pointing toward the scorched area. "Spacer, I'm not seeing how anyone one can assume that somebody survive that crash with this obvious evidence that most of everything that isn't fireproof have burnt away. I glad that you got the point that luck isn't something to take lightly with my small jab at it but if there was anything in that area, most if not all of it had burned into ashes by now."

   "Anything?" Reika's voice turned softer as she faced back at the burnt clearing. "Maybe...maybe I can really start a new life here on this planet without being bound to that contract."

   "I got some people back at headquarters that can help you in that regard," Candice said, "But you gotta earn your keep if you wanna to work for The Agency, and that's if they want you in."

   "The Agency?" Reika asked.

  "Yeah, The Agency," Candice said, "It's an organization dedicated to fighting off hostile supernatural beings and their allies. I would give you a nice short history lesson here of how that mission statement became the definite one, but short can't cut through the complicated political bullshit within Alkurah among other things. For now, let's get going before a pack of wargs or lynxes finds us. The sooner we get out of this forest and back to the road, the better."

   Candice and Reika traveled through the charred wasteland close together. By the time they made it through the clearing and back to the wooded area of the forest, the sun was setting while the snow gently fell into the forest. The red headed woman stopped and turned when she noticed that her spacer acquaintance was lagging behind. "Hey, you can't be tired now. Not right here at least," Candice said.

   Reika kept dragging her feet the best she could before stopping and sitting down. "I need to rest," she said.

   "Rest here now and we'll be spending more of our time foraging for food tomorrow," Candice said, "with time that we don't have."

   "Just give me at least five or ten minutes to catch my breath please," Reika said.

   Candice sighed and said, "Fine we'll take a ten minute break, but don't bother setting up a campfire. You never know what's or who's out there." She pushed up a boulder up and sat on it. Reika followed with a smaller one after pushing it closer to Candice. Candice looked over at Reika who looked more worried than ever. "Hey as soon we get out of the base of that wooded mountain, it'll be smooth sailing back to headquarters traveling down the road. Do you know how long you stayed here in the crash site?"

   "I counted two days," Reika said.

   "So I came not too early, but not too late either," Candice said, "Headquarters sent me over to do a quick surveyal investigation given how close it seemed to be. If they only knew that the crash site will be at the base of this mountain, they would've assigned me a partner or two." She rubbed her chin with a free hand while keeping her pump shotgun close. "Earlier, you keep mentioning of a group of people that will look for you if they knew that you were alive and something about a contract. Can you tell me what's that about?"

   Reika looked around the area, turning her head all over to look everywhere around her. She leaned closer to Candice and said, "The contract that I've signed had to be a labor one. I only got a brief glimpse, but I saw various of materials within the flames that's used for construction. Then I saw the other crashed cryptosleep casket pod...and the people in there were all in prisoner clothing...all died on impact like mine nearly was."

   "Construction equipment? Cryptosleep casket pods of prisoners and I assume civilians or other people looking for a transport right? Anything else?"

   "At that point, I was focusing more on running away from the fire than anything else," Reika said, "You were right that I got too lucky that day; I'm sure this transport/labor company have some kind of fail-safe when something like this happens, which why I'm assuming that somebody next in line of this project have survived the crash."

   "Well this can't be your first rodeo having to work in some backwater 'colony' when you're making assumptions like that."

   "Assumptions? I heard the rumors back at home yes, but I've seen it myself miss and the stuff that crashed here made sense for me to make that assumption what I signed up for!"

   "Speaking of home, why you had to leave?" Candice asked.

   "I don't wanna talk about that." Reika closed her eyes and let out a soft breath. "I'm still a loyal citizen, but my home was not home to me any more and I'm certain it's way different now than it was when I left it or back at the old times."

   Candice leaned over and slid a stick over to Reika. "Do you remember what logo this company have, if any?"

   Reika picked up the stick and began drawing on the ground in between herself and Candice in front. "It's some odd symbol, but I do remember what it looked like. It was something like this," she said.

[Anon]

Candice's expression turned stiff as she looked at the symbol Reika drew on the ground. With a foot, she wiped it off before looking at Reika. "Transporting shit can't this company's bread and butter with that kind of logo that's for sure," She said. For a moment the woman paused, thinking about the implications of Reika's earlier words. Candice continue to ponder to herself while looking up at the stars. "Hey we going have to get going in a moment," Candice said.

Reika was looking down at her clasped hands when she said, "Okay, I guess we should get going now before the sun sets completely."

The two women stood up and dusted the dirt off of themselves. Before taking a step however, they heard a loud screech that was followed by a rapid hustling. Both looked over where they heard it and they saw a giant white spider emerging from a tree and charging toward their direction.



Candice raised her pump shotgun at it and shouted, "Haul ass and run spacer!"

Reika pushed the bushes off of her way as she jumped over some smaller boulders. The detective loaded up her gun and fired. The bullet went through the larger bush in front of her, but the giant arachnid kept moving towards her. While reloading Candice heard a loud pop, and for a few seconds the spider staggered while screeching. Again Candice fired at the spider; the shot was a direct hit to a point it slowed down the spider. Another loud pop, and the giant insect fell limp on the snow.

The red haired woman took a brief moment to look around herself. She knew she heard another gunshot, meaning a sniper or somebody else was nearby. Candice gripped tightly onto her pump shotgun after reloading it again and shouted, "Hey! Show yourself!"

"Go back to the burnt down area of the forest," a low masculine voice said, "then we will talk face to face."

"And let you get an easier shot on me? I wasn't born yesterday!" Candice said.

"I do not need cheap or easy shots to kill when I can do just as well from where you stand." While she looked around for anything that would give the sniper's location away, the voice added, "Now is not the time to tempt me woman."

"I'm not taking that chance! Fuck you!"

At that, Candice ran up, passing the giant spider corpse, and started running as fast as she could.  Just as she took a  few steps toward that direction, she heard a loud pop followed by a louder thunk near her.



Jumping over and pushing the bushes ahead of her, the detective held in the temptation to look behind her so she didn't slow herself down for a brief moment. For a good while, Candice kept running deeper into the woods until she found a sizable tree to take cover in.  She slumped against the tree itself with her pump shotgun close to herself and her trigger finger shaking. The snowfall became a bit heavier as she rested.

For a moment, there was only the wind-carried snow dusting around her and the forest.  Then she heard his voice.

"This will be my only warning to stop running and come to the area I instructed you to."

Candice pressed her teeth together tightly as her mind panicked. She looked over at the direction where she walked from minutes ago seeing that her foot prints were barely visible. After tucking her head back behind the tree she shouted, "How about you stop chasing after me and let me go on with my business, you asshole!"

"I could have thought about doing that if you had talked to me face to face like I asked earlier," the voice said, "Now you will be conscripted into the colony for wasting my time."

"I'm already working for somebody."

"And I do not care. Walk toward the direction of your foot prints with your hands up. Do anything else other than sitting there thinking, and I will fire."

"You can't stay out in this cold forever," Candice said.

"I get to watch you suffer slowly from hunger and fatigue, get some more practice sniping in this weather if you run again, and/or see you come to your senses and surrender," the voice said, "Either way, I will be well entertained."

The detective laughed out loud for a second. "And I think that you don't mean it!"

Again the detective laughed but a bit quietly. She looked down at her watch and took a note of the time: 8:00. The snowy sky had nearly turned into pitch black with one of Alkurah's moons shining down on the forest. I'll wait an hour, Candice thought, just to be certain. She leaned her head up facing the sky and moon above and feeling the snowflakes landing on her face.

Fifteen minutes later Candice shouted out, "Still here asshole?"

No response.

The silence was tempting enough for Candice to move out from her cover, but she knew better to let her guard down for something this small. Anyone could wait fifteen minutes; this would be like waiting in a long line within a restaurant or taking a long walk to a remote store. Thinking about these made her wish that she had stayed back at her headquarters for a bit longer knowing now that this surveying task was more than she bargained for.

Thirty minutes later and two things were still there: the soft howling snowy wind that came by once in a while or silence. Again the temptation to run came and pass, but Candice heard her stomach softly growling. Then an idea came into mind along with another regret; Candice realized that she didn't ask enough questions about what or who Reika was talking about when Reika mentioned her pursuers, but she did have a deduction from Reika's assumptions and the sniper's words.

"Hey space asshole, or should I say space psychopathic asshole!" Candice yelled, "How big of a fucking sleaze your company had to be for duping people into working in establishing a colony like slave motherfucking labor like the Orion Corporation and the Federation Peacekeeper Corps for profit when there's bigger supernatural threats against humanity within this world? Kindly fuck off as I go turn in my report to my chief, but believe me that we'll be back in touch with my people to free everyone your company have tricked and taken advantage of like these two did before."

The only thing Candice heard was her own heavy breathing. Her mind raced as she caught her breath. A whole minute of silence, and the silence remained. The detective closed her eyes with her fingers gripping on her shotgun tightly. Either the sniper was gone already and she was speaking to the cold wooded space, or hopefully for Candice, was fuming in anger.  Hearing her stomach growl again, Candice wanted to start moving; but, she forced herself to wait a bit longer.

Candice looked down at her watch to look at the time, nine o clock sharp.  She hoped that her words were enough for the sniper to storm off in raging guilt while easing out of the tree.

Two steps away and the detective instinctively grabbed on to her left leg screaming and dropping her shotgun right after hearing the sniper's rifle discharging that sounded much louder than before. At that point, she realized she had made a painful miscalculation on who she was dealing with.

Candice picked up her shotgun with her body trembling from pain. She struggled to keep hold on it with her blood caked hands. For a moment she crawled before finding the strength to stand up again. Three steps more steps before hearing his rifle discharging again. The detective's body fell over to the right in shock as she saw a piece of snow and dirt splash up from the ground near her. When she fell again, she saw how close that shot was to her with a sizable scorch mark by her as she reached for her shotgun again.

"Move an inch, and I will put you into so much excruciating pain that would make Gluttony himself blush," the voice said in a calm and callous tone, "Say a word, and I might show you how I am Wraith incarnate."

Candice felt her body trembling not only in pain, but from his tone of his words. She remain silent as she heard a crunching sound that grew louder as it approached her. Nearly the red haired woman jerked her shoulders all the way up when she felt something burning hot touching her neck. Telling by the circular shape of this touch, Candice knew the sniper was right behind her pressing the barrel of his rifle on her neck.  Slowly, she felt the barrel lowering down on her spine until it stopped nearly at the middle of her back.

The detective felt herself mentally turn pale at the realization that he was aiming at her heart.

"The snow and your blood on this natural ground is exactly like the main symbolic colors that the treasonous and the corrupted indoctrinated of today slapped on to their bodies with disregard for them." The voice said, pausing for a second. "White for the righteous purity and protection of the law that they promised to provide their citizens under their watch and red for their own sacrificial blood to uphold that covenant." He paused for a moment, a bit longer than before.

"Plea-"

"I do not want your ignorant forgiveness woman!" the voice screamed, interrupting Candice's cracking voice. He pressed the barrel harder onto her back and added, "I may not understand and know in full what these treasonous curs had been doing within your planet and its citizens but if you truly want forgiveness for your ignorance, you will make a substantial effort to educate yourself of the real history of the Federation and the Peacekeeping Corps before the opportunistic treasonous and crooked curs from the past murdered my home nation and twisted its army into a meat-grinding husk!"

Another pause, and Candice feel the rifle barrel moving down to her right leg. "But now," he said with the same calm callous tone she heard earlier, "We will return back to the colony and you will give us a verbal sitrep of your planet and everything you know of these traitors stationed here when you make a full recovery. Let this be a painful lesson on how your wisecracking profane mouth can lead an impression on some people."

Candice felt a sudden jolt of pain spreading through her body like quick sliver. She screamed for a short while before quickly fainting into unconsciousness.

[Anon]

Voices. Candice heard voices while feeling a tingling pain on her left leg.

"You can try waking her up again," a male voice said, "but even if you manage to, Mike don't want her moving from that spot until she fully recovers."

This voice wasn't the sniper's, but she committed his voice and the name he said into memory.

"Can I at least try to wake her up so she can eat?"

That voice, she instantly recognized it as Reika's.

"If you can before he sets in for the night, sure. Even better if you can do it before takes a quick break here in case he decides to do that."

Candice forced herself to wake up and turned her body around to see a tree sapling by her and her pump shotgun not too far away from her. She lifted her head up slightly to see a dimly glowing old-fashioned rifle in front of her and a shiv not too far from it along with plates, some tea cups, and a stack of some kind fur. When she turned her head to the other side, she saw Reika and another man wearing a light armored vest and a helmet with matching colors.



"Hey, you're up!" Reika said while running up to Candice. With both hands, the brunette held on to the plate before gently dropping it beside her. She leaned closer to the detective and whispered, "I'm so sorry."

The red haired woman pushed herself up from the ground and leaned her back against the wooden wall facing the man in front of a stove. "Hey," Candice said, "Are you one of those Orion Corporation drones?"

While flipping over meat patties, the man turned his head facing Candice with a smirk on his face. "This drone has a name and it's James or Pyro thank you very much. You can call me whichever you prefer, milady. As for your question, I am."

"The same armed thugs that cared only for profit and nothing more?" Candice said.

"The corporation prefers the term armed business people," James said, "Now eat up, take a moment to chit-chat, and get some more rest. You're going to need it to make up lost time."

"Lost time? How long I was out anyway?"

"It was the fourth when we were separated," Reika said, "the same day when Pyro found me and lead me here. When I woke up next day I saw you there with Mike trending to your wounds, and then you remained asleep that day."

"Basically what she's saying is that you have slept a whole day," James said, "You might've made a full recovery by now if those meds had crashed here sooner with another ship."

Candice looked surprised. "Another ship crashed here?"

James nodded. "Yep but it only crash landed at the burnt part of the forest, which is a shame since I missed the last light show from our ship crashing." The young man set the skillet aside away from the heated plate that it was on and walked over to a wooden chair. While sitting down he said, "Telling by the remains I've found, it was a small transport ship that was crudely made."

"Were there any survivors?" Candice said.

"There's a possibility of one survivor according to Mike," James said, "which I believe is what taking him so long to come back."

The detective grabbed on to her shotgun and said, "Well then we'll be heading off. I'm not staying here as work labor, and Reika didn't exactly agree to this."

"That idea may seem fine and dandy to you seeing that there's only me, but I have two reasons why that's a terrible idea for you. One, I can easily catch up to you if you manage to walk out of that door with you limping. And two, I have already taken appropriate measures to deter you from escaping in the first place."

Candice lifted and aimed her pump shotgun at James. "Spacer, move!"

Reika gave a worried glance "Please don't do this," she said.

James stood and walked past Reika, standing closer to Candice. "I'll make this easier to prove a point madam. Shoot me, if you will please."

"Don't," Reika said, "If Mike hears this commotion, what ideas do you think he'll have about what happened here?"

"I'll take my damn chances knowing that man is occupied and possibly far enough not to hear this." Candice said.

She pulled the trigger. Click.

James' smirk widened into a grin. "He wanted me to throw away your shotgun, but I opted for a more elegant solution.  Waste not, want not."

Candice stood up but grabbed on to her left leg feeling a ting of pain as she swung her shotgun toward James with her other hand. James took a step back, dodging it.

"Lady, lady please. Even though I don't mind you being a bit more active while Mike's out, I can't have you slowing down your own recovery."

The detective slumped down over at her resting spot. "I do not want to stay and neither does Reika."

"Reika don't have much of a choice with the contract she have signed," James said, "And we're not giving you the option to leave with most of the workforce dying in that crash. You will be compensated for your time and work. If you cooperate this can go much smoothly, and hey you might even stick around for the reasonable perks."

"I'm already working for somebody," Candice said, "and they'll send somebody to look for me if I don't fucking report back."

"I already accounted for that possibility milady," James said, "Crude, but quick and can leave a nice first impression."

"And your plan for that is exactly?"

"Ah ha, you'll see in time," James said, "But I can say that fighting isn't involved. Now please rest and let your leg get better."

Candice laid back down grumbling. She gritted her teeth at the idea of staying put against her own will, but James did had a point about her injured leg. Reika looked apologetic while moving another plate closer with the others. For a moment she looked over back at the old fashioned rifle, but the pain nudging on her left leg made her reluctantly throw away that idea.

[Anon]

"Hey," a woman wearing a dark red bowler hat said, "you got a plan getting out of this mess?"

"I think she's still sleeping," Reika said.

She walked up by Candice and nudged her on her shoulder a couple of times until the detective woke up.  "Hey wake up, wake up," she said.

Candice looked startled for a second seeing a new face after raising her fedora up to see her face, but the surprise wore off as she remembered what James said yesterday. After a brief look at her, noticing the light vest armor and the old fashioned rifle strapped on the woman, Candice asked, "What was that?"

"I said," the red bowler hat woman said, "you got a plan getting out of this mess?"

"Without getting hurt, possibly eaten by a spider, or worse getting shot at again, I don't," the detective said.

"Better than staying here and let the mercs work us to death in this cursed planet. Name's Weaver, what yours?"

"It's Candice and that's Reika over there," Candice said, "I'm not exactly an agent that you spacers-"

"Bullshit," Weaver said, "I'm sure you came here to investigate something that turns out to be a crash landed ship that had these mercs in it."

"Oh," Candice said, "You heard of The Agency?

"Heard of it? Last I've checked, the gang I used to be in with hate their guts and the higher guns usually talk shit about them."

"Gang? You're a native here?"

Weaver forced out a laugh. "Wish I wasn't." She raised up a thumb and a finger up before pinching them together. "We were so fucking close getting off," she said with her voice turning harsher, "So fucking close damnit."

"And your ship ended up crashing here too?" Reika said.

"No shit." Weaver leaned closer to Candice and whispered, "We supposed to make a clean getaway out, but it didn't happen. Please think up of something."

Reika set her mining pick aside. "If escape is not an option, I can just buy our way out of working in this colony."

"With what?" Candice asked, "Currency ain't exactly the same for you spacers."

"But there is one thing everyone can agree on that's valuable, spacer or not," Reika said, "And that's gold."

For a moment, the room was silent. That moment was short as Weaver ran right up to Reika, grabbed both of her shoulders, and shouted, "Gold! Where?!"

"It's somewhere...safe, but I...promise that I intend to give every gold piece I've mined...and hopefully they'll let us go with this amount that I dug."

Weaver stared at Reika before her stare turned into a glare. "Idiot," Weaver said, "Are you naive?"

Candice shrugged. "Got anything better? Escaping is out of the question with three of us as a group, and I'm sure you know what will happen if we split up."

"We can just make a hole in the back side of this shoddy building and escape out that way," Weaver said.

Reika shook her head. "Pyro is right outside and he won't go off too far from here," she said, "Said something about building more rooms for this place.

"One against three? I'll take those odds especially against an Orion gunner," Weaver said.

"Will you still take that chance if his partner can catch up?" Candice said, "And there's a good chance James unloaded that rifle. He unloaded my shotgun and hid the bullets while I was knocked out cold."

"Well we could..." Weaver's voice trailed off while sliding both hands off of Reika's shoulders. "It's almost a death sentence going through this forest without a gun unless luck smiles at you, and it sure ain't smiling at me when I ended up back at this fucking planet."

"At least you came out unscathed like I did," Reika said, "Most of-"

"Don't," Weaver said, "remind me." Weaver closed her eyes and paced around. She sat on the table with her hands over her face. "And don't say I was lucky to live either unless we can get out of this shit."

"I can still try to buy us out of the colony," Reika said.

Weaver grind her teeth together, and she looked up at Reika while moving her hands under her chin. "Tch, good luck, but don't be surprised if the mercs hound you to find more of it instead."

***

"You're up quite early," James said, "You finally manage to sleep good then, yes?"

Reika dusted the dirt off her back and jacket. "Not exactly Pyro, but I want a word with you."

James pushed the prepared meat aside from the picked herbs he was about to mix together and walked over at the table. After sitting down, he spoke. "I have an idea why. If it is what I think it is," he said pointing over at a direction, "can you wake up the others?"

When Reika turned at the direction James was pointing at, her expression froze in place with her mouth slightly agape when she saw a stack of gold bars aside a silver pile. She nodded and walked over toward Candice and Weaver before tapping them on the shoulder a couple of times. "Pyro wants a word," Reika said.

"This fucking early?" Weaver said, "I'm going back to sleep if the sun isn't up."

Candice yawned and pushed herself up out of the ground, "Might as well get used to waking up early at a moment's notice The sooner the better."

"I have quite the good reason for it," James said, "It's about what you three have discussed last night."

Weaver leaped up and said, "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know what Reika wanted to ask me alone. However, it'll be quite rude to not include you two in the discussion. Take a seat please."



Weaver glanced over at the gold bars behind James and then back at James. "So you're saying that you'll take the gold and silver and let us go?"

James frowned. "I have no need for it, and Mike will say the same."

The dark brunette leaned over a bit toward James. "You're full of shit," Weaver said. Her voice hissed with both of her hands clinched into a fist. "That is a lot of gold you're saying no to. You can't be fucking serious about not needing or wanting it."

"Even if we do need it, it's a horrible trade that I would laugh at," James said, "and Mike would outright decline."

"How is it a bad trade! You can hire willing people using that!" Weaver shouted.

"For starters there's time we have to spend on finding those people with time that we do not have lass."

"How about when you get the time to," Weaver said, "will you consider it then?"

The Orion Corp drone laughed. "Why would I send off good working hands period? We need everyone we can get working and, Mike emphasizes this greatly, living in this colony."

"I'm fucking useless!" Weaver shouted.

"You know it's not nice to lie, but if I can't find a job you can do then Mike will." James' frown curled into a smile as he tried not to laugh, "And you don't want that."

"Lie!? How am—"

James said, "Last night, you said that you were close leaving off the planet on a ship. Care to explain how the ship came into fruition? Did you help build the ship? Or perhaps you have a role in designing the ship?"

"No, but I don't see how this is proving a point," Weaver said.

"Maybe you have a role in negotiating in buying everything that's needed to build the ship," James said while twirling one of his hands aside himself, "or hauling the materials needed. Do I need to go on?"

"I'm still not seeing the point gunner," Weaver said.

Candice turned and faced Weaver and said, "The point James is trying to make is that you had a role in making that ship, directly or indirectly."

At this, James clapped his hands twice. He then said, "I do hope this explains why we have to resort to this. It's crude and unpleasant, but it does not have to be too unpleasant if everyone just cooperate. If Mike was in a better mood you ladies could have a lighter workload, but that isn't happening when this colony is behind schedule and unsecured. 

"How far behind are we?" Reika asked.

"If going by Mike's count, we've been here eight days and all we have to show for it is a makeshift wooden building that is easily burnable...and that's a bit of a problem with my...urges. There's electricity, but the security issue is more of a problem along with not having the quality of living that will make everyone efficient colonists."

[Anon]

Reika awkwardly swung a woodcutter's ax while Weaver slammed hers onto the tree. After a while of swinging she turned over toward the light brunette and said, "Hey, hold on to that tighter than that!"

"...Okay," Reika said. Reika gripped on the ax a bit tighter as she raised it up again. Again, she awkwardly swung it at the tree she was cutting in a vertical direction.

Weaver placed a hand on her forehead. "No no no! This isn't like mining where you swing your tool vertically! You cut the tree horizontally nearly from the bottom! Cutting a tree shouldn't exactly be rocket science."

"Sorry," Reika said, "This ax is a bit heavy for me to do that."

"Here, switch axes and see if mine's lighter." Weaver dropped her ax on the ground by the wooden wall, and Reika came and picked it up after dropping hers right beside Weaver's. Reika swung it sideways once and raised a thumb up. "Keep it," she said, "The easier you have cutting, the sooner we can get out of here and move on. If that gunner or that asshole comes back to finish this, you might be pressed back to mining duty to finish mining out this metal."

Reika face looked exhausted. "I do not mind mining but walking all the way up here to mine this and haul it back through this jungle like forest is going to kill me," Reika said.

"Suck it up. At least you'll be protected from the elements while you mine." Weaver picked up Reika's old ax and continued swinging at the same tree until it began to fall. "Heads up, falling tree coming!"

The tree fell forward to the direction where the metal stacks were. Weaver let out a long sigh and said, "Time for a short break. Come here, I wanna ask you something." Reika sat by Weaver and leaned on the wooden wall underneath a shade a cluster of trees were providing. Weaver looked up at the cloudy sky and asked, "Do you remember anything before coming here? Memories of home or at least what you did before coming here?"

"Well," Reika said, "I don't wanna talk about home but before coming here after spending my final day in that place where I signed the contract to be transported, I was spending my time letting myself loose and enjoying myself on the planet I left from in new ways."

Weaver raised an eyebrow, "You don't wanna talk about home, but you're talking about how you're enjoying—"

"The planet I left from wasn't home; that planet was the home planet of the transport ship I boarded," Reika said, "My home...only allowed people to have fun in ways that are only mandated to be safe."

"Oh," Weaver said, "I understand. I'll drop it."

Reika stood up and rubbed a hand into her eye. She picked up the exchanged ax and said, "We might be able to finish cutting the rest of the trees and leave the wood right where the walls will be built at."

"Alright but if you ever feel like talking about it, I'm all ears when the time is right."

***

Candice sat over at the table with Reika and Weaver. Reika looked over at Candace and waved with a smile. "Hey, how was your day?"

The red haired detective grimaced a forced smile. "Same old, same old with the same shit. Mike's been asking James about that geyser full of hot air nearby here; and in turn, I have to tell the damn drone the same damn thing I've been telling him for the last few days."

"What's so special about it that's making that asshole breathe down about it constantly?" Weaver said.

"According to that drone, it's possible to draw electricity from it; and if it is, that spacer is asking the wrong lady to figure it out how," Candice said

"That geyser must be a steam geyser," Reika said.

"And?" Weaver said, "It's still a hole that spews out hot air."

"But with the right equipment, it's possible to draw electricity from it," Reika said.

"How much you know about that?" Candice said.

"Enough to theorize what could work for that to be possible," Reika said, "If you want, we can switch tasks."

"I might've take you up on that offer if you didn't have to stay outside all day cutting trees and bushes on top of hauling stone blocks and boulders," Candice said, "but I would love to do something else other than sitting in that desk all day."

Weaver placed both of her hands in front of her with her fingers tightly together and her thumbs up. "You wanna know what I really want? I want to be able to have time to wind off without being tired before going to bed and work another long ass day. With that asshole not even giving us at least an hour to take a lunch break, I'm about ready to scream at that gunner or Mr. Asshole himself if this doesn't change."

"That's more of an appropriate name for Mike if you ask me," Candice said.

"Tch, I am talking about Mike," Weaver said, "At least James is trying to be reasonable and understands that what that asshole is asking for us to do in a day is nearly impossible; and with that fucking schedule he had us working with, I want to say that I fucking told you so about being worked to death."

"But hey, we finally got beds to sleep on right?" Reika said.

"Yeah, but the new room that we're sleeping in is nearly bare with mucky soil that we have to walk through," Weaver said, "and there's nearly shit all to do other than playing checkers and throw metal hoops at a stick."

"We got each other to talk to," Reika said.

"There's that, but how much does anyone want to bet that drone is eavesdropping right now?" Candice said.

"I'd take him listening over that asshole any day, since he's the reasonable one. I'm not even surprised if Mr. Asshole designed this schedule for us to be too tired to even do that; I'm certain he's the kind of ass that would do such a thing to keep us in line."

"Then why hadn't he put us in separate rooms?" Candice said.

Weaver held out both of her palms. "I have a hunch he had designed this room in a way for him or the gunner to listen in on what we're saying." The woman with the red hat pushed her finished plate aside and stood. "But this begs the question of why even designed it like that if you're not even going to be assed to listen?"

"Security reasons," Candice said, "That's for certain." Candice stood up and walked over to the right to a door leading to the dormitory. "It's about that time to sleep anyway."

[Anon]

Candice felt lightheaded while waking up. To her surprise instead of laying on the wooden bed inside, she found herself laying on the ground with a campfire nearby her feeling rain pouring down on her. A woman wearing a silk tribal robe was sitting by the fire in front of the detective. She watched her with a sanguine expression an elaborate ordinate crown on her head. Then she extended her left hand out pointing toward the lake nearby.

The detective recognized the lake that she and Reika ran past moments after meeting each other when she noticed the same shaped protruding hill on it. The longer she looked at the lake's surroundings, the more she realized that the lake was bigger than it was. The detective looked back at the woman and the statue she was standing aside.  A faint glow dimmed itself slowly and back from the stone dices' smooth dot engravings like an on and off switch. While Candice stood up, the woman spoke.

"There were some things that could not be replaced exactly, but the near exact things that could be replaced were enough to recreate what was lost," she said.

"Lost?"  The detective said, "What do you mean?"

The woman stood and look up at the cloudy sky. "To get a basic understanding, take another look around and see if you can find anything that is noticeably different."



Candice glanced over back at the lake. Other than noticing that the soil around it looked richer, she took note of the temperature. "It isn't cold that's for sure," she said, "What's today's date?"

"It is the first of Aprilmay," the woman said.

"So I am looking at the forest before the crash happened," Candice said. The detective paused for a quick second before adding, "Does time travel had anything to do with this by any chance?"

"No," the woman said. She faced the lake and added, "Because of the magical grace within Alkurah, the Dice of Fate have manage to nearly recreate the strand's root point." She paused here closing her eyes. After briefly breathing in and out, she continued. "At a cost and with some side effects that will only affect the people that were in this world when the strand had to be recreated."

The woman walked a couple of steps away from the stone dice statue but stayed near the campfire. "The only thing I am allowed to tell you about what have happened that warranted a strand recreation is to look to the memories of the original root point and spot the difference Cadet Roughchild. If you want an appropriate metaphor, it is like water never boiling underneath a campfire."

The downpour of rain became lighter and the lights from the stone dice stop dimming itself as it grew brighter. Candice turned her head away from the brightening color shifting light coming from the statue.  After the light faded, the statue was gone but the woman was still there standing by the campfire. As the fire from the campfire turned wispy in glow and appearance like smoke, the woman became more transparent. "I only have time to answer one question before the strand resumes where it deems appropriate."

"Will everyone from Alkurah retain their memories of the original strand before it was restored?"

The woman paused. Gradually the flames turned smaller along with herself. In a whisper with the wind blowing toward Candice she answered. "Only the progenitors of the strand that was in the old root point will."

Just as she finished her sentence, the fire went out completely and the woman disappeared. Seconds later, the cloudy sky turned pitch black before the area around it did. Candice felt herself going back to sleep in midair as the ground underneath her gave away to the sudden darkness.

[Anon]

Candice Roughchild slowly walked into the opening, assuming the expected; instead of seeing Reika alone and injured however, Weaver was sitting by her with her old hunting rifle aside her. She snatched it out of the corner, turned around, and aimed. Weaver grumbled and lowered the rifle when she saw Candice. "Damnit Candice, scared the shit out of me," she said, "Did that asshole or that gunner see you?"

"No, but I didn't see or hear them either." The detective looked over her shoulder and came closer inside. She whispered, "Do you all remember what you all did before waking up here?"

"Yeah, I remember going to sleep two hours early cause I was dirt tired cutting up all of those bushes and trees for six hours straight." Weaver sat down over in the corner she was standing by and added, "If you're going to ask what I dreamed that night agent, all I can remember is a tribal woman with some kind of crown telling me that my presence was saved along with some magical mumbo jumbo about roots and strands. I woke up here wearing this cape with my rifle next to me."

Reika stood up from the stone floor. "I was told in my dream that the transport ship crashing here was the catalyst of the strand that had to be recreated from a woman matching that description. What could be today's date if this forest had to be"

"In my dream, it was Aprilmay the first. Not too sure about that and the year seeing that it was raining in my dream and I didn't ask for the year, but it's plausible that it is when it was snowing when I first met you here on the third," Candice said.

"But the woman from my dream insisted that time traveling was impossible with the damage," Reika said, "And we didn't meet Weaver until the fifth after Mike brought you in so if we really did travel back to the first, Weaver wouldn't be here."

Weaver said, "She said that my presence will be transferred over to the new root, so that could be the reason why I ended up here."

Candice placed a hand on her chin. "That woman did refer to the root point of a strand having to be recreated," she said, "But still does not explain how this hole is there."

"I dug this hole in one day, so it's probable that it was the first when I did," Reika said, "But this iron vein nearby was not there. The small gold vein was along with a sizable plasteel vein not to far from here is gone."

The detective walked outside while motioning Reika and Weaver to follow with a wave of her hand. "Let's see if that lake is still there."



"It's there, but the shape of it is different," Reika said, and the trees ahead aren't a burnt mess from the crash."

"It was bigger in my dream," Candice said, "and the soil was much richer."

Weaver walked over to a clear area of gravel and looked around. "This is where the cryptosleep casket pod I was in crashed." she said.

"Really?" Reika said, "We would've heard that if it crashed there."

"Not unless you could tell from a crash to lightning that night. I believe it was past midnight at least if you two were in there at the time," Weaver said.

"Why you say past midnight?" Candice said.

"You gotta be asleep if you all didn't hear that crashing right here if you could tell the difference."

"I was knocked out cold from my wounds," Candice said, "but when I woke up to eat, James did say that Mike was out looking for any survivors after he found some medicine in a crash site nearby."

"Our medicine crate crashed here too?" Weaver shook her head trying to hold back from laughing, but all she managed was a smile with both of her eyes closed. "That explains how that asshole knew I was out there." Weaver began walking to the right. A few steps and she stopped and faced Candice and Reika. "Let's get going while we have sunlight before the two find us. We have a good chance getting out of this fucking forest this time around and I'm not going to squander it."

Candice took out her pump shotgun and wield it tightly. "Stay side to side by me so I won't accidentally shoot you when I got to fire this," she said.

Reika and Weaver walked closely by Candice's side. During the walk, the three women felt the air turning more chilly as the minutes went by. They stopped when they saw somebody hauling a dead muffalo. In surprise, the detective raised her shotgun.



"Hey hey, this one's dead," the man carrying the dead muffalo corpse said, "The food supply is being taken care of, but everyone else can start clearing out the fauna and trees by that small hill with the blueish silver colored side on it. When we get there, I'll tell you where exactly I want everyone to start."

"Mike?" Reika said, "Is that you?"

Candice glanced over at Reika to look at her shock but when she look over to Weaver, she saw Weaver's face stone frozen in a stone-shocked like expression with her teeth rattling together for a second.

"Nat..Nathaniel?" Weaver whispered in a gasping low tone.

The man turned over to Reika and moved the corpse slightly enough for the women to see his helmed face. "Mike is not too far behind from me carrying his haul. The area that we are setting up camp in is hard to miss, especially when Pyro should be there setting up the temporary sleeping quarters or cutting up wood for it," he said, "Wonderful to see you ladies managed to find each other in this forest in one piece. I'm Nate by the way, and nice bunny you got there."

When Candice turned around, she saw the bunny running away into a bush. Again when she turned to face Nate, Nate had already passed by them while waving his left hand up in the air. "Just follow me so nobody gets lost. If you can't keep up with me, Mike will help you stay on track."

Candice glanced over at Reika, who nudged her head toward the direction Nate was walking to before following. When she faced Weaver, Weaver had her her head and a hand clinched on to her rifle.

"There is no point in running right now, but say nothing about what we discussed to him," Weaver said. She began walking not too soon after she whispered that. Candice followed suit not too long after. Once she looked back and saw another hump of white fur approaching the direction they were heading. The detective turned and walked in silence. In minutes, they came upon a sizable clearing with James butchering a muffalo on one side of it. Not to far on the left, piles of wood were there in neat stacks making a shape.

Nate dropped the corpse he was carrying and faced James. "After you finish with that one, resume work on making the temporary shelter with the wood that's already laid out." He turned over to the women and added, "As for you ladies, please clear out the left side of the area Pyro will be building in. I already marked out an area just enough for the other side to be finished. After that, go over to the right and clear out some there too. If you manage to finish that, then haul the nearby boulders to here."

Candiace and Reika walked over at the area pointed out and started cutting small bushes. Weaver grabbed on to her rifle, but her hand shook while glaring at Nate. "Fuck you," she said gritting her teeth together with a low whispering tone, "you fucking flesh-eating shit."

James jogged and stood in front of Weaver. "Hey hey, let's not start the fighting," he said, "I do not want to have to take away your gun and leave you disarmed while working out here."

Slowly Weaver eased her hand away from her rifle, leaned closer to James, and whispered, "Fine. If you insist on working with him, I want his room far away from our barracks."

James whispered back, "If you don't trust him, take it up with Mike. The quicker this is done though, the faster you ladies can have your own barracks."

"What do you mean? That fucker isn't going to sleep with us, is he?" Weaver whispered with an angered expression on her face.

"Everyone will be sleeping in the same room for at least a day or two while we're looking for an appropriate spot to start building it," Nate said speaking up, "The quicker you haul the boulders over here, the sooner you'll have it when both engineers start building it after that spot is found."

Weaver walked over to a tree after picking up a woodcutter's axe near the butchery station and started cutting. Every swung she did was a hard and quick one, and she did in silence with the same snarling expression she had earlier.

[Mufflamingo]

I can't believe I read all this.