The Fall of New Zanzibar

[EscapeZeppelin]

The Fortress of New Zanzibar held for 252 days to the onslaught of barbarians. The walls of the main fortress keep were six bricks thick with an interior grid system to limit grenade damage. Outside that, the courtyard with it's turrets and killing field and beyond lay the outer defenses and wall. Raids by dozens of mercenary barbarians broke like waves on the mighty defenses of this new citadel. Those that assaulted its ramparts did so over the mountain of corpses of those who had failed before.

On day 248 that all changed. On day 248 twenty-seven mechanoids assaulted. By the end of the day six mechanoids lay dead but the outer wall was breached and the courtyard lost. Fighting from prepared positions the colonists retreated into the keep. Miraculously no one was killed and the entrance was sealed behind them. Here they would wait it out as they had before, safe within the thick walls. But stone that had thwarted raiders and easily withstood lesser assaults began to crumble. The endless pounding of the creatures could be heard through the feet of rock as they ground down, destroying everything man made. Even the forest, so carefully tended, burned. The colony's allies responded quickly to the desperate summons for help and sent six parties to help. A dozen new corpses were added to the rubble before they fled.

By day 250 the creatures reached the final wall and the colonists were retasked solely to repair but it was too much and they couldn't keep up with the relentless assault. The cafeteria is where they broke through and they began to pour into the gap. They were met with a hail of minigun and laser fire killing two more but at a heavy cost. Three colonists went down and the rest were forced back into the living quarters. For a full day the battle raged. At one point two colonists were trapped and forced to tunnel through several bedroom walls to escape a growing inferno. Raygun the chef became separated and held out valiantly beside generator no.1 but with her death the power began to fail and lights shut off as individual circuits were cut by the fires and carefully tended battery reserves cooked off like so many fireworks. A few more mechanoids were stopped but one by one the colonists died, fighting for their lives in the pitch dark corridors lit only by the fires of their enemy's inferno cannons. The final straw was when the mechanoids broke into the greenhouse and set the dozens of hydroponic tables on fire. Rowan and Huntsman attempted to retreat into the mines but Rowan was killed by a hail of bullets and Huntsman critically injured. The comms station, powered by the well hidden generator no.3 remained the only operational equipment in the base. Bleeding, Huntsman made it as far as the communications room before he collapsed from his injuries. There in the glow of the fortress's last remaining light he bled to death.

So now somewhere on the Rimworld there's a ruined fortress with warehouses full of weapons, food, and metal guarded by the unsleeping machines. And deep within the ruins where even the mechanoids couldn't find it, glows a single light and a communications station endlessly calling for help for men long dead. Beside it lies Huntsman, last survivor of New Zanzibar, his rifle still by his side.


(Seriously, the last guy died under the last light trying to send out one final message. I couldn't have scripted it any better. Also, how the heck are you supposed to fight 27 mechanoids?!)

[Gottzar]

Make a movie please

[milon]

That was a pretty epic first post, EscapeZeppelin!

[Coenmcj]

27 Mechanoids? Gg no re.

On a more serious note, Nice story. Tough cass? (or was it cleo?..)

[EscapeZeppelin]

Seriously 27 mechanoids. I actually had to pause the game to count them. I considered reloading from a save but I figured it would be a good way to end the game.

I think I made the mistake of having a very rich colony without enough people to defend. Strength was 9 but I had warehouses full of thousands of units in food and metal. And the difficulty seems to ramp up like crazy after about day 150. At the moment I don't think you're usually supposed to survive as long as I did although I know that's going to change when there's some endgame goal added.

I'm glad people liked my writing.