The quiet after the storm

Started by thryllth, April 09, 2019, 04:45:33 PM

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thryllth

Dan wasn't supposed to be in the colony.  But as a point of policy I don't toss wanderers who join out into the teeth of winter and so when she showed up with a decent melee skill just as I was getting a caravan ready to go follow the rumor of an infinite chemreactor I handed her a knife and sent her along.  Well when they arrived to the location where the loot was supposedly stashed I ordered everyone forward without thinking about the possibility of an ambush.  I paid for my hubris.  Ten feral orks spawned and it was way to late to form any sort of firing line and I didnt really have any guns that would do the job at the time anyway.  Dan stood in front of my secondary doctor and main trader (utterly unable to do violence) and the colonies builder who had the only gun worth a damn I had an old lmg.  Dan who wasn't supposed to be there at all stood with only a knife and dispatched 3 of the orks on her own in as many blows.  Her actions allowed another wanderer who was only there for the season to shank one from the flank and Meli the builder gunned down another with a well aimed burst.  Dan was allowed to stay.  Time and again Dan has stood in defense of the colony, with an old choppa she scavenged from one of her first 3 kills.  She has been injured but always recovered fully.

Until today, today a Warpstorm hit as a trader was leaving.  Typically this would be a case of S.E.P as it is somebody elses problem.  But relations with this faction were kind of dicey and so I ordered Dan to make a run for one of theirs who fell as the others scurried off the map.  I thought she would have enough time to make it out and back behind the parapets before the warpspawn chasing the traders could make it back to her.  I had failed to notice a group who had spawned far to the north and were much closer.  She made it to the fallen trader just as they fell on her en mass.  Yet again, Dan stood.  Armed with the same old choppa and a scavenged shotgun she stood over the downed body of a not quite ally not quite enemy, and she held.  Dan all alone felled eight enemies, the first in a single blow the second taking only a moment longer but that second enemy got past her guard and took off her left leg in a moment.  Time and again with only a brief pause between enemies, her back literally to the wall Dan stood and at the end she was the only one standing.

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As the silence fell Dan slumped back against the earthen berm behind her.  The ground nearby was a lurid slurry of blood, dirt and whatever ichor the warp spawn had pumping through them.  Her gaze fell to her side and the slim form she had been protecting during the attack, the traveler had been with a caravan that left just as the unnatural storm rolled across the previously clear sky. 

"Still breathing I see, sorry but I don't think I can carry you back at this point." she said to the silent form as she turned to Hinto her friend of 3 years of survival on this hellhole.  "Can you get them, I am going to try and make it to the hospital?"

With a simple nod Hinto grabbed the unconscious body and ran off leaving Dan to her thoughts.

"Just through the gate, down the tunnel and past the doors right next to the mayors office.  Oh and try not to leave a mess everywhere as you go."

Using her shotgun as a crutch with the silence roaring in her ears Dan turned and began the long walk.
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Limdood


SusanLane

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing

abipierce

This is really nice. I really enjoyed reading it.