A new dawn

[CharlieC]

Fourteen.

An hour or so later I heard voices and figures emerged from the darkness. I quickly counted them. All of my companions were all there and looked untouched. They carried a large amount of assorted weapons, armour and survival meals.

'It was easy, only one guard. He died quick and the rest soon after. Most of them didn't fire a shot back. We can go get the rest of the stuff and dispose of the bodies in the morning.' Said Cristobal. I saw he was lugging a new Light machine gun.

'Are you all ok?' I enquired.

Sissy looked up smiling.

'Yep not a scratch, didn't feel too good just shooting those sleeping men but they were out to kill us and no point in waking them all up and asking them if they wanted to surrender because they won't.'

'Is that the pirate thing, no surrender?'

'Yeah, unless unconscious, no surrender. If you surrender easily then whoever you are attacking are a whole lot harder to overcome.'

'We had better build our outpost bigger and more defended and we need more people. Maybe we should start buying and releasing slaves from the slaver ships? Ones that want to be free, that is, free to build a life here.'

'You serious?' Said Sissy.

'We could think it out and put it to a vote.' I replied.

In the morning a party went to recover as much usable material from the battle site and we started to build a few solar panels to further enhance our power supply. We also ran extra cables. We saw how easily mortar fire could cut them resulting in losing essential power. Not so bad in the case of the nutrient dispenser supply but dangerous if it was the juice to a bank of turrets.

Cristobal and Sissy got back to digging further into the hill whilst Lupe alternated between researching new gadgets and then attempting to build them. We had a few visitors at this time from another outpost a few dozen miles away. They stayed and chatted for a while. We talked of possible collaboration and trade but they were very reserved and we both gave little real information away. It was mainly just basic anti pirate talk. Just after they had left a vapour trail showed that a crash pod had landed behind a low hill. I quickly made my way to the crash site and found a man outside the pod. He was lying prone, battered but alive. I quickly gathered him up and brought him back home. I took him straight to the sickbay and Sissy took over.

I visited the sickbay later that day and our drop in guest was still unconscious. Sissy was administering some of our precious medicine.

'How's he doing?'

'OK, he will live. He does not seem to have any infections or bad wounds. It’s mainly heavy bruising and a twisted ankle. Not sure what use he will be though. Look at this'. She handed me a wallet. Inside was an electrocredit chip. It was registered to Count Frantz. This guy was a serious aristocrat. He would have been used to a life of luxury in the glitter worlds. He might be ok for hunting but what else?

'That's all we need another near useless mouth to feed.' I said as I exited the sickbay.

Over the next few days I worked in tandem with Cisernos on convincing Count Frantz to join us. He had told us of some shooting and adventuring experience so might be of some use as a guard if nothing else. On the third night of discussions and with the promise of a good room and a big gun Count Frantz joined our group.

Over the next month things went smoothly. We built another geo-thermal generator and had a sudden death to all our crops when blight hit them. Luckily we had a good crop in and the wild berry plants were in full fruit so we just replanted and carried on. Towards the end of the month we had a very odd day. I was out tending the young plants when there was a strange drop in pressure and a lot of the native creatures were spooked. All apart, that is, to the tortoises, they all went mad. Well mad as far as a large slow moving target gets. They came ambling from all directions and came in a bee line at me. I called to the others and we had a couple of hours of target practise. At the end of the massacre there were dozens of dead creatures all around the outpost. Tortoise stew was likely to be on the menu all that week.
It was as we were picking over the dead animals that a loud sudden boom overhead announced the arrival of  half a dozen assault pods heading straight for us.

[Wex]

This is starting to look a lot like Randy's storytelling.

[CharlieC]

Fifteen


The pods were down and open almost before we realised that we were being assaulted direct from space. The six pods quickly settled and six heavily armed pirates came out  firing from the hip. Lupe and myself were the nearest and we both hit the dirt as bullets zipped about. Some of the fire was from the pirates but most shots were from our fixed defences. The pirates were quickly overwhelmed, I did not even get a shot off. All the pirates were dead. They had landed smack in the crossfire zone of six fixed machine guns.

'I'm hit.'

I looked round to see Lupieri sitting up but holding a bleeding, limp arm. One of the pirates had managed to get in a shot and found a target.

'Ok Lupe, we will get you straight to sick bay and get you patched up. No more fiddling with gadgets for a few days for you.'

'The Counts been helping me, he's good with tech but don't let him near my clothes. He's seen my boots and thinks he should have them.' He said as we gently carried him to the sick bay.

We got a good haul of light armour and some weapons from the pirates. Once stripped the bodies were hauled away and we quickly buried them in the growing cemetery. We would need to devise some kind of crematorium to dispose of bodies if attacks like this were going to be the norm. I talked to the Count and he said he would start work on a few ideas whilst Lupieri was recovering. The next morning I went straight to the sickbay to check on Lupe and found a worried looking Sissy who was sitting at a small table as was checking our now small amount of meds.

She looked up. 'We need more supplies. We need to go on a major wood clearing exercise and see if we can sell it to a passing space trader.'

'Not been many of them recently and just the one slaver for a month or so.'

' Well, Lupe has not woken up yet to hear the bad news that we only have a few basics left for wound treatment and nothing now  for infection. Gotta keep that wound clean and good.'

I went to talk to Cirnernos about the timber idea and he suggested we have a joint effort of logging, him cutting and me carrying. I grudgingly agreed, he was a much quicker lumberjack than myself. He would also do the dealing when the time came. His liquid charm and loose tongue made him a good salesman. As we worked I attempted to get some background information out of him but he spotted the attempt and obfuscated with jokes and wild anecdotes. I didn't get much out of him but it did help get the arduous job of felling and lifting done.

Several days later we had gathered over 1400 units of wood and took a much needed break from tree cutting. I decided to call a meeting to discuss the buying priorities and it was decided that medicine was first then slaves to offer freedom and settlement. Weapons and armour we now had and we could sell some if desperate. The only problem was that no ship had been detected in near space for some time and without that the goods we had were near worthless.

Lupieri still had not regained consciousness and our fears were confirmed when during a night storm screams were heard coming from the sick bay. I rushed from bed near naked and realizing so, quickly half stumbled into some homemade trousers. I rushed to the source of the terrified, anguished commotion. I flung open the door to see a crazed Lupeiri thrashing in his sick cot. He was frothing at the corners of his mouth and sweat covered his face, his hair a wild mess. Jagged lightning outlined his crazed form as he writhed and shouted out a wild incoherent ranting. I hurried to the medicine stock and was fumbling through boxes when a dishevelled Sissy ran into the room.

'He's delirious, a fever, he's real sick.' I gabbled.

'I was hoping to all against this, that wound is infected. All I can do is administer a shot of sedative and analgesics. We need better medicine.'

The next few days went very slowly and still no detection of a trader. Lupe slipped into a coma.

I was doing some tidying in the kitchen when Sissy quietly came up to me.

'Lupe just died.'

[Matthiasagreen]

Absolutuely amazing. The only thread I request email updates on.

[CharlieC]

Sixteen.

Ciscernos helped me make a good strong coffin. We painted gaudy coloured swirls with the last of the paint Lupeiri had made and Cristobal and I dressed him in the clothes in which he had arrived. We quiffed his hair, shined his boots and nailed on the lid. We placed him into ground just under the first turret he had built. Sissy threw in a bunch of wild berry flowers and Cristobal a lump of the raw gold we had found. Lupe had always got excited when we found gold and liked to play around with any nuggets we found. The count had started the day by starting to argue that he should have been allowed to commandeer Lupieri's boots. I pointed out to him that thigh length silver platform boots were not the ideal hunting gear for our terrain. Cristobal overheard and told the count that if he didn't shut up he was out on the next slaver. I didn't object. It was a sad day that brought home just how hard it was to survive here. He was just a kid and the exploding ship didn't get him. The Pirates didn't get him. The snakes didn't get him. An infection got him. That age old killer that comes unseen and on a world such as this, as deadly as the most advanced technology.

A few hours after burying Lupe there was a bleeping from the comms console. Two ships had come into trading range. Both had ample stocks of medicine.

One of the ships was a slaver and had an slave by the name of Colin a forty six year old luddite who had a broad range of skills. We offered him an equal share and he was glad to take it. In fact he was near overjoyed at getting off the stinking slave ship.

We spent the next few weeks making a huge effort to get everything that was outside the cave dismantled and re-erected in the newly hewn out caverns that Cristobal and Sissy had been carving. The old shack had been a good start home but was cold, leaky and liable to catch fire under mortar attack. We hollowed out more rock and made a large new kitchen and dining area. We also laid out new cells and installed more alternate power lines into the cave entrance. A larger power cell store was also constructed. The count kept to the lab and we were glad he stayed there mostly. He had made a Tailors bench and a working crematorium so had been working hard. Nobody seemed to like him that much and he made little attempt to be friendly. He hunted every few days and was always civil but often curt and uninterested. He was obviously jealous of Lupe's skills and was often pouring over the notes that Lupieri had left in the lab.

Another pod crash brought a new patient to the sickbay. I was clearing rubble from a cave when Cristobal told me the news. I hurried to the sickbay. Sissy was bandaging a leg wound.

'He's out at the moment. I've checked him over and apart from banged up ribs and this leg he looks to be ok and he's lucky we now have lots of medicine, this time.'

'Sissy, don't give yourself a hard time over Lupe. We had no meds and no qualified medic, you did all you could. If it wasn't for you looking after us we would all have popped off from something or other by now.' I smiled at her.

'Thanks.' She said quietly with a long sigh. 'I miss him.'

'So do I Sissy, So do I. Who's this guy?' I said trying to lift the mood.

'Clarke, Commissioner, or ex- Commissioner as he is now. Fifty two, He's got cataracts in both eyes, oh and a very bad back.'

'Oh hell, not another one.'

We had been having intermittent power problems since moving into the caves.  A search was made for another vent and one was found one a mile or so away from home. We formed a chain to carry the needed construction materials to the site and constructed another geo thermal power unit. Once established we ran double cables back to the cave. We now had excess power. One morning Ciscernos said that he felt ill and went to sick bay. Sissy looked him over.

'It's plague, pretty sure it's plague.'

'That's bad. That's Very bad.' I stuttered.

'We can treat it. He has to be isolated and we need to monitor each other.'

'Ok, I'll go let everyone know, but lockdown for our wandering minstrel. He won't like that.'

'We can wave at him through the window but that's about all. We will have leave his food and meds outside the isolation room door. The less contact the better for us.'

We hadn't seen any local tribes people for some while but a large group of twenty odd turned up one morning and hovered just outside of gun range. We carried on as normal but kept an armed watch on them. They ambled around for a while then all of a sudden rushed one of the gun turrets. It was a massacre. Two lay wounded and we transferred them to the sickbay well away from Ciscernos. Seven lay dead and mangled in front of the turrets. The rest fled. As they disappeared into the jungle another pod crash landed a short way away from our potato patch. Inside was an almost uninjured Entrepreneur by the name of Jen. We were now eight. That night Cristobal complained of feeling unwell. Sissy confirmed Plague. We had a possible epidemic on our hands.

[litlbear]

gotta hate plague

[skullywag]

How did you piss off the locals?

[Matthiasagreen]

How did you piss off the locals?

Probably an already hostile tribe that prepared for an attack, instead of immediately.

[Iwillbenicetou]

Man, this is great. Gotta love stories.

[sensiman]

count one more reader to the growing list of fans/supporters

[Wex]

This is grand. You should consider drafting a novel out of this.
You have talent man. Keep it up.

[CharlieC]

Thanks Guys. New episode soon.

[CharlieC]

Seventeen

The night proved to be busy with both Cristobal and our new guest Clarke both complaining of feeling unwell. They were both given the best meds we had and had then been isolated. Cristobal grumbled that it was only a cold and that he would feel better in the morning. He wasn't, he was infected with the plague, as was Clarke. Later in the day Count Frantz joined the sick list. Sissy was taxed in looking after all of them so I helped where I could in delivering meals and meds as doled out by Sissy.

For several days there had been no improvement in any of the patient's conditions. Thankfully in that time we had just a couple of maddened animals to deal with and the machine guns dealt swift justice to incursions of the perimeter. The two tribesmen we had captured wounded we now found to be stubborn as hell and just grunted insults and spat at as we delivered food. There was no point in trying to get them to be co-operative for the time being and didn't need more people running about the place with plague in the house.

The time passed and hours went quick with so many more jobs needing doing by fewer bodies. The plague ran its course with no more of us getting infected. Cisneros was the first down and the first up. He was declared fit to go when Sissy discovered that he had developed immunity to the plague. Without the powerful medicine the insidious virus would likely have killed him. The others recovered in a few days in a like fashion with Cristobal emerging very grumpily.

'Some Cold.' I said.

'Bit worse than a cold but nothing to put me out. I need some fresh air. Walter, you look pretty whacked old son.' He grinned at me.

'Yeah, well I've been doing the job of three these last few days.'

'Not mining though?' He raised an eyebrow at me.

'No not mining.' I Laughed.

A few days after all had been declared free of plague we had another sudden airborne drop of pirates. Fourteen fell almost on top of us. The turrets spat hot lead and pirate bodies were smashed and torn. Screams echoed into the jungle. Within a few minutes all the pirates were dead without one of us stepping outside. There was one left injured. He was transferred to the cells and we picked over the dropped weapons and armour. We were now pretty well kitted out and had spare weapons to sell to passing traders. The new prisoner was called Kelsey another damned Minstrel, sixty three years old and could have been Cisneros's long lost brother. He wasn't. He was a doctor of sorts though so we would have to work on him. We needed more medical help.

Keeping on top of food production is the most urgent  of our problems. We are always on the brink of a day of hunger and are at times resorting to picking the berry bushes. We laid out two new patches for food and I asked the count if he could look into the problem. In a few days he came up with a system of hydroponics and we started to prepare caves for growing inside under lights.

Kelsey developed a liver infection and Sissy has tried under his direction to treat it. She is enjoying talking to the Minstrel; she does like the musical types it seems, although Cisneros annoys her at times. Mind you he annoys all of us at times. Jen is a good all rounder and has recovered well from her pod crash. She was invaluable when the plague struck doing all sorts of odd jobs. She even found time to build a few more of Lupe's turrets. We are having another major tree cutting exercise to clear ground for more turrets and to get a cash crop from the wood. Medicine is again top of the shopping list. The count has figured out a way to get better nutrient content from our dispenser which should help our food situation. We were all out digging potato fields and foraging on the berry plots for most of this week.  At least we can start on the hydroponics soon. The caves are slowly getting hewn out of the rock. Most of it hard granite or marble.

It was Jen who recruited Kelsey the Minstrel to our group. He is to take one of the rooms we have recently carved in the deepest part of the complex.  We had grown considerably from the worn out shack of those early weeks.  We were now a functioning outpost.  It felt good. It felt a little less fearful. I knew that could change in seconds though and that thought made one feel always on edge. I was forever scanning the sky or finding myself staring and waiting for the twitch of a machine gun as it sought out a threat.

Kelsey was still very ill and had been transferred to the sick bay complaining of stomach pains and Sissy administered shots. He was a sick man and needed complete bed rest. Later that week the signs of blight were on our new crop and we lost the lot overnight so it was back to planting on near empty bellies. At least our first small hydro room is up and running. Hopefully a second bigger room would ready soon. Our two tribesmen were still holding out but at least we now knew names. Trobo was a twenty seven year old archer and Taro was a fifteen year old. Chief of the tribe and a right little shit.  As terrible teenagers go he was top of the class. He whined, stamped his feet and was as sullen and as attractive as a year old turd. We were working on Trobo though as she had shown a few signs of cooperation over the past few days.  She seemed to spend most of her days just pacing the room.  It was as I was looking at her through the cell door that a sudden psychic jolt made me stagger and I gripped onto the door frame. I sank to my knees with hammer blows of pain striking my very being. Jen came rushing up.

'Another ship part has crashed just next to thermal plant 3.' She said breathlessly.

[CharlieC]

Eighteen.

We called an immediate meeting and decided to send a sniper and guard to investigate, and try and entice the probable Scythers and Centipedes to attack our defences. It was as we discussed our operation that a strange and tragic event occurred. The first indication of further trouble was the spitting sound of a turret soon joined by another on the east side of the compound. We rushed to weapons and doors and saw that a large party of about twenty five pirates had advanced un-noticed and had taken defensive positions in some rocks. They were concentrating fire on two targets. One was the turrets; the other though was a group of four visitors from Strength's plain. They had obviously wandered in without knowing that the pirates were there and had been hi-jacked. They were pinned against our dump wall to the south and exchanging fire with the pirates. Thankfully there was no sign of Scythers or Centipedes and the psychic irritation was currently low. We tried as best we could to help by picking off a couple of pirates at long range with sniper rifles but the overwhelming firepower of the pirates soon took their toll. Two of the visitors from Strengths plain tried to make a run for it but were cruelly shot in the back. The young woman who had been killed so callously looked very much like my Sarah when she was young. I felt sick to the pit of my stomach. Enraged I crept forward with my R-4 and found a position where I had a good view if any pirates tried to rush the gap between the turrets. A few seconds later there was a shout and the pirates did indeed rush the gap. The pirates were firing in all directions. Projectiles ricocheted from the rocks and clanged against turrets. The Turret by the graveyard was smoking but still firing. I fired at the mass and saw bodies fall. Shock and fear was evident on those faces.  Soon it was over and a pile of bloodied corpses littered the ground. Some had fled. There were fourteen dead and Parker who is a miner and Steve, a drone are now lightly injured prisoners in our brig. We now have power armour for a couple of us and armour vests for all. We each have a good choice of weapons.

We concreted our plans to attack the crashed ship and Jen, the volunteered sniper and Cristobal her bodyguard prepared to sniff out our quarry.

'We are going to take this nice and easy and smooth.'  Cristobal said. He was tucking a large pistol into his belt. On his left leg he wore a short sword and carried a light machine gun. He was dressed in a power armour suit. Jen was also in power armour and carried a M-24 sniper rifle.

'Sure, we get just close enough to get in a few shots and then ski-daddle when we know what the opposition is.' Jen Confirmed.

'As soon as your back here we will start a barrage of mortar shells on them and later creep back with an attack party. Let's see if we can pick them off whist EMP stunned.' I said.

I watched them as they crept off into the jungle, I found I was getting that same odd feeling of wanting to go and stay at the same time.

'Take care you two.' I muttered to myself as they disappeared into the green.

They were back within the hour grinning and talking excitedly.

'There are two Scythers and two Centipedes. One Centipede has an Inferno cannon, one a Heavy charge blaster. There are two charge lance Scythers.' Cristobal reported.

'Ok, boys and girls, to the mortars, Sissy you hate the mortar duty so do you want to be the General? General dogsbody, that is.' I smiled at her.

'Sure. I'll get sick bay ready just in case of accidents with explosives.' She said hurrying off to the medical room.

We took positions at our battery of mortars and let rip for the rest of the day to wear them down and try inflicting a bit of damage. The plan was to attack them after a nights rest. It was very early and raining hard in a heavy gale as we headed out to attempt to destroy the mechanoid invaders. We had discussed attack and it was a good feeling when everyone volunteered to be part of the attack party. We needed three to stay behind to fire EMP shells to try disabling the mechanoids and allowing us time to damage them without getting hit by their fearsome weaponry. Sissy was one as we needed a doctor, Count Frantz much to his annoyance was another and Cristobal the third. The rest of us dressed in the best of the armour and chose whichever weaponry we preferred, going mainly for sniper rifles, R-4's and Machine Guns. We advanced to positions behind rocks which blocked us from the monsters and split into a pincer both sides of the outcrop. Our snipers took long range pot shots for a while with a few hits on a centipede and then a EMP shell got a good hit on all four as they grouped together. We stepped forward and let rip with everything. Very soon a centipede was dead and a Scyther was down. The other Scyther was just out of range and behind a centipede that was looking to wake but taking lots of shots. I crept forward looking to get a shot in on the Scyther with my R-4 and got to just within range. I lifted the rifle and steadied myself, took a deep breath and pressed the trigger. The head of the robot disintegrated in a shower of sparks. I heard shouts behind me. Warning shouts. I looked towards the remaining centipede. Its fearsome blaster was aiming straight at me. I scrambled over rocks trying to get away from that tube of death as I heard the splatter of the gun. I only remember the earth coming up to meet me as a searing pain coursed through me almost stopping my breathing. I fell. I screamed. I felt blood and dirt in my mouth. In front of my face on the sand was my boot. My naked leg, knee down was still in it.

[litlbear]

o lawd