CHAPTER 1
Monsters In The Night
J141857-VI Continent Alpha - Crash Site 1
Local Colony Designation "Bowa Lond"
...
Eighty-two Years Later
Tai looked up at the stars. They seemed to twinkle so gently and peacefully. He couldn't imagine anything
but the Sky Gods smiling down at him. Elder Gorah had just finished his sermon today, retelling the same classic story of the Sky Gods who so long ago, gave these people a new home on this blessed planet. Their great Skyship was now their home, the Elders claim, and most children giggled or gasped at the thought of a floating city in the sky that carried them across great black oceans to this world. Legend says one day, when the 'Bowaii' as they called themselves have reached enlightenment, the Sky Gods will come down in their Skyships and bring the Bowaii back to Paradise with them.
The sun was setting, casting an orange glow over the village. Made of hardened mud, every building in the village was largely variations of the same. Domes, soft arches, built mostly into the ground, with little round windows and chimney stacks. There were almost three hundred houses, some larger than others. A market square, granaries, blacksmith, merchant huts, storage pits, and tall guard towers dot the clusters of homes. The largest mud-made buildings were actually a combination of mud and metal. The school and Elder's Center were both built this way.
The massive hulk of the fuselage wreck had actually become known as The Great Ark Temple of the Sky Gods, or simply.. the Temple of the Ark or
T'ark. Most of the wreck was extremely dangerous to enter, as rust and tritanium corrosion had taken their toll on the internal structure. Most of the collapses that could happen of their own weight had long since happened already, and the wreck was mostly self-stable. That accidents and more collapses only happened when people entered
T'ark was attributed to the wrath of the Sky Gods reacting to sacrilegious trespass in their holy temple.
Despite the dangers of exploration, there were large parts of
T'ark that were actually the safest places in the entire village. Exposed sections of the hull had created weather-safe and defensible refuges almost large enough to fit the entire village inside. Those interior sections were also considered sacred catacombs for entombment of deceased Elders, treated with the reverence.
***
The truth is long since forgotten. Not even the Elders know how they
really ended up here. They genuinely believe the quasi-religious rhetoric. From the earliest months and years of the crash, as soon as it became starkly apparent that no rescue would come... it was deemed imperative that energy not be wasted on grief or hope for rescue. A new life must be made on this world... this fate must be accepted. Those in authority banned the topic of rescue or being marooned. The effect was immediate as soon as the first generation died out, that only hushed whispers and broken tales of how everyone had come to live here were carried on. As each generation died out, the tales became further removed from reality.
When the escape pods landed, they had argued over which crash site to settle around. The fuselage had landed in a fertile plains area quite useful for farming, but the fuselage wreck itself was almost devoid of basic supplies. The stern had landed in a rocky and chilly tundra that would be difficult to grow anything in. However, the stern contained valuable supplies in the form of food and water filtration, precious alloys that could be salvaged, and various other stores in the cargo holds. Travel between the two sites was out of the question. Many would die making the trek between each site, as dangerous fungal flora populated the tundra regions.
One group, led by a majority of the deck chiefs, split off and made their decision to settle the stern where they knew they could build proper settlements with the salvage. The remainder of the crew, mostly women and younger men, settled the fuselage. Lead by a man named Kamar Bow'ai, they would prove to be right in their decision. Tents were erected and farmland was quickly tilled near the fuselage to grow native edible tubers. The beginnings of an agricultural society was born, named after their leader... Bow'ai Landing.
***
"Tai! Tai, dinner is ready!"
Tai ignored his mother, peeling moss from a stone in his hands as he continued to stare at the sky and wonder. His young lips mumbled his questions to the Sky Gods in prayer, asking them to show their face at least once. Every night, he'd come and look for the night lights, curtains of beautiful greens and blue that were said to be the Sky Gods dancing in festival. It always happened just before the cold season. Before the Freeze.
"Tai!!", a sharper tinny voice cried out toward him. Malone, his annoying younger sister, had been sent after him. "Momma says you better git inside
now or she'll make you work the fields with dad tomorrow! But don't listen to me... I'd rather not have to see your smelly face in class tomorrow!"
Tai sits up and hurls the stone at his sister, who shrieks and runs back to the house, yelling for her mother in the typical tattling tone. Tai just sighs and brushes the dirt off his ragged pants, shuffling his way toward the house now. He was almost twelve! How dare he be ordered around like this! A few more years and he would be a man... unlike that stupid sister of his, he thought.
As Tai makes his way to the rounded mud huts of the village, his friend Bjorn runs up to him, waving his arms in the air, "Hey T! Jak says his Harrod's friend killed a Raider! Blew its brains out! Pa says that's a lie, but I know it's true! I seen the ashes on Harrod's hands from when they
burned it, and I swear I saw smoke commin' from the other side of T'ark!"
"What? You're a scrubface liar! There's no such thing as Raiders... it's just stories grown-ups tell their kids when they wanna scare us."
"I swear it's true! Look at me.
Look at me. Is this the face of a liar?", Bjorn grinned greasily.
"Yes."
"Oh come
on, man! Look, meet me after class tomorrow... I'll show you I'm tellin the truth."
"TAI MOM SAYS GET INSIDE NOW! .... SHE SAYS GET INSIDE NOW PLEASE!", Malone screams from a distance.
Bjorn laughs and waves off Tai's shrug, "You better go, man. Don't want The Mouth to get you grounded again like last week."
"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow, man. You better pay up on this story."
"I will! I promise!"
Tai bumps fists with Bjorn and turns to head back to the house, stuffing his hands in his pockets. The scent of the house was strong and sweet, smelling of Sweetroot, Fish, and salted spices. As annoyed as he was that he had to come home... the inviting welcome warmth of it and dinner steaming on the table made him realize how hungry he was.
"Come sit, dear.", his mother invited with a bright and rosy-cheeked smile. Malone sticks her tongue out at Tai when neither parent is watching as usual, infuriating the boy ever more.
"Go choke on a root, scrub!", he snaps at Malone, which immediately earns the angry glare of his father.
"Tai! We don't use that sort of language in this house. You know better. Now sit down and
eat your dinner.", his mother repeats firmly.
Tai does so, and the dinner is mostly uneventful. The same conversations about the fields, Elders, school, household improvements, and the coming Freeze. Things seemed simple enough for the small town of settlers... but under all the conversations and peaceful overtones, it was pretty obvious that life was dreadfully boring. Especially for Tai.
Unable to tolerate the monotony of the night anymore, Tai speaks up, "So, Bjorn says his older brother says his friend saw a Raider! Says he shot him right in the face! A real Raider!"
The table goes silent. Tai's father stares at his son for several long and agonizingly quiet seconds, slowly chewing his last forkful of food. Finally, as if too tired to touch the subject, he merely folds his napkin, stands up, and leaves to the dismay of his wife,
"Jon...", she quietly calls out to him with an outstretched hand. He does not reply. He just touches a loving but stoic hand to her shoulder as he passes her by.
Tai is silent now. He couldn't resist the urge to talk about something
exciting for once! Though, now he deeply regrets doing so. The angry and disappointed look on his mother’s face, and the sneering giggles of his sister seem to sign his grounded fate in stone. There'd definitely be no playtime tomorrow after class.
CHAPTER 2
Glass Victims
J141857-VI Continent Alpha - Crash Site 2
Stern Wreckage
...
Eighty-two Years Later
Pinkie stared up into the night sky, fascinated by the tiny sparks of light so far away. He felt like he could reach up and touch them, and tried to several times. A gust of wind blew a white cloud past him, and he shields his eyes from the fine powder with one of his hulking and disfigured arms. Slurping loudly at the drool that poured down his swollen and puffed up chin, he wipes it and shuffles back to the den. One of his distant cousins died today at the hands of his brothers and sisters... there's meat for dinner tonight.
***
Unlike the fuselage which dug into the soft and moist ground like a shovel at Site 1, the stern had slammed into hard compacted rock, and rolled several miles before breaking into smaller fragments. Wreckage was scattered much farther and wider than at Site 1, as most of the stern had been completely pulverized from the catastrophic landing. The stern was no longer a single unified piece, but rather a collection of large building sized chunks scattered in a cone shape almost twenty kilometers long and seven wide.
While the survivors at Site 1 were busy tilling new farmland and pulling useful supplies they could salvage out of the fuselage, those who settled around the stern at Site 2 found a stark and terrifying new reality facing them. They were already aware of the ammunition lockers that would surely be badly damaged by the landing. Class-M Barrage munitions, based off nuclear warheads, were notoriously dirty hazards in any wreck. These 425mm shells were stowed securely and safely aboard the ship, and did actually survive the crash. However, they did not survive completely intact. Some racks had broken free as the stern shattered and were strewn across the crash site.
The crew was fast to react, containing what munitions they could find and using the escape craft to move them to the other side of the mountain. This valiant effort cost many people their lives, most of them being the crew chiefs, robbing the fledgling colony of valuable leadership. Despite these efforts, settling near the stern was a fatal flaw, even without radiation that still persisted.
Site 2 wasn't just a rocky tundra area devoid of arable land and fresh water. It was also primarily composed of a silica based mineral not unlike asbestos. This mineral created a fine dust of tiny glassy filaments when disturbed, causing serious health hazards to human life. Of course, the crash and impact had left plenty of this dust behind. Within a decade, three out of five colonists died from aggressive cancers that originated in the lungs and mucosae. Those who survived the cancer or did not contract it were afflicted by a condition that came to be known as 'The Drool'. Victims suffered painful swelling of all mucous membranes caused by embedded glassy dust particles, causing overproduction of mucus and robbing the settlers of speech at the least. More frequently, sores and infections set in eventually which often cost the victims their lives.
With no leadership, serious health hazards, lack of fresh water and food, and more than half of the settlers dead... Site 2 devolved into a series of warring tribes, each based out of a major stern fragment. At least twelve major clans existed at first, though in the next sixty years all but three of them would be wiped out through war or famine. Cannibalism was rampant, though usually of enemy clans. The second generation was immediately afflicted by grotesque birth defects. The third and fourth generations barely resembled humans beside being bipedal (in most cases).
Despite these issues, the survivors at Site 2 were still human in every sense of the word. More importantly, the survivors of Site 2
still remember exactly how they got here.
***
The chunk of wreckage the Loxxo Clan huddled around was formerly known as Cargo Bay II. One of the few technologically advanced areas of Site 2, the second cargo bay was originally built up with makeshift scaffolding and salvaged armor plates to form a sort of enclosed city. It also boasted heat and lighting made from salvaged Phased-Plasma shells, and the only working water filtration system. While most clan camps were lit by the familiar flicker of bonfires, Loxxo Camp glowed with an eerie turquoise color.
Dinner was the same typical event it usually was. Portions of food were divided mostly equally among the clan, with the larger and stronger warrior caste allowed to eat first. Pinkie was not one of the strongest, but he felt he had his fair share tonight. Fights broke out several times during dinner, mostly among young males seeking to prove themselves worthy. Loxx was the clan's leader as the clan name suggested, a single heavily scarred female with long and thin black hair and beady deep set eyes. Surrounded by a group of older and stronger males, she was one of only two examples of a female authority figure in the history of Site 2.
As a fertile female, the obese and bloated woman was a highly prized possession.
Was. After brutally killing her mate, she had quickly risen to the top of the clan, earning herself the position as a matriarchal chieftain. With dark brown skin and a naturally thick build, the Brutor blood was obvious in her. Swaying forward and back in her seat, she'd hum quietly in a sort of trance, her eyes closed and what could best be translated as 'smiling'. The men all watched her carefully as if trying to decide whether to kill her, mate her, or try to make a dinner out of her. Of course, none of them were daring enough to attempt it.
Night falls, and the clan falls asleep.
The next morning, howls echo through the camp. Another member has died of infection, and mourners gather around the corpse. Those who do not care merely watch with apathy and wait for the spectacle to be over. As usual, the more militant members whip the others into a frothing frenzy, determined to make a neighbor camp pay for this death. This is more ritualistic than practical or reasoned. Every time a respected clan member dies, that clan would launch a raid on its neighbors. In most cases, nobody was killed or seriously wounded… it had more in common with the brawls of young males vying for the few fertile women than it did with a real clan war.
Picking up a familiar metal bar, Pinkie bashes a nearby wall with it several times as his application to join. His jaw opens up as wide as it can and Pinkie leans forward as he howls out at the top of his lungs. His whole body shakes with the effort of the display of masculinity and strength. Many others do something similar by screaming out, making noise, or jumping around. Another loud cry peels up from Pinkie’s throat, rising in pitch as he tunes it. An older male points his weapon at Pinkie, signaling a favorable response. He grins.
-- Site 1 - Bowa Lond --
Tai wakes up, rubbing his eyes and groaning. Malone is still asleep, but his mother’s voice has woken him up. It’s time for class. In minutes, he’s dressed and carries his worn bag of books down to the kitchen for breakfast. Grabbing a bowl of cold rice for his lunch, he heads out the door to meet up with his friends as they head to class. It is there, far in the distance on a hillside that is normally smooth... he sees something. Maybe a large rock, maybe a new hut... but a hut wouldn't be built that far from town.. would it?
On the hill slope looking back at the town, at least three miles away, the grotesque and deformed bulk of a stern clansman stares back.
Tai keeps watching, until Bjorn calls his name out. "Yo T! ... hey! Tai! ..... TAI!!!" The final shout finally gets Tai's attention, and he runs over to join Bjorn and point out the odd thing on the hill slope.
"Dude, look. Over there.", he points toward the hill, but the figure is gone already. Tai keeps staring for a good few seconds in confusion.
"Haha, yeah right. I'm not falling for that again.", says Bjorn, thinking this is some sort of joke.
“Uhh... yeah. So yeah… I think I’m grounded again today.”
“What? Why?”, asks Raj, another friend. Ni-Kunni child, though with very dark skin.
“Uhh… Bjorn said something about Raiders last night, and I brought it up at the dinnertable.”
“Yeah you’re grounded.”, assumes Raj.
“Hey wasn’t your dad at the Raid?”, Liina asks, running up behind them. She’s a cute girl, with long blonde hair. Civire blood and bright blue eyes.
“Yeah, but he never talks about it. He’s
seen some stuff, you know?”
“Oh.”, she quiets down. Blushing brightly as she watches Tai walk.
Upon reaching class, Elder Gorah was already detailing the mythical tale of the Great Raid, when the Raiders were spotted. Monstrous creatures of violence and evil, cursed demons of the Sky Gods sent to test the faith of the Bowaii. As the tale goes, the Raiders arrived in the dead of night bearing torches of cursed green light. Butchering the townsfolk as they made their way through town, the Raiders had their hideous eyes set on T'ark. It is the valiant defense of the remaining townspeople that saved the women, children, and sanctity of the holy Temple of the Ark from the Raiders.
The great mystery of this tale is that the Raiders were carrying something with them, holding it far from Bowa Lond as the attack went on. A group of them stood at a distance, holding this strange artifact of likely demonic origins, and left when the attackers were stopped. Elders and children alike have debated the meaning of this for decades; though nobody has been able to find any conclusive reason for it. The prevailing theory states that this device was a totem to their demonic masters and is what allowed them to cross over from The Outside.
Elder Gorah finished his educational sermon by assigning some light homework and critical thinking for the children, then dismissed the class. Raj and Liina were a grade behind Tai and Bjorn, and were already waiting outside. As the four gathered together, they made their way to the lunchroom.
"Man, if I was there, I'd have killed me like... ten Raiders. You don't even know.", Bjorn proclaims, saying this to the younger Liina as he does. Liina rolls her eyes.
"Whatever!", says Raj, "They'd swallow you whole!"
Everybody laughs. As they split up to get in line for food, Bjorn leans over to Tai and whispers, "Dude, I think she likes me. Did you see the way she looked at me?" Tai was lost in thought. It isn't until a sharp elbow jabs into his side that he wakes up and realizes.
"Ow! .. huh?", Tai turns and glares at Bjorn.
"Dude what's wrong with you? Malone keep you up last night again or somethin?"
"No.. I dunno. I don't feel so good."
Bjorn slaps Tai on the back and grins, "What
you need is somethin to cheer you up! I've got just the thing too... my pa threw out a half empty bottle of whiskey last night. I've got it at the clubhouse.", he grins wide.
Tai just laughs and shakes it off. He can't stop wondering what the hell it was he saw, or wondering if he's the only one who saw it. Was it a Raider? Even Elder Gorah says the Raiders are long since defeated.
"Yeah. Sounds good."
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Topic: [Story] Cane Colony (Read 3016 times)