20 January 2023

Ow. Ow. That... hurts. Ow. Stop shaking me.

Criminy, what a hangover. Wait. No. I extricate my face from between the fuzzy sides of the chairs in front of me. Right. A crash. I squint around and notice Heloise, Brick and Franky all staring back at me. I adjust my hair.

Movement ahead of my draws my eye. A young lady seems to be tearing through her surroundings, looking for... something.

Soon I find myself outside, my head still buzzing. The young lady is called Karine. A university dropout and a native. Seems like a real go-getter type. Chip on her shoulder. Point to prove. Useful. Two other survivors have materialized: a Vargr law student called Evan, who seems mostly content to keep to himself, and Phinen, a human salesperson big on Warehousing who... struggles... with silence, and seems somewhat in denial about the nature of his situation of being crashed and stranded.

We spend some time digging around the craft for supplies. Luckily we find a large rescue kit with rations and water and a way to make shelter and more of such necessities. Two first aid kits and a fire extinguisher too. We even raid the vending machine for snacks and water. Somehow, Franky seems to have unearthed a gun. I think it was him?

We also use the compass from the rescue kit to determine roughly where we are. Our landing site appears to be in an arid place to the west of both Murdok Spaceport, which is likely to the north of us, and Sterntown, which is likely to the south. Technical classification: boonies. Middle of nowhere. Arse-end of beyond.

Having satisfied herself to her companions and supplies, Karine takes to scanning the skies. She informs us that she believes we may have been targeted by raider folk - a group called the OMA Raiders - who may set down to steal what they can from our craft. If so, we should expect company soon, and should make haste to depart with what supplies we have managed to save. Hearing that, we drag everything we have found away from the craft and stow it in a dip in the terrain, hiding it from cursory glances.

She has made the right call. Soon, we see a ship descending and it does not look like rescue.

We grab those emergency supplies from the larger stash that are easy to carry, turn off any comms we have left to us, hand the new-found gun off to Karine and head for the hills. Our trek takes us through much scrub brush, thorny brambles and sandy, rocky terrain. There seems to be some evidence of water, but not much. Phinen, meanwhile, having discovered my vocation, seems intent to sell me on some automated warehousing equipment. I suspect he's still in denial or shock. Or maybe just suffering from professional deformation. In any case, he is annoying, but worse, he is loud. Eventually I manage to get it through to him that he'll not be making a sale today, and that he'd be better off using his faculties to ensure we are not ambushed.

Blessed silence.

In the course of the day we find strange structures. First we hardly notice them, but as they become more numerous, it becomes obvious to us that we are looking at ruins of what once was sophist-made construction. We even come upon the remnants of a road, which we decide to follow. Soon enough, remnants of walls rise up around us.

Once night falls, we decide to make camp. One ruin provides some shelter in the form of two walls forming a corner. We decide to build a small fire and camp there, knowing that we're at least shielded from sight and attack from some sides. The night does not pass peacefully - at times we feel as if we are being watched and in the darkest hour, just before the cold fingers of dawn begin to fondle the horizon, some monstrous canid lunges at Evan and tries to drag him off.

Luckily we manage to send the beast scurrying (I had nothing to do with it, obviously), and thanks to Heloise's ministrations, Evan is soon almost as good as new. Once light reaches us, we follow the beasts tracks and find that it did not travel alone. It seems wisdom not to stick around,a nd we decide to return back to the crash site via a circuitous route that lets us see more of the ruins that we have traveled through.

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