A Settler's Story (pts 3 & 4)

[Dusk]

(If you're wondering where part 2 is, it's attached to the "pt1" thread!)

I awoke, lying on the ground next to a structure that housed devices that looked like computer monitors. My head was spinning and I felt nauseous.

"I tried to warn you", I heard a voice say.

"I feel like crap", I groggily informed this voice.

I looked up and as my blurred vision started to clear I recognised Garrick.

"You'll be alright, you recover very quickly here", he told me. "Even without being fapped. I'd stay out of the PK rings for now though."

"The what?"

"PK - Player Kill ring", he informed me. "It's a sport here."

"Did you say kill...? Was I... Was I just dead...?"

"Yes, but only for a moment. The revival terminals transfer your soul into a reassembled body."

"How does that work?", I questioned, now starting to feel a little better.

"I've no idea, mate. It just does."

I was starting to realise the reality of being on Calypso, and it simply was not explained in any detail in that guide I'd been shown back on Earth. Teleporters? Fapping? Reviving the dead? I suppose I could see why it hadn't been explained. I doubt anyone would have believed the detail.

After a short time to recover, the group set off on the next leg of the journey. We ran east, into what resembled a shallow, grass-covered crater, full of animals I'd recognised from the guide as Berycleds".

"I love the 'Bery-cycles'", said Garrick.

"I prefer the 'Beri-culs'", smirked one of his friends.

"Nah", responded the third man. "It's 'Bery-kleds'."

However you say the name, they were quickly exterminated by the group.

We continued running, but as we climbed the edge of the far side of the crater I slipped on something.

"Aw, shit", I moaned.

"No mate", was the reply. "Here we call it dung."

I'd stepped into what appeared to be a fresh deposit of animal mess and instantly remembered the guide's advice on this. Before I had chance to do so off my own initiative, I was being told by the others to collect it so that I could sell it later on.

"Your jump suit should have something in the pockets to let you collect that stuff safely", I was informed by Garrick. I felt around inside the pocket of my orange jump suit and found a packet of small, plastic bags. This was a relief. I didn't relish the prospect of carrying the stuff by hand! It was messy and smelly.

Once I'd collected the dung and found a hidden pocket to store it, we continued on our way. More animals were encountered, like the male and female Snablesnots. The guide had warned me about their ability to fire green, acidic paste at their prey. What it didn't tell me was that they made a sound that resembled the Elephant back on Earth. These were as fragile as the Berycleds, however. They didn't get close enough to give me acid burns.

A short time after seeing the "Berys", we arrived at another settlement.

"This is Camp Phoenix", reported Garrick. "Damned shame what they did to this place."

"What do you mean?", asked one of the other noobs.

Pointing angrily towards a machine gun turret situated no more than twenty metres from the teleporter, Garrick replied, "You see that? That ruined this place. It used to be full of sweaters, just like at the sweat camp. But the turret ruined everything."

None of us questioned why or how this had happened. We barely had chance to record the location on our Data Pads before we were off again. I wondered to myself whether Garrick was somehow attached to this place, or at least how it used to be.

We had been running for a short time when one of the other noobs found some fruit lying on the ground.

"Grab it", advised one of the others. "You can sell it at market, just like the dung."

There was a rather large amount of fruit and it was while it was being collected that things started to go wrong.

I noticed someone dressed in pale green armour emerging from the forest that was a couple of hundred metres in the distance. In pursuit of this person was a cluster of small, monkey-like creatures that had sharp claws. I presumed they were sharp because they sure looked big enough. At this point I'd assumed the others had seen this happen, and I felt safe with the group anyway, afterall they'd dealt with everything else so far. But I couldn't have been more wrong.

"Oh shit", yelled Garrick.

Before I could respond, "I thought you called it dung here?", everyone else had run off. At this point the person in the green armour, who I could now see was a blonde woman was yelling "Run! Run!" But it was too late. A noise that resembled that of a wild cat was accompanied with a sharp pain in my leg, then a stabbing sensation in the stomach...

I woke inside a portacabin. I wearily got to my feet and went outside. It was then that I recognised the location as Camp Phoenix. But there was no sign of the others. I was on my own.

What was I meant to do now? Should I stay here and wait for help? Or should I try to explore the area? Perhaps find more dung or fruit? If I get killed, I get revived, so it doesn't matter...

part 4 to follow...

 

[Dusk]

A Settler's Story (pt 4)

It was an hour after reviving inside the cabin at Camp Phoenix and I'd discovered a nice location just a hundred or so metres to the south where I could sweat Berycleds, Snablesnots and Sabakumas.

It helped that a few other noobs were there, and without agreeing to it, we were essentially working as a team. One of the noobs had an axe to kill off any animals that were out of sweat, and any injuries sustained quickly healed themselves. I saw people die only a few times as the attention of the animals was divided. Having said that, witnessing someone die from injuries sustained from an animal was quite traumatic at first.

That first hour was quite frustrating at times. It turns out that my first encounter with that Exarosaur at PA was a fluke. Not the bit about almost getting my arm ripped off, but actually getting sweat at the first attempt. Here, I had a run of twenty consecutive rewardless attempts at sweating. This was normal, as I was informed by others. On average I was probably successful in one attempt in every six.

All in all, I'd obtained about 120 bottles of sweat from the indigenous creatures. However, I wondered, could I get more from larger animals. I cast my eye eastwards to some larger animals. They were perhaps 300 metres distant. As the supply of the smaller animals dried up and the noob with the axe said he was off to find some more, myself and two others who'd had the same idea decided to try these other creatures to the east.

We ran across so that we were standing about twenty metres from it, but spaced out so that it wouldn't know who to attack first. This creature was a real beast. It looked three or maybe four metres tall and was covered in grey fur. A deep, angry-sounding groan rang out as the animal became aware of our presence. This beast did not sound happy, and it sure did not sound friendly.

Regardless of the warning signs, I concentrated on the beast. My breathing became slow and the green haze enveloped me again. But as I tried again, nothing happened. Unsuccessful sweating attempts normally end in the same way, but this was different. My gut instinct told me that this was impossible.

"Something's wrong here", I called to the others.

"Yeah, I feel it too", was the response I got from one of my companions.

Then I looked at the third noob, a brunette I knew as Michelle. She was still focused on the animal. We tried to get her attention but it was too late. The beast ran at her, then tore her to pieces with three swings of its arms.

"The turret! The Turret!", I yelled at the other noob. "Head for the turret!"

I was running as fast as I could but was terrifyingly aware of something following me.

"If I can just get within range of the turret...", I thought. But it was too late.

I was now lying on my back, fully conscious, fully aware of a hole ripped into the right side of my torso and the taste of my own blood in my mouth. I could feel everything, while the beast stood over me. Then I saw another swing of its arm....

I woke up inside the cabin, alongside Michelle and the other noob who's name I later discovered was Liam. Liam told me how he'd witnessed the beast rip me apart before turning on him. The trouble was, I could remember every detail as clear as day. I'd always been told that the human brain filters out any memory that is overly traumatic. Yet here I was with the memory of this beast tearing me limb-from-limb. It was a memory I could well do without.

Then the futility of what we'd just tried was told to us. A man wearing black armour approached us.

"Did you guys just try to sweat a Feffoid?", he enquired.

"Umm... yes", said Liam.

The man was doubling up with laughter as he retorted, "You can't sweat them things. They're too intelligent!".

"Can you help us?", I asked.

"That depends on what you want?", he replied.

"I want to earn my fortune here but I have no equipment, no knowledge, and that TP over there is one of only three that I have."

"Okay guys", follow me.

We ran after this man as he headed in a south-east direction towards a place he called Zychion. We were pursued several times by the Feffoids, and by other beasts known as Cornundas and Cornundacaudas, but the man killed them all. Then a Molisk, the name of the creature that had killed me when I'd been in Garrick's group, was killed with a single shot.

I remember thinking that this man was more efficient on his own than Garrick with his two friends could ever be. He'd usually take out large beasts with three shots of his handgun.

As we neared Zychion, we passed wrecked military vehicles and trenches. I wondered to myself what could have happened here. Then we ran down a slope into what was Zychion. It looked like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie, with burned out skyscrapers and other smaller buildings, debris in the form of scrap metal lying everywhere and a structure that looked like an elevated highway that had been raised to the ground.

"Don't be put off by the state of the place", commented the man in black armour. "There's a fair amount that you can do here."

He proceeded to show us the different terminals in the control room in one of the shattered skyscrapers and how the site is occasionally used for Player Kill sporting events. He also showed us the bar.

"There's only one problem with this bar", he said with a grin. "Watch this".

The man went over to the bar and addressed the humanoid-looking robot at the counter.

"I'll have a beer please, barman", the man said loudly.

A very human-sounding voice replied, "We are currently out of stock, but expect a shipment in the near future."

"Okay, I'll have a whiskey please, barman"

"We are currently out of stock, but expect a shipment in the near future."

"Can I have a rum and black please, barman?"

"We are currently out of stock, but expect a shipment in the near future."

"You see what I mean?", said the man, "It's been like this for the two years that I've been here!"

"Maybe it only understands drunks?", laughed Liam. "Ask it for a Bum and Rack!"

The man joined in with the laughter and then introduced himself as Callum.

"Add me to your Friend List on your Data Pads", he said. "Synchronise with mine now and you'll be able to contact me if you should need help in future, or if we get separated on the way to the next settlement."

"Where are we going to now?", I asked.

"Our ultimate target is Twin, but we need to get to East Scylla Mountains first", came the reply.

We set off, running to the east. The journey was totally uneventful other than having to swim across a river. We got to East Scylla - a place that had no mountains - about twenty minutes after leaving Zychion without Callum needing to fire a single shot.

"That's odd", commented Callum. "I've not done that for a while but I'm certain I've always encountered some mobs on that run."

"Mobs?", asked Michelle.

"Yeah", replied Callum. "Moving Objects. Remember not all mobs that can cause a problem are animals in the true sense of the word. There are robots and mutants, like the one's that got you back at CP. Also intelligent humanoids."

After a short rest, we set off to the south-east. Here we did encounter some mobs, but Callum quickly dealt with them. We'd been on the move for about thirty-five minutes when Michelle found some fruit.

"Come on guys, there's loads of this stuff", she called.

Myself and Liam went over to see. There must've been two- or three-hundred individual pieces of fruit here so the three of us gathered what we could. But Callum didn't join in. He seemed nervous, uneasy. I wondered what was wrong. Then without warning, a squeal was heard as three large, cat-like mobs pounced on us. Callum fired on them as they attacked us. Michelle feel to the ground, lying motionless. Then I was hit with a single blow...

I woke up alongside Michelle at an outdoor display I now recognised as a Revival Terminal. I helped Michelle to her feet despite feeling sick myself. At that point, I felt something in my breast pocket vibrate. It was my Data Pad with a message from Callum;

"I'm still with Liam, I hope you guys revived in Twin Peaks."

It was at this point that I looked at my surroundings to see a strange place that I didn't recognise. Michelle, who'd received the same message asked a passer by if this was Twin. She then responded to Callum on behalf of both of us that we had indeed revived in Twin...

to be continued...

 

[Lem]

Hey Dusk, these are great !!

Hurry up with the next lot please

 

[Wistrel]

Great stuff!!! Really! this is the kinda thing I always wanted my diary to be like (wasn't though). Id even go as far as to say this is as good as Donald's stuff if not better cause it doesn't drop character.

I hope you keep going with it!

PS Ever considered writing something for the Calypso Post?