A Settler's Story (pts 7 & 8)

[Dusk]

Parts 1 & 2 of this story can be found here. Parts 3 & 4 here.
Parts 5 & 6 here.

We arrived at East Scylla Mountains through the teleporter equipped with weapons, faps, armour and a set of approximate co-ordinates plotting a route to Fort Ithaca that had been supplied by Callum.

When Sandra had given the three of us license to grab almost what we'd wanted in the shop at Port Atlantis, I'd possibly not got the best tools that were available. I was now carrying an Omegatron M2890 handgun, an A-3 Justifier rifle and a FAP-80. I'd also got hold of a full set of Vigilante armour. This was not selected for its protective qualities but instead because I liked the white with blue trim colour scheme! I thought it would offset my skin colour nicely, while conveniently forgetting that the gloves and helmet would hide all my features.

We all made a short trip to the trade terminal to get ammo before setting off, heading north towards Jason Centre. On the way there I observed several mob types; Snablesnots, Turps, Exarosaurs and Combibos were along the route but gave us no problems. We also passed burned out wreckage of military vehicles. Having seen similar on the outskirts of Zychion I wondered whether this was a regular feature of Calypso.

Within twenty minutes of leaving the trade terminals we arrived at Jason Centre.

"Well that was easy enough", commented Liam.

"Yeah", answered Michelle. "This'll be easy at this rate."

I was anxious though. I had a goal to achieve and another five locations to get to before I might be reunited with my brother. After what felt like an age of "seeing and feeling" the location we set off for Limnadian District.

We ran in a north-west direction, again seeing Snablesnots and now Diakibas. A short distance out of Jason, the skies became dark. "Is it night now?", I asked the others. "I thought it never got dark here." The others were unable to answer the question.

The light hadn't faded completely, which was just as well as we had no torches or other devices to illuminate our path. There was just enough light to be able to continue moving, but not really enough to be fully aware of our surroundings. After around ten minutes the darkness started to lift. There was now enough light to be able to see distant Snargs.

"Maybe it was just thick cloud", puzzled Liam. As I turned to agree with him, I saw an awful sight.

"Watch out!", I yelled at Liam as a cluster of between fifteen to twenty mobs were baring down on him. Realising that these mobs must have sneaked up on us in the dark, Michelle and I stopped and started to fire on the cluster. The cluster consisted mostly of Foul and Tripudions. Liam was engulfed in mobs. Then they turned their attention to me and Michelle...

All three of us revived at the same revival terminal. A quick check of my data pad confirmed that we'd arrived at Limnadian. Liam cursed about the fact that every creature on this planet seemed to want to attack us.

"Where to next?", asked Michelle.

"Fort Fury", I replied. "It's only a short distance to the north-west from here. I reckon we can run it in about fifteen minutes."

We passed Molisks, Estophyl and got bitten by some flying insects that I think were Igni on the way to Fury. The only downside to this leg of our journey was that we had to cross a river.

"Oh, great!", I moaned. "We're gonna get wet again."

"I hope there's nothing in this water", Michelle asked while looking to me and Liam for some sort of re-assurance that we couldn't possibly give her. We waded, then swam across this river until we got to the embankment on the opposite side. There were some Allophyl nearby, as Liam informed us. He had found a mini-encyclopaedia feature on his data pad that was allowing him to identify every mob we'd encountered. I almost got the feeling that he'd be very at home in a foliage-covered bunker with a big pair of binoculars, sat along side the likes of Bill Oddie.

Anyway, we climbed the embankment. At the top we were greeted with the site of the walls of Fort Fury in the distance, across a clear plateau. The walls gave a metallic shimmer in the bright but slightly hazy sunlight. It was a spectacular, welcoming view as we ran the last bit of the route to the town.

As we got to the teleporter we all felt ready to continue onwards. We headed north to Atlas Island South, then on to Tethys Creek - both runs that were short and unremarkable other than yet more river crossings.

At Tethys Creek, we were now within striking distance of Hadesheim - the capital city of Eudoria - and hopefully the last stop before Ithaca. We decided to wait at Tethys for a few hours to rest. We were all tired by now and starting to suffer from minor ailments. Liam's feet were sore, as were Michelle's. Meanwhile, my Vigilante armour was starting to rub slightly in a few places. The design of the armour was excellent, however it was by no means a tailored fit.

My urgency to find my brother had taken a back seat for now. I realised that we had made excellent progress, but now this rest was essential.

The rest break turned out to last seven hours. We'd all underestimated the mental tiredness aspect of gathering all these teleporters in one go. We began to wake ourselves up and then took up the run westwards to Hadesheim.

We were about twenty minutes out of Tethys when we started to encounter occasional Faucervix and Snargs. Any that gave us trouble were easily dealt with thanks to the weapons we'd taken from the shop back in Port Atlantis. As we travelled further though we started to see Feffoids and Atrox.

"This doesn't look so good", Liam told us. "They appear to be all around us."

"There's gotta be a way through", I demanded. But Liam just shook his head in disagreement.

It amazing how we'd become used to being able to die and revive in such a short time. With no way around the cluster of mobs, it made the decision to just go for it all the more easier. We had to head west and we'd possibly get torn limb-from-limb by these powerful mobs, but hopefully we would revive somewhere close to Hades if we were able to make enough progress.

"Cccchhhaaarrrggggge!", yelled Liam as we went for it. Like that was going to scare off the mobs! To be fair, our charge turned out to be a good effort. The three of us ran and ran and ran, forcing ourselves forwards. All the time we attracted more and more angry mobs. We could feel their presence behind us. I'd feel the occasional sharp claw in the back or on the leg, but I kept going. I was struggling for air. My lungs were burning and my chest was tightening as I fought to take in enough air to keep going.

Then just as I'd run over some slightly hilly land and onto a plateau, something hit me with a massive force, taking me off my feet. As I crashed to the ground I was aware of a severed lower leg lying a few metres behind me, and a trail of blood leading from it to my knee. I felt nothing, but then it all went black. At the mercy of the mobs I must've passed out...

I woke up at a revival terminal. To be followed a short time later by Liam, then Michelle. We waited a while to get our strength back. We were at an outpost just south-east of the co-ordinates that Callum had given us for Hadesheim. There was a blue dot on my data pad radar so we went to investigate, walking through a dense forest that was alive with the sound of bird song.

The teleporter identified by the blue dot turned out to be isolated, placed next to a small hill. We all recorded the location before heading north over the hill. At the crest of this hill we were greeted with the site of tall, dark buildings. We had arrived at Eudoria's capital city...

part 8 to follow...

 

[Dusk]

We decided to search Hadesheim to see exactly what was here. We were greeted with the sight of tall buildings, separated with wide, tree-lined boulevards. Many of the buildings hosted large advertising displays for the likes of Omegatron, Castorian and Genesis Star. We visited specialist armour, weapon and clothing shops. We even dropped into Junk Yard Bar, just to see if we could get more to drink than at Zychion. Liam even tried repeating is "Bum and Rack" joke to the android barman. At the centre of the city, there was a large expanse of greenery, just how I'd image Central Park in New York to be.

Having spent hours searching through Hadesheim, it was in every way a capital city. In every way except one.

Michelle was first to crack by asking, "Where the hell are all the people?"

We spent the best part of three hours exploring the city yet I doubt we saw any more than half-a-dozen people during this time. There were plenty of androids ready to splutter seemingly random greetings, but hardly anyone else. It was as if there had been a mass evacuation, or as if a neutron bomb had not only wiped out all life here, but then cleaned up the remains as well.

A city can have as many landmarks, parks, amenities and buildings as it wants, but without people inhabiting that city it will never have a pulse, a heartbeat, a soul. I'm not sure how the others felt about the place, but to me a visit to the capital should have been exciting. However, this left me feeling completely under whelmed. Perhaps there was an argument for Port Atlantis or Twin Peaks to be the capital instead. Both were much smaller than Hadesheim, but both had that soul that was missing here.

Having searched Hadesheim, we headed north towards our intended goal. The sound of bird song rang out was we ran through the forest, just as it had on our approach to the capital from the south. Snablesnots and Combibos were in the area but didn't trouble us.

Just as we approached an embankment I received a message from Callum on my data pad. He was asking about our progress. I told him we were on the final leg of the journey and he responded by telling us to wait for him.

A few minutes later there was a noise, a blinding flash of light and there stood Callum.

"That's some entrance", I giggled as Callum looked around to get his bearings.

"My god", he remarked. Commenting on our armour, he asked, "Did you guys buy all that gear with sweat, fruit and dung?", while winking to Liam to signify that he knew that we hadn't really.

After all the pleasantries had been exchanged, Callum pointed out the dangers that lay ahead.

"You'll get to an ocean inlet, which it's best to run along. But when you swim across the Ithaca Channel to Ithaca Island you'll be swamped with Atroxes", he informed us. "If you get killed here, and you will, you'll revive to the west on the main continent."

We continued on our way, and as the forest cleared we started to see large numbers of Cornundacaudas. Instructed by Callum, we headed for the ocean inlet rather than stay and fight the large numbers of beasts whose attention we'd attracted. However, when we got to the inlet there was a problem.

"Damnit!", cursed Callum. "It's shallower than I thought". Our mentor's plan to drown the mobs had backfired. Now we had to fight them. There was at least twenty mobs bearing down on us. We all fired on them, but all took bad injuries. Fortunately, Callum owned a powerful FAP and so ran around healing us when we needed it. Eventually, we cleared all of the beasts, looting quite a few skins and oils in the process. I did think it was more by luck than judgement that none of us had died in the exchange though.

We ran along the shore of the inlet without getting the attention of any more animals before reaching the channel. The island on the opposite side of the channel was clearly visible. We dived into the sea and started swimming across. As we approached the opposite side we could see the Atroxes on the hills.

"Don't get to shore", called Callum. "Swim to the west, parallel to the shore."

We followed his instructions, not wanting to revive off the beaten track. We swam for what felt like an age before Callum felt it was safe enough to swim ashore. We then climbed hills before reaching a plateau. Running across this plateau, we were able to avoid the Cornundacaudas, some smaller mobs and the occasional Atrox in the distance. Fifteen minutes from the ocean, I could see the blue dot on my radar that indicated the Ithaca teleporter. At that point, I noticed a tall, thin, silver coloured object running towards us. Then there was laser fire.

"Trinity", yelled Callum. "You've got the best armour for this. Tank it!"

I pulled out my A3 Justifier and started firing. Callum only needed to FAP once or twice before the robot collapsed in a cloud of sparks and blue smoke. I went over to loot the machine, and pulled out some undamaged cables. I also pulled out a Robot Auto Adjuster, however on inspection, this was found to have been burned out by the robot's destruction.

Buoyed by killing my first robot, we continued on our way reaching an entrance to Fort Ithaca. I wondered now whether or not my brother would be here...

to be continued...

 

[Wistrel]

Still loving this! Look forward to listening while hair straightening each week

 

[Pirx Danford]

You described exactly what I felt when I explored Hadesheim the first time.
Its a sad sight to have a city without life.