2nd of Jugust, 5500

“How is that possible? I mean… Over a thousand years? Weren’t we only a few days from the last planet?” I asked while running my fingers through my hair, unintentionally working out some of the now snowy clumps of slime clinging to the locks before flicking them away.

The news of my long sleep was a shock that I couldn't quite grasp. It felt like a blatant lie, a cruel joke that couldn’t possibly be true. After all, it’s only been a few hours since this morning when I was still on the Astral Quill, being forced into the cryptopod. And now, in a blink, I find myself in the snow, but I refuse to let this break me.

‘It is simply due to the unfortunate positioning of the Astral Quill when you were launched from it. Between the impacts by the boarding bugs, the various explosions, and the meteorites that cracked the vessel outright, the Astral Quill had been so far removed from the original firing position, which launched the surviving crew members back to the last planet that you were in turn, launched into deep space.’

I guess… I guess that makes sense… “Okay… But couldn’t you have adjusted the trajectory of the cryptopod using the thrusters? Anything to get me back towards the same planet as the others.” I couldn’t help but start pacing in front of the pod, still running my fingers through my hair again as I felt vaguely comforted by the act.

‘Ezekiel, I have done my best to keep us both alive. I did all sorts of calculations for the first one hundred years to see if it was possible to get us back to the others. Anything I could have done would have worsened our situation.’

“Y-yeah, but…”

‘Ezekiel.’ Sagittarius silently cut in before I could get another word in edge-wise. ‘I have spent five-hundred and seventy-two years, two quadrums, three days, eighteen hours, forty-two minutes, and nine seconds calculating our best course of action. Ultimately, the only thing I could do was broadcast a distress signal in the hopes that someone, anyone, would find us… But nobody did.’

At that moment, I simply sighed, my freshly cleaned ears now flicking in contemplation as I slowly shook my head at the words quietly echoing between my ears. “By the stars, I’m sorry Sagittarius… I… I didn’t even consider that you had to be awake… Or at least aware of everything this whole time.” The sheer weight of his unwavering vigil cracking me over the top of my head.

‘To be fair, I could put myself to sleep too… However, many minor alerts have triggered the pod’s sensors over the centuries. Alerts for meteor fields, potential collisions, and even the occasional cosmic anomaly. I had to wake up each time, assess the situation, and put myself back to sleep.'

“Thank you, Sagittarius…” I sighed again before looking around at the snowy expanse around me, an involuntary shudder traveling down my spine and flicking through my tail as I looked myself over and tugged at my slime-drenched duster. “Couldn’t you have landed us somewhere warmer?” I asked, forcing a playful smile at my insincere complaining.

‘Well, it was either this, underwater, or a heavily polluted desert island… With your genetic cold tolerance and other modifications, I determined you would be better off keeping yourself warm than finding a way to cool off, trying to survive breathing toxic fallout, or possibly growing gills.’

“Well… You’re right about that.” I nodded agreeably as I rolled my shoulders. “Whelp… It’s time to start settling in, I guess. We’re in this together for the long haul, after all.”

From there, I spent the next several hours working on cutting down more trees, lopping off branches, and breaking down stumps. I personally felt I was gradually getting a little better at it, but the speed at which I worked didn’t notably change. Meanwhile, my constructoid took apart Zaris’ pod at Sagittarius’ recommendation while the lifter hauled away all the equipment, supplies, materials, and even a few subcores that were inside.

By the time night rolled around, I had made myself quite comfortable in my shelter. I had a good bed, a nightstand, and a dresser. I even had myself a table and a couple of chairs.

Things were vaguely homey in my little hillside shack, which was illuminated by a few wall-mounted torches. I found myself soaking in a large steel tub, relaxing in snow that had since been heated by a small fire pit perfectly placed in the middle of the shack, where a rooftop vent had been installed to prevent smoke build-up.

Across from me was another steel tub, where all my clothes and equipment were soaked after a thorough snow scrubbing. Hopefully, once they’re free from slime and dry, they’ll serve me much better in keeping me warm going forward.

With a long stretch that went from my ears down to my curled toes, I loudly popped my back before sighing contently and sinking into the water until everything below my chin was fully submerged. “Alright, Sagittarius… What’s the game plan? How should we proceed?”

‘Oh? Why are you asking me? I believe you are the one who needs to have their flesh and blood sustained. You should know what you need.’ He silently mused in an almost teasing fashion.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

“Sure, I should know these things…” I mentioned, taking a moment to submerge my head under the water and scrub my hair again before emerging as I exhaled with content delight. “But I’m just a soldier… All I can manage are my short-term goals and necessities. But as for you, oh great lore-keeper, I’m sure you can guide me through the bigger picture, can’t you?”

‘I… Suppose I could.’ Sagittarius silently considered. ‘Very well, Ezekiel, if you trust me, I will do my best to serve as your advisor.’ After a few more moments, he continued. ‘Well, first thing’s first. We should scout around the immediate area to get a lay of the land to know what resources are available to us. While we are doing that, have the mechs work on building us a power source and means to butcher kills and prepare future meals.’

“Wait… Prepare? Oh, stars, I didn’t even think about cooking… Can’t I just put together a nutrient paste dispenser?” I have little to no actual cooking experience. I can make something edible by heating things without burning them, but that's about it.

I could almost feel Sagittarius’ amusement at my distress as he began to respond. ‘I am sorry, Ezekiel, but with my currently limited processing power and the minimal free space I had to work with within the info brick, I did not manage to extract the schematics needed for a nutrient processor or the related infrastructure. Until you can build me the processors needed to start uncompressing all the data in the info brick, I am afraid you will just have to make do with preparing food the old-fashioned way.’

“And why can’t I rely on the packaged stuff?” I asked while glancing over to the few shelving units and storage crates I had my constructoid put together.

‘Those are for survival purposes… Only rely on those in dire circumstances. In the meantime, you should prioritize the short-term perishable goods for the day-to-day.’

I simply sighed at that before nodding my head. “Fair enough… Here’s hoping I don’t end up eating more charcoal than nutrients.”

‘That would be preferable, yes.’ Sagittarius silently chuckled.

7th of Jugust, 5500

These last several days have been… Quiet, to say the least.

I’ve come up with names for my mechs, deciding it would be too impersonal to call them by their base designations, given that they would be the backbone of my survival. The constructoid has been named Conbui, while the lifter will be going by Shovit.

The duo of mechs has been busy assembling a wood-fueled generator, a large battery, a steel butcher’s table, an electric stove, and even a tailoring bench.

As for me, I wandered through the snowy expanse, going only just far enough to keep my stony hill in view as I headed for what Sagittarius and I determined to be the planetary south. What I found in the snow… Were ruins… Ancient vehicles, old structures that showed signs of established civilization, things like rows of shopping carts, a building with only half the walls standing, and a complete array of old-style washers and dryers… There were also signs of battle: a field of crumpled razor wire that was weathered to the point of dullness, anti-vehicle barricades, turrets burnt out into uselessness before being left to rust, and the shells of APCs.

So far, nothing of actual use save for the metal I could salvage later.

Aside from the ruins, I managed to uncover a number of mineral veins: steel, uranium, gold, silver and what looked like compacted machinery.

While I personally didn’t recognize these veins for what they were, I noticed the differences in the snowy hills when I checked them on a hunch and described what I saw to Sagittarius, who in turn helpfully explained to me what I was likely looking at.

Heading back north, or at least northwest, along the current imagined edge of what was now deemed the perimeter of my new home base, I came across a strange-looking tree that radiated an inviting warmth and emanated an odd glow from the leaves.

“This… Isn’t this an anima tree?” I asked aloud while approaching it, reaching out and gently pressing my palm against the smooth, warm bark that pulsed with life. “I’ve only seen drawings of these… Read even less about them…”

‘An anima tree?’ Sagittarius silently piped up, the mental image of a question mark forming at the front of my thoughts. ‘That is… Interesting.’ He seemed to consider before continuing. ‘According to the information our sect has managed to gather from the tribal groups we have contacted and studied over the centuries… This tree is believed to be a limb, or rather the extension of what could be considered a world spirit.’

“A world spirit?” I asked as I pulled my hand away from the anima tree.

‘Some call them storytellers… Beings that inhabit the fabric of a planet and influence the events of the world, sometimes subtly, other times rather overtly.’

“Do we have anything more concrete about these anima trees? Should I be worried that one is so close to us?” I asked while looking at the tree again. After a few moments, I took a step away and started crossing the snow again, my ears twitching with every other crunch as I headed for home.

‘We do not, Ezekiel. Even that little snippet of information I have just told you is the culmination of centuries of information gathering. From what I have gleaned from the reports, it seems the trees themselves refuse to be studied or contained in any way and will actively conceal information about themselves.’ He then went quiet as we walked before piping up with an answer to my other question. ‘I do not believe we have anything to worry about… But I can only guess you might be in for an interesting stay on this rimworld with one of these trees so close to us. My recommendation is that you remain vigilant as the days pass.’

“Alright, that's as good a recommendation as any to live by.” I reasoned simply, though as I got up to the doorway of my hillside hut, a jolt suddenly traveled down my spine… A warning? It was like a red flag came to the forefront of my thoughts as my head swiveled from side to side until it settled on looking east towards the river. “Speaking of vigilance…” I said in a soft whisper. “We might have visitors… I… Think I'm sensing killing intent?”

‘This may be the storyteller at work already… Please be careful Ezekiel.’ Sagittarius silently advised.

Drawing my guass magnum, I proceeded to make my way around my hillside until I was closer to the river.

There, in the distance, I spotted a man in tribal clothing just sprinting towards my general direction. As I watched him close the distance, he eventually spotted me and turned to start heading right for me with a knife in hand.

Leveling my sidearm, I called out to him, making an attempt at a dialog. “Hey there pal, I don't want any trouble, ya hear me?!”

No response… He just closes the distance, a strange manic glee in his face as he reaches the river and plunges right into the shallow end of the water and aggressively splashes towards me.

Whelp, looks like negotiations are off the table…

I fire once, the accelerated round piercing clean through his shoulder as it paints the river with a fresh spray of red that quickly washes away, yet the man still kept coming.

As reached the river's edge on my side of the water, I pulled the trigger again as the magnum reported another shot, striking the man square in the forehead as he finally dropped dead, soaking a deep red into the snow around him as I holstered my weapon.

“That was… Stupid.” I sighed with a shake of my head before crouching besides the corpse as I started patting him down for anything useful.

Aside from a surprisingly good quality steel knife, he had a pouch with twenty-seven jade pieces on him. I opt to take them both, pulling his sheath off his waist and strapping it to my own belt.

‘How did they know to come here? Any ideas?’ Sagittarius asked.

Turning to look back towards my home, I spotted a thin but distinct and steady pillar of gray smoke rising from it. “It's likely because of the fire pit and all the torches… All that smoke is a clear signal of civilization, however minor it may be.”

‘Of course, then the next goal we should aim for is installing electric heaters.’ Sagittarius surmised.

“Yeah, sounds good to me.” I replied with a single nod.

As I began heading for home again, I glanced back at the corpse in the snow before tilting my head side to side. “Hmm… I probably shouldn't be too wasteful right now.”