Tales from the Rim: The Last Hope Dies

This was a short story that I originally published on Tumblr in the '10s, based on a Rimworld colony.

This story is pieced together from records recovered from the ‘Last Hope’ colony’s datasystems. The records were recovered by an archaeology team and pertain to the personal histories of survivors of a long-haul starliner crash. Their names were Marc, Aaron, Mason, and Nabs. A fifth unnamed party was present as well.

Personal log of Nabs, day 22

I was out sporting with some forest boar when I saw something fantastical. It was sort of like a muffalo, but much larger and its fur was the whitest snow. But, what made it amazing is its horn: a glimmering white lightning bolt upon its brow.

I’ve asked the guys about this, and they laughed at me, saying I was seeing ‘unicorns’. I found some images of ‘unicorns’ in the database. It was not a frail, whispy thing. I do not know why they find unicorns funny.

If it comes closer to the colony, perhaps I will try befriending it. But, it was very far to the south, and making regular trips out there would be troublesome.

Personal log of Marc, day 24

Marc here. Visitors have arrived from the other settlement. Disturbingly, instead of the clubs and bronze knives they came with last time, their guard is totting a grenade bandolier and body armour. Maybe they misled us about their level of tech on their first visit. Nabs went and said hello, but they don’t have anything to trade this time, so we’re trying to keep to ourselves.

They’re fascinated by the power station, though. It’s making me very nervous.

Security footage

This footage has been transcribed by Archivist Xaviir and annotated by Head Archivist Novundus.

Two individuals in tribal garb are standing with a fat woman wearing what may be body armor next to a wooden structure. [Archival note: the structure is Lost Hope Colony, northwestern corner. An incomplete expansion.]

The individuals speak [Archivist note: no audio available] and seem to reach an agreement. They begin heading away from the structure. Fifty meters away, the group stops suddenly and all turn their heads in unison to view a thrumbo.

The fat woman throws a green orb at it [Archival note: believed to be a crude IED], and they all rapidly backtrack to the colony. The orb explodes at the Thrumbo’s feet.

The thrumbo is enraged by the explosion, but appears unwounded at this point. It charges the group, who have withdrawn to the shadow of the wooden structure. [Archivist note: there is a single door to the facility, but it is on the eastern end; too far to be of use for these unfortunate souls.]

The IED-throwing woman is the thrumbo’s first target. It charges her, and its horn penetrates her garb. The other two individuals open their mouths to scream. They quickly notice she has gone down with an IED primed and scramble away.

The Thrumbo tramples the corpse and ignores their retreat. After about a minute, the IED left by the corpse detonates. Minor shrapnel wounds are observed, but no injuries that ought be life-threatening to mega-fauna are sustained.

The detonation was only meters from the structure. The heat and shrapnel cause a wall to collapse, bearing open the homes of the colonists this exhibit focuses on.

Personal log of Aaron, day 26

Nabs is dead. Marc is dead. The slave dead. We tried to take the fuckers who sicced their beast on us prisoner, but they ended up dead too. Their bodies are scattered around the colony.

Mason and I are pretty fucked up; we can’t really get out of bed, and he’s still got some fucking plague. Normally it wouldn’t have been a problem, but it’s nearly 100F in here with nobody to fix the heat exchanges or bandage us up properly. I don’t know if he’ll make it.

Here’s what happened: those fucks from the shitty little village bombed the eastern wing. The one we were still building out; had put a quick temporary cap on the hall to keep the elements out while we harvested more wood and set up the cabling. I don’t think it took much to punch it down. I don’t know why they did it; Nabs said they were being suspicious, so maybe the story about another village was bullshit and they were just tech thieves.

It was night, so we were all at base. Marc and Nabs grabbed that big dumb caveman we kept around. They had their guns, and he had this gigantic marble club nobody else could lift. They headed out to try and arrest the fuckers.

I heard screams. Not the kind from a fight; snarling and yelping in pain. No, the kind of screams you hear when somebody is in inhuman pain. Nabs was first, then the slave, then two voices I didn’t recognize.

Aaron and I went to have a look. It was hot as hell; we hadn’t wired up this area yet, so it was hotter than the outside. Nearly 100F. Blood and body parts and smoke everywhere.

The ‘unicorn’ Nabs had spotted was there. We didn’t believe her last week; we thought she was having us on. Nope, it was there. It was huge. It was covered in our blood.

Marc was unconscious, but i could still see his chest rising and falling. Mason and I wanted to help him, but we went for the fallen guns first. He grabbed some grenades, and I got Marc’s rifle. I took a few shots at the monster, but seemed engaged with something else.

One of those fuckers came running inside, screaming his head off. I don’t know what he was hoping would happen, but I whacked him over the skull with the buff of the rifle and dragged him to the nearest room. Chained him to the bed. Not knowing Marc’s condition, it seemed prudent -- maybe he’d need a liver or something, and here’s a fresh set of organs standing by!

We waited an hour, and the monster seemed to calm down a bit. It was still in sight, but seemed distracted or sleepy. Mason grabbed Marc and brought him to a bed. We started bandaging him, but didn’t get too crazy -- the monster and one attacker were unaccounted for.

We set up camp in the new rec area. Again, hot as hell, but we needed to stay close to the breach. We both tried to catch a few hours of sleep, but that ended up a mistake.

A crash woke us up. Panicking, we grabbed the guns and stuck our heads out the door. Monster asleep. So, something was inside the base with us -- an animal, or the last ‘visitor’.

We crept down the halls in darkness. Really, really wish we had finished the wiring. It was miserable. But, we heard voices from the makeshift prison cell. That shithead’s buddy was trying to break him out. Bingo.

We kicked the door in and took a few shots. The guy in chains took the full force of our barrage. His brains are decorating that room now.

His buddy was a bit tougher. He took Mason down, but I sucker-punched him. Executed him while he was unconcious, dragged Aaron back to his bedroom. It was much cooler. I brought him some meds, but by this point I was bleeding all over. I collapsed into my own bed and fell asleep.

Here we are now. I didn’t stop bleeding. It’s hardly even a mattress now; more like a fucking water bed. Not sure what to do, but it seemed important to write this down.

Archivist Notes

There were no further personal log entries. Security footage continues on for approximately three months, at which point we believe an electrical fire caused a power failure.