Bleakbane plays Rimworld Part H (32-36)

Part Thirty-Two

Day Three-Hundred and Thirty-Four.

Bionic leg for Hallie.

Oh. It was a techprof persona core, not a regular persona core. You used it for research, not starship control. Oh well. Use to learn FTL drive then, Stab, arriving back at base, guessed.

More Lenere tribe visitors.

Stab ordered the wall where the ship would go to be thickened up.

And the nominal dorm corridor built.

(Though honestly at this point, Stab likely wouldn't get too many more people.)

Day Three-Hundred and Thirty-Five.

Revision to the previous construction plan. They would knock the wall and door down, and keep the corridors more open (to better help keep the heat in).

Aesthetic nose for Justina...

A bulk trader arrived! thank the Lichemaster! Falcon handled the talking, since Hallie was still woozy. It required moving the trading unit in the textile storage around a bit again. All the guff clothes were traded off, along with a lot of the spare and unused leathers and the bits and pieces. This allowed them to clean out the trader of neutroamine, components, advanced components, plasteel and steel.

This cleared a LOT of storage space!

Aesthetic nose for Dan...

And Jenni found another load of plasteel. Excellent.

Aesthetic nose for Oscura...

Jenni found some jade.

Yeah, Oscura wasn't too happy with the idea of drilling in her bedroom.

Oops. Justina was confused due to the anaesthetic. Oh well.

Aesthetic nose for Espinoza...

And Justina needed warmer clothes. Time to use some of that megasloth fur for a button-down shirt.

And we will leave it there.

Part Thirty-Three

Day Three-Hundred and Thirty-Six.

Jenni found more steel underground.

Aesthetic noses for Hallie and Beatriz... And actually, as Trocur finished one while Beatriz was done, Beatriz would get a second bionic leg, too.

Aesthetic nose for Euphemia...

Stab had come to realise that "kind" was actually kind of a bad trait, since it ignored pretty people as well as ugly people, so there wasn't an easy way to get kind people to like other people by making them hot. Poopie.

Day Three-Hundred and Thirty-Seven.

Four rare thrumbos.

Stab would have Sam try and train one, and then maybe kill the others. Carefully.

Okay, bad... They set off all but one of the Graveyard traps but were still fine.

The visitors left, leaving a pump shotgun.

Better rally everyone one who was not currently woozy (and Beatriz, since she went woozy to try and tame the thrumbo...) ready for a still fight.

Nope, no tame thrumbo. Ready fight everyone!

They got one, the other three started to flee.

Hmm. Maybe Navarro could pick them off with the sniper rifle - and maybe they could get a couple more trap repaired before the thrumbos got out...

Or, maybe they could bounce the thrumbos between the traps and the killbox if they kept turning around. (One of them was slowly bleeding out.)

Jenni found a tiny bit of silver.

Okay, one more thrumbo dead, one downed and bleeding out. (The one Sam was supposed to try training.) IF they could get it to stop bleeding (Trocur took medicine this time), maybe they could try and tame it again.

Last thrumbo down. This one, like the dead pair, had various health issues (which was why Stab had told Sam to train that one.)

Okay, it wasn't bleeding out now. A medical sleeping spot had been placed in the secondary wood storage, where the corpse drop was modified to hold hay. That should keep it contained. Hopefully this would work, since Trocur had blown a whole stack of medicine on it! (Stab really wanted a nice continuous supply of thrumbo fur!)

Wow, even freezer Three was starting to get a bit full!

Aesthetic nose for Mike and Maelan (Stab was skipping Balgucha and Mantis for a moment, while they crafted, the former especially, since she was making the noses!)

The good news was that Thrumbos no longer had a change to go manhunter when taming failed, so that thrumbo was going to be in the wood store for a long time. But they had enough hay - more than enough - so it was just a case of waiting.

In fact, as the wood store was not being used, that was changed over to hay as well, that should reduce the amount they needed to keep re-stocking it and with any luck the thrumbo would eat the hay that had to be left out to rot!

WAIT DAMMIT you only got thrumbofur from dead thrumbos, not like you did wool. Motherfracker, they should have tried to save that other one too.

Oh, sod it never mind. Next time, maybe, if there was one.

Day Three-Hundred and Thirty-Eight.

Aesthetic nose for Snow...

Two bionic legs for Navarro...

The thrumbo was up. Now it was just a case of waiting. Even if they tamed it, with 98% wildness, they weren't going to try and train it to haul, maybe they could just cryosleep it and... Huh. Actually looking it up, even 98% wildness was only a six-day interval, that wasn't too bad, assuming it wasn't impossibly difficult to train...

Day Three-Hundred and Thirty-Nine.

NICE bit of steel, Jenni!

Darn. Eclipse.

Okay.

Were any of them worth a recruiting slot?

Eh... Okay, but at this stage, probably not worth the extra hassle.

They could have their silver then, since sod it, the money room was overflowing...

Cargo pods carrying some jade landed to the south-east.

Aesthetic nose for Worm...

Ahaha. Another data hack. Well, seeing as how easy it was to do the last one, no time like the present, right Jenni?

Outside the walls, this time, but at least it wouldn't blow anything up.

Oops. Main batteries were empty, time to flick on the first secondary array. Just as the eclipse ended, of course...

Freezer FOUR...

Last two noses done, for Balgucha and Mantis! Everyone had one now except Sawbones (because he had his gastro analyser) and Macy, because on the one hand, while it would raise everyone's opinion of her, it also made her a potential romance likelihood, and well, as Macy didn't sleep. She couldn't have sex and thus wouldn’t get the bonuses (and might well upset her would-be lover). Maybe once all the boys were taken...

Day Three-Hundred and Forty.

Winter again.

NICE, Jenni, not even a raid!

As soon as it was daybreak, the first lot would be into the pods. Actually, no, Balgucha and Mantis' noses could wait; they'd go now.

Everyone except Trocur, Espinosa, Worm and Macy hit the pods. (Stab hadn't intended to do quite so much but she wanted to go at the same time as Sawbones, so they ended up doing another block but frack it.

Lenere tribe visitors came. Monkey was among them, another potential recruit they'd try to befriend before. Wasn't likely she make sufficient friends this trip, with everyone in the pod, but for the sake of argument...

*sigh* Dry thunderstorm. In winter, when everyone was out. Of course.

Fortunately, gentle snow began falling before long.

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-One.

Macy did her best to charm Monkey and did reasonably well, in between making freezer four. Worm was run a little ragged after all the animals. Trocur picked away at the bionics, but also had to stop to crank out some megasloth wool pants as Worm in particular was finding her trousers wearing out.

Hmm.

Was this worth it?

((No. Staggering ugly, psychically deaf and a gourmand. Pity that Trocur had gotten an inspired tame a few seconds after I'd hit yes to see...))

Manhunting pack of labrador retrievers.

Well, it could be worse.

(Yes, game, you tried that, didn't you?))

Macy, better actually pick a gun up, duck.

Nice and separated. Good.

((Okay game, exactly HOW do the dogs win?

No. Reload. This time, assign all fighting animals to Trocur.))

Again.

((No. The dogs do not wander off and ignore everyone to kill the autocleaners. Reload and FRACK OFF.))

Macy, this time the minigun. Aim at the sleeping spot as they come out...

Spelopede 2 died from a random miniturret hit. However, given the poor girl already was crippled by a gun shot the brain, it was in many ways a merciful end.

Macy and Worm were bleeding quite a bit.

8 glitterworld medicine from the Lenere tribe.

Yeah, with two colonist and three animals (Deathsnarl, Slow Death and Barguest) bleeding out Espinoza and Trocur had LITTLE more pressing concerns, but, like, thanks anyway.

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-Two.

Espinoza was very frayed at the edges, so Trocur took over doing the last of the healing. Macy and Worm were down for the count. Espinosa, her own minor wounds untreated until now, collapsed in the next hospital bed. Leaving Mama Trocur the only human (or close approximation of one) awake in the colony!

Well, at last it'd be quiet...! Except for the fact she wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep, since she still had to tend to everyone.

Espinoza was fully healed by tea-time, so she started on the tending too.

A labrador had STILL managed to damage one of the autocleaners, despite them being not zoned anywhere near then, so a staggering Macy had to go fix it.

There must have been nearly thirty dead dogs in the freezers...

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-Three.

At midday, Trocur buried spelopede 2.

Then there were four more dead dogs from outside the hauling animal zone to cart away. (Must have been about 35 enemies!)

Just as the first wave was starting to stagger out of their pods, a pair of donkeys wandered in, joining the colony.

Sure, fine, whatever.

Stab was like "what happened while I was out?" and Trocur was like "well..." Stab sent the four straight to the pods. She'd handle the rest. (Starting by setting the max donkey young to 0, since Stab did NOT want to have her Named Pack Animals autoslaughtered and one of the new donkeys was female.)

And as Stab begins to get things back in shape, we will leave it there.

Part Thirty-Four

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-Four.

Are you kidding Stab?

Oscura had to beat a hasty retreat inside (she was just about to start working on replacing the traps). Everyone else (apart from the two slated for medical) battle stations. There were "only" 18 of them this time.

Better, though the autocleaners still got in the way and got damaged.

Monkey was back again, with more Lenere tribe friends.

Good job the built freezer four, wasn't it?

Steel and gold.

Couple more goes Jenni, then it would be back to research.

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-Five.

Well, they'd spent all that time recruiting her, so yeah.

Stab and Balgucha would start making her bionics, but first - conversion ritual.

Heh. And Monkey was truly one of them now!

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-Six.

The rest of the Lenere tribe visitors left, feeling happy.

More steel...

Another annoying zzzt.

Stab had four more solar generators added, and had them start on Freezer four's exterior walls, since dammit, they kind of needed it now.

That'd be the fifth location for the Lightcaller location.

Eh, you can do better with the Plasteel, Jenni!

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-Seven.

'Kay, Monkey, have an ear, a nose and as you need a leg, have two, while you're going to be under...

Alligator, you might as well have a pair of legs too. (Since she and mike were a bit slowed by their drill-arms.)

Aw, look, Monkey's useless nephew was coming to stay.

Trocur's group was now out of the pods. In a little bit, Kasil and Trocur would go back in (and Monkey, to synchronise).

Freezer Four was finished.

Oh, a big jade deposit. Good job, Jenni!

Okay, a decent reward (an infinite chemreactor, archeotech eye). But taking care of seven animals and TWO mech clusters?

Egh, screw it, they'd try.

First of all, the central prison was turned into a temporary dog shelter, with seven medical spots and seven sleeping spots, and all seven dogs were authorised to be treated with regular medicine.

Monkey, Trocur, Kasil - pods.

Stab considered ordering more mortar rounds... But they were going to run out of barrels to change likely before the ammo was a major problem. A dozen would probably see them out of mortars...

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-Eight.

No sign of the clusters just yet - Stab had expected them to appear right away.

They had enough thrumbo fur for five dusters. Stab would get on that personally when she had a moment.

Day Three-Hundred and Forty-Nine.

The guests were leaving, giving a machine pistol. Woot.

A bulk trading ship came by. Falcon offloaded a good chunk of clothes, scrap leather and some statuary to clean them out of components, advanced components and plasteel.

Stab, if you make a masterwork duster, wear it yourself, you dafty!

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty.

An exotic goods trader was slowly trudging towards the base, through the snow. Falcon bought components and advanced components, a bionic eye (saved them making one) a psytrainer for invisibility, a skilltrainer for crafting and emptied the treasury a little bit.

Inside the base, Jenni, inside...

Maelan would get the skill trainer, boosting his crafting by 4 levels to 11 (since Barracuda kind of had better thing to be doing, as the leading plant expert).

They were sufficiently comfortable in plasteel and advanced components (they now had over fifty!) that Stab elected to make a couple more charge rifles.

Oh Stab's badness, they had ACTUALLY got through the butchering backlog!

...

Seriously, Tortoise one, you just ate a DEVILSTRAND? After that had already nearly lost the entire outdoor crop to the cold? Ooh. Just you wait.

Nice rewards, but Stab, REALLY wasn't keen on dealing with possibly three clusters, the two was going to potentially be bad enough...

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-One

Monkey's nephew was back again, with more Lenere Tribe visitors.

Stab kept working. Once the impeding mechanoid cluster crisis was over, they'd look at sending out a mining party to that plasteel site. Oops, she forgot she'd not finished the last thrumbo fur duster. Better get that done!

Monkey, Trocur and Kasil were all done!

Keep working, Jenni...

The last thing, Stab decided that they'd try putting down a landing beacon.

And there we shall leave it for today.

Part Thirty-Five

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-Two

Fragdammit, really, there were chickens sleeping outside? Time to expand the barn...

Crap, the girls worked fast now!

Right, first cluster had arrived. It had a mortar, so not time like the present to start hitting it.

Okay, so far the attacks totally missed the mortar. Typical. Everyone not on a mortar, action stations.

Okay, stop the mortars. One was out of a barrel and the enemy base was nearly flattened. Save the fragging thing they were aiming at of course, but at this point, it would be better for Navarro to snip stuff once the enemy mechanoids were dealt with.

And they were just coming into range.

Oof. Those centipedes took some killing.

Navarro picked off the turrets with her sniper rifle. The damaged mortar exploded, taking the last turret out. Done!

Minor burns to Dan, Jenni, Mike and Justina, and a couple of the animals.

GREAT. An infestation.

((AND before I freaked saved, of course.))

Stab took a team to deal with the situation ASAP.

Net result, some more injuries... And three downed scolepedes and one megaspider.

CRAP. Two of the little bleeders apparently ran in the other direction and serious mauled Macy.

AMAZINGLY, she wasn't bleeding out.

They must have caught her outside the base while she was hauling stuff from the mechanoid doofer.

'Kay, the megaspider and one scolepede died, apparently having recovered in the half-second Stab wasn't looking and was killed by Oliphant.

((Since the game was infuriating in how it filled in animal sleeping medial spots.))

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-Three

Okay, the crappers always appears there, so Stab would block them in an apply a circuit with heats to boil them for future.

Never rained, but it poured.

Still, they had about four days, enough time to heal and repair a little. They'd probably have to temporarily seal off the south gate trap corridors, though, since those would NOT stand up to a larger attack.

Sam managed to tame one of the scolepedes (though she got a bite in the process).

Okay, fine!

The Lenere tribe didn't like things and left.

((You know, I'm beginning to be sure that the random "I don't like this" only happens if I reload shortly before they leave. As the alternative was idiots from the Lenere tribe arriving EXACTLY on the mech cluster and blithely walking through it and waking it up, I'd not had much choice...))

Billa, despite apparently being disappointed, IMMEDIATELY came back.

((And from the opposite side of the map out of the mechanoids way, this time...))

Sam got the second charge rifle of the pair Stab had been making, passing her masterwork assault rifle to Balgucha.

((HA. No game, I saved a few seconds before you tried to pull a high female psychic drone. Reload. And, as you made me do, that, we will do that 69% chance to tame the last scolepede, thank you...))

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-Four

Yeah, there was no way they were doing that other mechanoid cluster quest.

Uranium, not bad...

Grr. Siege.

((And it ALWAYS does it just before I save. Right, no [Expletive] off, game, you don't get to make a siege attack with tons of sniper rifles. We will have ONE go with incendiary rounds, but if you don't play ball, and you make me reload a whole day, so you don't get ANYTHING I don't want for the rest of the night.))

Okay, apparently that did enough to get them to attack.

First wave on the east gate.

The five that attacked the Graveyard lost four to the traps. Barracuda was dispatched to clobber the last one if she got past the defences.

The enemy broke before that happened. No casualties and one prisoner (for organ harvest).

(Also, it's funny how the enemy notices doors when they are fleeing and destroyed them on their way out.)

The dog's shuttle had arrived, but they hadn't got on it, annoyingly.

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-Five

Seriously? They had to wait for the dogs to be asleep and MANUALKY CARRY THEM to the shuttle?

Grr.

Done.

Spring.

Right, rebuild the graveyards traps ASAP. Oscura, get those two barrels from the siege camp in right now. It won't be long before the mechanoids wake up...

The Lenere tribe visitors left, leaving some silver.

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-Six

Exotic goods traders arrived, carrying with them Navarro's ex-lover. Woo?

Actually, yes woo, since they had components, advanced components and an archeotech leg (Dusk would be pleased...)

THERE we go. That'll do Jenni. Go research poison synthesis.

Okay, the plan was thus. Stab would fire the triple rocket launcher they'd gotten from the raiders at the enemy mortar and then run like hell, while the mortars fired. Hopefully, the enemy would chase Stab and they'd have time to get everyone in position, since it took AGES for the enemies to get through the sandbags.

Wow. Okay, they maybe didn't need the mortars for that, unholy crap.

The mortars took care of the other problems too. Okay this was going quite well...!

Pfft! Ahahahahahaha!

If Stab wasn't evil, she'd feel guilty about that.

Several fled, two were downed, but the nearest bled out before it was safe for Christian to go out and rescue anyone. Eh, that's one they saved.

More Lenere visitors arrived, narrowly avoiding the ongoing battle.

Christian wasn't a GOOD doctor, but he could do it, and with medicine allowed, he JUST barely stopped the survivor bleeding to death.

By ten, it was done.

The only injury was Tina, the stupid dog, who wandered into the killbox JUST as the last pikemen stumbled in.

RIGHT!

Dusk would get a second archetech leg, Stab would get an archetech eye and a bionic eye. Oscura would get two bionic legs, and Worm and Christian both would get their second. (Actually, Christian would have to wait, Stab forgot there was already a hospital bed in use!)

((OH for...

JUST before I FRELLING SAVED, SEVEN colonists went down with plague. FRACK YOU GAME. Reload, it's only a few minutes.))

Repeat previous paragraphs, except no damage to Tina this time.

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-Seven

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, they were SERIOUS? Let Stab laugh HARDER.

Oh, yeah, Stab's aesthetic shaper, too.

Darn it, apparently Macy's eye got mangled by the insects during that attack. Stab would prioritise on a new eye for her as soon as her own stuff was done.

Pair of bionic legs for Sam...

Oh, it would be safe to organ harvest that raider now, too.

Poison synthesis was done... Well, starship reactor, then!

Two bionic legs for Falcon, and that brought them to the end of the stockpile until Trocur had caught up a bit!

And with that done, we will leave it for the day.

(Oh, right, Stab also better mop up the last bits of the mechanoid base tomorrow! And Euphemia needed a double bed. With dealing with FOUR SEPERATE ATTACKS, she was a bit frazzled, and woozy from the anaesthetic...)

Part Thirty-Six

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-Eight

Navarro went out and shot down the last mechanoid turret, allowing the stuff to be salvaged. She got an unlucky hit from the turret at extreme range, annoyingly.

Oscura and Sam were wandering around confused. Oh well.

Euphemia's new double bed was made; she also got s sleep accelerator and a slate-tiled floor. Haille was discovered to have been sleeping on a poor quality bed, so she was given a good one out of the stores.

Day Three-Hundred and Fifty-Nine

Macy's new eye was done.

Jenson, the survivor, gas recovered and was wandering off. Excellent, that gave them enough goodwill to ask about the persona core location!

Timed, 21 days. Oh well.

In the meantime, it was only six days until that plasteel mine was gone. Time to send Dusk out!

She took Worm, Navarro, Espinoza, Beatriz, Maelan, Mike and Snow. And stupendous amount of pack animals.

Seriously, the donkeys were almost totally redundant now.

Off Dusk went.

Sawbones, you are often idle; you aren't forbidden from crafting let's see if we can get you to burn some apparel and such on your off-time.

Dan, Justina, get your second bionics legs!

Another annoying short.

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty

Six years!

Yeah, Stab would break from making stuff to start burning/smelting. They desperately needed the space.

A sandstone meteorite. Wow, Stab really didn't care.

Visitors, from Southeastern Alia, for a change.

Dammit, dry thunderstorm.

The plasteel was a bit disappointing. It was only guarded by a pair of rapid squirrels however. Quick mine and then home, then.

Okay they now could build starship reactors. Jenni would start on just finishing all the pointless research now because they could.

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-One.

Stab burnt and smelted. Falcon rushed around, selling primitive weapons to the guests. Space was slowly being cleared!

Bionic second leg for Barracuda and Euphemia...

The visitors left, leaving medicine.

Ooh, that was nice, a psychic soothe for the girls.

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-Two.

Oh, NOW a frelling combat supplier happened past. Falcon sold off the rest of the excess weapons and bought a doomsday rocket, because.

Kasil, have two bionics legs.

Ah, Dusk, back with the caravan. Have two bionic eyes.

Stab was still trying to heat up the place to 100ºC. It just wasn't working...

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-Three.

Jenni, second bionic leg.

Ooer, someone call Action Force! Cobra is here!

Let's play a game, see how many colonists get drafted to stop them walking outside!

Eh, that was easy enough.

A mad guinea pig, really? Yeah, the one trap already replaced took care of that.

And with that, we shall leave it there for the day!

Part Thirty-Six

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-Four.

Apparently, vents had a maximum through-flow and cooler a maximum temperature differential.

Well. That was something it didn't say in the specs.

Scrap that whole idea, then.

Hmm.

Stab didn't really need any more recruits. Still, possible organ harvest and, well, more skulls. The Graveyards traps weren't even rebuilt yet, thought so they'd see how they were closer to the time.

((Okay, first try, enemy is digging at the walls RIGHT next to the exit, two, one of the doors to the south gate weren't rebuilt for some reason. Reload.

Yeah, no. We're not dealing with enemies in two groups that immediate dig at the walls in random places. Not worth the effort for some organs. Sod off Grump.))

AHA. Trocur got inspired taming. RIGHT. Next chance, that thrumbo was getting tamed!

Stab went to get two bionic arms.

Well, that was it. All research done.

Black Empire visitors arrived.

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-Five.

Espinoza, have two new legs.

An exotic goods trader dropped by, but the only thing they had was components and advanced components, nor would they take anything useful.

Haha, thrumbo finally trained!

Six mad guinea pigs, Yeah, Stab wasn't worried.

It WOULDN'T have been a problem if Oscura had actually DONE what she was told instead of running INTO two of them instead of through the door AWAY from them.

Have two bionic legs, Mike.

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-Six.

Okay, big caravan to go to get the persona core, as it was "potential threat." Stab, Navarro, Falcon, Sam, Justina, Espinoza, Beatriz, Euphemia, Worm, Maelan, Snow, Monkey.

You know what? They were never going to use that anima tree, so frack it, wall that bit off and build aa geothermal on that last spot.

That was a big patch of steel now...

Stab arrived late in the evening.

Jenni found more steel outside the walls again.

((You know, I'mma stop screenshotting these unless they are interesting.))

Stab was wise to bring a large group. Two pikemen, two lancers and a scyther. Oliphant, Worm and Falcon took a couple of knocks, so Navarro went to grab medicine while the other got into the facility. As soon as Navarro had patched them up, they loaded up with granite chunks had headed back.

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-Seven.

Ambrosia sprouted in the pen. Okay, then.

The Black Empire visitors left, leaving some random clothes. Woo.

Sawbones, your turn for new legs.

((GRRRR. The game decided to have mike go on a food binge half a second before he was done with cutting a tree down, so Oscura had to start again.))

The new outer wall was complete.

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-Eight.

Monkey’s nephew was back.

Right, insect fraggers, let's see how you deal with THAT!

Stab arrived back!

More steel, where the sought gate was... More jade, under the floor by the first dorm block. Yeah, Stab wasn't even going to mark them down. Actually, she was going to start clearing the marks outside the base, since they were unlikely to actually ever use them.

A bulk trader arrived, Scrap clothes a ton of excess leathers they just weren't going to use and a bit of alpaca wool for components and advanced components and two more mortar barrels.

Day Three-Hundred and Sixty-Nine.

Stab was planning to start going to the last two pieces of the Lightcaller. She'd only take a token team this time, and not all that many pack animals, it wasn't like they needed much of anything at the moment (rock-wise anyway).

More Black Empire visitors arrived.

Jenni found some underground silver, inside the walls for once.

Day Three-Hundred and Seventy.

Summer.

Some goats wandered in and joined the colony.

Yeah, no Stab already had a RIDICULOUS number of animals.

Come to that, Stab was beginning to think that maybe it was time to phase out the alpacas. They had STUPID amounts of wool and leather anyway, so the faster rate wasn't worth it.

Okay, new plan: phase goats in (because goats produced milk) and phase the alpacas out. Butcher the (non-pregnant) adults and phase the young out.

Reille, got get your new legs.

Stab elected to make ten muffalo wool armchairs. Shed' had two dozen muffalo wool pants made, but no-one wanted to wear them, and it hadn't made a dent in the stockpile. Ten chairs would at least get rid of half and they would be able to be sold on.

Billa and his mates were leaving, not impressed this time. Whatever...

More uranium underground. To be honest, Stab probably had more uranium than they ever needed.

Day Three-Hundred and Seventy-One.

Interesting... It would practically clean out the herbal medicine stores (though they had, like 150 medicine or something). But for an archeotech leg...

(Actually, could they send that via transport pod...?)

No. But it was probably worth the time saved to send Dusk with enough material to make a second pod, maybe...?

((I tried it. The problem is, that you can't set up camp at the trade spot. Which means Dusk alone couldn't carry the material to make the pod. And, of course, as soon as you start adding something to carry weight (you need 64kg for setting up a pod)... Stab estimated the would need to use five pod (three to take Dusk, the load and a muffalo with enough materials for two pods to get back). That was... Quite expensive.

Nope. Working it through, Stab would need THREE muffalos to just barely carry enough weight with Dusk's own capacity to stagger out of the village to build four pods to come back in. Which would likely need four pods to send, but Stab couldn’t even TRY yet, since they'd need a load more chemfuel to even do a tentative test.

As she worked on the chemfuel, Stab did a cost analysis. 440 steel + 8 components + 600 chemfuel + 240 herbal medicine = 4872 silver by base value. The archetech rewards was only worth 3810. That was an EXPENSIVE way to save time. (Especially as that wasn't even counting the cost of the four or five existing pods for the trip out.)

Sending Dusk out on Darkhoof looked promising - until the cargo was loaded... Dusk with TEN muffalos dropped the travel time to 2.8 days either, and that seemed the best they could do. Dusk with a single muffalo was 5.3 days either way.

Stab had to wonder it an archeotech leg was really worth either the time or money investment.

Well. They had a lot of money. Once they had enough chemfuel, Stab would have a try to see what they could do.

Stab did some more research. If they just send Dusk with the stuff (if she dropped her gun and smokepop pack, she'd JUST fit with the medicine in the one pod), and Dusk ran out of the city, they could launcher a second pod with enough material to make a third one.

Yeah, that was more doable, they'd try that!

The Black empire visitors left, leaving an advanced component; finally a useful gift!

Okay Dusk, ready for the inaugural flight!

((RRRRRRRRR. Of course, it says NOWHERE that if you settle within 4 squares of another settlement, you get penalty to relations. And of course Dusk does NOT have enough food to run for longer. Now I see why everyone uses mods for trying to use transport pods to do anything useful, they're an exercise in frustration used vanilla.))

So, Dusk annoyed everyone by settling for, like, an hour while she waited for the transport pod to arrive. Return pod built and loaded. Actually, they were bringing half the chemfuel back with them.

((Actually, the penalty apparently didn't apply instantly. Phew.))

And home.

That was a LOT of work for a frickin' leg.

Reille got the crafting boost, taking him up to 8.

Navarro, have a leg upgrade; Snow have two legs.

Southeastern Alia visitors arrived.

Stab ordered ten bluefur armchairs made, since they were getting a ridiculous amount of muffalo skins...

Day Three-Hundred and Seventy-Two.

Balgucha, go get your two legs. Just the last pair, Trocur, to be made and those are yours!

Another guarianian pod. Wow, they had, like, five in storage now.

Okay, the two base locations were not far from each other. Stab would take out a small group and hit both, plus the treasure trove.

She took Navarro, Sam, Falcon, Justina and Jenni.

Day Three-Hundred and Seventy-Three.

Stab set off in the early hours of the morning.

The visitors left, having enjoyed their stay. (But apparently too cheap to leave a tip...)

Stab arrived at complex one.

There was a single scyther, which they took out with no damage.

An unstable fuel node went off. Stab ran into another scyther in a room, but she ran off, leaving it stuck in there with another fuel node.

Lots of fuel nodes, nothing great. Jenni got caught in one of the explosions. Justine found some herbal medicine in a crate, so Navarro used it to treat the minor damage (rather than chase over to the pack animals). Then off they set to site two!

Pfftahahahahahahahahaha!

No. Die.

Moving on...

Trocur, go get your legs fitted!

That was going to be about it for bionics, aside from a couple more aesthetic shapers for the boys.

((While it was tempting to cyborg everyone completely to the max, that seemed like it would be grinding for the sake of grinding. It was about time, I think, to start winding this up and building the spacecraft.))

Complex two.

Unstable fuel nodes were annoying!

Damn Bugs. And a raid was coming early, having spotted a supply drop Jenni triggered.

Well, they had the location of the lightcaller, but - more raiders, two guys in the security container and more bugs. And Justine had been quite badly bitten.

Wait, AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The raiders were from two different factions and were fighting each other!

And the two from the pods were attacking the insects. Hold position girls, maybe most of the enemies would kill each other!

Trapped in a burning building, surrounded by enemies. Hey, it could be worse.

As the heatstroke set in the raider burst into the door. A few shots killed a couple, and the other broke. Everyone got a little burned getting out, but the bugs and pillocks in the back either killed each other or succumbed to the heat and died.

Oliphant was nearby, and even had the medicine on him. So Navarro did a quick patch job before the moved off.

((GRRRRR. And 18 off the muffalos suddenly had plague. That's SO annoying. Most tedious is the defaults not setting the default to existing animals, meaning I have to go through EACH animal to set the medicine.))

Day Three-Hundred and Seventy-Four.

Stab aborted the treasure trove, since the lightcaller base was nearly on the way back home.

((Frack off game, you're not having Sam be infected.))

Sod off, no chance, not for that lousy reward.

A mad wild boar. Yeah, the traps too care of that.

((No. No, you are not having a mechanoid raid, either. You've annoyed me with tedium already, you don't get to have your way now.))

Infestation. We'll see how that works.

Heh.

349ºC.

1000ºC.

((No, don't know why the UI vanished.))

NO, Dusk, you Monkey and Beatriz do NOT want to go in there!

Well, that used a lot of incendiaries, but it DID work.

They'd need 74 (!) incendiary shells to replenish the mines, though.

Stab reached the base before the security threat woke u-WOAH whoops, they meant sleeping mechanoids. Better take them out first, girls.

Area clear, no damage.

Guess that would be it!

Yoink. Stab would have a proper look later.

You know what? Dusk was going to make a third little work room to allow them to crank out stuff faster.

But first, Hallie was throwing a "ahahaha, the bugs all burned!" party. And before THAT, she caught a bulk trader from Lenere and emptied out some of the chaff. She ended up buying some wood (which they were going to need a load anyway!) just to offload some more crap.

Stab arrived back, just in time for it to be a proper celebration!

Navarro made it to the party at least. Everyone else JUST missed it, but never mind.

Day Three-Hundred and Seventy-Five.

There, new workshop, just with the chair needing the be built, but already in use!

The infestation trap had cooled off enough for work on resetting it to start.

An exotic goods trader drifted by. More components of both sorts, but that was about it. Falcon also bought a hundred neutroamine, since they HAD used quite a lot.

To make life easier, Stab had the five doors to the bug trap held open while they worked.

Mike and Mantis went to have their torsos buffed.

But wasn't it funny how now everyone was Hawt, there were no more social fights?

((In fact, this suggests that if anything Kind is a bad trait, since it means you don't get the bonus of being really superficial.))

And there we shall leave it for today.