Captivating Surroundings

We love celebrating the creativity of our community. A particular favourite of ours is hearing about the stories players set out to tell, and then how they deal with the unexpected twists when the dice have other ideas. These miniature tales bring our worlds to life in ways we never could have planned. Today, we have the great pleasure of sharing a piece of fan fiction from the community – Captivating Surroundings, a Core Space: First Born tale by Ate Grijpstra. While stories like this are inspired by our games, they are not part of the official lore, but we think they deserve to be enjoyed all the same. Thank you Ate for sharing this with us!

A Core Space First Born tale.

 ‘There… do you see it?’ whispered Cassie. 

‘Sure do, cap’n,’ answered Wade just as quietly. ‘Want me to take it down? I’ve got a clear shot.’ 

Both of them were hunkered down next to a doorframe covered in half-rotten climbing plants. Beneath the vines and other forms of rampant vegetation, some kind of luminous metal surface glinted. 

Cassie moved her head just an inch to take another quick look down the shadowy corridor. At the very end of it, about twenty-five metres away from them, a surveillance drone hovered in the stale but breathable air. It didn’t make any sound at all, but it was obvious that it was thoroughly scanning the area. The blasted thing seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, a fraction of a second before Wade had wanted to cross the threshold into the dilapidated hallway. Cassie had pulled him back just in time. She hoped. 

‘No,’ she hissed. ‘It might alert others. Let’s try and find out what its patrol pattern is first. Where’s Balcor?’ 

Wade scoffed. ‘Lagging behind. As always. Taking in “these captivating surroundings”, as he would call them. Want me to give him a heads-up?’ 

‘Hm. Don’t use the comms. I really don’t like the high-tech look of what’s beneath this supposedly ancient rubble. You never know what their scanners might pick up. That bloody fool of a Zool might’ve given us a lot more to go on…’ 

‘Yeah. Sure feels like we’re flying blind here, cap’n. Anyway, I’ll sneak back and warn Stragglor.’ 

Cassie nodded ever so slightly. She peered into the semi-darkness again and noticed, to her dismay and relief at the same time, that the guard drone seemed to have disappeared into thin air. ‘What the…? Where did it go?’ She turned to face Wade, but he too had vanished. “Like a ninja,” she thought, which was an expression her most trusted crew member often used to describe his own stealth abilities, but one she didn’t fully grasp. Probably some of that Old-Earth lingo that he kept on flaunting to the bewilderment of uncomprehending other-worlders. Like herself. Sure, Wade Gentry and Cassiopeia Peltier undeniably shared a human gene or two, but having been born and raised on Alpha Centauri B, she might just as well have been a totally different species. About as dissimilar from Wade as the impressively large Balcor, a white-furred, sharp-toothed Nerind’ar from the Mizar star system, whom she had managed to persuade to join her merry band of Traders about three years ago. Balcor was an excellent engineer, as well as a formidable fighter. Cassie slowly rose from her crouched position. She heard several joints cracking. Those youthful, and much more supple, militia years on her home planet lay far, far behind her now. She often felt much older than her thirty-two years. Which was total rubbish, as Wade liked to remind her. He had four more years on her and kept painting an even bleaker picture of what was yet to come. With a sigh she slightly adjusted one of the straps of her combat vest, routinely checked her ammo belt, stim pack and energy gun, took one last look into the corridor to make sure it was really empty now, and stepped over the threshold. 

+ + + 

‘Hey, Balcor! What’s keeping ya, mate?’ Wade asked slightly above a whisper. ‘Boss wants you by her side. On the double.’ The bulky figure of the Nerind’ar was hunched over something. ‘Just… one more… second, Lieutenant Gentry, sir,’ Wade heard him grumbling. ‘Nearly… there!’ The click was remarkably loud in this eerily quiet, tomb-like room. Immediately after that there was a—thankfully—much softer sliding sound. ‘It took a bit of tinkering and, admittedly, some good old force, but in the end this here measly, albeit fancy, storage container was no match for the powers of Balcor har’ion Brandor i Colmar. And for his ever-reliable piece of bodily attachment, not to forget.’ 

Balcor raised his characteristic prosthetic left arm triumphantly. ‘Stop bragging, chum. In fact, quit your prattling altogether. No, I’m dead serious: you really ought to keep that blasted bass voice of yours down. Boss and I ran into a bogey just a minute ago.’ ‘You did? Erm… I’m afraid I’m not entirely familiar with the term “bogey”, sir.’ ‘Yeah, well, some kind of guard drone appeared out of the blue. Much more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen before. Completely noiseless, for one thing. Strange sheen around it. Boss spotted it in the nick of time and is keeping a watchful eye on it as we speak.’ ‘Hum. Sounds absolutely fascinating. I sure hope I’ll be able to get a good look at it as well.’ ‘Careful what you wish for. Thing gave me the creeps.’ ‘Oh, but I fully understand that we must proceed with caution, sir. But there is simply so much here that warrants further investigation, don’t you think? And to be honest, we should not be surprised by this clear indication of an intruder alert system that is still fully operational. Director Zool already hinted that we might run into some trouble in that regard.’ 

Wade scratched his scruffy beard and said: ‘No, he didn’t. I distinctly remember him saying these bloody catacombs were totally abandoned.’ 

Balcor raised a bushy eyebrow. ‘Were you and I listening to the same human, then? If anything, he said the ancient asteroid temples were mostly empty. Except for countless treasures.’ 

‘Well, your memory is usually better than mine. I’ll give you that. Old Zoolie might indeed have said something along those lines. Anyway, get a move on, will ya? Adventure and untold riches await, so I’ve been told on numerous occasions.’ ‘Hum. Either that, or an untimely and utterly horrible death. As for the previously promised valuables, though: I might already have stumbled over some right here…’ 

Wade’s eyes started to glint just a smidge more. ‘Have you now? Move over, you big brute. Let’s have a quick look at this newly—and might I add: so cunningly—opened crate of yours.’ 

+ + + 

Cassie all but tiptoed through the dark hallway. She kept her back close to the overgrown wall on the left. There was not a trace of the drone, but she didn’t like it one bit that the thing had so suddenly popped up. And dematerialised just as quickly, for that matter. If anything, it was a sure sign that, even though the former inhabitants of this temple complex were long dead and gone, as Director Zool had assured her and the other crew members—swore it on the grave of his beloved mother even—if anything, it was more than evident now that, who or whatever these former occupants might have been, their defense grid and security measures were still very much intact. Nearly tripping over a scattered piece of debris, Cassie halted for a second and pulled absent-mindedly at a strand of her long auburn hair. Then she wiped her forehead with the back of her gloved hand. Boy, it sure was stuffy in here. Temperatures had to be around a thirty degrees. What on a far-out asteroid was causing this blasted heat? ‘Get your act together, Captain Peltier,’ she admonished herself under her breath. She looked over her shoulder to check if Wade and Balcor were already there. Or at least nearly there. She absolutely didn’t like the look and feel of this place. Nor the smell. Nor the heat. She cursed herself for not having asked for more details during the meeting with Zool. Something definitely had been off. His eyes had been too shifty, for one thing. She should have paid more attention to her gut-feeling, instead of getting carried away by the Director’s tall tales about priceless alien artifacts and relics. If those had indeed been up for grabs, why hadn’t he and his unsurpassed team of Galactic Corps toughies brought the loot themselves after their—come to think of it: remarkably short—sojourn in these parts? Why ask a bunch of riff-raff Traders, instead of sending in his former career marines once more? Sure, Wade and herself were ex-military too. And Balcor was… well… Balcor. They were the weathered, battle-hardened, virtually unbeatable crew of the Eidolon. But still… something seemed fishy. Terribly, terribly fishy. 

Cassie sighed once again, cast another quick look over her shoulder, and pressed on. 

+ + + 

‘Why not just use the comms, sir?’ asked Balcor, somewhat out of breath. ‘I’m quite sure Captain Peltier would very much like to be informed about…’ 

‘Boss expressly forbade us to use ’em,’ Wade interrupted. ‘Prob’ly feared someone, or something, might be listening in. Dunno. Don’t care. If she says it’s a no-go, it’s a no-go.’ Both of them were still whispering. Or at least very much trying to do so, as they hurried over the large flagstones and along the dimly illuminated temple walls. 

‘Watch your step here!’ Wade warned. A hole of at least two metres in diameter suddenly loomed before them, but the lieutenant’s keen sharpshooter’s eyes had caught it promptly. They pressed their backs against the rough wall and scurried along the edge of the gaping hole. However, the crumbling ledge soon proved to be too narrow for Balcor. Without so much as a pause the Nerind’ar deftly used his bionic arm and some of the stronger wall creepers to pull and launch himself past danger. Wade was already safe on the other side and glanced into the ominous depth. He wondered whether Cassie had also taken this route, and, more importantly, if she had spotted the hole in time. He shrugged and decided he probably needn’t worry. He’d never admit it, but he knew her instincts and reflexes were even better than his. ‘Shouldn’t we have reached the captain by now?’ Balcor asked as they picked up speed again. They had already passed the point where Wade had left her, but instead of informing the Nerind’ar about that, he had concluded that she must have gone further into the catacombs. Maybe even followed that guard drone. She had said something about establishing its patrol pattern, hadn’t she? His eyes darted around for clues as to her whereabouts and silently berated the semi-darkness. As they rounded another corner of the underground maze, Wade was greatly relieved to see the silhouette of their captain about ten metres ahead of them. Cassie stood motionless. However, her keen ears immediately registered the movement behind her and she turned partially around. She pressed her left index finger to her lips and she raised her other hand, pointing her energy gun at something in front of her. Wade slid to a halt. And Balcor crashed into him. Hard. 

+ + + 

Just a couple of seconds before Balcor and Wade’s unexpected arrival on the scene, Cassie had spotted another surveillance drone at the crossing of two corridors. The trouble was that it was about to detect her as well, since it was slowly turning around to complete its current scan. That’s why she had come to a sudden standstill, frantically looking around for something to hide behind, only noticing what looked like some kind of exhaust vent a few metres up ahead. However, there were two distinct problems with it. One: she would never be able to reach it in time. And two: the sides of the metallic elevation protruding from the ground were most certainly too low to provide full cover. So, the only option left, as far as she could see, was to try and disable the drone. She was about to take the shot, when she heard something behind her. Realising it had to be her crew members, she made a feeble attempt to warn them off—failing miserably. From the corner of her eye, she saw them going down in a heap of fur, limbs, gear and a cloud of aeons old dust. However, she hardly had time to be surprised, for at that very moment she felt something searing hot passing her left earlobe. And then she saw a deadly energy beam missing Balcor’s large head by an inch. The drone! She knew right away that this meant it wasn’t only a surveillance device, but that the blasted thing was armed to the teeth. Lightning-fast, she swivelled around and fired a volley. Only one miss and two direct hits. It burst into flames and kept hovering unsteadily for a second. Cassie was about to sigh with relief when, to her horror, the drone hurtled towards her at tremendous speed. She knew she was dead. With absolute certainty. There was no way in all of the known universes that she’d be able to dodge that impossibly fast and lethal projectile. It would hit her, explode, and blow her to bits. Somehow, she heard her father’s voice, gruff but clear as a bell, saying: ‘Hope you had a nice life, Cas. Always said you wouldn’t amount to anything…’ Funny, she thought, how your mind plays tricks on you when… 

Then the burning drone crossed the exhaust vent and all hell broke loose. 

+ + + 

The tremendous explosion hurled the Traders backwards like a bunch of ragdolls. It saved their lives, though, since the rogue drone would have taken all three of them with it in its mad act of self-destruction. Balcor and Wade, who had already been on the floor, as a result of having become victims of velocity, momentum and gravity—not to mention stupidity—were slammed to the ground once more, but quite a stretch further down the corridor. Cassie heard them groaning as she herself landed on her back a few feet away from them. All the air was knocked out of her lungs violently. Groggily, she felt a wave of heat washing over her. Her survival instinct kicked in immediately. She shook her head, raised herself on her elbows, and saw that there was a veritable inferno above the exhaust vent. That in itself was obviously quite disturbing, but what worried her even more was the fact that she noticed a couple of shimmering shapes through the raging flames. 

‘On your feet, gents!’ she gasped. ‘We’ve got more company!’ Not to mention the heat, she added mentally. Temperatures must have shot up to at least sixty degrees. And rising. Quickly she scrambled to her feet, picked up the energy gun that had been knocked out of her hand, and ran towards Balcor. The disheveled Nerind’ar was sitting on one knee and trying to help Wade recover from his prone position. ‘Dreadfully sorry, sir,’ she heard him mumble. ‘I seem to have inadvertently used your noble body to break my fall. Twice.’ 

Cassie saw at a glance that Wade was still very much out of it. She gave Balcor a punch and snapped: ‘You gotta carry him. Or drag him along, or whatever. Get up and run. Now! We’ll be baked to a crisp any second now. RUN!!’ 

And they ran. 

+ + + 

Cassie panted and kept looking back over her shoulder, hoping against hope that she had imagined the drone-like shapes behind the exhaust fire. But no, the deadly devices were either waiting until the flames subsided, or, which was even more likely, they were taking a detour to hunt them down. Eyes front again. There’s was too much rubble on the floor here to be distracted. Balcor strode ahead of her, carrying Wade over his massive right shoulder, and both of their weapons in his mechanical arm. She was amazed at how fast he was still running. 

She also marvelled at all the bits of white fur that were smoking and quickened her pace to pat him on the back. ‘Hum. Thank you for the encouragement, Captain Peltier. Much appreciated. But I assure you I’m doing fine.’ ‘Don’t flatter yourself, ya big lump. She’s putting out several of those fur fires of yours, to prevent both of us from going up in a blaze of glory.’ 

‘Lieutenant Gentry, sir? You seem to have regained consciousness. Praise be to every single Annûrion in the firmament!’ 

‘Better drop him quickly, Balcor,’ said Cassie with a smile. ‘Or he’ll keep hanging around as long as he can.’ 

‘Gotta love free rides, cap’n!’ 

Balcor halted and gently lowered Wade, making very sure he was steady on his feet before he let go of the lieutenant’s shoulder. ‘Here’s your rifle, sir. Plus, I also picked up your… erm… piece of headwear. Again, a thousand-thousand apologies, sir.’ 

‘Hrm,’ Wade grumbled. ‘As long as you watch where you’re going next time. Oh, and on that note: Aren’t we near that big ol’ hole again? The one we encountered when we were on our way to the cap’n?’ Balcor peered intently into the gloom in front of them. ‘You’re absolutely right, sir. In fact, we ought to have come across it already, if memory serves me well.’ 

Cassie, who had been glad to get a bit of a breather, stopped stretching her limbs and said: ‘Hole? What hole? I’m pretty sure I came along this very corridor on my way in. Never saw any hole. Although…’ She glanced over her shoulder again. ‘Just a second ago, some of the flagstones were completely gone over there. I deemed it rubble at first, but come to think of it… Hm. It looked and felt more like churned-up soil.’ 

Wade pressed his newly returned cap firmly on his head and followed Cassie’s gaze. ‘Surely, you’re not suggesting that this mother of a hole that Balcor and I scrambled along a while ago magically appears—and disappears—at will, cap’n? I swear to Balcor’s whole menagerie of gods that it was practically a ravine. Or chasm. Or whaddayoucallem?’ 

‘No need to be rude, lieutenant Gentry, sir,’ muttered Balcor. 

But that only seemed to incite Wade more. ‘I mean, come on. You can’t seriously be thinking that those bloody drones are flying around with buckets full of ancient alien mud to fill up scores of ancient alien potholes.’ ‘That’s quite enough!’ hissed Cassie. ‘I’ve got a very bad feeling about this whole shipwreck of a salvage mission. And I’ve got a hunch that there are more of those shooting-and-exploding pieces of crap on their way. Thought I spotted two of them earlier, although I’m not one hundred percent sure. I say we return to the Eidolon right now. Let’s fly back to Zool to give him a piece our minds, OK? I sure hate to leave empty-handed, but there’s nothing for it.’ ‘About that, captain Pel…,’ Balcor started. And then the floor behind them burst wide open, spraying large quantities of sand, rocks and rubble all over them. 

+ + + 

‘You have got to be kidding me?!?’ shouted Cassie. She had been knocked to the floor by a particularly large piece of flagstone and was staring aghast at the monstrosity that was swaying its appalling, elongated body high above her. Both Wade and Balcor were still standing this time, but they were too much taken by surprise to make a move. For a second, at least, because when the giant worm-like creature’s ugly, totally blind, but remarkably sharp-fanged head shot down to swallow their captain whole, Wade started emptying his energy rifle into its twisting coils. 

To no avail. The beast reeled back a little, shuddered, and immediately resumed its attack. 

Cassie raised her arm to her face—a completely futile attempt to protect herself from what was coming. She felt grateful that she didn’t hear her dad’s scornful voice this time around. Once more the whole flow of time seemed to behave in a different way. Everything was grinding to a halt. Sounds and images became weirdly twisted. Stretched out to their very limit. Until everything around her was replaced by an unbearable roar and row after row of sharp, glistening teeth. 

She closed her eyes in resignation. 

+ + + 

… and immediately opened them again when she heard a loud clank. 

For a second she couldn’t quite comprehend what she was seeing. And then it dawned on her that she was looking at a great part of Balcor’s orange and white-grey combat suit. He had sprung into action at the very last moment, stepping over her prone body, and thrusting his imposing mechanical arm straight into the huge worm’s maw. 

The monster screeched. Cassie felt a surge of triumph, which ebbed away just as quickly when she saw that the worm drew back into the fresh hole it had created… pulling Balcor along with it. 

Wade had reloaded his weapon and started shooting frantically again. Cassie used her own gun as well. But the worm’s hide appeared to be impenetrable. Balcor dug his heels into the dirt and used all of his considerable strength to try and pull his prosthetic arm free. He bellowed. He roared. But he was indisputably losing this titanic tug of war. 

+ + + 

BAAA-ROOOOOM!! Once more all three of them were sprayed with large quantities of quite indefinable matter. Only this time it was of a much more mushy quality. The thunderous bang that had preceded this rather moist affair was earsplitting, to say the very least. Cassie shook her head. She was feeling a little nauseous and her ears were ringing like mad. She scrambled to her feet and grabbed Wade’s shoulder to steady herself. Wade himself was staring upwards with his mouth wide open. She followed his gaze and could hardly believe her eyes when she saw that the biggest part of the creature’s head was gone. Blown away. Ripped off. Which, of course, had resulted in Balcor’s sudden and rather unexpected release. He had been launched back and sat on the floor in a kind of stupor. Covered in dark blood, greenish yellow slime, and numerous bits of worm brain. The stuff stank to high heaven. It was then that Cassie realised that she and Wade were also caked in it from head to toe. She gagged. Wade went one step further and emptied the contents of his stomach in her immediate vicinity. 

‘Claimed!’ she heard someone’s voice trying to penetrate the high-pitched ringing in her ears. She shook her head a bit harder this time and tried to focus. ‘Well, hi there. Keats’s the name. Hunting Rock Worm’s the game. If you’d please be so kind as to step aside. This here baby’s mine.’ A dark-haired man stepped into view. He was dressed in light combat fatigues and was wearing a cap on his head—which reminded Cassie of Wade’s—and a large type of collar around his neck, stuffed with tech, and adorned with protruding scopes and cameras. He also carried an absurdly large hunting rifle. Apparently absent-mindedly, he patted the recently deceased worm on its rock-hard hide, but she registered that he kept a close eye on her and the others. ‘No-no one is disputing your c-claim, sir,’ stammered Cassie. ‘In fact, we are more than grateful to you for d-dealing with it. We were… in a bit of a predicament because of it.’ 

Balcor, still dazed, added quietly: ‘Took us by surprise, you might say.’ Which, for some reason, made Wade giggle uncontrollably. Cassie scowled at him. The man who had introduced himself as Keats seemed to have lost all interest in them. He was sizing up his prey and started to spread out some of his hunting gear on the ground, close to the cadaver. Then, as if it was some sort of afterthought, he addressed them once more: ‘Best be off now. My mate Caaligorn will be here shortly. We’ve got quite a bit of skinning work to do. And, oh yeah, perhaps I ought to mention that he belongs to the Farian race. In other words, he’s a mean, lean fighting machine. Takes even less kindly to potential trophy-nickers than I do. Good sportsman, though. Anyway, pleasure was all mine. Bye.’ Cassie hesitated for a moment. She was amazed by his blatant hostility. She felt belittled and misjudged. To know she had wanted to thank him again and even warn him for the other dangers in this insane maze! But then again… he sure seemed to know his way around here. Besides, his whole attitude was simply infuriating. ‘Yeah, well, good luck with all that. C’mon, Wade. On your paws, Balcor. Let’s be off indeed. There’s nothing I’d like more than to leave this hell hole. Right this instant.’ They stumbled away from the dreadful scene, leaving a whistling Big Game Hunter behind. 

+ + + 

After about fifteen minutes of quietly plodding along, Balcor mumbled: ‘Hum. All of us could sure use a bath. A nice, long hot bath.’ Which sent Wade into a fit of giggles again. He was even holding his belly. The Nerind’ar halted for a moment and looked puzzled at his crew mate. Earthlings. He would never fully understand them. Then he shifted his gaze to the other human in their company and seemed to remember something. ‘Captain Peltier?’ ‘Yes?’ said Cassie, continuing to stride down the long, winding corridor. She had kept worrying about the other surveillance drones for a while, but things remained quiet and at a certain point she came to the realisation there was a very good chance that if the things had indeed been there, they would now be harassing the Big Game Hunters behind them, who arguably made more racket than their own little party. Served them right too. However, she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were still being watched. Just now, as they had traversed yet another spacious, vaulted room, she could have sworn she had seen something move behind a pillar. But then again, perhaps it was just the shadows and the whole eerie atmosphere of this overgrown, godsforsaken labyrinth playing tricks on her. 

All of a sudden, she sensed a bit of fresh air and lifted her head. Ah, finally! They were very close to the exit now. They would hop onboard of the Eidolon and immediately head for sector ZZ-Alpha. She had a thing or two to discuss with Director Zool. ‘Captain Peltier, Ma’am?’ ‘What is it, Balcor? Can’t you see, I’m…?’ ‘Hum. I just wanted to show you some of the rather interesting things I managed to retrieve from one of the sealed storage containers I found in that large temple room I lingered in for a while, you know, just before all the trouble started.’ Cassie halted, turned around and faced the Nerind’ar. He held up some of the shiny alien loot he had found. ‘There’s more in my rucksack. And I guess there’s much, much more in the other crates that Lieutenant Gentry and I saw.’ 

Wade wasn’t giggling anymore. But he sure had a wide grin from ear to ear. Cassie couldn’t help but smile too. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘That sure changes things, doesn’t it? Let’s take a bit of a closer look, shall we? I mean, what’s the rush, guys? Haste makes waste…’