[RW] Pegasus Trading Company - Rimworld 1.7

[MonochromeClown]

Whilst out meditating in the fields I heard the whistling of a transport pod headed our way. It crashed not too far from me and an Anthrogriff spilled onto the ground. He squawked in pain, trying to crawl and get himself on his feet. I ran over to him, offering my hand but he slapped it away.

"Wh- who the hell are you?" He shouted.

"I'm not your enemy, let me help you." I tried to reach for him again.

"Like hell you ain't, everyone's my damn enemy!"

"Well we aren't, where are you from?"

"Tch, nowhere- was trying my luck with those... kingdom folk but they chased me out!"

"The Newa Dynasty?"

"What? No, the Tedwis!"

"Never heard of them, we're a new settlement."

"Ah hell you're probably fallers ain't you?"

"Something like that, though we have some folks from planetside too." I crouched down to his level, checking his wounds. "I don't think you'll survive with these injuries, what's your name?"

"Searle, I reckon I won't either..."

"Let me put you up in our settlement for a bit, we'll heal you and you can figure out what you wanna do."

"Alright... You got somewhere for me?"

"We're not gonna be able to keep you in the barracks with the newborn, you can stay with the twins and the pigskin."

"Alright... Suppose it's better then dying out here."

"That's the spirit, just hang tight."

I lifted the Anthro up, hoisting him over my shoulder and carrying him back home. I brought him into the room we were keeping our uh... captives I suppose, it was looking nicer now that it had some decent flooring. The Pigskin was awake and walking around, the twins were laying in bed.

"Who's that?" The pig gruffed.

"Searle, he's staying with us while he heals up." I said. "I'm glad you're awake..."

"Hey you ain't got a bed in here for me!" Searle squawked.

"I'll get one made up, just let us patch you up first okay?"

"Better not be screaming about it." The pig snorted, he seemed... calm despite the grumpy attitude.

"I'll send Phyllis in for you." I set Searle down on the floor.

"Hey pig what's yer name!?" Searled pointed at him.

"Why? It's Pog." He huffed.

"Jus' thought it might be nice to know who I'm bunking with is all, you gonna eat me or something?"

"Nah, only if you're loud."

The two laughed at each other. Well, that's nice at least... I left to go get Phyllis and she was quick to tend to the Anthrogriff. Another person to look out for, at least until he figures out what he's doing.



From what Phyllis told me Searle was doing just fine, all four of our guests were healing appropriately... well, Pog was still regrowing his arm which still looked disturbing but didn't appear to be causing him any pain.

Giving myself some time to relax I sat down with Olive, one of the survivors, at the Faro table we had just built. I wasn't a gambler and we didn't have anything to gamble anyway but it was still fun to play for pleasure. Eddie sat nearby reading the pulse munitions document we brought.

"Everyone calls you Captain, right?" Olive said, her whiskers twitching as she read her cards.

"Mhm, probably on account of me piloting the ship that got us here." I nodded.

"Wonder what happened to our captain, never met him... I think our ship was piloted by a persona core."

"Right, well... our was too, partially but I took the helm as well, sometimes a human's touch is necessary."

"Yeah I'd say so too. We were a refugee ship, our planet had been bleeding population for decades when we left..."

"I think Hilde or Phyllis said something about... riots?"

"Mhm, yeah it's been in a full scale revolution for years, constant fighting, killing... mostly police killing people."

"What planet are you from?"

"New Next, corporate colonisation, everything was just... work work work. I was something like, 4th generation?"

"Yeah I've been to some planets like that, miserable."

"Mhm, you can see why people lost their minds and started burning shit down."

"Glad you got out of there..."

She nodded, placing her cards on the table and leaning back. "I'm not too torn up about leaving, my folks are gone and I had no family."

"How are you feeling about where you ended up?" I put mine down as well.

"It's alright, not what I'm used to but that's not such a bad thing... I like being so close to the ocean, makes me want to start fishing again."

"You're an angler?"

"Sure am, or was... You think there's any fish in that ocean I could catch?"

"I think there might be, wouldn't hurt to try."

"Hm... I guess I'll just have to try then, something other then rice and wild boar would be good."

"I'd like some salmon!" Eddie chimed in.

We spent the rest of the break debating all the different kinds of fish we've tried, the best ways to eat them and if we'd ever get to try them again. It was a welcomed break, one I sorely needed... It felt like we'd finally started to move on from the horrible violence of the past weeks.



The next day someone showed up at our settlement, Eddie, Veronica and the other crew from the Pegasus gathered. It was Sadie, it had to be given her armor and the unmistakable tail of a Starjack.

"Sadie, is that you?" I said, clearly stunned by her sudden appearance.

"Indeed it is captain, glad to see you survived. And the rest of you too." She smiled, taking off her helmet.

"Sadie!" Eddie cried with joy, rushing forward to hug her.

"Aha, hello big guy, good to see you too!" Sadie pet him on the back

"You worried us baldie, almost thought you were dead in space." Caziv punched her on the shoulder lightly, Sadie laughed

"Have you seen Richie? Or Lexi?" Eddie asked.

"No, I'm sorry... I think our pods scattered in all different directions." Sadie shook her head.

"Glad you didn't end up somewhere bad..." Ragnar spoke. "I got captured, had to escape."

"Mhm, same here." Caziv added.

"I had my shotgun, no one could get near me." Sadie patted her side, where her charge shotgun was holstered.

"Wish I had one of those..." Ragnar grumbled.

Sadie patted the younger ones head, smiling. I left the group to reconnect, feeling relief that another one of our crewmates had been found. Lexi and Richie could still be out there... but I doubted any of the crew I didn't see escape were, if we could find just those two... maybe this hole in my chest about that day would be filled.

As I stood outside the workshop I saw Soran and Maria holding hand, whispering to each other. Our first couple?... I would have to start work on those individual rooms soon.



A trade caravan approached the settlement and I went out to meet them. Looked like the empire, they were heavily armed and looked a little rougher then the soliders I had met when I got my psylink. I waved a greeting to what looked to be the caravan lead.

"Afternoon, here to trade?" I greeted.

"Trade? No, don't be silly." The person heading the caravan was barely a teenager, a child. "We're here for tribute."

"Tribute?" I was confused.

"Yes, golden tributes to the empire... you give us gold and we grant you honor."

"Well... we don't have that much gold, none we could really give up anyway."

"Do you have slaves? Captives? We would gladly take more labourers."

"Excuse me?"

"Hello? Yes, we take slaves as well... does your colony not have a labour force?"

"N-No we... why would we need slaves?"

"It's the right of all citizens in the empire to own slaves, if you have none to trade and will not give up your gold then we have no business here!"

"We don't do slavery in this settlement, you're going to have to leave." I frowned.

"Very well, what a disappointment to come all this way."

The caravan lead motioned at the guards who looked completely worn out, they groaned and shot looks of anger towards me. I watched them leave with a heavy feeling in my gut... The empire are slave traders then, and we were their allies... The buzzing in my brain felt overwhelming.

Soon a furry face appeared behind me, one of the twins.

"Captain Petre, you work for them?" He looked at me, almost disappointed.

"You're up?"

"Yes... but now I am worried, the Empire are no good."

"I'm starting to realise that myself..." I frowned, looking away.



Lady is up and moving, she's pretty weak given how long she's been laying in bed but we've been trying to keep her legs moving, exercising her in preparation for her return. She seems pretty happy about being able to get around again and from what I've heard her and Web are still extremely close. Almost mother and daughter with how much they care for each other. Web has been smiling as she works, and I'm glad for it.

We've begun construction on a massive housing unit, around eleven individual rooms as well as bathrooms. It's not enough to house everyone so some folk will need to keep bunking together but Maria and Soran will have a private room with little Andrea, the two are officially a couple and I couldn't be more happy for Maria to have someone to help her with Andrea. We've all been pitching in to help with the kid but having someone like Soran around will be a great boon for her, and should help her get back to her usual duties much quicker.

Kolark and Hoersh are officially part of the settlement as well, the two have been helping with the construction and moving heavy objects around. I'm worried for Hoersh and his weak lungs but he's adamant in helping out after we healed him and his sister, and killed their abuser. Our food supply is steadying out and we're finally able to stock up, we've been hunting and fishing thanks to Olive's suggestion to try the ocean. We've been able to catch pufferfish and flounder... I was worried at first about the pufferfish but apparently the variety on this planet don't have the poison usually associated with the species. We've been hunting wild boars, deer and ibex that wander into the area but I imagine as winter comes around that will become more scarce.

Our cloth has been growing in great quantity and Flint has been in charge of creating clothes for us to wear and sell, her pieces always come out in good quality and the survivors are very grateful to have clothes that aren't tattered from the accident. The pups are starting to grow up and I've been training them like their parents, the dogs have been really handy for hauling and keeping morale up and I do not regret buying the two Labradors when we first arrived. I still wonder about Argus' owner... but he's my dog now and I'll have to seriously consider names for his puppies. But that's for after construction is done. 



As soon as things were starting to settle down we saw them, raiders coming towards out settlement. Eddie, Veronica, Sadie and myself quickly met them as they came into our construction site. They were shouting something about bloodfeeders, I knew they meant Maria, they had come to hunt down Maria and potentially little Andrea too. We gunned them down, though I hated every part of it I wasn't going to let anyone hurt Maria and her child.

One of them came from the other side, hoping to catch us off guard. I found her near the barracks where Andrea slept, she saw me and threw knives, they lodged into my torso and I screamed but I fired anyway, downing her as Veronica and Sadie rounded the corner.

"Captain are you okay?" Sadie yelled.

"Y-Yeah, she got me pretty bad though." I winced.

"Still alive?" Veronica scowled at the downed woman.

"Ghh... Get away from me..." She coughed, spluttering.

"Suppose you want to take her captive too then?" Veronica looked at me.

"Yeah..." I said, unsure of myself.

"Fine, lets go." Veronica picked the woman up, though she looked more like a girl.

"That was a close one, you okay Cap?" Sadie asked me, looking at my wounds.

"N-Need to get these knives out of me..." Is all I said.

"Alright, we'll heal you up don't worry."

I lay in the barracks as Phyllis tended to me, Maria was by her side.

"Thank you Captain, I don't know what I would have done if they'd caught me or... or taken Andrea." She said.

"I'd never let that happen Maria, you're safe with us I promise."

"Alright, you got stabbed pretty badly but rest will heal you up good... thought, we are running out of medicine." Phyllis said.

"I don't know if I can go out with these wounds..." I said.

"We'll send someone else to go grab some, just rest Captain... You earned it."

"I'll stay with you, keep you company." Maria smiled.

"Thank you girls... Don't know what we'd do without you." I managed, smiling back.

My injuries were painful, it's the first time I'd been hurt since coming here... Stuck in bed I couldn't help out with the construction, the captives, or trading... It made me feel useless but, I'd helped keep Maria safe... and that's what matters.



After a few days of rest I felt much better, though I still had obvious scars left over that were still healing and too much movement caused me pain. I spent my time healing going over the residents of our settlement. I hadn't had as much time to talk to them all as I would like, but our dining room slash recreation room had been helping with the social aspect. We had a designated break time at the end of the day, as well as two hours in the morning to spend how we pleased.

Banz and Flint had been doing most of the crafting recently, with Flint focusing on creating clothes for the residents. Ragnar was cooking and tending to the fields, they've been in good spirits thankfully, I was worried after we found them injured but they've recovered well. Lady is still overjoyed by her freedom, she enjoys reading and also helps Ragnar in the kitchen. Ammius and Ascalo two of the survivors I haven't been able to talk to much have been keeping to themselves, Ascalo focusing on the fields and Ammius helping out with construction, apparently the two are actually father and son. I do see the resemblance... Ammius mentioned another brother who was in the ship as it was crashing... Maybe he's out there somewhere, but we can't spare the time to search unfortunately.

Veronica as always keeps her eye on the residents, she's been breaking up arguments and talking folk down when they're on edge. As head of security she's had plenty of experience dealing with rowdy crewmates, and of course her abilities with a gun have been keeping us very safe. Veronica is essential to our settlement, I'm glad I managed to rescue her during the crash.

There's another survivor, Romuald who goes by Rom, he claims to be an inventor as well as an explorer. He's been asking me for a dedicated laboratory so he can study, it's on the list of things to do. I am curious about what Rom will discover when we give him the time... He has also pitched the idea to build a library to store books and documents we purchase. A library would be a luxury here, and I very much agree with him. Another thing to add to the agenda.



Slavers... They landed right in the middle of our settlement, everyone was on edge as I approached them. They didn't seem interested in taking any of us, only selling. Though I hated letting slavers have any profit I saw three young people huddled on the ship in chains, they looked terrified... I caved, it took almost all our silver but all three were freed. As I talked to them it was clear they weren't really sure what my intentions were for them... But I tried my best to reassure them we weren't going to force them to do anything. The Avaloi seemed to understand, talking to her fellow freed slaves.

"He's trying to help us, this is a nice place..." She spoke to the two smaller ones.

The Anthro looked at me, then at her. "Are you sure? What if he's just saying that?"

"The red haired man could be a lying liar, he could be trying to double cross us, take us to a worse place!" The smallest one talked fast, clearly anxious.

"I don't think he will, will you?" The Avaloi looked at me.

"No, I could barely afford it but I couldn't just leave you three like that... You're safe here, if you wish to stay." I tried to reassure her.

"Stay? Stay here? Where is here?" The Kabouter chirped worriedly.

"This is Stardust Base, of the Pegasus Traders. We're a group of survivors from all sorts of places... I've been trying to help people, give them a place to live safely."

"That's a nice name... And you won't force us to work?" The Anthro said.

"No, unless you want to pitch in? We're working on some houses right now." I said. "But everyone has equal rights here, I'm not looking to exploit anyone."

"See? And if we don't like it we can always just leave right?" The Avaloi asked.

"Of course, I can take you anywhere you want in our shuttle, no need to stay here." I nodded at her.

"Hm... And the food is good, yes? Do you have the yummy meals or the nasty slop?" The small one said.

"We... We have good chefs, we've started making really nice meals now that we've got fish to fry and boar to cook."

"I do like red meat..." The Anthro said. "It's worth a shot."

"I supposes... Just for now, unless the red hair lies." 

"Great! What's your names? I'm Petre, the captain." I said, holding my hand out to the three of them.

"Dinah, but my nickname is Wrong Way." The Avaloi shook my hand.

"Stilo Cania..." The Anthro said, looking away but smiling.

"Minlin is my name! Minlin Rockgleam!" The Kabouter chirped, jumping into the air and waving her hands at me.

"Welcome to the Pegasus Trading Company, I hope you like it here." I smiled, happy to have helped these young people.