Challenge #02775-G218: Waste Not
[Level 2 Deathworlder] I don’t know how you can be so relaxed about this human. This is an unknown planet and, save for a few starvation rations and potable water, we’ve no supplies left. All of the prey is too fast to catch, and you are obviously starting to look worse. HOW can you be so calm when all you’re doing is banging rocks together, scraping sticks, and weaving those disgusting plants skin together?
[Human] Yes so I’ve lost some kilos, but I now have everything we need. Sure the plants are useless to eat, containing absolutely no nutrition, but they burn, don’t they?
[L2 Deathworlder] Yeah we’re warm and have shelter, but we have no more food.
[Human] –holds up several pieces of very sharp stone arrowheads, wooden shafts, and woven bark netting– Not for long, my friend, oh, trust me, not for long. – DaniAndShali
Humans are relentless. Fyorq got to see it in person. Stranded on a world they were initially there to scout. The good news - they had shelter and a decent scanner. The bad news was that they were running out of edible foodstuffs. At their most-uncomfortable survival situation, they would still perish of starvation.
None of that seemed to stop Human Fil. Ze had, upon landing and verifying the nutritional content of the plant life, started messing about with rocks, sticks, and plant fibres. Ze had also immediately began living on as little as ze could whilst doing so. Humans like Fil were capable of doing survival math and arriving to conclusions that it would take Havenworlders months to arrive at without help.
In such cases, it’s always best to watch what the Deathworlders are doing, and then at least lend a hand. This resulted in Fyorq endlessly plaiting lengths of rubbery leaf strips sheared from some marginally nutritious fruiting body. The fruits took more calories to render edible than they delivered and the extensions they allegedly made to their diet made Fyorq wish that their molecular dissassembler and printer wasn’t damaged beyond repair.
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Challenge #02774-G217: Finding a Smile
“No, thank you.”
…
“Get that out of my face.”
…
“STOP” – Anon Guest
They said, Give a sweet thing to a sour face. Which was the very essence of the Sunshine Festival. Enough smiles, and the sun would rise, bringing an end to the cold of winter. Which was why the marketplace was overloaded with cloth flowers that had been soaked in cloying perfume. Honey-cakes abounded. Beautiful music filled every corner and turned every road into a cacophony.
Compliments that usually didn’t enter Neg’s ears flowed from every painted lip. People wore bright colours, lit every lamp, and there were blazing fires in every brazier, as if everyone were trying to give the sun an unsubtle hint. It was the worst day to beg for a bowl of stew, but Neg had to do it anyway. It was the only way he got to eat.
Honey cakes could fill his belly, but they would not keep him warm in the chill of the night. For that, Neg needed nutrition. Something that was lacking in the joyful atmosphere of the Sunshine Festival. He needed to fortify himself against the night, and there was no amount of false flowers that would insulate him against the lingering winter chill.
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Challenge #02773-G216: Vent Words
(Unabashedly based on my grandmother and her go to “curse word”)
H - “Crab apples, pineapples, and sauerkraut!”
A - “… I think my translator is broken. I got an offensensitivity warning on what you just said, but I think you just listed foods?”
H - “You shouldn’t curse… It is rude.” – SilverRey
Humans are bizarre. This is acknowledged. Some Humans just happen to be more bizarre than others. For example: Most cogniscent species acknowledge the need for stresser/expressive words to articulate anger, frustration, or otherwise vent the stronger emotions in a safer manner than destruction of self, property, or others.
It is also known that some Humans find such expressive words beyond rude to repeat. The alternative expressions have become… inventive.
“Oh, cucumbers!” Human Jone shouted following a loud clang. “Radish rutabaga pie! Baby hippos!”
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02772-G215: To Aid in Aggression
It was a huge battle, they ended up having to ACTUALLY call for help in the form of human space marines. Why? Because these unknown creatures that had attacked the colonial world had been so powerful that the Vorax ships it’d passed had turned tail and fled as fast as it could, after seeing how easily it had overcome two of their biggest warships.
The humans actually were having a challenge with this battle, not just in space but on the ground. These monstrous beings were insect-like in form, very highly intelligent, and had a ‘take no prisoners’ philosophy. It wanted this world for its own, to strip it bare of resources as it had done other worlds this species had encountered, before it inevitably moved on to other worlds.
One human, to encourage his men, pulled out the one song that had become their battle-cry. And as it blasted over the loudspeakers, it reminded others again, just why so few wanted to face a Space Marine on the field.
(this is the song, along with the lyrics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFi7bWkyRpA – Anon Guest
The moral of the ocean is, there is always a bigger fish. The same can be plausible for space. There is always a bigger Deathworlder. Everyone knows of the Vorax. They were once the most deadly Deathworlders for centuries. Then there was the unnamed swarm that never had their own name.
Humans called them Those Bastards. They would get no other name. They were so voracious and aggressive that even the Vorax kept their distance, and the Vorax were famous for retreating only from one other species - the Humans.
Therefore, it was only logical for the colonists of Vrantamire colony to seek help from the most stubborn badasses in known space. The Terran Space Marine Corps. They may be terrifying Deathworlders for whom death is cheaper than usual[1], but they were reliable and terrifying Deathworlders et cetera, et cetera. They came to do the job and then didn’t have to be paid to leave.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02771-G214: A Few Minor Obstacles
Everyone, even havenworlders, like to have pets. The type of pet, of course, depends on the type of havenworlder. One, after visiting, and surviving, her visit to the deathworld known as Earth, and especially Australia, had learned of a harmless, but brightly colored, bug called the Christmas Beetle. It was short-lived, not edible - but only because it had a very thick shell, but otherwise completely, utterly, harmless. She learned how to breed them and soon began to sell them as safe, harmless, pets to other havenworlders. People loved these colorful things. Oddly enough, though, even though some got loose on havenworlds and people feared an invasive species, they seemed only capable of breeding in conditions matching that of their native homelands. Which was not such a bad thing, really, for controlling population. And she made quite a bit of time off a new, harmless pet. Though some humans shuddered at the feel of those scritchy legs on their skin.
- Note - I figured it could be a “part 2” of this prompt? I can see a havenworlder turning these harmless bugs into pets. They’re quiet, harmless, easy to care for, very pretty with their bright colors, and, in the right circumstances, not too hard to breed. And I could easily see her breeding them to make their colors more vibrant.
https://steemit.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02624-g067-seasonal-invasion – DaniAndShali
[AN: You can learn more about these colourful critters at Backyard Buddies and please keep in mind that I am inventing these farming methods wholesale]
Frip was fascinated by the insects. They had had a close call with anthropocene extinction in the past, but those who loved them insisted on loaning them some habitat so they could survive. The adults, like most adult insects, lived to breed, and then soon met their end as the resources diminished for the cold season.
Frip learned everything they could about the life cycle. Their preferred habitat, favourite food, breeding and nesting grounds, all of it. Then the engineering began.
Now they had a terrarium containing a dwarf-formed eucalyptus with more leaves than it should have had. There was a heat lamp, a lot more soil than there should be for one plant and a patch of grass. There was a system for monitoring the water content of the environment.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]