Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

We left our homeworld three days ago, but we have only just escaped.

The Miniknog, or what I think is The Miniknog, fought the Apex rebels using our village as a battleground. It burned to the ground, and many Floran burned along with it. Only four of us are alive. One is Machida, a renowned hunter. There’s Tash, who is timid but is good with medicine. Third is Crispi, an assistant of mine who is a pacifist but proves to be a mighty warrior when necessary. Last, there’s me, former Greenfinger Amaki.

When our village was is ashes, we felt great anger towards the Apex. But we knew that so few of us could not fight back. Instead, we stole one of the Miniknog ships from their nearby base and did our best to escape. Although we managed to escape, we were shot at and the ship ended up very damaged. So, after days of searching for a suitable ship, we found one and stole it. I think it belonged to an Avian before we hijacked it. The ship is hardly big enough to hold the four of us and our things.

I found the coordinates of a penguin shipyard that might be able to help us. Hopefully, we’ll have enough fuel to get us there. Once this ship is more… customized, we can figure out a plan for what to do next.

The shipyard was a much better experience than one would expect. The price was steep, but the penguins worked fast and did more than they promised. One even asked me if he could work as a mercenary for me, but I said no. Maybe I’ll regret that decision later, but even our improved ship doesn’t have much room for another passenger. But now, our ship is fast, efficient, and armed to the teeth. I’ve made my own modifications, of course. The hull is thickly armored with vines and we have grapes growing out of one of the inside walls. We’re all disappointed by the lack of meat, but we’ll eat what we have to in order to survive. We also refueled there, at a surprisingly cheap price.

Although we still have no long-term plan, we know our first order of business is to find a new place to call our own. However, we’re conflicted on what our base should be like. Crispi and Tash think we should set up a base on a space station, but Machida and I think we should set up a base on a planet. Hopefully, we’ll settle this tomorrow.

We have made up our mind to create a base on a planet. The argument was long.

“A planet basse will have more ressources,” said Machida at the beginning, “like meatss and metal and wood.”

“Ssspace sstationss can get those ressources from trade and make money doing it,” Tash replied, “and meatss can be raised on sspace sstation.”

“Sspace sstation would be harder to find, too,” Crispi added on, “It’ss jusst a tiny ssspeck in ssspace.”

“A tiny speck that a well-armed spaceship could easily desstroy,” I pointed out, “Ships can’t fight as well in an atmossphere.”

“But ssstations make money, ” Tash insisted, “We’ll need money badly.”

“We can make all the money we need with a ssimple colony,” I snapped back.

This conversation went on for nearly an hour, just like that.

Once we finally decided to settle on a planet, it was quite easy to decide what kind of planet to settle on. First of all, it has to be forested. Trees are powerful in a Floran’s hands and they will also help conceal our location. Secondly, the planet has to have no major Apex settlements on it, whether Miniknog or rebel. Both sides could very well be unhappy with us. Finally, we need a large planet. If we are eventually tracked down, a larger area to search could buy us some time to escape if necessary.

We’re currently searching for a planet like that. So far, we haven’t had any luck.

We ran out of erchius fuel, but we found a potentially suitable planet. It’s large and heavily forested, but we don’t know whether or not there are Apex settlements on it. All four of us plan to scout out the planet tomorrow. Once that’s done, we’ll see if we can find a friendly ship that’s willing to lend us a bit of fuel.

After several local days, we’ve scouted the whole planet. There’s an abandoned Miniknog lab here. We don’t want to take any chances with the Apex, but we have nowhere to go now. It’s not our first choice, but we have to at least make a temporary home here.

We see humans around quite a bit, so there must be a campsite nearby. Maybe we can make friends with them.

The humans welcomed us! We have permission to build a settlement near their campsite. So far, we have a small roofless structure set up. Eventually, that will serve as a storage room for our supplies. We also plan to make a small garden for food and a hut for us to live and work in.

One of the humans has taken interest in our little project. His name is Remmy. After we showed him the progress on our settlement (which now features a complete storage hut and the start of residential hut), he asked us why we’re settling here instead of staying in our home village. We explained that our village was destroyed and that we had to flee, but we didn’t mention anything about the Apex or stealing two different ships. Remmy has apparently been through something similar. He says he used to live in a village on another planet, but it was raided by “Agarans” a few years ago. None of us knew what an Agaran was, so Remmy explained that they were like Florans, but even more aggressive, and that they were fungus-based instead of plant-based. Their language is still untranslated, so nobody can understand what they’re saying.

Remmy also mentioned that he was separated from his sister, Anka, during the raid, but her body was not counted among the dead, nor was she captured by the Agarans. I hope they get to see each other again someday. Maybe we’ll help him find her.

In the meantime, we have a settlement to finish.

Chapter Text

It’s been awhile since I’ve written, mostly because things have been largely uneventful. Our little home is now complete. Between our garden, Machida’s hunting, and the occasional generous meal from our human neighbors, we’ve been well fed.
We all have our jobs around here. Machida’s usually hunting, Crispi serves as a guard, and Tash has a shop set up for the humans to trade with. I am usually the one to interact with the humans and I also tend the garden. Sometimes, when necessary, we will do each other’s jobs, but for the most part we stick with our own.
Machida has recently been urging us to investigate the abandoned lab on this planet, but the rest of us have agreed that that plan is too risky. However, with him being our hunter, he could very well go off alone against our will. We can only hope he decides against it.

Machida has been gone for a full day now. We fear he has gone off to investigate the Miniknog lab. If he’s not back in another 12 local hours, we will go try to find him.

We have found Machida, and not where or how we expected.
We were about halfway to the lab when we heard what sounded like very heavy footsteps. Crispi ran off to investigate while Tash and I stayed put. A few minutes later, we heard the footsteps coming towards us, and shortly after we saw the source. A Miniknog mech was walking towards us, with Crispi sitting on top of it. Tash and I were astounded.
“Machida iss in here!” Crispi shouted over the noisy vehicle.
Once the mech was close to us, it powered down and Machida stepped out.
“Sssorry Floran invesstigated lab without permission,” Machida said, “But Floran didn’t get caught, and Floran found many thingss in there.”
“That was a bad choice, Machida,” I replied, “But I may forgive you if these thingss are usseful. Are you hurt?”
“Floran hass a cut on Floran’ss back, but otherwisse Floran iss fine.”
“What happened in there?” Tash asked.
“There were a few odd monkeymen. Not regular monkeymen. Sstronger, and had lumpss on their headss. There were alssso obsstacle coursses, probably for the monkeymen.”
“Ssounds weird,” said Tash.
“Very weird. Even Floran wass a little sscared.”
“Floran would have been, too,” Crispi remarked.
“Tell uss more when we get back,” I said, “I think we should take this all back to basse.”
Crispi piloted the mech this time, while the rest of us rode on top of it. When we got back, the humans were very concerned, but we explained it was just us and they left us alone for the most part. We still got several odd looks, though.
We took a look at the “things” Machida had brought us, and we were not disappointed. Two assault rifles, a broadsword, and a machine pistol. We split them up among us. Crispi took the broadsword, Tash took the pistol, and Machida and I took the rifles. Now we no longer have to rely on crude weapons like we did before.
However, there is still one problem. The mech is out in the open. We need to build a shelter for it so it can hide from both the elements and watchful eyes.

Our little mech shelter is complete, and we’ve gone back to our regular lives. Remmy has been visiting us lately, although he seems to have taken a liking to Crispi in particular. The two have been eating lunch together, too. Crispi seems to like Remmy, too. It’s good to see them making friends.

Crispi just asked Tash and me if we can take Remmy with us if/when we leave this planet. We both thought that would be fine, and hopefully Machida agrees with us.

Machida has agreed to let Remmy join us if we’re forced off-planet, although I think he agrees reluctantly. When we told Remmy about this, he seemed very happy.
Also, I’ve decided to see if I can modify the mech so that it will be easier for us to use. Machida knows basically how to pilot it and Crispi can pilot it quite well, but Tash and I still have yet to even try. Hopefully I can make the mech more usable for us.

Crispi and Remmy have been spending more and more time together over the past weeks. Now Crispi goes to see him whenever they have spare time. They seem to be growing very close to each other, like close hunting partners. I think there’s a word for it, one that other species use a lot, but I can’t think of it right now.

The mech has been customized. I’ve taken it for a ride and it seems like I did my job well. Tash and Crispi agree that the mech is easier to use now, but Machida has yet to try out the modified mech. I’ve also connected the mech to our ship, so that if we are forced to leave this planet, we can take our mech with us. There doesn’t seem to be any tracking device in it, so the Miniknog shouldn’t be able to track us down using the mech. I’m starting to doubt if they’ll ever find us.
Well, we’ll see.