ION Heart Solo II
[This is my second part of my ION Heart playthrough, for some context and information, I’d highly recommend looking at the first part here: https://daydreamingmoose.bearblog.dev/ion-heart-solo/
And you can find ION Heart here: https://www.parablegames.co.uk/pages/ion-heart
There is also a solo and MP prequel to ION Heart in the works with a succesful crowdfunding campaign and open pre-orders, which you can find here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/parable-games/ion-heart-multiplayer-a-lo-fi-mech-ttrpg]
The next day, sometime near midday, Arras and I finally get up and start moving back towards Hearth again. Arras is being extremely silent, and his movement quite robotic - nearly the same way as if he was back to being a machine with some AI features. So, we don't talk much and I concentrate on plotting our course, while Arras lets his subroutines take control of movement. Which, in hindsight, was actually a good thing, because I was fully focused on the law enforcement checkpoint we were coming up to, instead of chatting with him. Several people on foot, as well as an armoured transport and another frame, blocking the road towards Hearth that we were using. At least, that's what they were trying to appear as, but their paintjobs only passed a very minor inspection, and even from afar with the zoom activated it was painfully obvious they were only posing as lawmen. Probably highway robbers. Arras and I were in no mood for their games, let the actual law enforcers do it. We'll swing by a precinct when we're back in Hearth, it's not far now. We get off of the road and pass the robbers by with a large enough margin that they either don't see us, or don't care to follow us.
Back in Hearth, Arras goes off to the Mech Workshop again, to have the damage repaired he sustained during the fight with that other frame, the one that was running amok outside of the city. Honestly, there's not much for me to do, and I get his desire to stay on his own for now, so I just move back into the gym to get my mind off of things. Tomorrow, it might be time to move on towards another planet, see what else is out there on the frontiers of Twin Suns.
Day4
We spent the night at a cheap place over at the spaceport, they had just enough space left for a single traveller. Nearly everything else was completely booked out due to the influx of refugees from the power plant explosion. The next morning, I only spent a little time studying the current flight plans and picked a place that sounded interesting enough, before boarding an in-system transport and setting off. I didn't hate Harvest, but getting a new perspective and experiences somewhere else might be a good thing for Arras, so off we went.
Now, travelling from planet to planet inside a system isn't as glamorous as the giant Leaper ships that connect systems, where you can really move about in their interiors. Especially not if you're broke like me (I didn't get any pay since coming out here, remember? Well, except for my veteran's pension). So, the ship we were on was old, decrepit, and shook like crazy when leaving Harvests atmosphere, and when entering Auroras, our destination. At least it got us down safely, although it was already pretty late when we arrived, but we spent most of our time recharging and resting while inside the transport’s cargo hold, so at least having to find a place to sleep for the night wasn't an issue. When we debarked from the ramp, Arras having to duck his head so that he wouldn't hit the undercarriage, not a lot of people were milling about. Outside, the air was so much fresher and cleaner, and even though it was late (well, from a local time perspective it was very early), it was already getting warm. You see, while I didn't have a lot of preferences, I did have one, and that was warmth. I am a giant lizard after all, and UV lamps and heating pads just aren't the same thing as a real sun (or two, in the case of this system). The place we had landed was your typical frontier town. Not like in the old movies where there are wooden shacks and a central thoroughfare, but just a lot of pre-fab modules unloaded from carrier ships and stacked here and there to create houses of different styles and forms. Single modules for single people (or poor), and several modules stacked or connected for families. A lot of people seem to have a prevalence for connecting four of the rectangular modules into a square, and then putting a large tarpaulin over that square to create a shaded garden of sorts. Pretty neat idea if you ask me.
Well, time to get some work!
Day 5
Arras scampered off to help some settlers set up their own prefab modules, they were obviously having some problems with the cranes and the local people setting them up. One of these days I'll have to find him a real construction job, see how he fares with that. Me? I went off to one of the local bars, called the Sunshine Saloon, to gather some intel on this place, Ruby Creek. And after a few drinks (some for me, some for the locals) as well as a friendly competition of arm wrestling (guess who won?!), I struck gold. Well, figuratively, just like the local community did. Apparently, they've been growing quite a bit in the recent months, because the place is full of these strange ruins the news is constantly blabbing on about - probably from the same civilization that created that unknown frame back on Harvest. And guess what? Like always, the corpos want in on it, instead of letting the locals reap the rewards of unearthing these ruins and selling their findings and the artifacts off. In this case, Makkam Multi-Stellar Productions, one of the largest, and probably most annoying arms manufacturers in the whole sector.
How I know that you might ask yourself. Well, that's easy. While I was talking to the locals, a bunch of rowdy hooligans from one of the corners got even louder, and started threatening others and throwing their weight around. By their stature and demeanour, it was immediately obvious to me that they were hired muscle - obviously not much brains with that group. But some of them were still wearing Makkam overalls, to make it very obvious who they belong to.
I didn't really want to throw myself at them fist firsts (Okay, I really wanted to, because I hate bullies), because I wasn't quite sure what was happening and didn't want to escalate the whole thing before I had some idea. But I'm still a giant walking lizard built like a tank, with a large gun at my hip, so I handily pushed some of them aside, stepped between them and the locals and just snapped my pointy teeth into the air in front of the loudmouth that appeared to be their leader. 'Listen up, prick. I have no clue who you are and what's your problem, but you're annoying everyone in here, and especially me. That's a problem, you see? I just got off of a transport and I need to unwind, and right now it looks like you're going to be the punching back I'm using to do that. You get what I'm saying?' And to underline my words, I put up my fists, snarled down at him again (the guy was large for a human, but still a head shorter than me), and he simply spit on the floor and tried to keep playing the tough guy. Nevertheless, they tucked tail and got out of there. Good for them, maybe they aren't as dumb as they seemed.
After that, the rest of the early morning until dawn was much more enjoyable. The local proprietress, one of the avian Haavani (who somehow share a common ancestor with us Scaglia) called Riya, was more than happy enough to thank me for my help throwing out the trash as she called it. So, I got at least a free meal and drinks out of the whole thing. If I had wanted to, I could have gotten blackout drunk, simply because it looked like everybody else in the bar was up for paying for my drinks. But I've never been fond of getting drunk, and I wasn't planning to spend my day in a stupor today.
Instead; I think it's time I get to know the town better. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, Riya throws out her last customers (and I leave willingly) and I start wandering the town. From what I understood, the settlement had been having some trouble with the occasional Makkam thugs, apparently there was a construction site for a new manufacturing plant not far from here, so sometimes they just seem to stumble into town. But it really made me wonder if these guys were just the drunk bullies stumbled into town they wanted to appear as, or if somebody from Makkam had sent them over. And believe me, it wouldn't be the first time a corp would pull something out here on the frontier. Still, I decided to check out the local library for current and old news. Of course, library is a bit of a big word for the two prefabs put together that held a bunch of racks with reading tablets as well as screens and a high-speed connection to as many news outlets as the town could pay for. Still, it wasn't that hard to confirm what I was thinking: Not only had Makkam started building that plant, they were also advertising with their newest line of weaponry, made with and inspired by 'alien resources and artifacts', and it seemed painfully obvious where they are planning to get more from. Checking out older articles, it was hard to see if they had pulled something similar on other planets - taking over settlements by bullying and coercion - but there was definitely a string of settlements signing over land rights to Makkam in the recent decade, although never with a lot of information of what was going on before that.
Exiting the library, I started wandering the town aimlessly. It was still early morning with the first sun just coming up (the library is pretty much automated, so it's open 24/7, in case you were wondering), and I sat down on an aluminium bench in the centre square of town. Now the metal was still cool, but it must have been coated with something, otherwise most people would just burn their butts off when it was hot outside. The square itself was marked with a statue of a human, sitting atop what looked like part of the alien ruins. And I mean that literally, it was part of the ruins the settlers had found here, only the statue itself was actually crafted by the settlers. Below, a small plaque said in two neat little rows: 'The indomitable spirit may Aurora grant us home' I nodded involuntarily while sitting on the bench. I get the urge to settle down somewhere. And I absolutely understand not wanting to leave, even if the corps are making it a pain to stay. Hopefully it'll calm down soon, though I doubt it.
And suddenly, it got loud. Like, really, really loud. Instinctively I threw myself down from the bench, my clawed fingers gripping the laser pistol at my hip. That was an explosion, coming from somewhere close to the settlement, a huge dust plume was already spreading, and the shockwave made the panes of glass on the prefabs shake in their frames. Unthinking, I immediately ran towards the sound, and I wasn't the only one. Arras came bounding up from somewhere else, the cockpit in the centre of his torso already hanging open. I push my pistol back in its holster, grip one of the lower rungs of the ladder set into Arras's leg and pull myself up into the cockpit without one of us losing a step. Before the safety harness clicks in place, the cockpit was already closed shut. The explosion came from somewhere up in the hills south of the settlement, and when we got there, there was frantic activity going on around several cave openings in the hillsides. This was where the excavation of the alien ruins was happening underground, and a bunch of the workers got blocked in by rubble.
Using the Fusion Axe as a lever, and digging and dragging stones and rubble out of the cave entrances and the underground passages beneath, Arras manages to help the other workers in clearing everything out, while I got out of the cockpit as well and start swinging a pickaxe and shovel around that somebody handed me. It's backbreaking work and takes us quite a while, but we manage to get all the blocked in people out. Some of them are wounded and need a medic or a doctor, but at least all of them are alive.
While digging, I also found the cause for the explosion. Sabotage. There were still some bits and pieces left of modern day technology, and they very obviously looked like a handmade explosion made by using artillery shells, wires and detonation devices. And I know the bits and pieces of these exploded shells very, very well from my time in the Navy. Makkam 135mm HE. Standard issue for a lot of artillery pieces as well as tanks. Even some smaller spaceships rely on them, though in the armour piercing variant. I'm really starting to hate these a-holes and I've only been here for half a day now. I jump up on Arras's shoulder and wave parts of a shell around that just barely shows the Makkam logo, even after the explosion. 'Do you guys see this? This is the bomb that's been used to close off your excavation sites. It's a Makkam artillery shell. I don’t have to tell you that there's only one way out here how anybody got their hands on that. And I don't need to tell you who has planted this, because some of you were there in the bar this morning, when the Makam thugs stirred up trouble. They're trying to drive you out of your own town!' People start murmuring and nodding, but the dissent starts growing louder and louder by the second, until the anger in the air was palpable. Still holding their digging equipment, some of the young guys wanted to go over to the Makkam plant immediately, but were held back by cooler heads.
Going back down into the town with the wounded and some other helpers, the situation was extremely volatile. I can understand their anger all too well, but going up against a large corporation like that without proper planning will only result in unnecessary death. A proper first step would be to get somebody to supply some proper weaponry to these folks, maybe there was a smaller, rival arms company willing to hurt their competition for a low price of a few crates of rifles and anti-mech ordnance.... But I got woken up out of these ideas extremely rudely, because there was a large ruckus coming out of town. At first, I thought some of the riled-up workers had already made it into town, but that wasn't it. It was out of control worker drones! Two of the local industrial units as well as a frame with a tracked chassis were running amok. Normally they get programmed to do their job, and that's it, but something seems to have gone haywire. 'Let's jump in Arras!' I call out, and Arras, gripping the Fusion Axe tightly jumps forward, positioning himself between the out-of-control drones and some of the houses they were about to tear down. He raises the axe menacingly and calls out to the drones in a beeping, mechanical tone, trying to intimidate them to stand down.
'I don't think they're willing to step down, Arras.' I start flinging switches rapidly, getting ready to deploy a full arsenal against the unmanned drones, before they can do any kind of significant damage against the town itself. 'Ready to fire, let's rain down hell!' I say and push down a last button to trigger the final release of a massive salvo of missiles against these three.
The missiles flare up the second they leave the launchers, snaking their way over the buildings and hitting both of the industrial drones square on, pulverizing them in an instant, but the Track is too manoeuvrable in this terrain and manages to evade the salvo aimed at it, and at the same time it aims its carbine at Arras and lets off a burst of fire that plinks away at the armour. Time to get personal with this a-hole. 'Let's cut him down Arras!' I say, while I trigger another salvo of the automatically reloaded missile launchers.
The missiles hit and Arras moves in with the Fusion Axe to finish it off, swinging wildly and hoping to destroy the Track before it can do any more damage to the settlement.
And with a loud screeching and a brutal crunch, the Fusion Axe cuts through the lightly armoured drone as a hot knife cuts through butter. Its weapons clatter to the ground and while the dust settles, the townspeople start cheering loudly.
Luckily, the settlement itself was pretty much intact, and nobody seemed to be too harmed, just some scrapes and bruises. The more laborious of the townsfolk immediately started pulling apart the debris of the drones to see what was still usable and what was not, and while I climbed out of the cockpit to check the damage on Arras's armour plating (luckily superficial), the townsfolk grew restless again. 'This one aint on o' ours!' 'Ya sure?!' 'Sure, I'm sure, jus'look at the darn thing!' Two of the miners were arguing with each other, but as soon as a few more joined them, it became obvious that the Mech Track definitely didn't belong to Ruby Creek. And this time, it didn't take me to have them figure out who sent the thing and who had tempered with the two other industrial units. Not only because it was getting obvious to each and everyone here, but also because four other frames walked into the settlement, armed to the teeth, bearing the logo of the Makkam Security Force. Three troopers and an Enforcer, enough firepower to raze the whole settlement to the ground in minutes, if they wanted to.
'Settlers of Ruby Creek! We heard gunshots, so we came to render aid, if necessary, but as we can see, apparently it was only a minor scuffle. Makkam would like to extend a helping hand towards all of you, to help safeguard your town. Therefore, it was decided that we'll be stationed here indefinitely, for your protection. Our barracks will be transported in shortly.'
Now, can you guys imagine what kind of reaction that drew from the townsfolk? Let me tell you, it wasn't good. Shouting, cussing, arguing. People started raising their metaphorical and literal pitchforks at the frames, and I immediately got back into the cockpit, because it was painfully obvious what was going to happen. The settlers had enough, being challenged and annoyed by Makkam for who knows how long before I arrived today. And you can believe me when I say I get it. And that I was more than happy to help them out yet another time. Arras was already hefting his axe, when shots exploded from somewhere else, and even more of the industrial units started rushing in, but this time attacking the Trooper frames and overwhelming them in short order. The Enforcer was only lightly hit, but nothing that we couldn't handle.
While the missiles went flying anywhere and mostly hitting the enemies' armour uselessly, Arras sprints into melee range and hacks at the Enforcer with the Axe, scraping along the left arm with his first hit, and the second one breaking through the plating, but only barely hitting internals. Not good!
But at least the fact that everyone was fighting back instead of rolling over surprised the a-hole enough that he barely had the time to pull out his beamsword, and the pathetic attacks against Arras just went wide, only superheating the air, and not his armour.
'Arras, let's finish this up quick, no use shooting more missiles inside town, there's enough craters as it is. One good hit with the Fusion Axe!'
And Arras was more than happy to oblige, pulling back the axe for a decapitating strike. The first hit only glanced off of the enemies’ neck armour, but Arras’s grips the Enforcer's arm to prevent him from attacking with the beamsword. Cussing, Arras draws his weapon arm back and hits the Enforcer again, and again. Two strikes that split the armour and sever the Enforcers head cleanly off. With a nearly comical thud the head falls to the ground, followed by the rest of the now useless frame. Immediately, townspeople started swarming over the four disabled frames, forcing open the cockpits and tearing out the confused pilots. They thought this would be easy, just intimidate some locals and then live their best lives on their hard work. Well, Ruby Creek decided that that's not gonna happen. Not sure what they're planning to do with these guys now, but I hope it includes a good thrashing and sending them back where they came from, to tell Makkam that they can fuck right off. Damn Corpos.
Later that night, when the townspeople had sent the frame pilots from Makkam off, back to their factory, I was just burring out the superficial damage on Arras's chassis, when the barkeep Riya came by to invite me personally over to the victory celebrations planned for the evening - after all I had now 'not only saved her bar, but the whole town' as she put it. I'm not much of a celebrater, and I definitely don't like being in the lamplight like that, but I really like these people here, so I decided to go and at least try and have a good time. And it was quite nice. A bit too rowdy for my tastes, too loud, and too much alcohol. But these people here are a solid bunch, down to earth. Maybe I should see about setting down some roots here. Not with a prefab, but with a properly built place.
[I’ll be playing a fourth story circuit, this time a dangerous one, since I haven’t done of them yet. But that’s going to be down the line, since I’m planning to play something else first.]