GrimmWorld

Chapter 1

Space. You've heard just about every descriptor by this point.

The final frontier.

The everlasting void.

The great unknown.

A large starship coasted through the cosmos, wandering aimlessly on a journey through the immense cold depths.

Its goal? Find a better world for its inhabitants.

Estimated time? Hundreds of years.

Would they actually ever make it?

Before the Personae at the helm could ponder that, alarms began ringing all over the system.

Ship sensors detected an absolutely massive signature as the stars to its portside were blotted out.

An Archotech ship. And one of biblical proportions, too.

The AI warmed up its weapons for a last-ditch effort to escape, but it was all for naught as the transcendent ship merely zapped it like a bug.

They would not make it to their intended destination.

—

The Personae suddenly reawoke to even more alarms.

Had it died? Was this one of the many forms of the afterlife so many humans believed to exist?

However, due to a lapse in attention, the ship suddenly shook violently as it collided with something.

Pulling up the sensors, it found that its starboard had collided with fragments of a shattered moon, tearing a nasty gash across its hull. Several reinforced crates of supplies were launched into the void from the decompression.

More alerts came upon the board as integrity failures popped up across the entire right wing of the ship.

Thinking fast, it activated emergency measures to jettison the crew housed within the right-wing, just as hull connections failed.

An entire section of the ship's hull broke away, careening through space as escape pods launched towards the planet below.

Hullfoam filled the gaps where air could escape, allowing the remainder of the ship to repressurize itself.

As of now, it couldn't do anything for those who were ejected.

But now? It had to protect those still on board.

—

That night, the inhabitants of the planet were treated to an unexpected 'meteor shower' as a ship and loose moon fragments shot through the skies.

"Big sis! Look!" A little girl cried. "Shooting stars!"

"Woaaah! So pretty!"

—

However, some of these stars weren't just for show.

A single pod slammed into the ground, creating a sizable crater. Once the dust settled, a person was forcefully ejected, clambering to the ground and retching up half-digested meals from decades ago. His most personal belongings clattered to the ground around him as he eventually managed to look up.

Systems online.

Information displays appeared in his vision as cybernetic eyes scanned his surroundings.

Snow. Snow everywhere.

Several cargo containers and ship pieces had landed nearby, smoldering as the cold air cooled off the damages caused by the atmospheric entry.