Such is our fate

Chapter 3 Story time

It was slowly getting dark and cold outside as me and Cross where walking towards the main hall. I was becoming a bit more confident to walk on my own feet, but I decided to support myself on Cross a little bit as we walked and he didn't seem to mind too much. The hall was lit up pretty brightly. As we entered I could feel a nice sense of warmth. I wasn't sure if it was because of the heater, the cooking stove, or just because of the presence of everyone from the colony. Either way, just by getting inside you could already feel more relaxed and at ease with yourself. Cross was right, everyone was here. Two women were standing and talking at the playing table, two guys were sitting down and talking at the main dinning table, and the shy dude with whom I played chess just few hours ago was sitting alone on a stool next to the stove. After we entered, Cross went across the room to grab two bottles of some sort of beverage and after handing one to me he turned around and exclaimed to everyone in the hall:

"Alright everyone, listen up. We have a new survivor among ourselves. Let us all give a warm welcome to Roger." He made a small pause here taking a sip from his drinking while everyone was looking first at him and then at me, trying to force a smile. After that he continued with the slightly calmer voice:

"Ok, here's the drill. We are going to give him an official formal welcoming and then we will all tell our stories, just like back in the old campfire days." He takes a few steps towards the center of the room and then turns towards me, coughs a little bit, swallows whatever he coughed up and starts:

"Greetings Roger, and welcome to the colony of Henshaw, part of the Thaourneuia faction of the planet X0-036. Please make yourself at home." He stops himself for a moment, trying to contain the excitement and pride of this glorious statement, before he continues.:

"I'm going to go first to tell my story and then I will want you guys to say yours in any order you see fit." He pauses, takes another sip, while making a gesture that I can do the same, and then he starts:

"I came from the planet of Hinhibium. A very rich planet controlled by a powerful, well organized and well structured single nation, about 32 light years away from here. I was trained to become an IT engineer back on the planet, but for me life was way too boring over there. Feeling the need for action in my life, I decided to enroll myself in the colonization program and together with Frank and Seedlings over here we embarked on a long journey in the cryogenics capsules and we have all arrived on this planet approximately 5 years ago. Since then we've been trying our best to survive. We started this small colony over here and called it Henshaw. Over time some people came, other died but so far we've been able to manage. We've got contacted by a recruiting officer from the faction of Thaourneuia and we agreed to let our colony become part of it. I'm mostly in charge of how things are run here, but you know, I keep myself open to criticism and suggestions from the members of our small community. Do you guys want to add something over here...? Frank, Seedlings?" He finishes turning around first towards the table with the 2 guys and then towards that other woman in the corner. The guy is the first to get up from the table. He is about as tall as cross and he has dark hair and brown eyes. He seems to be exceptionally muscular underneath, so he starts off with a very firm voice:

"Yeah, that's about it I could say. My name is Frank and I came here together with Cross and Seedlings. I was trained to be a colonist my whole life basically. I've been trained in all sorts of survival tactics as well as a multitude of different combat techniques. I know how to use many firearms, I can hunt, fish, light fires and even cook to a limited extent. It's been quite an adventure to be around here on this planet and so far I've enjoyed every minute of it." He finishes and the sits down as if he did a monumental effort to speak. Then the strange woman in the corner speaks. She was red haired and if it wasn't for the few smooth facial features and dual bulges at the chest, you couldn't really tell she is a woman. She has a very solid body she is about as a tall as Cross and Frank and she speaks with a very deep voice that could almost make the wooden hall tremble: