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By now I knew that the Moreland Hills settlers were refugees from the Pyro system. When they arrived in the Stanton system, they had first landed in the scrap settlement of Zephyr. What I didn’t know was whether there were more refugees and whether they needed help. They had nothing to expect from the UEE or the megacorporations. The refugees were independents, not citizens of the UEE. They belonged to the free peoples, just like me. Spontaneously, I flew to Zephyr to help.

In Zephyr, I went straight to the settlement’s store. The owner had given me the crucial information about the origin of the settlers from the Moreland Hills. I’m sure he knew even more. Stanton’s star was already low over the horizon, bathing the settlement in a warm, brown light. A light breeze blew through the rusty skeleton of the spaceship that housed the store. The tarpaulins that provided makeshift shelter fluttered in the wind and the O of the neon sign flickered. But there was no more movement. There was no one to be seen, the store was empty.

Then I heard voices and singing. The noise was coming from the bar. There I came across a wild party. The room was packed, the whole village seemed to have gathered, even the store owner was there. I laboriously made my way through the dancing and drinking people until I finally stood in front of him.

“Hey, do you remember me? I was here a while ago and you gave me information about a group of refugees from Pyro. I had to strip down to my underpants for the info,” I shouted against the party noise.

“Yes, I remember,” he replied, nodding his head.

“Are there any more refugees? Do they need help? Or you here in the settlement? I would like to help.”

The store owner looked me in the eye and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Do we look like we need help? In our long history, we’ve never needed help. And our history is very long, very old. We’ve risen from the ruins and never let those damn mega-corporations get us down. We don’t need help from strangers.”

“What are you saying?” I asked him, confused.

“Have you never seen one of the many derelict settlements in Stanton? What history do you think they have?”

Before I could ask any more questions, another party guest put his arm around the store owner, pulled him away and said.

“Stop telling stories. We’re here to party.”

With a big question mark, I was left alone in the midst of many people. I stood motionless among the dancing people. The voices in my head mingled with the noise of the party. What did he mean by “They didn’t let the mega-corporations get them down and rose from the ruins”? I knew old, ruined settlements. I had once found some on Microtech and Daymar. Were there more? And were the ruins hiding another scandal involving the mega-corporations? Another exploitation and oppression of people who wanted to live in freedom?

I felt a burgeoning anger inside me. I had to investigate it. But first I needed information about other sites of dilapidated settlements. And I knew who could help me with that. Marsden Analytics, the start-up in New Babbage on the planet Microtech.

*

With the information from Marsden Analytics, I found ruined settlements on the planet Microtech and its moons Clio and Euterpe. Some of them were abandoned, some of them I came across Nine Tails. My right arm was still aching from a bullet I had taken. I had to be more careful in my further explorations.

By now I was on the Crusader moon of Daymar. I had landed my White-Rabbit quite a distance away and drove the Medivac Rover to just outside the settlement, but stayed out of sight of the settlement. I covered the last stretch on foot. Under the cover of darkness, I approached over a plateau. The sand crunched under my feet with every step. I could still see nothing but the many stars above me. Just before the edge of the plateau, I lay down on my stomach and crawled to a rock. From my cover, I could see the ruins of the old settlement down in the valley in the bright light of the headlights. Several Nine Tails were patrolling between the ruined walls.

Annoyed, I leaned against the rock with a groan. Sitting in the sand, I rubbed the bullet wound on my right arm with my left hand. Those Nine Tails, they really were a nuisance. But it didn’t help, they wouldn’t welcome me. I had to shoot my way out. I reached for my backpack to grab my sniper rifle and reached into the void. On the other side of the backpack I felt a weapon, it was the P4 assault rifle. Damn! It wasn’t so easy to fight at a distance with it. But I had to try. Simply storming into the settlement was too risky.

The first Nine Tail appeared in my sights. From a distance, it looked small despite the targeting optics. It kept moving back and forth in my field of vision, even though it was standing still. I struggled to hold the gun steady. I breathed in and out slowly. Then I carefully moved my index finger. A shot echoed through the night. The Nine Tail staggered, grabbed his gun and looked around nervously. He had no idea where the shot had come from. I fired again and again until he was lying on the ground.

Meanwhile, the other guards were running around like maniacs. I took aim at another Nine Tail and missed. I shot and shot, changed the magazine and kept shooting. Then the last magazine was empty. I had shot all my ammo and only killed two Nine Tails, what a bummer. Now I only had my Coda revolver left. I had no choice, I had to get down the hill and into the settlement.

Half running, half sliding, I slithered down the sandy slope. I skirted the settlement in an arc and approached under the protection of rocks and a high stone wall. The wall offered me protection, but also blocked my view. I had no idea where the Nine Tails were.

As I reached the wall, someone suddenly came around the wall. I pulled the trigger and the force of the recoil almost knocked me down. The Nine Tail fell to the ground. One shot had been enough. The coda was a blast.

I ducked away from the beams of light, ran past a container to the ruined remains of a low wall and took cover behind it. I carefully peered over the wall. A Nine Tail moved away from my position, another came straight at me. I ducked my head and counted to three. I looked over the wall in a flash, put the coda on and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The damn thing had jammed. As quickly as I had appeared, I disappeared behind the wall again, changed the magazine, reappeared and pulled the trigger again. Nothing. The Nine Tail was now only two meters away, exactly on the other side of the wall. We looked straight at each other. I pulled the trigger again. No shot. Then the Nine Tail pointed his gun at me. First a loud bang, then a searing pain in my right arm. The force of the bullet pushed me backwards a little. I just managed to break my fall and fled, staggering, into the cover of darkness behind several rocks.

The Nine Tail seemed to have lost sight of me. It began to search aimlessly, but always remained in the light. Under the cover of darkness, I desperately examined my coda. But it no longer worked. I was unarmed. What now? More out of desperation than with a plan, I threw a stone at the high wall some distance away. The stone crashed against the wall, fell down and rumbled over several pieces of wall. The Nine Tail reacted to the sound and looked in the direction of the wall. He was standing about 20 meters away with his back to me.

I thought about it for a moment. Then I ran off at a fast pace. But only so fast that I didn’t make a sound. In a few seconds, I had covered the distance to the Nine Tail. I bravely grabbed him from behind with my arm around his neck and pulled him to the ground. A heavy blow with the coda against his helmet sent him into the realm of dreams. Breathing heavily, I relieved him of his weapon and ammunition.

After taking out the last Nine Tail, I searched the settlement. I took everything that seemed valuable or useful. Anything that could help me find out who built the settlement, when it was built and why it was abandoned.

When I returned to the rover, I turned around again and looked at the way it was built. It was different from the inhabited junk settlements like Zephyr. This settlement was not made of scrap, but of stone. Just like the other ruined settlements I had found so far. They all had the same architectural style.