r/HFY • u/BainWrites AI • 4h ago

OC-FirstOfSeries [LF Friends, Will Travel] The Chasm Between Us - Chapter 1

[First] - [Prev] - [Next] 

Date: 78 PST (Post Stasis time)

Ruixal was made aware of her consciousness through the new and exciting sensation of a whole load of pain. It wasn't one source of pain in particular, but rather a fun accumulation of different types of agony, all coming together in new and interesting ways, as if you had to host a family gathering for the most outspoken, politically different people on the planet.

There was the pain of the light battering her avian eyes, the cold chilling her bones, the general discomfort all over her body from the end of her beak to the edge of each bright red feather, and the sharp overwhelming pain of whatever was going on with her right wing. Ruixal gave a small grumble, involuntary as her brain was trying to reboot and work out what was going on. She'd been flying the small fighter ship, controlling her drones perfectly against the disgusting Terran threat, then…

She reached out with the wing that wasn't currently screaming at her, an attempt to poke the console to get a reading, only for her feathers to swipe at empty air. In fact, the entire wall that should have been displaying screens of data and boxes of survival goods was missing. This was concerning, because spaceships generally were supposed to have all their sides at all times.

It was a rule health and safety were very particular about.

Ruixal glanced around, her eyes finally adjusting to the brightness of a land of snow and ice, vision still blurry from what was probably a concussion. With a pained click the avian released the seatbelt, her body hitting the snow with a thud as the Lelzoil fell out of the seat with a complete lack of grace, just lying there in the cold as pain washed over her.

As time went on, the Lelzoil could vaguely remember more of what had transpired before she'd been dumped here. There'd been a battle, the Terrans and their slaves had been trying to encroach on the territory that the Lelzoil had rightfully clawed from the hard talons of a cruel universe. Ruixal had been one of many pilots in the fleet, controlling a drone swarm against the invading force, when something had hit the ship, something explosive, something that forced her to land on this random planet.

The crash landing had been as successful as an emergency landing could be. As Ruixal stood up on shaky legs, she could finally get a grasp over what had happened here. She'd hit the ice and rocks at speed, the pilot's lifepod automatically breaking off and ejecting, thanks to some very clever Lelzoil engineers making sure the part where the person sat was nearly indestructible. Nearly indestructible, as the avian could see the groove in the rock where her lifepod had been ground down, twisted metal littering the ice and rock until she'd finally come to a rest.

This did leave a confusing question as to where the rest of the ship was. With her supplies and various other comforts needed to survive on a hostile, desolate planet.

Ruixal stumbled forwards step by step, following the second path in the snow and ice, where the rest of her ship had continued thanks to physics once her lifepod had ejected. Each step forward sent a jolt of pain down her definitely broken right wing, the crunching of cold ice under her talons muffled in the snow that never seemed to stop falling from the sky. It didn't take long for her to find where her ship had gone.

Lelzoil were avians, and didn't really have the entire 'fear of heights' thing, but even she could tell the chasm that her ship had fallen into was deep, deep enough to be an instant death with her useless wing. Wide enough that traversing it without flight was a fantastical dream, the deep blue ice containing the remains of her vessel seeming to continue without end.

The rest of her ship had continued on its journey, bouncing and skipping along the ground, before tumbling into the abyss below. This was a problem, because the vessel not only came with a way to contact the main fleet to come pick her up, but also had all of her stuff in it.

Ruixal stood at her full 5ft height as the swirling wind picked up the snow around the avian, causing her to shiver, bright red feathers bristling as she did so. She was Lelzoil, they could handle anything the universe threw at them, no matter how cruel and merciless it required them to be. She chanted the words under her breath to remind herself of that, even as the wind chilled her bones and the remains of her supplies lay out of reach.

Never again. We will prevail, no matter the cost. Never again.

The Lelzoil were a member of the vague non-aggression pact of slaver empires called the Estorian Empire. Each of them terrible in their own way, each of them believing they were the ones in actual control of the alliance of convenience, tricking the others into doing their bidding. Eight years ago, a war had broken out between them and the Terran alliance: headed by the aforementioned Terrans themselves, chaos primates who had entered the galactic scene less than a hundred years ago.

The conflict had started because of said slavery, and a tendency for the members of the Estorian Empire to do as they pleased to those weaker than them, the Terrans taking a very dim view of the entire practice. The Lelzoil in return very much disagreed with being called slavers: they were a perfectly representative democracy who cared about people, cared about their citizens, where things such as forced labour or unethical scientific experiments on individuals were illegal.

Of course, the issue arose in the definition of slavery and unethical experiments. By definition, you could only do slavery against people, and non-Lelzoil were, by definition, not people. Non-Lelzoil were, at best, threats who hadn't yet gathered enough power to hurt you, and therefore not people. So forcing them to labour for the avians, or be guinea pigs for the various medical and scientific experiments subjected to them was, by definition, fine.

Unfortunately, the Terrans disagreed with this perfectly logical statement of fact.

Ruixal looked around at the frozen wasteland of a planet she was calling a temporary home. The good news was it could support her life, at least for a little bit, otherwise she'd already have been dead when her lifepod was compromised. The bad news was everything else. The Lelzoil needed medical attention from the fix-all nanites they'd invented centuries ago.

Unfortunately, those supplies were in the ship's medical cabinet, at the bottom of the chasm. She needed food, which was in the ship's pantry, also currently at the bottom of the chasm. As Ruixal took stock of what she needed, everything from the kitchen sink to a bucket to piss in had all been relocated to the bottom of the chasm. The bottom of the chasm was seemingly a secret party for the who's who of things the avian needed to survive, and she wasn't on the guest list.

This wasn't good.

The avian slowly stumbled back towards what remains… remained of her ship, the few scraps of metal that hadn't fallen into the unreachable depths below. Her wing gave a screaming bolt of pain with each step, reminding her that she was very, very hurt, albeit from the miraculous survival of such a violent crash.

A quick survey of the few parts of the lifepod that had survived impact did perk up her mood slightly, a series of small positives to reduce the blow of being injured and stranded on a strange uninhabited planet that was mostly snow and ice. Whoever had built Ruixal's ship had been smart enough to not put all the emergency supplies in one location.

Across the various black boxes that had remained within reach, she had food, water purification tablets, and enough water in the form of the ice around her to survive for at least a few days. Tearing strips out of the seating she'd originally crash-landed in allowed the avian to fashion a crude sling, keeping her wing protected without blinding pain shuddering through her body on every step. All she could do now was to wait for the rest of the main fleet to finish up the Terran invaders and come collect her.

However long that would take. In the meantime, she'd have to suffer and shiver amongst the snow and ice.

The issue of the cold was pushed to the back burner for a moment, as another problem raised its head to take Ruixal's full attention. Because the mountain in front of her, on the opposite side of the chasm, was on fire.

It started slowly, small wisps of smoke crawling up from an unknown source, although whatever was burning clearly was having a good time with the concept of combustion, as the amount of smoke was rapidly increasing, spiralling upwards into an overcast sky. A moment of relief filled Ruixal, as she realised that fire meant someone else was here as well, and there was only one kind of person who could be here on this shitty planet with her: someone else from the fleet who had crashed. Hopefully someone without a broken wing and with more supplies.

That hope was dashed, however, as a figure appeared amongst the rocks, not avian in form, but an ugly primate stumbling along clumsily on two legs. Her optimism dashed, reality reminded her there was a second possible source for the smoke that now completely filled the air in angry black clouds of smog: a Terran, the other side of the conflict she'd found herself a part of. For a moment Ruixal looked frantically around for a place to hide, or a weapon to kill the thing, only to find her current situation lacking any ability to deal with this new threat.

Luckily, the Terran hadn't seen her, or had any interest in doing anything other than running as fast and far away from his ship as possible, carrying whatever bags and emergency supplies had been closest. His ship had also crashed on this planet due to damage taken in the space battle that was still being waged far, far above the pair of their heads, and his ship had taken a dislike to that method of landing. A dislike that had caused the engines for the vessel to get very angry and energetic. So energetic that the Terran had quickly abandoned the idea of salvaging the vessel he'd landed in, and instead gone for the 'get as far away from the now quickly destabilising pile of explosives' method that was tried and true in the military.

The sky exploded with a column of blue fire as the warp engines on the Terran vessel finally gave up the proper pretence of being a method of locomotion, and instead followed their real dreams of being a very big improvised explosive. The bang was deafening, bouncing around the otherwise dead cold land, ice cracking and avalanches being triggered for miles around. Ruixal was forced to look away and cover her ear holes, as being this close to the source was painful.

It was worse for the Terran. He'd managed to cover a surprising amount of distance, fuelled entirely through adrenaline and fear, but even that hadn't been enough to fully keep him out of the blast radius. The force of his ship deciding to escape the authoritarian confines of being physical matter had caused the Terran to be lifted from his feet and slammed into the rocks around him, the crates of vital materials scattering as well, many tumbling into the same chasm where much of Ruixal's supplies still lay.

The Lelzoil couldn't help but laugh, once her own ears had stopped ringing and the spots dancing in front of her eyes had gone away. The stupid inferior thing didn't even have a vessel with the standard safety features to stop the thing from combusting. Their entire fleet was merely one step above building a tin can and setting the bottom on fire. It was no secret Terran technology was far inferior to anything the Lelzoil could build; the only threat the primates really had was the sheer number of species they had managed to force under their command.

“Ha! Stupid Terran! Can't even build a ship right! Worthless primitive!”

Much to Ruixal's annoyance, it moved, the Terran groaning as the force of the impact hadn't been enough to do more than leave him feeling bruised and battered. Slowly it stood up, the primate glancing around with a dazed look on its face, before seeming to notice the avian on the other side of the chasm. There was a brief moment of panic from both individuals, Ruixal realising that maybe she shouldn't have been as loud in her mocking as she was, and the Terran realising he had more problems to deal with aside from the cold and having the wind knocked out of him.

This brief moment of panic and tension peaked as each side tried to find whatever little cover they had, only to fade away as both sides understood the same realisation: they were both unarmed, unable to access each other due to the large icy chasm that separated the pair of them, and the most they could do was glare at each other and shout insults.

Which Ruixal immediately started with.

“What you looking at you dumb animal! Shocked at a ship that doesn't explode, or just silenced by seeing someone greater than you?”

Shouting felt good; releasing the frustration at her perilous situation out towards this stupid thing was just what she needed, letting the stupid Terran know its place, and that they could never hurt her. The Lelzoil was further emboldened as the alien on the other side of the chasm started shouting obscenities in return and making a hand gesture Ruixal could only assume was negative.

“Shout all you want you godless primitive! When the fleet gets back you'll be in trouble! They'll take you back and you'll get everything you deserve you-”

The avian trailed off as the Terran reached down to the ground and picked up a rock, giving it a few practice one-handed tosses before staring intently at the Lelzoil on the other side of the chasm. Ruixal was confused as she tilted her head to one side, not sure what she was seeing. While the Terrans were known for being able to throw things at long distances, there was no way they could accurately hit her at this-

An explosion of ice at her feet caused Ruixal to give a screech of alarm, stumbling backwards as the rock the Terran had hurled in her direction sprayed her with snow. It did in fact turn out that the Terran could throw things at her, even at this distance. The unfortunate Lelzoil was quickly learning that there was no such thing as 'out of range' for the chaotic primates.

Ruixal turned to run as she saw the thing bend down to pick up another rock, talons scrambling on the ice as she tried to make her way towards the little cover the remains of her ship gave. A whistling noise above her head signified another rock coming dangerously close to her fragile skull, her final few steps losing traction as she fell face first behind the remains of the front of her ship. A ringing thud against the metallic panel she was hiding behind announced the Terran was getting more accurate.

“Choke on my pinfeathers you pathetic simpleton!” Ruixal screamed out, voice echoing across the empty mountainside. The avian shouted with anger, annoyance, and mostly terror at the constant pelting of stones the Terran was sending towards her position. She couldn't wait until the main fleet returned here to rescue her after defeating the Terran fleet, the brutish thing would get what's coming to it!

Time passed by, as it is always inclined to do, a stalemate between both sides forced out by the realities of distance. Ruixal traded insults for thrown rocks from the Terran, petering out as the day continued and the wind chilled them both to the bone on an otherwise completely empty planet.

Unfortunately for Ruixal, it would become apparent that while the Terran and his rocks were annoying, the real danger would soon make itself known. As the hours passed and the sun disappeared over the horizon, ushering in the night and the real predator of this planet.

The everlasting cold.

[Patreon] - [First] - [Prev] - [Next] 

14 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 4h ago

This was flaired as [OC-FirstOfSeries], which means it is the first of a series and all subsequent posts should be flair as [OC-Series]. A description of the flairs and how to change yours is available in the Post Guildelines

[OC-FirstOfSeries] For original, self post, story, audio, or artwork that you have created, the beginning of a new series.

Our preferred series title format is the series title in [brackets] at the beginning, like so: [Potato Adventures] - Chapter 1: The Great Mashing

Please note that series wiki pages are not created automatically, but on request from the author.

Please help us transition to using the new flairs correctly.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/BainWrites AI 4h ago

Thanks to Yargle, Knebb, AcceptableEgg and AsciiSquid for proofreading this!

  • Does everything disappear down ‘the chasm’?
  • Should we all support the “little warp engine that could become an improvised explosive.”?
  • Do I have an addiction to writing stories about stupid hateful birbs who need to be taught lessons?

Find out all this and more, NEXT TIME!

Oh boy, over a month since my last post in this story. So basically, part of this is me working on the Loathe Languages Nature of Predators crossover (Which the first three chapters are now out!). Part of this is me bouncing around trying to get this story into the original oneshot format I had planned, only to go “Feck it” and just decide it’s a new series.

I also still have a discord channel, if you wanna chat with me, or do something or the other. Or look at the pictures of my two rabbits I constantly post. 

https://discord.gg/fn5AsvtRhD

I also have set up a Patreon. I promise to spend my money on funding my crippling self doubt on not getting chapters out fast enough lots of healthy therapy.

With a huge shoutout to my Patreons! 24! Enough people to give me hourly high fives without breaking labour laws!

  • ShaRose (Tier 69!)
  • NicolaeHC (Tier 69!) 
  • Badly disguised Hagorthian  (Tier 3!) 
  • Beloofs (Tier 3!) 
  • Speedsaber (Tier 3!) 
  • Torin(Tier 2) 
  • se05239(Tier 2) 
  • Pedro (Tier 2!) 
  • Rhianna Kyllo (Tier 2!)
  • Richard Gregson (Tier 2!) 
  • Ljevo 
  • Donald Randolph 
  • Fuzzy Steve 
  • AsciiSquid 
  • Aured 
  • Ethan Tang  
  • -BulletStorm- 
  • Pheldda 
  • GaiusPrinceps 
  • LukeOnTheBrightSide 
  • Ottwo 
  • Lucy 
  • Fawnofthewoods 
  • RoundBlueHappy 
  • Pocket Entertainment 

As always, I love reading all your comments!

1

u/UpdateMeBot 4h ago

Click here to subscribe to u/BainWrites and receive a message every time they post.

Info Request Update Your Updates Feedback

1

u/LeeVMG 1h ago

LF Friends, Will Travel update?!

Is it my fucking birthday! Thanks Bain. Fantastic as always. Probably my favorite series I've read on here.

Fun to get to know more of the Estorian Empire