RimWorld Writing | Valley Station 1
She had been in here all day. Every day for the past four days, at least. Mei, the group’s resident combat Mechanitor, and a damn fine one at that. During the time of the First Factory, she had commanded two militors, two bellicors, one omicron, two knights, two centipede blasters, and a War Queen. All had eventually been scrapped to make way for their successors, or had been sold along with the First Factory, but still, an impressive resume. Now, in the time of Valley Station, she crouched low in front of a huge Archotech pylon. One of four towers on the North, East, South, and West surrounding a great Archotech structure in the middle. The cluster of Archotech artifacts emitted a constant psychic pulse that tugged on the seams of any psychically-tuned brain nearby. Volz was particularly sensitive to its influence, and suppressed a groan as a headache bloomed inside her skull.
“Mei,” Volz called from the sunlit slate doorway of their great temple, Mei was pulled from her musings and turned her eyes away from the glowing Archotech structure to her companion. Volz held a packaged survival meal in her hand and beckoned for Mei to take it. “You’ve been spending too much time here, Mei, even you need to eat sometime.”
Mei clutched at the plackart of her marine-issue power armor, and looked away, “I’m not hungry…” A common response from her, as she’s equipped with a miniturized nuclear reactor instead of a stomach. Volz shook a canteen in her other hand as a response.
“Water, then. I can hear your dehydration.” Volz’s lips crooked into what she hoped was a reassuring smile as she rolled her Archotech eyes playfully. With the popping crackle of stiff bones (they really needed to get bionic legs sometime) Mei stood, and gratefully accepted the offered water. She drank deeply, and summoned the courage to turn her attention away from their collective object of worship to speak to Volz.
“I just…does it not intrigue any of you? The mystery of its use to the Archotechs? How it relates to the great Archonexus? I can’t focus on anything else for long, I always find my mind wandering back to it. It calls to me. Please, tell me you’ve heard it!” Mei babbled just barely-coherently. She’s an intimidating figure with her power armor and Mechcommander helmet, but she appears weak as a kitten compared to the glorious Archotech artifact standing tall above her. Volz placed a reassuring hand onto Mei’s armored shoulder, hopefully calming the volatile mechanitor.
“We’ve all heard it,” Volz assures, guiding Mei’s head so she can only focus on her pair of artificial eyes, “We didn’t build this temple around it to hide its influence from us, such a feat would be impossible, and pointless. We built this because it told us to, it commands our respect and attention. We built this temple to revere the glory of the Archonexus, and all this artifact represents.”
“But..?” Mei whispered, guessing Volz’s next line of speech. Volz nodded.
“But, we’re of no use to the Archonexus when we’re starving, dehydrated, and dead. I’m not saying that there are more important things going on right now than our holy mission, but we need to focus on the basics regardless.” Volz pressed the crinkling paper packaged meal into Mei’s limp hands, forcing her to hold it, “Eat, drink, and sleep. The Archonexus favors us enough that it has provided these opportunities to us, we would be wise to make use of them while we can.” Mei looked down at the parcel in her hands before taking Volz into a hug. Her exoskeleton-enhanced strength threatens to crush Volz’s just under-enhanced body, but soon relents before breathing becomes difficult. She moves past Volz and out into the fleeting sunlight of dusk.
“Thank you, Volz. Perhaps the greatest boon the Archonexus gave unto us is your wisdom.” Mei tears into the package soon after, and leaves Volz alone in the temple.
An aching throb in her skull pulls her attention back to the huge glowing greenish-yellow structure before her, and the intricate circuitboard-like patterns of pale yellow etched onto the sleek lime surface. Volz inches closer to the humming Archotech structure, and with her enhanced Archotech eyes, she imagines that she can almost see the individual packets of light traveling through the atto-thin wires.
Volz thinks to herself for a moment…her chores are done, she has eaten dinner, surely she can spare an hour or two of study before bed.
So she travels past the Western Pylon, and takes a kneeling position above the Northern pylon. Pressing her organic hand against the lime structure, she begins to meditate. Opening her mind, and inviting Archotech wisdom to enter it.
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A little writing based on the colony from this post, and all of my RimWorld posts before that one, relating to the current playthrough.
