Gaeron: Surviving the Rim/New Beginnings, New Problems

## New Beginnings, New Problems

"**New Beginnings, New Problems**" is the first chapter of the *Gaeron: Surviving the Rim* web-novel series. This first chapter was published to the site on July 2, 2022.

This chapter covers how our main cast wound up on the planet Gaeron in the first place.

## Plot

### Entry - New Beginnings

The year is 5600 ASA. As I type, I’m traveling aboard a UCR transport freighter to parts unknown, in hopes of establishing a colonial presence on a planet in the Central Expanse. We’re currently in-transit through hyperspace. Captain Firia Lonhe says that we’ll be reaching our destination in just a few hours. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

To start more formally, my name is September Bridges. I’m an architect who enlisted onto this colonization project as a member of the United Cassiopeian Republic. Should the reader somehow *not* know about the UCR, I will briefly explain that they are the biggest commonwealth of worlds in the entire Cassiopeia Galaxy. We have more than enough people within our territories to enlist in these types of expeditions. But for this project in particular, we are but a little less than a hundred in numbers.

I should clarify. Our destination is the planet Kavriisha, located just at the southeastern edge of the Central Expanse. Many of these Central Expanse worlds are considered to be frontier worlds, untouched by polities like the UCR. Until today, that is.

The UCR hopes that, in establishing a settlement on Kavriisha, we can eventually incorporate the planet fully as an official Republic territory. That’s the highest goal, anyway. A more realistic goal, in my opinion, would just be to form an alliance with whatever natives we happen to come across on the planet’s surface. We’ve made contact with the planet’s inhabitants previously, albeit through rather poor communications through the Runestone Network, and they seemed happy enough to welcome us all in. First order of business would definitely be to establish a stronger communications tower. Perhaps in the future, we could see the Kavriishans represented in the Galactic Embassy, resulting in all of our future work culminating into connecting the galaxy even further than years past. But that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

The freighter is spacious enough for me to set up in my own personal quarters, although there isn’t much space in the room itself. Not that I mind, though. I’ve managed to complete my work in smaller spaces before. But to focus more on the others aboard the freighter, I’ve only managed to get acquainted with a few of them. Captain Lonhe, for one, as I had to be briefed by her alongside everyone else onboard. She’s a Jiridanian woman, with reddish-pink skin and eyes with star-shaped pupils. Not to mention her naturally sky-colored hair. She seemed to very well know what she was doing when overseeing this expedition. At least I’d hope to expect that of our captain. Her directives for everyone on this ship were clear and concise. It made things easier.

The other colonists I happened to have met briefly naturally all came from different backgrounds. There was Alyssa Orchard, who I remember told me that she was a jeweler of sorts. A blonde-haired human woman with peach-colored eyes. Difficult to forget, because of the latter. I assume she enlisted simply for a new start in a place far away from the noise of the Metropolis Sector. She looked the type, at least. Someone who wanted fresh air, but still wanted a certain degree of comfort.

There was Selmara Beltran, who I found rather interesting because of her status as an ex-convict. In fact, there are a few ex-convicts on board, hoping to repay their debts to society by aiding in the colonization process. A tough-looking human woman, though she wasn’t willing to share much about herself, understandably. Certainly not the type of person that I would want to provoke. And so I pushed interactions with her no further than just a few minutes. I wonder if I’ll get to know her more once we land.

Lastly, there was Jacob Gregory-Heap, an older, strong-looking human man with a son aboard with him. I believe he said he was onboard to help out with the actual construction, which I took as an invitation to try and get to know him better. After all, it’s only fair of me to acquaint myself with the people putting my designs into action in the real world. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much of an opportunity to talk, as he was wanted elsewhere by the captain. I hope to speak to him again soon, so that I’m able to get a better read on him.

I never bothered to acquaint myself with the soldiers onboard. I figure I’d wait until we reach Kavriisha. I should mention that our relatively small expedition team is composed of colonists like Alyssa, ex-convicts like Selmara, construction workers and laborers like Jacob, a good amount of military support, some researchers and scientists, administrators, and other such people designated to very specific roles like myself. Some colonists even brought their families and loved ones for the trip. But other than the four individuals I’ve mentioned, who I barely know as is, I’m practically by myself on this mission. The sooner that we’re able to establish stronger connections to RuneNet on Kavriisha, the faster I’ll be able to contact my friends and colleagues off-world about my findings and my experiences. I’m happy to be in a position where the colonization isn’t confidential, by any means. It’s how I’m able to type all of this.

There’s not much else left to prepare for on my end. I have my rough sketches and plans for the first temporary buildings that are to be established for the colony, and the freighter is carrying the necessary resources to build said plans. All I can do for now is wait until we exit hyperspace and enter Kavriisha’s atmosphere.

I’ll begin typing out my next entry once we step foot onto the planet.

### Entry - New Problems

I’m typing this entry from my bed, around a day after the previous one. I would’ve typed down something sooner, but we ran into some rather large-scale complications.

I’ll start with the most pressing issue. Something went incredibly wrong with the freighter, and I know this because I was but one of the few people onboard who managed to make it to the escape pods. I don’t know what became of the ship or what even happened, but frankly we had more pressing matters ahead of us. There just wasn’t enough time to think about the ‘why’ when our lives were in jeopardy at that moment.

We never made it to Kavriisha. The freighter was violently ripped out of hyperspace when we were so close to our destination. I was almost knocked into the wall because of the sudden turbulence. With everything on the ship failing, the escape pods were the only feasible ways out. Luckily when we exited hyperspace, we popped up right by a nearby planet, so we weren’t stranded in the emptiness of space. The planet was a varied world with a surface-covering ocean and continents coated in green. From our later scans, we learned that the planet was called Gaeron. We missed our intended destination by a good few thousand parsecs. A disappointment really, but I’m just happy I managed to make it out in one piece.

Off-world communications are also extremely weak on this planet, so we weren’t able to call for help from the UCR, or from anyone else for that matter. I can assure you that we *did* try calling for help, as one of the first things we did after crashing down. There must not have been a strong enough signal or any established communication towers on Gaeron that would allow us to connect to RuneNet easily. We weren’t completely surprised. After all, we were on a backwater planet deep within the Central Expanse, far away from the more urbanized and interconnected worlds of the Inner and Outer Core. After some frustrating and failed attempts at desperately reaching out to the wider galaxy, we all decided to continue trying another day. To continue any further for the day while being met with radio silence at every instance would be completely demoralizing.

When we landed, my escape pod crashed into a large deposit of limestone. The pod was destroyed in the impact, and while I managed to break out from the pod safely, it cost me a severely bruised leg and some other various cuts and bruises that needed treatment. I was lucky enough to have the help of the others who also managed to eject themselves from the ship. They seemed to have a much cleaner landing than I did, luckily. But with how there were only four of us, we were essentially separated with the rest of the freighter’s passengers.

One of the colonists helped me by creating makeshift crutches from wood and twine. I wouldn’t be able to help much in terms of physical labor, but I could at least be somewhat mobile. Believe it or not, the person who made me my crutches was one of the few individuals that I managed to acquaint myself with back on the freighter. This was Alyssa, the jeweler I mentioned previously. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she had some acute medical experience, which came greatly in handy. She also tended to my other cuts and bruises, so I am very thankful to her.

Despite how much she had helped me, I will say that Alyssa was the most affected by our predicament. The woman was pacing as soon as she bandaged me up. Clearly panicked, and for completely and understandably good reason. The landing procedure was supposed to be entirely clean and safe, but obviously this wasn’t the case, as I’m sure *all of us* would have hoped for instead. We have no idea where the ship may have crashed on Gaeron, or even if it crashed onto the planet *at all* or on one of its moons, and we were missing a lot of resources because of our hasty escape. As I’ve stated, we still aren’t sure why or how the freighter was damaged. Everything should’ve been fine. The technicians onboard did a thorough lookover on the ship’s vitals before we took off into space, and I’m sure they were checking them frequently even when we were in hyperspace. I find difficulty wrapping my head around it.

Now that I’m in bed, with some well-deserved peace after a hectic planetary entry (to say the least), this is mostly what I think about. I try to push these lingering thoughts away so I can rest further, but it’s only natural that I ruminate on something this large of a scale. And to have been so recent, too. I can imagine the others are thinking the same as I do.

But more on the others, as I should clarify who I *did* manage to find after the escape. There’s Alyssa, and as I mentioned before, she was greatly affected by our dire situation. It took myself and the two other colonists with us to calm her down. There’s Selmara Beltran, the resilient-looking woman I spoke to least out of the four I met onboard, who was surprisingly empathetic with Alyssa and managed to help motivate her again. While I read her as a bit of a pessimist, she still appeared to be particularly motivated in keeping us all alive. Suppose that’s the only option she has, as the only choices are either to press on or to give up and die. Plus, we were *all* going to need every inch of help we could find.

The third and only other person to have reached the escape pods with us was Dalila Vaascosa, an administrator who looked younger than she actually was. I hadn’t met her while on the ship, but even in an extremely rough patch like this, she seemed to remain the most calm. She has a lot of willpower, from what I can tell. She was also kind enough to spare me some of her time, and was open to getting to know one another after I was patched up. From what she described, her job sounded rather monotonous. I didn’t tell her that of course, but it seemed like she was assigned just to do routine paperwork while on the colony. I can’t imagine how I’d feel in that position. To travel tens of thousands of lightyears to an open and unfamiliar planet, just to be sat down in an office and writing reports everyday. But perhaps I’m being hypocritical, as I continue to type out this log entry.

Dalila mentioned having a brother onboard the ship who was part of the expedition as military support. While she herself said she was fine, it wasn't hard to tell that she was still worried for him, even as iron-willed as she is. Who wouldn’t be? I just hoped that we would run into the others who traveled with us on the freighter, sooner than later. Preferably *also* in one piece.

I’d like to believe that they’re all fine and managed to survive the crash, and that they’ll send a shuttle for us soon so that we can all reunite, get back on track, and complete our rendezvous on Kavriisha. But I know that isn’t realistic. For all I know, everyone else we traveled with could already be dead. It’s pointless driving myself mad thinking about it for too long, though.

Alyssa, Selmara, and Dalila managed to set up camp within a small clearing of a dense forest. The only thing that was stopping me from helping them was my leg injury. With the few supplies we were capable of rushing off the ship with us, plus the emergency kits we salvaged from the escape pods, we were able to store enough packaged survival meals to last us a few weeks, should we be unable to find anything edible for us on Gaeron. Water won’t be an issue, as there’s a river just north of where we are, according to Selmara who scouted the surrounding area, and the fact that we thankfully have a functional (and exceptional) water purifier with us. Other supplies included enough bedrolls for the four of us, some extra and light changes of clothes, a good deal of medical supplies, and some weapons. I hope we won't have to use the latter any time soon, but who’s to say what exactly we’ll encounter out here in the wilderness?

From my guess, it’s currently spring on Gaeron. Reasonably warm during the day, and cool at night. What relief we all must’ve felt when we stepped foot onto the planet and were met with a completely breathable atmosphere and a completely bearable climate. Not the worst planet to crash-land on, all things considered.

At this moment, the four of us are about to retire for the night. Dalila and Selmara set up a decent campfire for us. It’s almost odd. After such a stressful ordeal and experience, I’m somehow capable of feeling relaxed. I think this was the breather we all needed, for the night and for the day as a whole.

The four moons look incredible in the night sky. We’re all going to have to get used to the view from here on out.

## Appearances

### Dramatis Personae

* **September Bridges** - Gazetan. Our narrator and architect.
* **Alyssa Sanidine Orchard** - Human. Woman from a shining world. Very stressed.
* **Selmara Beltran** - Human. Woman paying her debts. Trying to keep people motivated.
* **Dalila Vaascosa** - Human. Woman keeping things together. Putting on a brave face.
* **Firia Lonhe** - Jiridanian. Captain of the UCR transport freighter.
* **Jacob Gregory-Heap** - Human. Construction worker traveling with his son.

### Other Characters

* Will Gregory-Heap (Mentioned only)
* Yerim Vaascosa (Mentioned only)

### Locations

* Cassiopeia Galaxy
	+ Central Expanse
		- Gaeronian System
			* Gaeron
		- Kavriisha (Mentioned only)
	+ Inner Core (Mentioned only)
	+ Outer Core (Mentioned only)
* Hyperspace

### Organizations and Titles

* United Cassiopeian Republic
	+ Cassiopeian Military (Mentioned only)

### Sentient Species

* Gazetan
* Human
* Jiridanian

### Vehicles and Vessels

* *Reunion Star* (As UCR transport freighter)

### Miscellanea

* Runestone (Mentioned only)
* Runestone Network (Mentioned only)