Deathworlders

A 45-post collection

Challenge #02775-G218: Waste Not

[Level 2 Deathworlder] I don't know how you can be so relaxed about this human. This is an unknown planet and, save for a few starvation rations and potable water, we've no supplies left. All of the prey is too fast to catch, and you are obviously starting to look worse. HOW can you be so calm when all you're doing is banging rocks together, scraping sticks, and weaving those disgusting plants skin together?

[Human] Yes so I've lost some kilos, but I now have everything we need. Sure the plants are useless to eat, containing absolutely no nutrition, but they burn, don't they?

[L2 Deathworlder] Yeah we're warm and have shelter, but we have no more food.

[Human] --holds up several pieces of very sharp stone arrowheads, wooden shafts, and woven bark netting-- Not for long, my friend, oh, trust me, not for long. -- DaniAndShali

Humans are relentless. Fyorq got to see it in person. Stranded on a world they were initially there to scout. The good news - they had shelter and a decent scanner. The bad news was that they were running out of edible foodstuffs. At their most-uncomfortable survival situation, they would still perish of starvation.

None of that seemed to stop Human Fil. Ze had, upon landing and verifying the nutritional content of the plant life, started messing about with rocks, sticks, and plant fibres. Ze had also immediately began living on as little as ze could whilst doing so. Humans like Fil were capable of doing survival math and arriving to conclusions that it would take Havenworlders months to arrive at without help.

In such cases, it's always best to watch what the Deathworlders are doing, and then at least lend a hand. This resulted in Fyorq endlessly plaiting lengths of rubbery leaf strips sheared from some marginally nutritious fruiting body. The fruits took more calories to render edible than they delivered and the extensions they allegedly made to their diet made Fyorq wish that their molecular dissassembler and printer wasn't damaged beyond repair.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 83 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #02746-G189: Fearsome Destructive Capabilities

Carbon fibre plates, reinforced with a titanium alloy. Hi spec thermal regulator, and military grade ballistic glass. Now I just need the human to stress test this livesuit. -- Anon Guest

"What kind of Human?" said Glorz.

"I'm not sure I understand the question."

"Well, there are the Humans you pay to try and destroy it, there's the Humans you pay to life-test it, and the Humans you pay to try and keep it in top condition. Then there's the fourth if

Read more »

Challenge #02652-G095: Never Going Gently

The question has been around since the beginning of analytical thought, but has become ever more perplexing since the arrival of humans, to philosophers across the galaxy...

Deathworlders, in Comparison to Havenworlders, are Incredibly short lived. and Humans, even excepting acts of self sacrifice, attempts at Darwin awards, and general mishappenings, a regular human has an expected lifespan of 90 to 110 standard years in optimal conditions. compared to the Hundreds that most Havenworlders live, (or as many humans put it, merely

Read more »

Challenge #02646-G089: Nothing?

Vorax-Ambassador: "Alright. I'm all decked out; got my calming Medication, my Weapons, my Suit, my Everything. I'm ready for this and nothing can Stop me!"

---'laughs in 4.5 Deathworld'--- -- Anon Guest

The Vorax are not mindless eating machines. Their metabolisms just happen to be set on 'rush' and they actively need dense calories to make it through the day. Usually. The advent of calming medication to keep their rage/pillage instincts curbed had helped diplomatic relations intensely. Therefore, the new

Read more »

Challenge #02303-F113: From Twilight to Darkness

Someone from an Eyeball Planet experiencing a rotational planet. Or Vice versa...

Eyeball Planet; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NOW3AormJc -- AmberFox

It had taken a long time for the Stremath to reach the stars. They thought that the winds blew all through the Universe, before repeated proof showed that the winds would only ever blow them so high. On the plus side, they had what one might call a 'boost' into reaching the upper atmosphere before rocketry had to be

Read more »

Challenge #02269-F079: Not Really That Deadly

Australia is a deathcountry. No talking back on that.

  • Giant Toads

  • poisonus Everything

  • f*ckt up climate everywhere

  • Birds, who defeated the Government (not even smart ones at that)

  • their Naming (Fairybread, Maccas,...)

Aliens learn of that from a human and an Aussie. (Will Australia receive an honorable Title of Deathcountry stage 5 or 5.5? You decide!) -- Anon Guest

Deathworld classifications work on how many factors can be seen as "being out to get" cogniscents who live there. These factors

Read more »

Challenge #01790-D329: We Know It Ain't Friendly

Biologically aquatic-capable aliens are stunned that we haven’t explored the deepest parts of our oceans, so they volunteer to go down and see what’s going on down there. And as per deathworld standards, what’s down there’s terrifying—even to us. -- TheDragonsFlame

"You really don't want to do that," the humans insisted. "We've been down there a few times, and that was plenty for us."

The Trraka, a race of highly intelligent cephalopods, scoffed at this. It was

Read more »

Challenge #01766-D305: The Dog in the Fight

So in the Human are the Space Orcs, it looks like we are on a level 3.5-4 Deathworld. This makes us fairly B.A.. However there are references to creatures from level six Deathworlds. What happens when they meet? Do humans feel threatened by them, are humans just the perfect mix of craziness and inability to die that the level six deathworlders are just scaredy cats, do they replace the humans, or have humans finally found an alien species they can

Read more »

Challenge #01740-D279: Too Close an Encounter

It seemed like I might have dodged a bullet. Now all I had to do was avoid all the rest. -- RecklessPrudence

To be honest, I didn't know I'd blundered into a land war until the moon behind me went up into shrapnel. I'd dodged one bullet by accident. Well. Missile. Now I had to dodge the shrapnel from an exploding moon. Getting away from the big boom helped my chances a lot.

And then I saw the fleet. They had a

Read more »

Challenge #01700-D237: Tougher Than You Think

So, havenworlders getting a look at this data? Alternatively, Galactic Citizens or Deathworlders from a lower category seeing one of our weak areas (like water requirements) and going "I can do better than that!"

(Same data, but with it in sane units) -- RecklessPrudence

Galactic Society shares some information for free. For example, information on what they deem to be dangerous species. Before the rediscovery of a colony world later named Amity, they shared gathered information on humans so that others could

Read more »

Challenge #01693-D232: The Most Dangerous Opponent

"You can’t hold a grudge forever"

“I’m not ‘holding a grudge’, I’m making decisions based on past evidence.” -- RecklessPrudence

"The humans are going to destroy all your careful plans," said the old general. "These are members of a species that coined the phrase, 'no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy'. You could try to learn from that."

The war council turned to stare and General Gerax. He was the last one to famously lose to the

Read more »

Challenge #01467-D006: Surrender Now, or... What?

:In front of a delegation from [Bad Guy], facetiously:

"Commander [Good Guy]? Do you have any idea where the [Bad Guy]'s Military is? They seem to have misplaced it. And do you smell something burning?" -- RecklessPrudence

Of course, it was a metaphor. The humans were irritatingly rife with them. Smell could no more travel through the gulfs of space than sound could transmit through vacuum. Nevertheless, they were also irritatingly good at inventing means of transmitting information at ludicrously faster

Read more »

Challenge #01450-C355: To Save the World

"I picked you up, even when you were covered in slime after he spat you out! You were technically vomit, and you were still the most beautiful thing I'd ever laid eyes on!" -- Anon Guest

"It's a good thing you told me about the uvula," she allowed, "but... a thing? Really?"

"Only by base technicality, dear," cooed Blasingstoke. "You are a machine."

Miss Cliq sighed at him. "Fine. You get away with it for now. No more objectifying cogniscents."

"Yes dear,

Read more »

Challenge #01323-C228: We'll Let You Terraform Mars For Free

Both from this post: http://iopele.tumblr.com/post/148437315937/bioluminosity-jean-bo-peep-artiestroke

1) I really want a science fiction story where aliens come to invade earth and effortlessly wipe out humanity, only to be fought off by the wildlife.

They were expecting military resistance. They weren’t counting on bears.

2) (Description of monstrous animal, weighs 3 tons, runs 30kph, bites 8000 newtons. Just as fast in water. Only some crewmembers who dropped all their gear and ran survived.)

"You later describe the

Read more »

Challenge #01291-C196: Bat Rogers in the 22nd Century

I finally found the full text of this!

http://somebodiesdaughters.tumblr.com/post/118571240112/spacebat

This brave little bat has multiple video tributes on youtube (this one's my favourite, even though there's probably better ones, it's the one that's stuck with me), at least one song written specifically for them, a website, fanart, posts every year saying that we have not forgotten them, and multiple news articles about them (the one I first read, waybackwhen, was titled 'Shuttle-Riding Bat Dies

Read more »