Salvage Union: Saltlick Part One

Salvage Union: Aspirate Part Two

"Yeah man, everyone knows aliens did it. Everyone knows aliens blew up the Beanstalk. Check it: we got the Meld, right? Where the fuck did that come from? Wasn't here when we had like, governments and shit. Nah man like. They saw the Beanstalk and realized we were a threat, right? The little monkeys deciding to poke at the stars with their fighting machines and shit. Maybe we'd climb up there and start colonizing the stars. I don't even know why we had that thing. I wasn't born yet. And it's not like we make shit or harvest shit. This planet fucking sucks. So like. Our reach outstripped our grasp or some shit. And the aliens saw us do that. And maybe they were like...alien gods. Punish the wicked trespassers. Anyway yeah aliens did it and they sent the Meld for good measure to finish the job. Like who else could make it, right? If it was the corporations, they'd, like, include an off-switch or some secret shit to protect themselves. But that crap eats everything and everyone. Doesn't make any sense and they're not, like, dumb enough to make alien goo machines and just let them loose, right? They're, like, evil and shit, but not that sort of stupid evil, probably. You gotta worry about the arcologies and resources, y'know? Nah man I'm not saying the aliens are gods. They could be as powerful as them, but like. No such things as alien gods. Just a bunch of spiteful assholes who dropped a robot bomb on us 'cuz they were scared of us. And like. Maybe we were scary? I dunno. I've seen old pictures of what this shit looked like. It wasn't great. But fuck you, dude. Assholes." https://thecoffin.club [https://thecoffin.club]

Salvage Union: Aspirate Part One

"What's most important to understand about the war is that there was an intentional omission and destruction of context. We know the war started. We don't exactly know why or who threw the first punch. We do know what the opening salvo was: cutting down the Beanstalk. Given...recent intelligence, I'm unsure the intent of the Beanstalk was to send things off-world back to somewhere else. But that's baseless, fruitless speculation. The Beanstalk would've been a boon for us one way or another, even if we weren't a client state for a distant parent nation. I apologize for the digressions. There's only so much I can say on the matter. The simple facts are this: we used to be a planet of nations. Four major continents, each with its own master. There was a balance, and it was tense; I don't think the arrangement was a good thing. The idea is that they would motivate each other to do better. Steel sharpening steel. And what they had to offer was...a nationalist industrial powerhouse, a confederacy of energy oligarchs, research-obsessed propertarianists and a liberal republic dabbling in empire and mass culture. The question on everyone's lips was "who will throw the first punch?" I don't think anyone did, is the thing. The circumstances don't quite add up. People talk about how the Beanstalk fell at the ground level, yes, how it tipped over, struck the earth. Earthquakes. The shit it kicked up into the air that resulted in five years of winter. The ensuring war. But then why did the top 20 floors explode in low-orbit? Why is the sky full of shrapnel that stole away our satellites and cut us off? In my humble opinion, it wasn't a single punch. It was a targeted strike from multiple conspirators out to take this planet for themselves. And when the dust settled on their broken toy, they did what they did best: turn on each other and rewrite the history books as fast as they could." https://thecoffin.club

Salvage Union: Floodplain Part Seven

"Did she ever call her goddess again?" Sister Zlata hugged her knees close as she sat on the stool. The rest of the novice sisters had left the lecture and gone to do chores. Zlata had remained behind to ask questions. Sister Charity didn't much mind; it was a sign of a healthy mind and good faith. "Nope. From what the texts tell us, she survived the war and settled down to rebuild the Temple with a new congregation. She lived late into her elder years and was survived by a couple dozen brothers and sisters." Zlata's face fell. "Oh." "You have to understand: we have been told these truths from the Goddess herself. They happened long ago and far from here. But she remembers those who call her and tells their story so we understand." "...yeah, but. They both killed all of those people. It sounds like they made the war *worse.*" Sister Charity nodded. "...and she dies in her bed in a new Temple?" "Mmhmm." "...I don't think I get it, Sister." Sister Charity exhaled. "Well. What is there to get? It's a recounting of a history. I never said it was a metaphor, or a parable. It's a fact of our faith. Some sisters...they take faith in knowing that it was one of us who got the "happy ending", mm? That it's not an exec or some corpo or warlord dying peacefully." She sighed. "I worry about those ones. I'm glad it makes you uncomfortable, little sister." She frowned, wrinkled her nose. "What am I supposed to do with any of this?" The older sister shrugged. "Whatever you want. The past is what it is. Our goddess kept going, and so did Nia. One of those stories...these *histories* had an end, and the other didn't. Interpret these truths as you see fit." She closed her copy of the Book of the Earth and Moon with a smile. "And you're not going to get out of all of your chores by asking me questions." The younger sister rolled her eyes as she rose. "...would you have called her?" The older sister paused. "I will only know if I am ever in her shoes. I hope I never am." https://thecoffin.club

Salvage Union: Floodplain Part Six

The history books talk clearly about what happened next after the Scourging of Roden. The Emperor was survived by his mother, Lady Belhaine, his bastard teen son, Volkan of Wrought, and his adopted cousin Firhardt of Tessalan. The members of the Inner Council had their own surviving heirs as well who laid claim to their seats (or, if they were bold enough, laid claim to the destroyed throne). Thus began the Succession Wars, where Belhaine and Firhardt tried to control Volkan for his strongest claim while also putting down the uprisings fomented by the Council's heirs. Abroad, the war to occupy Djartola ground to a standstill. Cut off from commands and logistics, the field commanders had to make their own calls. The smart ones held to the mission with aplomb or went rogue and were not punished for it. The majority of them reveled in loot and slaughter, sweeping across the roads of Djartola to feed the beast as Djartolan resistance bled them for every inch traveled. The Succession Wars had a third player as well. There were rumors that at night, across the countryside, a woman and young girl could be found stealing into the strongholds of successors and would-be heirs alike, leaving no survivors. They would flicker in and out, ghostlike, without distinct reason beyond taking one more piece off the table. In time, Roden began to fear the Daughter of Moonlight and her merciless hand. And in time, Paraleux and Svatkopt saw the weakness of Roden and Djartola alike. This was how the whole of the continent came to war and the real slaughter began. Twenty years of marching boots, barked commands, scrabbling in the mud over long-ruined farmlands, the "Continental Look" of haunted eyes and sunken cheeks, families stitched together from scraps and clutched close. Her goddess left two years into the conflict. Officially, her husband needed her elsewhere. Unofficially, she had run out of ideas for how to stop the war without killing even more. https://thecoffin.club

Salvage Union: Floodplain Part Five

It was a cold, slate grey day the morning they killed the Emperor and his Inner Council. There had been a light rain the night before. The two of them awoke to a layer of slick dew on all of their possessions. Nia busied herself with mopping it up as Argenta set up the mortar, loaded the munition. She whistled as she did her preparations. The noise made Nia's hair stand on end. The wind was measured. The sight lines were ranged. The mortar was loaded and ready to fire. Her goddess smiled. "It'll be over soon. I promise. Do you want to fire, or should I?" Nia didn't say anything. She looked at the cold sky, the clouds washed out like filthy snow. She felt the wind find no purchase on her numb fingertips. She thought about the kick of the shotgun against her chest, all of the dead between the Temple and this point. She licked her lips and tasted the past few dinners from memory. Her voice was quiet. "I'll do it." Her goddess' voice was surprised. "You will? You don't have to. You called me, I answered. I can take responsibility." Nia shook her head, extended her right hand. "It's okay. I think I have to." Her goddess didn't protest. She handed over the little box with the round button, placed it in Nia's hands. The initiate stared up at the sky as she pressed the button. There was a dull thud from the hillside. A whoosh. The sound of something screaming through the air. A smothering silence, then the roar of winds rushing forward to fill an absence, a ringing in her own ears. When she looked at the Council's stronghold, there was nothing left. Nothing at all. Most of the imperial city remained, but there was a crumbling hole where the throne of the Emperor once stood. A crumbling hole and distant wails. https://thecoffin.club