Ship of State is a story written by LettuceBacon&Tomato from June 30th 2010 to November 5th 2010. It can be read here.
Synopsis[]
The story picks up on Gaman where Card of Ten left off, with a series of explosives set by the Sapaar destroying the planet. Werner and Hans lead their men out of the nuclear power plant to escape the collapsing building. Werner attempts to take his men to the Einstein-Rosen bridge and escape to Pelvanida. However, upon witnessing Seska get spat back out, Werner realized that nobody except himself and Hans could successfully travel through; the rest would just be duplicated, and returned to the planet.
Instead, Werner splits the teams and heads for several shuttlecraft locations, whose positions had been readioed to him by Hawkeye. Werner's team storms the playhouse and captures the shuttle from two Sapaar guards. He learns via radio that Hans has secured his shuttle, and that a Gamanian scholar named Hamat had managed to secure a shuttle entirely on his own. With help from one of the Sapaar guard, Werner slaves all three shuttles to his control and flies them away from Gaman.
That night in space, the Gamanian shuttles are attacked by two Sapaar shuttlecraft, which had also escaped the planet. Hamat's shuttle is destroyed, and Hans' left engine is damaged. Werner uses mining explosives to scare the Sapaar off, and then follows them, hoping they have a destination in mind.
After several weeks of travel, Werner and Hans' shuttles reach Gaman's moon. Werner lands safely, but due to his engine failure Hans spirals out of sight and crash lands in an unknown location.
Werner lets his men rest for a day, and then hikes out to find sustenance at an outcropping of rocks found by a search party led by Brut. They camp there, but in the night their food is stolen by Sapaar.
The next day Werner hikes out with a team and locates the Sapaar camp, and by trading the Sapaar guards for food, tries to form an uneasy alliance. That night, Werner sets out in search of Hans' shuttle. He finds that Hans and a woman named Ayla are the only survivors of the crash, though Hans is badly injured. He returns to his camp with them to find the Sapaar had attacked while he was away.
He leads the survivors away from the Sapaar camp back to the shuttlecraft, where Hans has an idea to use the shuttle parts to construct a new Einstein-Rosen bridge. They work for several days, and soon the bridge is nearly completed, despite evidence that somebody within their ranks is attempting to sabotage the project.
With one day of work left to go, Werner leaves Brut and Kixoo to guard the bridge for the night. After being awoken by a gunshot, Werner races to the bridge and finds Kixoo wounded. Brut had attacked him and tried to destroy the fuel supply for the bridge. Werner takes off after Brut's footprints into the night, and finds Brut hiding in a cave. Werner duels him in hand-to-hand combat and fatally wounds him. Brut admits that he had always been working for the Sapaar, even on Gaman, and warns Werner that while Werner is away the Sapaar are going to attack again and try to take the bridge for themselves. With a tropical storm approaching, Werner races out of the cave.
Back at the camp, the Sapaar herd the Gamanians up except Hans, who they order to give them the address to Earrth. Hans refuses until they threaten Ayla's life, upon which he types it in. At that point, Werner arrives flying the Sapaar's second shuttlecraft and free the Gmanians. Werner reaches the bridge just in time to see Hans activate it, guarenteein that nobody has time to get through except Hans, Werner, and Ayla. However, rather than leave his people behind, Werner chooses not to go through the bridge, and Hans and Ayla follow his lead. Leading Gaman and Sapaar into a single shuttle, Werner flew into the tropical storm and managed to land inside Brut's cave. With the Gaman and Sapaar now united, Werner looks to the future, and notes that Menken has started the notion that the united colony should be called "Verner".
Characters[]
- Hawkeye (voice only)
Trivia[]
- This is the second longest Darwin's Soldiers story ever written, after its predecessor Card of Ten.
- This story takes the longest amount of time in-universe out of all the stories. Whereas most stories chronicle one to two days, Ship of State chronicles an untold amount of weeks.
- This is the first story written by LettuceBacon&Tomato which does not have Rudyard Shelton or some version of James Zanasiu in it.
- An unfinished video game by LettuceBacon&Tomato follows the daughter of Werner and Seska, and takes place in the Verner colony. This plot was later adapted into a true sequel, Next of Kin.