Vexing Workshop

Hedge Knights of the Eastern Pastures

2026-05-31T00:00:00-06:00

Hailing from the squelchy plains of the Eastern Pastures, the Hedge Knights sally forth in search of riches and glory. Clad in heavy steel, their shields bearing the standard of a long-forgotten kingdom - a golden sun gleams on a field of argent and azure. They share but one pair of boots between them. Their courage undaunted, barefoot, relentless, they march ever onward.

Our Mordheim campaign has long concluded. With my skaven warband quietly tucked away, I have moved on to other projects - as is often the case, too many.

Have I mentioned we've been playing a lot of Cauldron?.

But then a couple of members of the Strange Artifacts crew tried out Greathelm, a skirmish game currently in development by Malev Da Shinobi. Greathelm is a miniature agnostic game where you play a band of six knights on an extremely small, 8.5" x 11" battlefield. My friends seemed to have a great time playing, enough that some of them are already builing boards. So, I reviewed the rules and committed myself to a quick project!

Did somebody mention Boglanders?

As it turns out, I had five knight-like Boglander minis, between Set #2, The King's Guard and Set #6, Armoured. I had already based and primed them, so I was set? But wait, I need six models. I was in luck, I had an extra, duplicate model in the bits box. A little doctoring, cut off his head, et voila! I have my knights.

Kitbash Secret Santa, 2025

2025-12-21T00:00:00-07:00

This is my second year participating in the In Rust We Trust Kitbash Secret Santa. I had a really great time last year, so I was looking forward to this year's entry, as I'm sure many of us were. And while it is excellent to receive, for me I'm most excited to receive my prompts and to see where the inspiration takes me, and to send my little creation off to its new owner. I was even lucky enough last year to hang out with the recipient of my project a couple of times.

If you're not familiar, the Hive Scum crew hosts a Discord server called In Rust We Trust. I'm going to guess that if you're here, you're probably there, but for those who don't, here's the breakdown.

Participants are invited to fill out a form with their names and addresses, and three or so keywords to act as prompts for your Secret Santa - something that gives them an idea what you'd enjoy receiving in the mail. Prompts are kept secret, and we each kitbash a model and send it to its intended recipient. Painting is not necessary, though it does seem that folks like to prime their creations before parting with them. Priming really makes a build come together, so I most definitely prime before calling it done.

I'm not much of a kitbasher myself, probably because most of my models are either cast in resin or 3D printed - I just don't have kits and bits to choose from. I do like to sculpt and scratch-build, however, so that's what I do. Last year, my recipient got from me a model and a bit of a diorama, all on a 60mm base. This year, I really leaned into the diorama. You'll see what I mean.

My recipient's prompts were Gothic, Skull, Forest. This resonated with me right away. I started with a cast of a tree stump I sculpted earlier this year. I cut a fairly large base from a piece of masonite, I think about 6" long and 3" wide. I traced the footprint of the tree onto a scrap of XPS foam and cut it to shape. This I used to lift the tree a bit, so I could build around and perhaps under it. This gave me space to extend the roots of the tree out and down, and right away I decided to brick around the sides.

The roots I shaped with aliminum foil, then covered in Milliput. I built out the roots before finishing the brick work, so that it looked like the roots had grown between and displaced them. I also wasn't quite sure what I would do in the open space between the two largest branches. This gave me time to think about it. At this point, I still didn't know what kind of model would live on this base, if any.

At this point things were coming together in my mind. I decided the space I'd created could be the entrance to a dungeon or mine. I cut some craft sticks and glued them in place. Then I covered the open horizontal space with more foil before coating it in CA glue and baking soda. If I was going to call this a "bash", I was going to need to add some bits, so I scrounged some loose skulls and lanterns to add to the tableau, as well as a little rat peeking out of the door. Also, to add character and to fulfill another of the prompts, I sculpted a crude skull into the trunk of the tree. On all the raised surfaces, I spread PVA glue and sand.

Satisfied with the build, I covered the ground of the base with PVA and sand as well, and committed to priming, plus zenithal. Ultimately I decided, the diorama is the model! I sincerely hope whomever receives my gift will enjoy it and I hope to see it painted one day.

Called to Mordhiem

2025-12-06T00:00:00-07:00

After our Forbidden Psalm game day, discussion began as to what to play next. With so many great skirmish games available, this is can be a pretty weighty decision. Of course Forbidden Psalm would be great for a continued campaign. Cauldron by Hill Giant continues to be high on my list, but then there's Frostgrave, Necropolis, Fever Pit, Dead Gods... the list goes on, and they all look great! I'm a spastic game collector, this will continue to be a problem, I want to play them all.

(As an aside, I should really write an article enumerating all the games that are waiting to be played and that I'm genuinely stoked about, and why I want to play them.)

Eventually someone proposed Mordheim, and with a couple of our ranks being strongly Old World-pilled, it was easy to fall in and agree to play. For my part, I've been hoarding Knucklebones' Rat Men models since he started making them, so most of what I needed was already printed and primed just waiting for a reason to paint them. We've got books between us, the friction is low, let's get started!

Because I did already have models ready, I chose the Skaven of Clan Eshin. The only model I hadn't already bought was the Rat Ogre, (an ommission I've since rectified!) but I wasn't going to spend the coin on him right away anyway. My leader, the Assassin Adept, was the first Rat Man Knucklebones had released and I painted him up almost two years ago! The next, my Sorcerer, was also painted. I selected a handful more and basically did a reverse WYSIWYG, where I spec'ed out my list based on the models rather than bashing my models to match my warband.

These models are absolutely fantastic to paint. They have really great detail and each have unique character. They're on the bald end of Skaven, so I get a lot of practice painting flesh. One of my favorite is a Night Runner I've named Hacktooth, because of a happy accident I made when trimming supports.

Another thing about Mordheim - and I suspect if you're reading my blog you already know this - the setting is about as good as it gets. The city of Mordheim and its destruction make for a perfectly constrained environment while allowing for loads of creativity. Dregs come to Mordheim seeking fame, fortune, revenge, what-have-you. But who, and why? And what will they do when they get there?

For my part, I'm just starting to grow into having narratives and lore for my warbands. The more I play, however, the more comfortable I get and the more it means to me. While I know full well that the lore for my warbands is of no concern to anyone but myself, I'll try to at least start to write it down here.

Quiet, quiet! They must not know!

I hate him. By the Great Horned One, I hate him! Such foolishness, such arrogance! But what can I do but serve? We needs the warpstone! And such stone as I sense! We must find it and take it before the others, and they must not know!

We found our way to Mordheim and we waited - he said we must wait and we must watch. Soon enough, the loud and nasty man-things came crashing by our hiding place and we pounced! Quickly, quickly! Daggers in their throats! Make them bleed quietly. We strip them of their gaudy colors, these man-things of Middenheim. We take their clothes because he tells us to, but why?

Cutting and ripping, we make new clothes for ourselves from the man-thing's rags. In blue and white we craft our disguises. We hide from the man-things and we hide from the others - we must not let the others know what riches have fallen upon this beautifully ruined city! They'll not know it was us, we will take the warpstone and we will return unseen!

The idea is there, I'll keep working on it. Until next time!

One-shot Painting

2025-11-08T00:00:00-07:00

The Strange Artifacts crew has decided to explore Mordheim, and we've all selected war bands. Myself, I've chosen to play the Skaven of Clan Eshin, pics and lore to come. But, as a hobby goblin, now that I have a project to work on there's nothing I want to paint more than literally anything else.

So, since I've begun my Mordheim war band, I've dug out cast models from the vaults to assemble and base. I've reread all the rules for Cauldron - a beautiful, whimsical game by HILL GIANT - and pulled together two new gangs for Ramshackle's Mini Gangs.

I don't know what it is about me, but I'm flawed in this way, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Big projects are fun but they can also be daunting.

Palate Cleansers FTW

I don't do a lot of kit bashing, in part because I don't buy very many kits, Battletech aside. Most of my models I 3D print at home. I've easily painted a hundred or more Knucklebones minis, for example, and I've printed many more. The bulk of the rest are from hand casters, like colecifer_xxviii, Marcello Rizza, and especially Ramshackle Games.I even do a bit of sculpting and casting myself. Printing and collecting can be a hobby all its own. Because of this, whenever I print new models, or I get new hand cast models in the mail, I will usually clean them up, base and prime them right away. This way I always have plenty of models on hand, ready to paint.

I don't want to skip a hobby session because I'm feeling overwhelmed by my current project. I'd rather grab a prepped model off the shelf. While I'll frequently have one or two non-project models in various states of completion, my favorites are the models that I can paint, start to finish, in a single 60-90 minute session.

Each of these models I had based and primed, on hand in a box on the shelf, just in case I wanted to paint something fresh. In the case of the frog and the Dunger in particular, I had a moment of inspiration that I wanted to act upon right away, while the muse had me. Each took about an hour to knock out, and I left the bench feeling very happy with the outcome. Each session was time well spent even though they were painted with no other purpose in mind except to have painted them.

I'm also reminded during these one-shot painting sessions why I choose the models that I choose. Each of them speaks to me in some way that only I can hear, in a way that is unique to me. Just like everybody else.

Strange Artifacts Invitational, 2025

2025-10-20T00:00:00-06:00

October 5th, 2025, the Strange Artifacts crew hosted our first Forbidden Psalm event, the Strange Artifacts Invitational. Held at Total Escape Games in Broomfield, Colorado. As a relatively new club, we've hosted game days and we've made our appearances at local cons, this was our first attempt at an organized event.

When it comes to running an indy game event, we are fortunate to have plenty of fantastic examples to learn from. We all greatly admire Ana from Gardens of Hecate. Her own Forbidden Psalm events, Turm 2023 and Turm 2024 are massive standouts for the entire community. I am in no way ashamed to tell you that I borrowed heavily from the Turm format when putting together the event, down to the player packet and rules. I owe a debt of gratitude to Ana and her willingness to share her experience.

Planning and Execution

We wanted our first event to be successful, and that meant making sure that everyone who participated could play and have a great time. The first most important lesson we learned from Turm was to limit the size of our first event - we chose to follow suit and limit the event to eight players.

But how do you get invitations out for an invitational? After setting aside seates for the Strange Artifact Crew ourselves, we extended personal invitations to friends local friends, and a few more to members of the In Rust We Trust community. While our more remote friends were not ultimately able to attend, we did have enough folks locally to go ahead with the event.

Expectations and Scenarios

Strange Artifacts is a good crew and we all came together with an ethos that makes narrative games fun and safe to play. That being said, it felt important to me that expectations were made explicitly clear. Taking another point from Turm, I wrote up some basic rules and expectations. Each player would bring their pre-rolled and fully painted warband, adhering to Forbidden Psalm: End Times Edition rules. We decided on three rounds of play, and as a narrative event, I wanted to be clear that this was not a competitive tournament.

Eight seats means four boards, and we wanted to have the full diorama experience. One enthusiastic member took to the task right away and built two excellent, thematic boards and even went so far as to write an original scenario for one of them. Our own Kitbash Chaos brought his beautiful red desert board, and I built the last, specifically intended for Dashed Hope, a scenario from the Forbidden Psalm core book campaign.

Some weeks before the event, a few of us got together and discussed the scenarios we'd play. Since none of us had completed the original campaign, we decided to pull scenarios from the book. This gave us time to paint monsters for every scenario. In some cases, that was a lot of models! As for the narrative hook, we deviated a bit from the original scenario, and tweaked each one to fit our own story.

Even though we had plenty of time, naturally much of the narrative was written the day before the event!

Our player packet with rules, narrative hook and scenarios can be found here.

As I continue to write I realize just how incapable I am of describing the joy I felt as I watched my friends, brilliant artists and upright folks to the last, spend an entire day enjoying the game and each other.

Here are some more pictures.

End with Gratitude

We are forever grateful to Total Escape Games, who charged us absolutely nothing to hold our humble event at the store. Not only that their Event Manager Kyle asked many questions and gave helpful suggestions which helped guide us towards smooth execution of our goal.

For my part I want to share my appreciation for the Strange Artifacts crew as a whole. It's not easy to make friends as adults, let alone to find folks who share our affinity for weird little critters. Also, thank you to the In Rust We Trust community who keep the torch burning worldwide and whose Discord helped us find the others. I even want to thank @noclearcoat, the Discord moderator whose continued lack of recognition encouraged Strange Artifacts to form and to plant our own flag in the 28 community.

CAD Exercises - Battletech Bases

2025-09-11T00:00:00-06:00

When I started 3D printing several years ago, I was worried that I would just fill my house with plastic toys. I quickly set about starting to learn FreeCAD so I could design printable parts when I needed. I've used my rudimentary skill to make replacement parts for around the house, cases for electronics projects and occasionally hobby bits.

One point of pride has been printing my own bases for my miniatures. While I did start by creating circular bases to match all of Games Workshop's "standard" base sizes, I soon wanted bases for my 3D printed Battletech proxies. In much the same way as I created my circular bases, I used calipers to match the measurements of my Catalyst models and layed them out in FreeCAD.

I learned from a previous project that I could have multiple bodies in a single file. This allowed me to copy the first, basic base I'd created and paste a new body to modify. First I made a new version with a reinforced peg hole for Aerospace models.

Tonight I find myself needing bases with recesses to accept 6mm infantry models. I'll be building three platoons of basic infantry for my Republic of the Sphere Standing Guard, and in looking for suitable models, I found this really interesting project called Canadian Trees. (I don't know why they're called Canadian Trees). Each column holds I think between 25 and thirty models, each column holding different variants. I found I could put 15 columns on a built plate, so I did. That gives me somewhere between 350 and 400 individual soldiers. I'm set for life.

To add these additial base variants took less time than it will have taken to write this post. Like my Aerospace base, I was able to make a copy of the basic, original body. I placed on the surface a single, 5mm diameter by 1mm deep recess, constrained it to a corner, then used a Polar Array to layout copies of the recess. As the input to the polar array is a number of units, I could simply create the first, then with each duplicate change that parameter. I was done very quickly.

Now I will export these each as a separate .STL file, and slice them for my printer. I find I can print six bases at a time on my small built plate. With an infantry platoon consisting of four squads of six, I'll be able to print all my necessary bases in two batches. Painting 6mm models is so fast and satisfying, these little soldiers will be supporting a strengthened company in no time.

Tacticon 2025, Denver, Colorado

2025-09-07T00:00:00-06:00

Occurring at opposite ends of the year, Denver has two fairly major gaming events: GenghisCon in the late winter, and Tacticon in the late summer. Where GenghisCon is dominated by role-playing games, Tacticon predominantly features tabletop miniature war games. Someone among the Strange Artifacts crew suggested we get a table of our own for the event, so we did exactly that.

While I have attended GenghisCon for the last couple of years, this is the first time I've attended Tacticon. Where GenghisCon was divided up among many ballrooms and conference rooms, the bulk of the con was in one massive hall, with tables upon tables. The vendors, a far smaller array than the winter event, took up the circumfernce of the room. A full third of the hall was dominated by Star Wars Legion players, with large and beautifully appointed tables. The rest was a mix of Bolt Action, Warhammer and Battletech.

Our intention for the event was to demo three games: Forbidden Psalm, Flames of Orion and Void Admiral. Our goal, if we indeed have one, is to gather all the 28mm, independent weirdos in the area to play our favorite games. I started out wanting to bring everything, but found that even three games was perhaps too many. This selection, however, does a good job of covering both fantasy and scifi as well as including modern classics, a new release and in Void Admiral a game I feel could be a sleeper hit in the community.

We were assigned a table for four hours. While we'd expected a full, 6'x4' rectangular table among the other games, we were given a single 6' round table off on the periphery. Not to fret, we set up two boards. Strange Artifacts foundin member, Kitbash Chaos built his first static board, a beautiful red desert scene suitable for fantasy, scifi and post-apocalyptic settings. For my part I brought a recent, modular desert board with an assortment of hand-built and 3D printed terrain and buildings.

Flames of Orion

With an odd number of us in attendance, the best way to get started was to array our models on the table and to start playing a game. As one of us had never played Flames of Orion and another only having played one game, I chose to adjudicate a game between my friends. After a brief overview of the rules we rolled for scenario, landing on Scavenge in the core rule book. I brought two fully painted lances and plenty of terrain so we were off to the races.

For those not familiar, Flames of Orion is a small-ruleset, miniature agnostic battlemech war game by Steve from the Hive Scum podcast. The game successfully kickstarted over the summer and should fulfill in the next several weeks. Each player fields a number of mechs or units, frequently four each, and either plays a stand-up fight - which like in any game takes to long and is boring - or you chose an objective-based encounter either home grown or from the book. Units are built either by rolling randomly or by spending a certain number of points per force. Before the event, I rolled up two lances so we could get down to it.

I'm unprepared for a battle report, but at the end both players said they enjoyed the game. The rules are fairly intuitive and easy to pick up. I feel the game benefits from having an established narrative, something to drive the story along and enrich the experience. I can see it being especially good if combined with a sci-fi role playing game, like Death in Space or Salvage Union. Flames of Orion seems like a good ruleset for dropping out of pure RPG to act out combat encounters on the table.

Forbidden Psalm

After the game of Flames, one of our buddies needed to leave, so Kitbash Chaos and I set up for a game of Forbidden Psalm. Mike built a beautiful new board for the occasion, that we were both excited to try out. Sadly for the blog, but not so much for us, we were both too in the moment to take any pictures. Having played the first scenario in the Endtimes Edition last time we got together, we played the second, My Heart Has Joined The Thousand. I played a warband consisting mostly of Ramshackle Games Boglanders. You can find Mike's YouTube Channel.

Mike did provide some pictures of his wonderful board to share with you here.

Overview

How was Tacticon? I think for what we wanted to do, to hype our favorite indy 28mm games, it might not have been the right scene. While to groups did stop by and ask a few questions, for the most part attendees knew exactly what they were going to do before they got to the event. Tacticon is a great place to get together with your friends and play epic wargames for four days straight. For my part, had I been able to, I'd have been at the Battletech tables for hours.

On the other hand, and this is the most important, a few friends got to get together and play fun games on cool terrain with beautiful painted models (if I do say so myself). Like any time the Strange Artifacts crew can get together, it was a great time and I look forward to when we can do it again...

...perhaps during the Strange Artifacts Forbidden Psalm Invitational next month?

Strange Artifacts Meetup

2025-06-19T00:00:00-06:00

For the first time since its inception, the Strange Artifacts crew all got together at the excellent Gamer's Haven in Colorado Springs. While many of us have played together or hung out in the past, this was our first chance to be all in one place and vibe. There was no agenda, no guarantee that we could get a table, but the folks at Gamer's Haven were beyond helpful, and helped us pull two tables together despite it being a busy day at the store. We had loads of room to set up multiple games of Forbidden Psalm and to spread out.

I was able to use the new desert board and some mud huts I made out of packing material, while another member of the group brought out a beautiful new board likely to be featured in our autumn invitational! Lists were built on the spot, which really only takes a few minutes. I expected folks at the store might be interested, but if any one came to look at all, all they had to say was, "Never heard of it!" This happened a bit over the weekend. Strange Artifacts has work to do!

After several hours, we went out looking for vegan food, and scored mightily before heading to Dungeons & Javas for some more hanging out and gaming. Here we introduced Void Admiral to those of the group who had never played it. This is a favorite of mine, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's looking for a great space fleet game.

It was a lot of gaming and vibing, folks got tired, and those who came down from Denver found our ways to our hotel rooms. We agreed to reconvene at Gamer's Haven for a quick intro game of Flames of Orion. I maintain that this is the first game of Flames to have been played in the Great State of Colorado!

All in all, the entire group had a great time! Games we'd all wanted to see found their way to the table. Real talk over lunch, ideas shared, hobby goals discussed and explored. Between the five of us, there are so many games we want to try! The indy scene is spoiled for choice, and we're all motivated enough that I look forward to seeing what amazing models and scenes are brought to the table next time we meet.

Proof positive, if you want to be part of a scene, you need to make a scene. Strange Artifacts has been putting ourselves out there and finding the others. I look forward to reporting more soon!

Laying Down Cobbles

2025-06-08T00:00:00-06:00

A couple of months ago, my wife gave me a Proxxon hot wire table as an anniversary gift. Right away I spent a couple of lunch breaks cutting scrap XPS foam into bricks - enough to fill a large yoghurt tub. These I distressed by tossing them with gravel from the garden and I set them aside. This weekend I laid them out into two 3" square patterns, with the intention of casting tiles.

I sealed the tiles with a couple of layers of Modpodge mixed with baking soda. Any gaps or cracks would be sure to fill with silicone and rip during mold making, so it's important to seal as many as possible. I was worried, though, that I would fill in too much detail.

After sealing, I used more foam core to build up the sides into a box, which I filled with silicone. After a few minutes in the vacuum chamber to draw out any air bubbles, these sat overnight. Great success, the silicone found no errant gaps! I was still worried about loss of detail, so I tried the first cast in resin.

As I intend these molds to be cast in the open, and to capture any excess resin I may have mixed during other projects, I tested without using the pressure pot. While there are loads of tiny bubbles, overall I think the tiles turned out pretty well.

A second attempt at casting under pressure failed, as adding air into the pressure pot caused the resin to be blown out of the mold. I am going to have to modify the pot to divert incoming air and avoid any disturbance in the surface of the mold, any mold.

Lore Without Models, Models Without Lore

2025-06-07T00:00:00-06:00

Ever since watching Monk's video about the An Argent Host event earlier this year, I've wanted to try my hand at Necropolis28. While I tend to find anyting but the most elementary list building inscrutible, I've been reading the rules, and I have a couple of gatherings in mind.

The first is built around models I have been gathering or have made over the last few months. These I'm putting together for their boney aspect and the similarities in their faces. The ghost to the far left is a cast of a sculpt I made last year. The middle two models are metal casts from Weeping Warlock, and the spiky boi I got from Tanner Simpson while at Under The Dice Fest.

I haven't put together any story around these models, and like I said, I'm still struggling with building a list around them. But, I imagine I'm close to a playable gathering.

Meanwhile, I've got a pretty solid idea for a second gathering, of the plasma aspect, that I'm pretty excited about. During a recent listen to one of my all time favorites , Iron Maiden's Killers, I started to think of it as a concept album and watched all the songs click into place. I grew up during the 80's, and the Satanic Panic was a huge influence on me growing up. I loved heavy metal, Dungeons & Dragons, and I lived in a rural part of the country where self-proclaimed occult investigators were allowed into our schools. Bleak.

Anyway, I remembered stories where serial killers (most likely fictitious) would kill as many people as they could that they could lord over them in hell. Leave it to a fundamentalist whack job to come up with that one. That aside, I think it makes an excellent basis for a plasm gathering. Led by the killer who dispatched them all, his followers exist only to hate him and to serve him, even now in this time beyond time.

The killer, king, wrathful and mired mired in vanity and delusion
The loner, hitchhiker, in the wrong place at the wrong time
The lovers found unawares at Makeout Point, forever circling one another
The frame job, victim of mistaken identity, trapped for eternity in a wicked web
The copycat, cowering, simpering in vile mimicry of his master

Since I set up the molding/casting shop in the garage, I feel like I need to up the challenge level and hand sculpt and make casts of whatever models I make for this gathering. Assuming I follow through, from story to models this will have been the most I've ever put into a war band.

We Are Echoes

The Cairn-born and the Scions can pretend otherwise, with their clattering forms - such noise they make, such vanity - but deep down we all know the truth: our existence is but the faint remnant of lost aeons, too few of us remember.

If I remember now it is to remember why I hate him, what he's done to us. Bound by ridiculous decree, beyond the death of everything, we must serve.

Under the Dice Fest, Flames of Orion

2025-05-21T00:00:00-06:00

I play a solid amount of Battletech today, but only because last summer I wanted to play Flames of Orion. I wandered into to my FLGS and after picking up and putting down the box four or five times, I bought the Inner Sphere Fire Lance because I thought it had the coolest mechs there. Curiosity got the best of me, and so I soon bought the Essentials Box for some rules (and two more mechs), then I went down the rabbit hole entirely.

At Under The Dice Fest the past weekend, I finally got to play Flames of Orion, and I bashed a lance of mechs for the occasion. These are mostly 3D printed Battletech knock-offs, with the exception of the Urban Mech, which came from Punykaiju at My Mini Factory. I printed some claws and hammers, found a floating skull between bottles of paint on my bench, and went to town.

What did I think of Flames of Orion? I liked it a lot more than Alpha Strike. The game play was fast, and a complete departure from Battletech. The heat mechanic is novel and fun, and results in explosions, I'm a fan. After a couple of rounds I more or less had a handle on the rules. I look forward to the Kickstarter delivering, and I will play again.

As I build more forces, warbands, what-have-you, I'm starting to get more into providing them with lore. In the case of this crew, these are the Rad Scavengers of HD 37605 C.

The corporation was loathe to simply abandon their investments, so reclamation crews were assembled to recover serviceable equipment and any remaining raw materials. The rest was either broken down for scrap or at least broken to prevent scavengers from gleaning any benefit from what was left behind. Less care was given, however to evacuating the men and women from the recovery crews once the last shipping vessels sailed into the ruined night.

Recognizing they were doomed, workers squirreled away equipment as they could, including recovery mechs and anything that could become a weapon. Abandoned and presumed dead - at least on the corporate ledger - these mad scavengers emerged from the most irradiated areas of planet HD 37605 C to chisel out a new life. This freedom will kill you dead, but at least the bosses won't be around to bother us in our final days.