Bad Harvest

Godot 4 · Tower defence and logistics

Bad Harvest

Out here, nothing goes to waste.

Not enough dinner to go round,
So we fought fire with fire.
They consume our crops,
Let’s return the favour.

Defend a frontier farm on an airless moon. Then render the swarm into fuel, armour, and parts.

In development

TBC

The crater

A dead ship, a dust moon, a swarm.

Kettle sits in a crater on Vael, a grey moon of Hathor, the ringed giant settlers call Old Hat. The star is Ember Sol, and it does not do much warming. Outside the Dome Shield — the bubble — there is no air. Dust, craters, and a black sky.

The town took its name from the GCV Kestrel, the Black Kettle. The ship lies on its belly across the central peak, and the colony was cut out of ships like it: the shield, the houses, the trucks. Greenward Agricultural Holdings sold the kit second-hand. The wheat-sheaf marks are still on the plate. The slogans are too.

A black asteroid came down. They call it the Rock. The Vesk swarm broke out of the cracks. You hold the crop rings — tower defence along the ring roads and the spokes — and then you bring in the dead. Husks rot. Anything that gets away takes its carcass with it. What’s left is fuel, armour, and parts, if the harvesters reach it in time.

The work

Hold the field. Then collect.

  1. Hold the line

    Waves cross the rings toward the ship. You build on the roads. Turrets started as fencing nailers and grain hoppers. Feed sacks are the walls. The bubble is the air, and the edge of the map.

  2. Haul under fire

    Harvesters run while the shooting is still going. Ammo, fuel, and parts move, or the town stalls. A husk left out is worth less every minute.

    I didn’t rebuild this rig to haul bug guts.

    Bucket Ruiz

  3. Reap the swarm

    Killing them is the start. Ichor burns. Chitin plates. Leave a body in the dust and the yield goes with it. The colony eats what tried to eat it.

The chain

What the farm becomes

Ordinary colony buildings, turned when the supplies run out. Each conversion costs time, concrete, and parts salvaged from the Kestrel.

  1. Slaughterhouse becomes Rendering Plant

    Built for cattle. Rebuilt for husks: ichor, chitin, and carapace.

  2. Grain silos become Husk Silos

    Same towers. They hold husks instead of grain.

  3. Combines become Battle Harvesters

    Scoop arms, a cage over the cab, and a name painted on the side. They go out while the wave is still on the field.

  4. Fuel depot becomes Ichor Refiner

    The blood burns hot. The depot learns how to keep it.