A rather large group of them were visiting, an annoyingly large group in fact- providing decent sleeping arrangements for that many guests is a hassle when you aren't set up for it. I hadn't been paying them any attention, since getting my colony's food shortage under control was my current priority.
All of a sudden, though, I noticed a colonist's icon flashing red as they took damage, and moments later they were downed. I quickly clicked over to see what was going on and discovered said colonist cornered in a house by a berserk visitor with a shortsword. I ordered my nearest colonist, some pleb with eight melee skill and a steel spear, to get over there and subdue this creep- who had a melee skill of just
one.
I also ordered my bloodthirsty, chain shotgun-wielding problem-solver over there just in case.
I didn't expect to actually need her to step in, though, but somehow this little twerp managed to take down my spearman, cutting out his eye in the process while only taking a minor wound herself. Shit. So I had my shotgunner rush over there. She popped out from behind the house as the berserker was charging at another guest and fired, downing the troublemaker while only inflicting minor damage to the other outsider, who seemed to take it pretty well.
However, this is my bloodthirsty pawn we're talking about here. Call it roleplaying, call it a desire for that sweet mood bonus, or call it my own bloodthirstiness bleeding through into the game, but I usually let her finish off surviving enemies as a reward for all her hard work. So I manoeuvred her over next to the little shit who'd just badly injured two of my colonists (as others rushed to get them to medical beds, naturally) and let her blast them point-blank.
This immediately angered the outsider faction. I'm not sure what my relations with them were beforehand, but it dropped to -50. Instantly hostile. Whoops. So, she whirled around and blasted the other nearby visitor as well. Then I realised most of the heavily-armed "guests" were right inside my base (this first combat took place outdoors) in and around the dormitory. Shit. Only two colonists were in there at the time, fortunately. My surgeon managed to rush out of the stockpile where she'd been stuffing her face with drugs and make it through the doors safely.
The other guy, some pacifist whose only decent skills are building and mining, got horrifically blasted in the face whilst trying to have some dinner. It remains to be seen if he survives or not- there was a lot of killing to be done before anyone could get in to rescue him.
Two of our new enemies were in the colony's "leader's" house, both armed with rifles and ready for action.
In one of the most dramatic moments I've had in this damn game, I ordered a guy with a rifle (my primary hunter) to take up position at of the embrasures on the house (that I'd been foolishly using as windows before I realised they level temperatures with outside- whoops) whilst the aforementioned shotgunner, her bloodlust still not sated, took cover at the door, ready to breach.
I actually didn't notice that there was another hostile still at large in the courtyard behind them- they were slicing away at another of my colonists and my shotgunner spun around and shot them whilst "watching for targets". Somehow only one pellet of buckshot hit the girl they were attacking. I was impressed.
Anyway, the taking of the house went rather smoothly. Hayhouse the hunter opened fire from the window just as Latch, the bloodthirsty lunatic with the shotgun, opened the door. Hayhouse actually only landed one shot on them, but he was enough of a distraction: both of them levelled their rifles at Latch as she burst in but were summarily gibbed before they could get a shot off. First time I've seen a double-insta-skill from one shotgun shot.
That prompted the rest of the "guests" to try and flee, so the same duo of death simply took position at the main doors of the colony (again, with embrasures either side of them) and mopped them up from outside. Now everyone is rushing about trying to save the lives of the colonists injured in the scuffle, and then the next order of business will be to see if I can patch up and release enough of the outsiders to fix my relationship with their faction.
Funnily enough, the berserker who originally started this scuffle? She actually survived my attempt to shotgun her to death, albeit with pretty much everything below the waist shot off. I'd try and save her purely for comedy value, but she has 0.33 hours 'til death by bleedout and the only person near enough to try and do anything only has a 6 in medical skill.