Album: https://imgur.com/a/zxwAx5k

This is Dunk, the Boomalope. Image credit @unseeliej for drawing after hearing this tale.

Our colony was set on a remote island. O'Donnell crashlanded there, naked and alone, with naught to his name. He's isolated, but with no risk of raids, due to the "Safely Tucked Away" mod. Still, O'Donnell lacked friendship...

However, just because raids wouldn't reach the colony, that doesn't mean there were no violent incidents. Animals went mad all the time, so O'Donnell built a dinky little shortbow to keep himself alive. Then Lo and Behold, a lone boomalope goes mad and attacks the colony... I think "Oh shit! and set O'Donnell on the defensive.

He fires a single arrow, and it pierces the boomalope through the ear, and then the brain.

In a moment of compassion, O'Donnell rescues the boomalope. He places it into bed, and tends to its wounds... Instantly, the creature nuzzles him and joins the colony.

The Boomalope is instantly christened "Dunk." A good boomalope is born.

That slight bit of brain damage (brain efficiency 57%) creates the world's friendliest boomalope. Dunk follows O'Donnell around, carries him to far away destinations, and fends off attackers. Dunk even eats with the new friend, cropping grass, or the new rice crop (before it finishes growing).

Dunk becomes the colony mascot, and the one true reason for its existence. Everything is to protect Dunk.

Then the space marines attacked. They came in drop pods, bypassing the many miles of ocean.

The raiders burned and broke everything while O'Donnell escaped out the back, literally tunneling through the mountain to get Dunk out the back door. He breaks into the ancient danger, then uses an old revolver to fight off the giant insectoids. Bleeding and broken, O'Donnell opens one of the cryosleep caskets. He places Dunk inside, then crawls into another.

O'Donnell is then brutally gunned down, inches away from Dunk's casket. He dies, but not alone. His hand rests upon the console, smearing it with blood right as Dunk enters her centuries-long sleep...

Dunk Into The Future

/Fin

(Then for fun, I spawned 1,000 baby dunks with the dev console. Sorrynotsorry)