Things were going great until the unavoidable happened. I was in full swing, farming lots of combat sites and having a great old time. Then something transpired that led to another, and getting eaten by a sandworm.

I needed Plasteel Microflora Fiber. Those come from giant shipwrecks. While most of them are combat engagement areas with others on Arrakeen. This place is quite tame. While you don’t get a large amount of the fiber there. I’d prefer to hit this spot up over others.

The adventure there was not that bad. I just paid to fly from the tradepost next to my house into the one down in the south. Then a short bike ride between a few rock outcrops and no sandworm in sight made the day a great one.

I looted just enough for what I needed. The wreck of the Actaeon is not a large one. After running a couple of days after this run. I became an expert at quickly getting in, heading for all the loot chests, and getting out. It took a lot longer to get out to this location than it did to run the site.

What would not be a quick run was this laboratory site. A giant hole in the ground that was a massive bunker. You can say curiosity got the better of me. I also had a mission down there. I’d end up having a run-in with Derek Chinara, who I was hoping would teach me better mining techniques for a higher yield, among other things.

I slowly made my way around the perimeter at first. There were a couple of guards. Since I now at least had a shield I did not need to worry about the few snipers defending this location. I quickly made my way up to them and finished them off with my dagger.

What I was not expecting was just how far down the hole at the center of this massive bunker was. I had a bad feeling while making the descent that I might not be able to climb back out. That I however felt would be something I'd face later on.

For now, I wanted to explore this site. This was perhaps the biggest site I'd run yet. There would even be a couple of deaths. At the very least this place was not beyond my ability to clear. I just hoped not to get lost while exploring it.

In the back of my mind, it is always a bit of fear. Getting lost in the turns and waves of a massive place. That I just never find my way out. Usually, the issue is missing an exit that loops back around to a starting area. Where you just find yourself going in an endless loop.

I slowly explored this place killing anything that moved. Every so often I'd find some strange tap to play about things that were going on at this facility. Most of the time I was ignoring the voice that was taking as my eyes would catch movement ahead.

For the most part, a lot of the areas looked like this above. You would have some hallway connecting to a room. In a couple of areas, they had mined a lot out of a giant cave and left the rock exposed.

In areas that had quite a few more enemies than I was looking to engage. In the larger rock-exposed rooms. I’d slowly hide behind anything I could and hope I was heading in the direction I needed. Avoid making any sound or getting anyone's attention. The last thing I needed was half a dozen people heading down to my location.

For the most part, that worked out except for one area. I had peaked over to see if I was clear to sneak across a room. I was spotted and that was it. I had far too many charging at my location or shooting from a raised platform off into the distance.

Since I had already cleared most of the laboratory up to that point. I was able to quickly get back to where I was. Even taking out a couple of the patrols that I was avoiding the first time around. As they had moved to be in smaller numbers that I could take on.

I then found my objective and completed the mission I was on. After that, I made my way back to Derek Chinara in the giant room that was at the center of this laboratory. He told me to meet him back in the South, and that would end up being my downfall.

I decided there were quite a few other things I wanted to do first before going back to the south and driving down to Derek Chinara’s location. So, I went out and hit a few further outposts.

Things were going a lot better than I was expecting. While I'd take some heavy hits here or there. I was looting loads of resources. I was also picking up quite a few intel points from clearing new outposts. As a result, I was unlocking quite a few new schematics to build things back at my base.

After getting my fill and a couple of trips back to my base to dump loot. I decided it was time to get some further training from Derek Chinara. I headed over to my local trade post and paid for a flight back to the south.

I then jumped off the cliff near the outpost so I could go spawn my sand bike and ride up a somewhat safe route I knew to get there. That is when I blacked out (lost connection to the server.) When I came to I found myself in a different location.

My sand bike was nowhere to be seen. I also had a grave convert as I now had to cross a giant section of sand to make my way back to an outpost to make a second attempt at visiting Derek Chinara.

Halfway across the sands, the ground shook red, and I was dead. It was quite an anti-climactic event. I was eaten by a sandworm, and it happened so fast I could not react.

The next thing I knew is I awake with all my gear gone. In a strange cave with a guy telling me what happened. He was kind enough to offer me a sand bike as a one-time deal. I decided to accept his generosity as I was going to need it to get back home.

Final Thoughts

While up to this point, I had some close calls with a sandworm. I was kind of expecting it to be a bit more thrilling. I was kind of expecting it to be a bigger thing than it was.

When you get eaten by the sandworm you lose everything on you. Not just what you were carrying. You lose all the gear on you as well. You also lose anything you were riding like a sand bike. I never did find out what happened to my sand bike that went missing. At least for now, I have the one that was given to me.

This would also end up being how it would go when dealing with the sandworms. More times than not, you get enough warning, and outside of them getting the “flying” bug and you get eaten. They can be avoided if you don’t get greedy.

It’s those times when you are down on your luck. Limited options and something stupid like not having enough fuel or the ability to repair a vehicle occurs. Then you find yourself stranded and having to take a lot bigger risk than you should. One that tends to lead to only one outcome.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Dune: Awakening.