Still just in notes format...

[big]Day of the Big One[/big]

Storm has been building over some days. People have been watching weather patterns and forecasts with a mixture of awe and dread. Multiple supercells twining. Clouds cook and boil. Wind speeds are insane. Mile-high thin snakes of funnel clouds dip and nip at the surface, while thick black wedges suck up larger and larger objects.

Storm approaches. The colony has never seen a storm of this magnitude or strength. There's a rush to strap things down and get everything ready for the impact. Concern mostly centered on the algae sea and whether the barrier would hold, since there was an imminent chance of severe flashfloods. Everybody remembered the dambuster 40 years ago.

Note: The outer hulls are actually several layers, some of them made up of smart materials that will buckle and grow elastic on impact, or harden up, or suck up kinetic impacts, or try to "self-heal" if torn. The point being multiple lines of defense tailored to suck up various forms of damage that the planet will throw at the tower.

Each hour fear rises - will the tower simply be ripped apart or buckle under the winds. There is a meeting of the still informal rings, and as usual there is more arguing than agreeing and planning.

Phelan, the dominant and rather agressive leader of the soon-to-be shamefully disbanded Teutychnus Orei ring, makes a strong argument for simply bombing the storms. It's a desperate measure, yes, but the colony will soon be in extreme danger if nothing is done, and the window for action is closing. Bomb the storms, eat up their cold fuel and see them dissipate. Sure, the bombs will create their own problems. But radiation can be dealt with and it's not like there's a whole lot out there to damage. Of course the ecopoiesis people go into fits, but Phelan has his way. He is slick, cool, well prepared and charismatic.

Probes drop a couple of hastily cobbled together hydrogen bombs in a desperate attempt to weaken the storm system. Unexpected results arise. The storm staggers, wobbles, coughs and sinks back on its haunches. But then it returns with a vengeance, drawing nourishment and strength from the after effects of the bombs. Over 48 hours it becomes clear that the storm isn't going to die. It is stronger than ever and still heading straight for the tower. Bombs were the wrong choice it seems.

(Phelan could have been a hero. Thousand factors, chaotic systems, hard to predict the outcome but a true synergy wasn't the first choice)

Storm hits and it is just as bad as predicted. There is nothing to do but to hunker down, grit teeth and do emergency damage control. The hull is battered, chewed, hammered, pummeled and ripped by wind and hurled objects at projectile speeds. The whole tower sways and moans and rocks, and there is no place you can shut out the sound of the elements.

The expected dam busters do not come, but massive power is still routed down there to keep the barrier safe. Worry about keeping the fusion reactor safe.

There is a glitch, or perhaps a short power failure. Some of the guns are kicked offline for a few seconds, and in that span of time a huge rock slips past the defenses and hammers into the AR45 gun - a powerful gun of newer design. It's controls are destroyed, locking the barrel in an awkward position and leaving a gaping hole in the area controlled by the tower defenses. Seconds after, a Volkswagon-sized rock follows, smashing into the tower at the most unfortunately angle possible. The hull is ripped wide open by the impact, and the huge projectile tears a path of destruction through internal areas. Explosions follow, and in the blink of an eye the top is gone, sucked up by the screeching winds and tossed across the tundra above the canyon.

A good handful of people die - those that was on damage control watch in the upper areas or oversaw the defense system. The guns as well as equipment are lost. And the tower core, the very center of the tower where terran DNA and floatbeds are stored, is exposed to the elements. Not only danger of furter material damages, but also microbial invasion as the wind literally pushes into them down into the core.

In the midst of the howling chaos, people have to mount an emergency expedition to seal off the core by placing a massive metal plate hundreds of meters wide. More are killed during the extremely difficult work. When the storm finally dies down after weeks of terror, the death toll is 147 people - many of those first generations.

...

After the Big one, high-powered sonic guns were installed instead of the first projectile ones to deal with scatter issues - when rocks were hit, they simply broke up into smaller and sometimes still dangerous parts.

Teutychnus Orei falls apart soon after - nobody wants to work with somebody who is basically responsible for loosing the top and killing many people. Phelan himself joined one of the first few salvage crews to venture out on the tundra in an attempt to reach the severed top. 'Link contact was lost during a weak blizzard. He was never seen or heard from again. 

Note: He is definitely out there still, either dead or alive. Perhaps he managed to reach the top and leave interesting things for players to find before he died.