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"The left cup has hot chocolate." He replied. The arm stopped spinning as the support was severed. The arm was brought back, before it slammed into the ice, shattering it. Something red slammed into the cockpit instantly, before rearing back and slamming into the cockpit again, it repeated this motion several times, driving the Rig back. At one point it stopped, and the view was clear of any Akrid. "What the..."

Petra clenched her teeth as the ice shattered from the Rig's impact, and only had half a moment to release her breath when something red hit the cockpit. She yelped, flinching back before the thing drove a second and third time against them.

Quickly she flicked back the hair covering her cybernetic eye, checking for infrared heat signature. Was it giving off heat? She'd be able to tell if it was. And then cursed herself. If any of the creatures with the heated fuel source within them were nearby, she should have checked that first!

Oh well, hindsight was twenty-twenty. Or in her case, twenty-zero. "Uh, was that an Akrid?" she asked belatedly--the coffee all but forgotten.

"Scorpion Akrid." Joe replied. "Or a Crab Akrid. Class L." He said. "The ones I had planned to fight were class S and M." The Rig started moving again, until the cave was too small for the rig. Joe opened the cockpit, and propelled down with the rope. He started walking to the entrance of the smaller cave, that seemed much bigger without the Rig.

Wren eased down on the thrusters of her ship as she entered the atmosphere of E.D.N III, heading on a direct course for the mining installation, looping around the region to sheer off her momentum releasing a sonic boom as she dropped beneath the sound barrier. Once she was going at more reasonable speed she clicked on her comms unit, "This is Wren Tain to NEVEC mining installation, I repeat this is Wren Tain to mining installation please reply... mining installation?" She waited for a few seconds, "Hello? you guys all asleep down there? I need landing clearance, I can't keep this bird circling up here forever. Some of us don't sit on a frozen ice ball made of fuel."

Idling the time away as she waited for a response, Wren cycled through her fighter's sensor array and came up with several interesting readings, most she dismissed as being heat and magnetic signatures from the mining installation itself, but one signature some distance from the structure seemed to indicate a large artificial object. A quick search for objects with the corresponding characteristics flagged it as a mining Rig, 87% probability. She decided to signal the Rig rather than the base, gambling on the fact that it was manned and someone would respond, "I know you lot are understaffed, but you could at least have left someone to look after your comms. Please tell me there's someone down there with authority to give me landing clearance. I'm not much one for rules, but I need to know if that landing pad is up to scratch. I'm not crashing my Valkyrie if I can help it. If not then I'm going to have to land this bird somewhere else and walk."

"This is Joe Bucher, head miner of the Echelon crew. You are free to land, please do so in the Rig Bay, we don't want your ship freezing solid during the next storm." Joe said over the comm line. "We will come back to this area in a while, we need to pick up our new member." Joe said as he pulled them back into the Rig. "If you have any questions about E.D.N. III or it's inhabitants, feel free to ask over the comm."

She smiled, "Finally someone alive down there... Rig Bay... got it." Wren's hands danced across the controls of her ship as she set a course that would bring her to the installation's Rig Bay. The sleek fighter circled one last time around the base before swooping down to enter the bay, landing neatly and elegantly in the nearest berth she could reach. Once the small vessel was settled wren pulled off her helmet and ran her hand through her close-cut hair, "Questions? Eh, just three things; who was the wise guy who named this frozen rock E.D.N III? How often will I be able to fly around here? And do those Akrid things you lot suck the blood out of die if you shoot them enough?"

"The planet was named before we got here. Some guy at NASA, it started like that back when they stopped calling planets actual names. I wouldn't suggest flying too much, as you might get stuck in a high level storm. I got the Rig frozen in an Emperor storm once, almost died when Akrid realized that I was nearly defenseless in the weather. As for the Akrid, depends on what kind it is, and where you shoot." Joe said as the Rig neared the Rig Bay.

Wren made a face, her disgust plain in her voice, "Great, they send me to a place where I'll be grounded most of the time. The brass haven't got a brain cell between them, and even less sense." she shook her head, "I'm sure a couple of blasts from my shotgun will take your bugs down. I've found that things tend to die if you shoot them enough times."

Wren activated her cockpit control and the canopy slid back, letting her clamber out. The vessel had cooled down now, but was still a little warm to the touch. Once she was out she laid a hand on the hull and patted it, "Well, looks like we won't be flying for a while old girl... don't get too sulky." She smiled and shook her head, before activating her personal comms unit and clipping it to the front of her flight suit, "One last question... where're the crew quarters? I'd like to get a shower and get changed into something a little nice than this flight suit before I go... do whatever the hell they sent me down here to do. Shoot things probably."

"Third floor, final room on the right." Joe said. "There should be an enviromental suit designed for you on your bunk." Joe said as the Rig entered the Rig Bay.

Wren nodded to herself and headed to the exit of the bay, but then she saw the Rig entering and headed over, she gave a quick wave, "I'll go get cleaned up, we can introduce ourselves properly after that." She said into the comm, "In the meantime... make sure you don't damage my ship with that thing. Not even a scratch. A dinner date with a whole Akrid hive, stripped naked, without any kind of weapon or protection and tied up will be heaven compared to what I'd do to anyone who hurts my Valkyrie."

With that friendly threat issued Wren sauntered off to find a shower and the environmental suit she'd been issued. Once she was finished getting cleaned and dressed she headed back to the Rig Bay so she could introduce herself properly.

(Let's wait for Petra, which might be a day or so.)

(I'm going to sleep anyway, it's late.)

(Thanks for waiting to let me catch up!--we should probably keep to an order so no one gets skipped.)

Petra started in surprise when someone radioed in unexpectedly, but her surprise quickly turned to amusement as Joe piloted their rig around.

"She sounds like a spitfire," Petra mused aloud. "But I think we can use all the help we can get for combatting these Akrids." She shook her head sharply, throwing the short blonde hair over her cybernetic eye once again, now that it wasn't likely she would need to use it.

(I'm thinking two posts per person until everyone gets their turn. So it can continue to a level without waiting every two posts.)

"We can use all the help we can get." Joe said as the Rig docked. "We'll save that expedition for later."

(Sounds like a good idea to me)

Wren walked over to the pair exiting the Rig, wearing the environmental suit she'd been provided with. At her hip was a pistol, within easy reach of her right hand and strapped to her back was a shotgun, she also had a small knife in a sheath on her left. She looked over them both with a quick, analytical eye, then she smiled and saluted crisply, "Lieutenant Wren Tain, pilot formerly of the carrier Illustrious, reporting for duty." She didn't seem all that surprised by Petra's cybernetic replacements and enhancements, but perhaps she'd encountered a cyborg or two during her time in the Navy.

Petra chuckled, following Joe out of the Rig to meet Wren Tain, a smile pulling at her lips as she remembered her own crisp salute and Joe's reaction to it.

"Welcome, Lieutenant Tain," said Petra, returning the crisp salute. "I'm Petra Strolark. It'll be nice to have some backup with us."

"There's no need for a salute here. We barely have enough order to get paid, much less enough to have a system of respect." Joe said. "I'm Joe Bucher, head miner of the operations here."

(The time zone for this is right as space travel became normal. NEVEC wasn't considered evil yet, because they were still relatively new and able to keep secrets a bit better. They were considered evil because of what they would do to keep profits up.)

(I don't see why they would. Again, this is before NEVEC was considered bad. At the time, they were seen as a group of people who could fuel humankind again. NEo VEnus Corporations. This was before their military and power campaigns.)

(Really what they are hated for has already happened, but they have managed to hide it so far. They've made several bad calls, and only a few future ones will be plain to see. You're welcome to, but there wouldn't be much use it blowing up the Rig, it isn't armed for battle. The most it can do is hold down a Class L or G Akrid and drill it's weakspots. NEVEC isn't allowing it to have weapons attached, or else it would be considered a military campaign instead of a mining campaign.