The Ganoltir Project Forum

You load your belongings in the gravcars and climb in. With Creed driving, and Pia and Martine following once again, you leave the warehouse behind making your way across the city towards Dystra Falls.

It takes you nearly an hour to cross the city, as you hit the start of the rush hour traffic, but once you near the outskirts again you are able to make quicker progress. You soon reach the tunnel, which similarly to Medus Landing, connects the surface port to the rest of the city. A small Diktat outpost has been constructed at the tunnel entrance and a couple of soldiers stand to either side of the tunnel with their guns drawn, however as you turn into the tunnel - joining the other traffic which appears to mostly be automated cargo containers and a few other commercial vehicles - the guards pay you little attention.

As you drive, the road gradually takes you upward towards the surface. Every few hundred meters you pass under large emergency bulkheads, ready to drop should a collapse of part of the tunnel expose the city's climate to the hostile atmosphere above. The port is a similar distance from the city to Medus Landing and after about ten minutes the road levels off. The automated containers ahead of you peel off, headed down a separate smaller tunnel which likely leads more directly to the cargo area of the port, but signs direct you to continue forward where the tunnel opens up into a large parking lot.

Creed pulls into a vacant space, and Pia follows suit. Across the lot you can see the large doors of the port's main entrance, outside which several taxis wait along with a few vans being loaded and unloaded.

Cass keeps his eyes out for the Diktat guards as they drive past, but not so intense enough to draw suspicion. Shouldn't have trouble yet. We're behaving.

As they pull into a vacant space of the parking lot, Cass sits forward, nodding to their driver. "Alright, Creed, what's next? We supposed to call him again or something?"

Hikaru glances out the window uneasily as they drive through the tunnels, watching the Diktat guards with slight fear. I can't wait to be off this oppressive planet. No one should live in this kind of fear all the time. He feels relieved as they make it through unphased and arrive at the parking area without issue. This looks pretty... normal. I guess it's just a normal landing, like the one way up top.

He settles into his seat, relaxing for a moment, as he glances towards Creed.Guess this is all riding on him. Hope his connection actually pulls through for us.

Creed spends most of the drive looking casual. No point drawing attention, not even a bit. Eventually, he pulls into the parking spot he found and took a few moments to relax, slowly easing his hands off the steering wheel.

"It's been a little w-while since I've seen him. I trust him, but I don't know what else has changed in the last few weeks. I think we all know to stay on our guard regardless." He says, mostly to himself but also directed at everyone in the car. "Let's go." He climbs out of the car.

Eridas leads the others into the dock and heads over to where Rica normally parks his ship, hoping he's there still.

Creed leads the group across the parking lot and into the port. The walls and ceilings here are carved out of stone rather than ice like most of the city. Stepping into the port, you find yourselves in a large atrium dotted with seating and large boards displaying arrivals, departures, and berth information.

"The Royal Neimodia, bound for The Idarete Platform, will be departing from Hanger 5 in ten minutes," an announcement rings out around the atrium. "The Avis Sabre from Tul Ruprima will be landing at Pad 6 in twenty four minutes. These announcements are powered by Alfred - Idarete's cutting edge infrastructure VI. Making our lives easier."

Looking at the screens, Creed spots the Red Caelestis - Rica Daaray's shuttle - is listed as berthed in Hanger 3. He leads to to the side of the atrium and down a large corridor. As the leave the atrium, the annoucments switch to a short version of the Escriosian anthem with is followed by a recruitment drive for their navy which trails off as you walk further down the corridor.

You soon reach a row of large hangers. They are large open hangers carved into the side of the cliffs the ports is built inside of, with large doors which function like an airlock, allowing the hangers to be pressurised and sealed off from the outside, and then closed off from the rest of the port to be depressurised so a craft can leave.

Reaching Hanger 3, you find the port side doors open revealing the large hanger inside. Three different shuttle craft are parked inside as dock workers are busy unloading and loading them. Creed leads you to the furthest of the three craft, a medium sized shuttle, about 15 metres long. A bearded man, probably in his late thirties with his temples beginning to grey, stands nearby it, looking over a dataslab while a couple of dock workers move some crates out from the shuttle. As you near him he looks up at smiles.

"Creed!" He says, putting the dataslab down on a nearby crate to extend a hand to his fellow pilot. "It's been a little while," he begins before glancing at the other six of you. "I wasn't expecting so many of you. Something to do with this job you mentioned?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

As he walks through the port, Cass peers around at the traffic in and out. Last time I was here was only a few weeks back, he remembers, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Wonder what Creed's boss is up to now that Idarete's drier than water in vacuum.

When they approach Rica's shuttle, Cass stays quiet, leaving the talking to their reserved pilot. He seems to do best when he's not meeting somebody new.

Tess does her best to relax on the car ride over, but the thought of their score to come makes it difficult. Her itch to nab items from her clients had never grown so large she'd even consider a car or other large items, let alone an entire ship, and excitement at the prospect mixes with worry in her mind about the consequences of failure. This isn't something we will walk away from if we don't succeed.

The landing seems familiar to her, having only recently passed through a port to arrive to the planet. It is so much dingier than the landings on Strocho. Let's hope the ships run just as good, and that this guy is worth trusting, she thinks, as they meet with Creed's pilot companion. Last thing we need is a Diktat loyalist learning of our plan and ratting us out to the marines. She looks to Creed expectantly, hoping he has enough clout with the other man to earn them a lift.

Creed walks over to Rica, smiling. "It's good to see you too, Rica. Sorry, I should have mentioned that they were coming." He nodded. "They're involved with it. I'd like to talk somewhere a little more private though if you don't mind." He relaxes a little now, putting his hands in his pockets.

Daaray looks around, glancing at the nearby dock workers. He begins walking, gesturing with his head for you to follow. He leads you to the side of the hanger, far enough away from anyone working to be well out of earshot.

"Well, lay it on me then," he says, lowering his voice in addition to the extra distance. "Sounds like this is something big with the secrecy and the large crew," he says as he leans against the wall of the hanger.

No red flags so far, Cass thinks as he stays quiet. Looks like this Daaray's got an decent op going on here. He crosses his arms, standing in the back of the group.

Hikaru eyes Rica cautiously, not yet knowing if they can trust the man just because Creed claims they can. Can't be too careful with how things are here. Especially with how crazy this idea is. He watches the conversation go down, eager to see how Creed plays this, but ready to step in if needed. Dude stumbles with his words half the time. Let's see if he can pull this off. I'll be impressed if he can.

Creed walks over with Rica and nods, knowing enough to just try and act casual. "W-we've got to get out of here quick, a-and to that end, we need a ship. So, we need your help getting up to the surface to get to one of the old ports." Eridas pauses for a moment. "I understand how t-these things go, you need to watch out for yourself first, so... if things go well, we just need you to get us there. If things go bad, well... we won't be getting out anyways." He takes a deep breath. "I can't offer you much in return, but I'm sure we can come to an agreement."

Daaray runs his thumb and forefinger through his beard as Creed talks.

"Well a run to one of the other surface ports wouldn't cost you too much regardless. They're not far. Although you could just take a gravcar rather than rent a shuttle to get to any of them. Well apart from Med-," he says, cutting himself off mid sentence as things appear to click into place for him. He spends a moment thinking before speaking again.

"I could submit a flight plan from a survey far from the city, that'd take me close by, then drop you off a kilometre or two from Medus Landing and continue on as normal. Getting you any closer than that would probably involve being shot at, which I try my best to avoid," he proposes.

"Yeah, one klick out could actually work," Cass thinks aloud, mostly to himself. He looks up at Daaray, nodding. "That'd put us pretty close and keep you in the dark. When's your shuttle free? And more importantly, what's your rate?"

"I should be done here in a couple of hours. Then I don't have anything scheduled for a couple of days," Daaray replies, turning his attention from Creed to Cass. He pauses to think for a second, counting on a couple of his fingers, presumably doing some mental arthimatic.

"I'm presuming you all need Vacc Suits, and I'm not going to get them back, but I'll do it for 1300 credits," he proposes.

"I ... think we can do 1300, that's reasonable." Eridas nods, thinking. "Yeah, yeah that works just fine. We'd have to pool our money together a bit." He pauses to think. "I suppose it was my plan. I can put forward half the cost on my own. I'll give what I have for a chance to get off this rock."

Tess listens as Creed negotiates, and is surprised how effective he is when in his element and dealing with people he already knows. Listening as the man names his price, she turns to her friend and gives him a smirk. "1300 credits is hardly anything to you, right? Most of my credits just went into, uh, other purchases. Do you mind covering my portion?" she asks Hikaru, walking closer as she speaks and putting her arm around him.

"1300," Cass repeats quietly, running the numbers. That'd be 325 if we split it between the four of us, not including Glitter's gang. I don't even have 300, he considers, a bitter frown forming on his face.

"I can pitch in 250 max," he finally says aloud, a bit surprised that Tess has also found herself running low on funds.

Hikaru grits his teeth at the mention of price, knowing his companion spent the bulk of their recent earnings on their own toys. Just had to buy a billion guns... He sighs, looking towards Tess before moving his eyes across the other liabilities. I guess whatever it takes to get off this backwater and someplace we can get some real cash. He pulls out his compad, checking his current balance.

"I guess I'll cover the rest, with what you guys are pitching in," he says, hoping he won't become everyone's personal bank going forward.

Hikaru, Cass and Creed transfer their shares over to Daaray, who double checks his compad before turning back to you.

"Well the Red Caelestis is at service," he says with a smile. "Pilot included," he says with a chuckle, glancing at Creed.

"As I said I just be done unloading in a couple of hours so meet me back here in two hours. Unless you need more time?" He adds. "If not go grab some food or something in the terminal," he says moving to head back towards his shuttle if no one stops him.

Mechanics

[SHOW]

Creed spends 650 credits, down to 15
Cass spends 250 credits, down to 29
Hikaru spends 400 credits, down to 1246

"I guess we'll get some lunch." Creed shrugs and looks back at the others. "No reason to stand around."

"See you in two hours," Cass agrees, watching the shuttle owner depart. Two whole hours before we can make this shitshow happen? Well, fuck. That's enough time for my nerves to get me to back out.

Turning to the others, he shrugs too. "Too nervous to be hungry. But I should probably get some grub. We got everything we need?"

"If you all got everything from the car, then yeah," Hikaru says, glancing at the nervous man. "And relax, would you? Nothing'll make you stick out like looking like a nervous wreck. And then you're ripe for a random search." I would know. I probably got searched five times my first day here. He sighs, shaking his head.

"Let's just get some food. Waiting around here won't do us any good."

"Thanks!" Tess responds to her friend with a smirk, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. Two whole hours to kill before the big job. This is always the worst part. Sitting. Waiting. It's good for making you overthink things. Grabbing her gun from the car, she continues, now more quietly to match the tone of the others.

"We should all eat, hungry or not. We have a lot of ground to cover in a harsh atmosphere, and then probably a fight on our hands." She looks to the three newcomers as she speaks, curious to see how they react and if they are showing any signs of backing out. "Last thing we need is to run out of steam during any part of that."

"Yeah," Cass nods knowingly to Hikaru with a sigh. "Yeah. Don't have to tell me twice about random searches. With the Diktat there's anything but random searches. That's how I ended up in— " He sighs again, swatting the story away with an lazy hand.

"A fight," he repeats of Tess, sucking at his teeth. Hope the FNGs are ready for blood. Can't say I'm excited to break into a military-held airbase, but the longer we stay here, the less time we have until either the Diktat or the League find us anyway. He takes his compad out, searching for any nearby food options.

OOC

[SHOW]

What food is within walking distance, Google-Maps-Jake?

Cass turns his nose up at the cheap sushi. That shit will turn your digestive system into slag. Don't want to be blowing chunks if we're going to be trekking on the surface.

"Noodles? Otherwise there's some vending machines. Something light might be best, considering."

"Vending machine is best, I think," Tess says, as she begins to slowly walk in that direction. "The fewer people we interact with the better. Less people to give us away when the Diktat eventually comes asking questions after they notice a ship is missing." And when is the last time anyone ever had a pleasant interaction with the folks working at a port food stall? No one wants to go there, least of all the employees.

Hikaru's eye catches the sushi place for a moment before he shakes his head and looks the other way. Nothing good'll come of that. This planet doesn't even have any fucking oceans. He sighs, tracing towards the vending machines Tess had mentioned. "Vending machines it is, then. Hope they have more than cheap snack cakes and whatever sugary crap companies try to pass as food." Delicious, but ugh... they make me feel like death after an hour.

You make your way to the vending machines which luckily - due to mostly catering to people returning from long journeys in space - have a selection of prepackaged meals as well as the standard snacks you'd expect to find. You spend the next couple of hours eating and milling about in the port's main concourse waiting for the Red Caelestis to be prepped for launch.

Eventually Daaray texts Creed and you head back to the hanger bay. Rica stands by his ship, now wearing a red and white Vacc Suit with The Red Caelestis written on the arms in large letters. The metal connecting pieces of his suit bear many scratches and you can spot more than one emergency repair patch on the fabric of the suit.

Laid out in front of him are another seven Vacc Suits. There appear to be a few different models of suit in varying colours - likely just whatever Daaray could find in the last couple of hours - but they all appear to be in good condition with no more than some slight signs of use. "Grab a suit and let's get this show on the road," Daaray says with a smirk as you arrive.

Along with Marko, Pia and Martine, you each pick out a suit and don it. Daaray assisting the couple of you less familiar with the procedures of space travel outside of civilian liners. Once you are suited up, Daaray opens the side hatch of shuttle closest to you and helps you load your gear.

Most of the interior of the shuttle is a cargo bay - currently empty apart from a couple of small boxes which are strapped down to the floor. The cargo bay is lined with fold down seats and harnesses along the side bulkheads, with an opening to the cockpit at the front and a large door for bigger cargo at the rear.

"You're up front with me Creed, doesn't hurt to have a co-pilot. Everyone else grab a seat and strap in," Daaray says, his voice now coming through your suit radios, before stepping into the cockpit and taking his seat.

The Red Caelestis

[SHOW]

Mechanics

[SHOW]

Vending Machine Costs
Creed spends 2 credits, down to 13
Cass spends 2 credits, down to 27
Hikaru spends 2 credits, down to 1244
Tess spends 2 credits, down to 372

Inventory
You each gain a Vacc Suit (Encumbrance 2)

Eager to be aboard the Red Caelestis, Cass changes into his vac suit and takes a deep breath. Sayonara, Idarete.

Pulling his toolbox from his pack, he turns to the others. "Anyone able to bring this along? With all these tools and guns and shit I'm not going to be able to keep up if we're trekking the surface."

OOC

[SHOW]

Overencumbered by 2 now with the vac suit. Anyone able to hold onto my 3 ENC Posttech Toolkit for now?

Eridas, now suited up and ready to go, nods at Daaray. "I'll be your co-pilot, I mean... I might as well, I am asking you to do this." He wanders up to the front with him and takes a deep breath. "Alright, Daaray, anything special I need to know?" Creed asks as he starts to go through his checklist, making sure that the fuel is where it needs to be, and that the right switches are flipped. "We should be ready to go when you are."

OOC

[SHOW]

Eridas will help carry Cass' post-tech toolkit temporarily.

Hikaru looks down at the Vacc Suit and grimaces. They certainly don't make these fashionable. I guess there won't be paparazzi hiding on the surface, so it'll be fine... He quickly dons it and steps into the shuttle, the weight of the suit reminding him of the vigorous training he'd gone through before his last tour, only he was forced to carry sound equipment up and down flights of stairs.

He eyes the pilot uncomfortably as Creed is volunteered to be the copilot. Oh god, so this is how it all ends then... Maybe we'll be fine, and we'll get off this backwater planet and everything will be... fine.

"Thanks, Creed," Cass says in a hushed voice as he slides his toolbox into the man's pack, careful not to interrupt the pre-flight rundown with Daaray.

He goes to one of the pull-down seats and straps in, taking a deep breath — trying to relax, but failing. I know it's just some Diktat dumbasses that are guarding the landing, but damn... this seems like a lot. We really ready to just assault their compound?

OOC

[SHOW]

Posttech toolkit is now in Creed's inventory.

"Nothing I can think of - If I'm forgetting anything we'll soon find out when we make a bumpy unscheduled landing," Daaray replies to Creed with a chuckle as he joins the man in the cockpit of the shuttle. He takes his seat and joins Creed in the pre-flight checks.

Marko, Pia and Martine board after the rest of you, with Marko taking the seat next to Hikaru, and the door slowly begins to lower. It locks in place with a thud and a hiss as the compartment is pressurised.

Up front, without looking up from his console, Daaray gives Creed a thumbs up and flicks another switch. The whole shuttle shudders with the roar of the ship's drive starting up, before the vibrations quickly settling down as in begins to idle.

"Tower, the Red Caelestis is ready for takeoff," Daaray's voice crackles across your Vacc Suit radios which he presumably already connected to the ship's communications before you arrived.

"Roger that Red Caelestis, you are cleared for takeoff, cycling the hanger now," comes the reply after a moment.

An alarm sounds in the hanger, accompanied by several yellow flashing lights spaced out along the hanger walls. lasting for about twenty seconds. The shuttle's view screens display the feed from its external cameras. You see a large metal bulkhead begins to slide out from the wall of the hanger, sealing the hanger off from the rest of the spaceport. The few dockworkers around the hanger either make their way back into the corridor before the door traps them inside or they put on Vacc suit helmets and continue working.

After about twenty seconds the door reaches the other wall of the hanger fully sealing it off and the alarm and lights subside, however almost instantaneously they are replaced by a different alarm and this time the lights flash red instead of yellow.

"Not long now. They pump out the breathable air and then pump in the air from the surface. No point wasting good air," Daaray explains as he lounges back in his chair, clearly familiar with the wait. Outside the sound of the alarm begins to fade, a brief silence follows before the sound returns as the air from the surface fills the hanger.

There is a loud groan as the exterior hanger door's mechanism begins to retract. As it does large icicles break free, plunging down into the darkness at the foot of the cliffs the port is built into. The hanger's lights illuminate a few metres of the exterior but this high up there is nothing to see other than the flurry of snow racing past the hanger in the blizzard conditions outside. As the door finishes retracting two lines of green lights appear on the hanger floor leading from the Red Caelestis to the door.

"Here we go! Ladies and Gentlemen please make sure your seat back and folding trays are in their full upright position, Daaray says over the radio, taking on a mocking professional tone. The shuttle lifts from the floor as he engages the manoeuvring thrusters. He begins to throttle up the main engine and the ship lurches forward rapidly gaining speed.

Tess eats her vending machine food quickly and without much care for the taste, something she's had to do several times in her life, though not much recently. She then puts her vacc suit on over her undersuit, careful to make sure all gaps are sealed and that the suit is in full working order. I'll have to find a better one later, she thinks, as she notices the tacky mismatched color scheme of her suits and those of her companions.

As the group piles into the Red Caelestis, her heart sinks a bit. For all the toughness she tries to exude in front of others, she has never grown comfortable with being in ships. She'd only been in them twice in her life, once to move homes as a child, and once to come to Idarete, and neither time was she able to fully adjust to the strangeness of being in space. While she knows this trip is only across the planet surface, her anxiety about their impending escape from Idarete still plagues her now as if it were happening immediately. Let's get this over with.

His stomach churning from anxiety, Cass' mind cycles through their plans, idly chewing at a spot on his lip until he notices the copper taste. Damnit. With a sleeve of his vacc suit he wipes his lip and stares up at the others.

"Once we touch down, let's see where we're at and make a plan," Cass shouts over the noisy shuttle interior. We'll be free of any shit that might be recording us, too. Daaray probably doesn't know or care about what we do, but it's better to be safe.

Hikaru takes a shallow breath, grasping onto his seat as they prepare for takeoff. Here's hoping this piece of scrap doesn't become our tomb. He glances across the cargo hold, and at his companions. Little different accommodations from when I got here. How the fuck did I end up in this? He feels his stomach begin to turn as the craft starts its takeoff, notably less comfortable compared to those on the passenger crafts he's been used it. He, however, feels immediate relief when he realizes they haven't spontaneously exploded.

Guess there's still time. That was the easy part. He looks towards Cass, noting the reddened lip, and nods. Guess he's nervous. But who wouldn't be. He sighs. "Yeah... I doubt this'll be easy, but no going back now, huh?"

"Well assuming we survive this, you might want to request a change in character for your band," Tess replies to her friend, forcing the best snarky look she can in light of her own steadily increasing anxiety. "You have steadily inched closer and closer to the 'bad boy' the last couple days." She lightly chuckles, thinking how different this all must be for the others, yet how similar - if to a new extreme - it is to her recent endeavors.

Creed smirks as he feels the ship pick up speed, and he enjoys the slight feel of inertia as it adjusts to moving as opposed to being stationary. "That never stops feeling good." He says with a bit of a laugh.

The shuttle soars out of the hanger before banking to the left bumping around in the turbulent atmosphere. Outside, the shuttle's external cameras adjust to the darkness and on the view screens you can see Dystra Falls themselves, illuminated by the what light from the black hole's accretion disc manages to pierce its way through the planet's thick cloud layer. The falls tower above the cliffs the space port is built into - a colossal wall of ice nearly 2 kilometres tall, frozen in place for the millions of years since the systems star collapsed into the black hole it is today.

Further to the South a few bright lights from the city dot the surface - although there are far fewer than you'd expect for a city of Idarete's size due to its subterranean nature. The lights surround the huge column of lights of the city's space elevator which ascends as far up as you can see before disappearing into the clouds above dwarfing even the size of the frozen waterfall beside you. Many of the lights slowly move along the column, large cargo and passenger cars making the long journey up and down from the platform in orbit.

"It's quite the view," Daaray says over the radio, as the shuttle finishes turning and begins to climb, gaining altitude and gaining more speed.

The ship banks again and you begin racing around the outskirts of the city before peeling off a few minutes later veering away from the city and towards Medus Landing.

As the lights of the city and the space elevator begin to shrink behind you Daaray speaks again. "I'm reducing our speed and dropping down closer to the ground. Hopefully they won't spot us coming but if they do the survey flight plan I filed should provide a good cover. Landing for too long will look suspicious though so get ready as you'll have to bail quickly. If I am showing up on their sensors but get moving again quick enough they'll probably assume it's just a glitch or something, he says as you feel the shuttle begin to slow down. As it slows the ride becomes smoother to the point where you shouldn't have a problem walking around the interior of the shuttle.

He's covering his ass, Cass notes, not one to blame the shuttle owner. Daaray's got his own op here. He's already doing Creed a favor even accepting cred for this sort of danger to him.

The ex-navy tech stares out over the brutal yet beautiful landscape of ice and steel, his gaze finally turning to the black hole that had swallowed the star long before. Just a few more hours and we can put this place behind us.

Hikaru feels his stomach churn as the ship rattles and zooms through the frigid realm beyond the steel walls. Between the cheap vending machine meal, the turbulent ride, and the unending pangs of nervousness, the pop star feels as though he's about to lose his lunch. Holding onto his stomach, he takes a few deeps breaths until he begins to feel slightly okay again. It'll be fine. Everything will be fine, he tries to reassure himself.

As the shuttle begins its descent and gradually slows down, he turns to Marko, and then the others in the cargo hold. "I guess this is it. We're really doing this, point of no return. He mentally takes note of that, wondering if it may work as a song title. He stands up, placing a hand against the wall to keep his balance, and eyes the shuttle's exit. "Just say the word when we need to get out," he replies back to their pilot, heartbeat beginning to intensify as nervousness subsides and adrenaline takes over.

Creed's face betrays an almost childlike sense of joy as he enjoys the feel of the ship moving and turning before it's speed eventually normalizes. He watches the viewport in front of him which allows him to see the world speed by like a blur around them.

Tess does her best to maintain her calm as they begin their descent, which for her is the most nerve-wracking part of any flight. Not much longer and we will be on the ground, in a deadly atmosphere, marching to a suicide mission. Why is that less scary than these ships?

A couple of minutes later the shuttle now speeds over the landscape no more than a few metres above the icy ridges that protrude up from the snowfields.
"Thirty seconds out. Make sure your lid's on," Daaray says.

You feel the shuttle begin to decelerate, once it's nearly at a stop Rica begins to take her down. As he does, he hits another button on his console the side doors of the shuttle hiss as they begin to open. Outside the snow whips past, stirred up from ground by the shuttle's thrusters, revealing the rocky surface beneath - its colour nearly completely black in the dim light.

About a metre from the ground the shuttle stops descending. "This is it folks, Medus Landing should be just a short walk to the North West. I'll see you around, " Daaray says over the radio again, before giving Creed a nod and a friendly pat on the arm with his gloved hand.

You drop out of the shuttle along with Pia, Martine and Marko. As the last two of you hit the ground, the shuttle begins ascending once again as its doors begin to close. A few seconds later it shoots forward, quickly disappearing over the horizon.

"Well only one way to go now," Pia says, gesturing to the North West as she slings her backpack over her shoulder.

"Seeya 'round," Cass shouts back, though he knows that if they are succesful, he will probably never see the man again.

With a steady step he disembarks the shuttle, landing with both feet planted firmly on the frigid rock beneath him. Taking a deep breath, he nods at Pia.

"No turning back, now," he says over the vacc suit radio channel. He starts trudging his way toward the northwest.

"Let's figure out how we're gonna approach. Quiet? With force? Diplomatic? You got a face some of these goons might recognize, Glitter. That could be a good thing, or a bad thing."

Hikaru gulps, knowing this is it. All that awaits is the unforgiving surface of a backwater planet. Guess we shouldn't expect things to go smoothly, but I hope they do. He takes a composed breath and responds over the radio, "Thanks for the lift."

With as much grace as possible in the clunky suit, he steps out of the shuttle, landing sturdily on the ground with a light thud. He looks ahead into the darkness and frowns, unsure what it might hold ahead. Looking to Cass, he says, "Doubt going with force is our best play. Who knows how many people they've got there and how quickly they can get more?" He shrugs. "Even if they recognized me, who the fuck would believe 'em? Everyone'd think they were nuts. But even so, I think a subtler approach would be better."