Lazarus (Frost Stone)

[Vaelin]

Prospecting

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The ship rattled as it entered the orbit of Omicron Minor, the shuttle inherently voicing its complaint to the extra variables, alongside this vessel would be two others, Nephthys’. They served as escort crafts to the designated cartography team, which were tasked with further exploration of the surface of Toledo. The team inside were gearing up for the inhospitable terrain of the planet’s surface, their objective was simply to find locations which there was either a tactical advantage or where minerals might be found. The equipment they had was pretty standard, drilling probes as well as scanning equipment to get a map of the geographical layout of some terrain. The three crafts land on the surface of the planet, the engines melting the snow under it melting as they cooled down, the two pilots of the craft were the first ones to get out, they were just to stay with the ships. The Cartography team that exited the ship already had its own guards with it who were armed with assault rifles and there were four of them in total, they also doubled as muscle when one of the less physically inclined cartographers needed a hand. Jamey was one of the first cartographers to exit the ship and he did so with a menial show of reluctance with a strong gust of wind causing the man to shiver involuntarily. Jamey hooked his thumbs into the straps of his back pack and casted a glance over his shoulder.

“Let’s get to it, the faster we do this the faster we get back to base where hot chocolate will be waiting for us.” Hot chocolate was something he uses to believe was just a novelty, but with the new found home of Toledo he learned to not take it so for granted, becoming one of the more favorite drinks among those that go to the planet, even more so then alcohol, although it was understandable why some people got heavy in their drinks. He felt a hand on his shoulder as Ruby would pass him giving him a soft smile. His daughter, which he wasn’t so happy that she had followed him into this line of work but she was someone he was to hard to dissuade when she made her mind up. He drew up beside Ruby as she would look down at the map in accordance to where they would need to go, they were already at one corner and would need to trek the rest of the way to the other three points to put the geographical scanners down.

It had been a number of hours of the two trekking through the snow before they came upon a suitable place to put the second scanner node which was set up by Jamey from the backpack he had been lugging about, he gently rubbed at his shoulders trying to remove the soreness as Ruby set the device’s programming as she was more efficient than him at it. He secretly detested technology and that was mostly because of his poor technical skills that never seemed to flourish like his daughters. “First ones set Dad, just got – let’s hope the others aren’t having any complications.” A nervous smile was present on her lips as this was mostly to the fact that these particular devices were of her own creation and this was their first they were being utilized. She moved back some distance and looked on in hope as Jamey touched the PDA equipped to his wrist putting in his authorization code and then held his wrist toward his daughter. “Hey squirt, have the honor’s your device after all and if something goes wrong – least I won’t be at fault.” An easy going chuckle escaped from his lips as his daughter merely smirked back at him and shook her head. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.” This only dispelled her nervousness temporarily as she touched the PDA to enter in the command with a dainty hand, which she drew back and started to wring out. The node activated and started to hover in the air, a red light emitted from it for a few moments before it shifted to one that was less noticeable to human eyes, it started to trace over the landscape.

They had placed several more after they returned to the ship before they finally made camp. The other group of cartographers had checked in via short wave radio some time ago that they had come across a complication and would be along momentarily. Those that had stayed behind to guard the ships had gone to their location to find out what the complication was exactly, leaving just the two Order pilots, Jamey and Ruby at the camp sight. The pair had set up the tents as well as set up the various equipment that they had brought with them for the camp site which helped make it more bearable, one of which was a projector, an old piece of equipment but the two were sentimental and preferred to watch the images on two dimensions rather than the three. They had just put a movie on when ruby noticed a small flickering of light in the distance which caused her to stand up while her hand gripped her father’s shoulder to get his attention, which he turned his head in response to her and the along her line of sight. She moved quickly towards one of the Pilots ship which they preferred to stay in, knocking on the man’s door. Kane opened the back of his Nephthys and lofted a brow at the woman before him and issued a sigh. “Something I can help you with Ruby – I was about to head to slee~.” He found himself pausing when he saw the look on her face and he quickly lost his current demeanor and adopted a more serious one as he quickly got on a coat having not needed for her to speak to know that something was happening, he was one of their requested guards more for the reason that he did not complain and seemed quite secluded which was something Ruby and Jamey had enjoyed due to the nature of the Orders overbearing nature. “I don’t know what’s going on – but only one of those who went out, is coming back – there simply isn’t enough light.” Kane nodded curtly and moved out the door as he processed what she said, he had his rifle ready as he looked to the direction of where she looked and it was true enough there was only one and without radio contact. “Get to the shuttle, Zac and I will handle this.” Ruby hurried to her father, where the both of them locked themselves within the shuttle.

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