The tang of the metal all around him did not invade his nostrils due to the pressurized suit he wore. The junkyards of Milix Five were often picked through by scavengers of all stripes from across the Empire. Today, however, was an exception to that rule thanks to the work of the Harrow Corporation. A geological survey was under way, and the planet had been placed under a Level 1 quarantine with nothing but approved vessels in or out of the system, much less the planet itself. Such as it was when the Champlain III had come into orbit and this particular team had made the drop down into one of the particular areas for the first phase of excavation efforts.
Andrew Caitlinson walked along the literal mountains of debris, the flotsam and jetsam of hundreds of vessels having been smashed, crushed, and compacted together by impact, weapons damage, or just time and left only the fragments of empty shells of what they had once been.
"Alright, lads. We scoop this up and we'll all be hitting the year end bonus a little early!" The leader of the group, another man in another pressurized suit spoke through the commlink to Andrew and the others. "Caitlinson! Get your stabilizing rod ready! We're moving into retrieval!" Andrew quickly raised the metallic rod he'd been holding in his hand, holding it parallel with himself and over the spot within the debris mounds that it would need to go on the signal from his superior. He did not have to look back to see the three others doing the same. "Alright! NOW!" The four rods were slotted into the ground, a pair of lights - one red and one white - flickered into life. "Alright, the retrieval field is stable! Stand clear!" The five suited humanoids quickly moved out of the way, moving beyond the perimeter created by the rods. As soon as they were clear of it, arcs of energy traversed the space between the four rods, forming a kind of net.
"There's our girl!" Andrew looked up at the words of his comrade to see the lights coming off the Champlain, the noise of its engines roaring overhead as the vessel took its place over the enclosed area.
"Alright, Champlain. This is Captain Jones giving full clearance! Begin retrieval!" The leader called over the commlink.
"Copy, Captain. Champlain retrieving." The voice of their pilot, Kraisem, came over their commlinks as the belly of the Champlain opened up and a tractor beam shot down toward the ground. The mountain of metal began to rumble beneath them as it was pulled up into the beam and into the ship. The five men on the ground moving back to avoid being pulled into its center.
"Hope this was worth the effort." One of the men commented over the commlink. "You know the company's not gonna reimburse us on the power costs."
"We get this set up for Harrow, we're not gonna need them to reimburse us." Jones said. "Or reimburse me, I think you mean. I own the ship."
"Right, right, Captain. Sorry."
"That's better." Jones said. "Hey, Caitlinson! Are you picking up any access point here?" Andrew realized he was being spoken to and suddenly snapped to attention.
"Sorry, Captain. Checking now." Andrew said, pulling out his handheld scanner. Milix Five had, once upon a time, been a planet for mining rather than scavenging. Instead of dropping the husks of vessels upon it, the former inhabitants had mined it and it had been believed that they'd strip mined the entire thing centuries back.
"What do they even want this rock for, anyway?" One of the others asked. "Things are literal scrapyard."
"It's not ours to question why while the credits are good, Vortex." Jones replied. "How's it looking up there, Kraisem?"
"We're at twenty-six percent, looking good, Captain." Kraisem's voice once more came over the comms. "How's it looking down there?"
"That depends." Jones looked over and raised his voice. "Caitlinson! Have we got the access point?"
"Yes! Yes, Captain! Sorry." Andrew said, having been going over the scans again. "According to the old records, this is Shaft A-126. It should spread out into most of the network."
"Oh, c'mon! C'mon! C'mon!" She was frantically flipping switches for power regulation. The last few patch jobs of rocket had held it together, but she was now seeing the thing was on its last legs. Particularly when it was being fired upon by a duo of enemy combatants.
"Surrender! For the glory of the Sontaran Empire!"
"I'll pass, thanks." Jenny said, activating the slip drive stabilizer. She'd fallen from slip space due to the sudden appearance of the two scout ships and the arsenal of heavy weaponry that had they'd brought along and had tried to use to repaint her hull. With holes. "Any chance you boys could point me to Alfava Metraxis?" The response was another pair of laser blasts. "I guess that answers that question." Her glance over at the sensor panel was showing nothing. Given that they were still in pursuit, she imagined that they weren't flying into a star or the like, but that was little comfort. Pulling open a panel on the side, she with one hand tried to do some rewiring while she still steered the ship.
"Front viewscreen online."
"Okay, not what I was going for, but I'll take it." Jenny said, watching as a large, purple planet came into view before her.
"Planet Milax Five. Based on visuals, five million kilometers and closing..."
"And closing? Why?!" Jenny asked.
"The engines do not have sufficient thrust to escape the planet's gravity well."
"So we're being pulled toward the planet?"
"Affirmative."
"Great. Wonderful." Jenny said, pulling a few more wires about to try and get the sensor grid back online. "I don't suppose you have any good news for me, do you?"
"Life support is onli-" The computer's automated voice began, then another pair of blasts struck the ship, and Jenny could have sworn she heard something sparking. "Life support is offline."
"Oh, you're just full of good news today!" Jenny huffed, with her newfound vision of the world outside her rocket at least allowing her to put her efforts back fully into steering the rocket. "Alright, throw everything we have left into the thrusters. Maybe that will be enough to break us free and-"
"Negative. There is not enough power remaining to provide sufficient thrust. We are still subject to the gravity well of Mila-"
"Yes, yes. Right then." Jenny said, hands on the control yoke. "To the planet, then."
"The environmental conditions of Milax Five are not conducive to-"
"Yeah, yeah. Never the easy road, is it?" Jenny grimaced as she glanced at the planet that they were drawing much, much closer to now. "Don't take anything out of the shields, just the rest." Her grip on the control yoke tightened. "Here goes, Dad..." The rocket careened toward the planet at breakneck speeds...It was indeed an Exploratory rocket, or rather the remains of one that were now almost a jumble with the junk piled underneath every part of it. The thrusters were ice cold by the time they got into close proximity, though they could see the clear trail where the impact had melted not a few pieces of metal that had since cooled. The rocket itself looked like it had been beat up before the wreck, Andrew able to pick out several bits of paneling that were off-shade or just a completely different color from what he presumed had once been a uniform look for the vessel.
"Who are you?" Jones asked as the figure dropped down, showcasing an opaque visor to the Impact Suit that, when they pressed a button on the wrist gauntlet, revealed a woman's face. Unblemished pale skin, blue eyes with a glint of mischief in them, and an angular nose seemingly perfectly proportioned to her face. And a bright smile twisting her lips. "And how did you get from one of the colonies in an exploratory rocket?"
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