I'll be paying a decent amount if its what I want. Write about what will and the other volunteers find on earth
depending on how much I like it I'll toss 50-300fg to you. The story is below.
Edit: must be done by tonight/tomorrow morning.
It was hot and tiring business, mining for Eurictinite on this arid landscape. Climbing down into the dark craters, some of them so deep the sun never reached the bottom. In those, even with the specially enhanced traction on the boots, it was hard to keep your balance, sliding around on thick slabs of ice. It didn’t help that the suits you wore were so big and bulky that it was hard to perform even the simplest of tasks. But Eurictinite had to be mined; this new mineral was used in almost every type of technology and machine on the planet!
Will didn’t like the job at all. He was young though and desperate for money, so he decided he would work this until he obtained enough money to get him a formal education. He had dreams of becoming a major scientist or space explorer and become famous for his discoveries. Right now though, he was stuck doing this terribly boring work.
Sweat condensed on Will’s brow, trickling down his already sweaty face. Despite the cooling system’s efforts the heat still managed to seep through the suit. It was especially bad under the hood because the glass visor did little to vent the sun’s rays. Living on the closest planet to the sun did have its disadvantages.
Will lifted the heavy mining tool out of the Magnetic-Hover Craft. The tool was long and cylindrical. Many levers and buttons for the operation of the machine spotted the sides. On the bottom of the object were three holes in which the material being operated on was loosened and vacuumed out. Will struggled for a few seconds before getting it into a comfortable position and heading down the steep incline of the crater. Once at the bottom he quickly set up and was soon joined by his partner. They didn’t much talk during this; there was a voice COM connection between the suits, but the noise made it much to loud to hear, so the work was usually done in silence.
The machine sputtered to life as Will touched a few buttons and angled it towards where the detector device was instructing. Within a few moments a large chunk of the rocky terrain was removed and underneath a blue, slushy liquid was revealed. This was Eurictinite. A computer inside the mining device immediately switched to retrieval mode and the substance disappeared into a holding tank within the miner. Only an hour and a half left to go, and then they could head back to civilization.
An hour and a half later Will scrambled out of the crater. He was dirty, sweaty, hot, extremely tired and definitely wanted to go home. Inside the cockpit of the Magnetic-Hover Craft the temperature was kept at a much more reasonable heat and there was air to breath, so Will and his partner could finally strip out of their bulky suits. "Your turn to drive." Will’s partner Jeremy said, slumping down into a deep, cushion chair. "But… Ya I guess it is." Will replied, somewhat reluctantly positioning himself in front of the wide window that stretched across the front of the ship. You didn’t actually have to drive the MHC, but you did have to keep an eye out for any malfunction. Crashes at high speeds could easily end up in major injury or even death.
"Thanks." Jeremy mumbled through closed eyes.
The vehicle quickly picked up speed. Hills and dunes of gray rock whizzed by outside. Occasionally the ship would give a little jerk if it ran over any kind of large object, but other than that the ride was smooth. In less than half an hour they were already pulling up to the Community. The Community was basically a gigantic building. Not that tall, but stretching for around 3 miles in each direction. Aside from a few small outposts around the main structure this was where the entire population of Mercury lived. The gray outside fit in very nicely with the surrounding terrain, but the inside was a lush, controlled environment. As Will walked along one of the many hallways towards his room he sensed some sort of disturbance in the people he passed, but he was much too tired to investigate. The next morning the news was quick to find him.
Will woke up stiff and sore from the previous day’s work. Luckily this was his day off, so he could spend it relaxing. He decided to go for a little walk to loosen up some of his tightened muscles.
When he got to it he glanced up at the notice screen and continued on. Stopping abruptly though as the information hit his brain. He backed up and read the brilliant red message again.
Calling all strong, young, intelligent men. A mission to Earth will be launched Friday. Volunteers needed. Report to the Science and Tech labs if interested, first come first serve.
This was great. What better way to start a career than volunteering for this. He would have to hurry. Not many people would actually want to go, it was too dangerous, no one knew who was on Earth and what they were capable of, but volunteers would probably still be plenty and there had to only be a few spaces left. He sprinted towards the labs. People stared ackwardly at him, but he didn’t care.
Not many people knew much about Earth, just that long ago Earthiens had colonized the surrounding planets from which this civilization had come from. But Mercury had lost communication with the rest of the units a few years after colonization. For all they knew the other planets could all be extinct.
This post was edited by Blankey on Mar 25 2009 07:31pm