A Hope Beyond the Horizon

As the external gates of the giant airlock protecting Hive #33 from the corrosive atmosphere of the outside world opened with a deafening sound, the lumbering crawler machine slowly began making its way towards the exit. Master foreman Ripley looked over the crew on the bridge once again to make sure that everyone was doing their job. She especially made sure the core technician had activated the haven core. She did this, not because she doubted his expertise, as only the best was accepted as core technicians, she did this because if the haven field was offline when the atmosphere filled the airlock, it would be devastating for the crawler. As an experienced master foreman, it was one of the few fears she had left.

After a meetup with one of her contacts in Hive #33 she had learned about another crawler machine, the CM Oasis. This crawler was loaded to the brim with weapons and supplies, apparently preparing for a long journey. Her hope was that it would move slow when fully loaded, and that they would be able to catch up to it and raid it. It was a no mans land on the surface, and if you got an opportunity to gain weapons and supplies cheap, you'd be an idiot not to take it. When she was young, she would probably have had some doubts if this was the right thing to do, but she was naïve back then. After everything she'd been through she knew that she had to look after her crew, and do everything it takes to ensure their survival. Truth is, for the past few weeks, the stores aboard her crawler had thinned out, and they needed provisions and fuel. She would have traded for it in Hive #33, but most of what they had had been bought by the Oasis, and supply and demand had left the remaining goods severely overpriced. In short she had two options, duke it out with the Oasis, or try to manage the more and more restless and mutinous crew. It wasn't a hard decision, she would hunt down the Oasis if it was the last thing she did.

The pressure increased rapidly in the airlock as the outside atmosphere rushed inside. The haven field expressed a harmonic sound as it pushed the dangerous particles out of the way. In the corner of her eye, she saw the energy levels indicated on the core panel fluctuating. This was normal, the field drew more power from the batteries as it adapted to the current atmosphere, and she gathered that this day the weather was particulary benign. As always, good weather is a good omen. She gave a short but to the point instruction to the navigator to set course for the horizon. Finding it would not be hard, the deep tracks across the tortured landscape could be seen from miles away.