Human Corporation Mining Site 77, Mars, Sol

[Michael Hobbar]

5/27/2758

She could see how far the vehicle was inside the shaft well of course she could it said it right on her computer reading. Naomi Walter had been a miner for a few good years now, she started out with the bare minimum job, mining the old fashioned way with a pick ax which was still in use today. However after five years, she eventually became the boss of a crew of thirty miners. She was in charge of where her crew went to dig up minerals at the Ma'adim Vallis site. To be more specific she had control of where this shaft went, it wasn't odd to get a few favors from her boss if she kept supplying them with a good quota of minerals....and other personal services.


The mine shaft was only lit up by the lights of the crawler. The crawler was about the size of a garbage truck, on the front end was a large drill bit that could go through rocks. Her and Paul Truch were manning the driving of the crawler. They both had on protective gear and breathing masks on because Mars had not been terraformed....because the Mars government didn't want to have air. The reasons for not terraforming the planet could be traced back to the Mars rebellion but in hind sight it would be too much of a burden and cost on both Human Corporation (who didn't have unlimited amounts of money) and the local government on Mars. Paul drove the crawler while Naomi controlled the drill bit. Today they were going to expand the shaft three hundred feet deeper then what they had as of right now. They only had twenty feet more to go, it was nearly dark on the surface and then the project would be complete.


"OK, Paul drive fifteen feet and stop after that. Then we can go back to the camp and take a few hours rest. I'm not sure of Jack will like what we have for him to do." she said smiling. "Yeah if I know Jack like I do then he won't be happy that is unless he asks for overtime...which he will never take." Paul said smiling at her. The Crawler moved fore ward and it stopped as it touched the wall. The drill turned on and dust, rock flew everywhere. The walls shook in front of them however this was not enough for a cave in. The Crawler moved fore ward slowly, carving out a circular hole, big enough for it to fit through. "Wait....stop stop!" Naomi said as she suddenly saw a large object on her computer screen. However she didn't realize how fast the Crawler was moving. By the time the Crawler did stop it hit some sort of wall, and it went through it.


The Crawler stopped and Paul and Naomi looked at what they had accidentally discovered. It looked like they were in some sort of a room. The room was extremely large, not in height but in length, it went so far they couldn't tell where it even ended. There were large pillars that went on and on and on. On the ground itself there was some sort of metal flooring. It was as if they had stumbled into some sort of temple or shrine of some kind. "Where....where are we Naomi?" Paul said as he looked in wonder. "I....I...I think we are in some sort of building. This doesn't look like it was here during the war." she said referring to the rebellion. "Get the crawler out of here and call the Corporation they're gonna wanna know about this." she said.

[Michael Hobbar]

6/13/2758
Human Corporation Mining Site 77, Mars.
1248 local time

The Hestrel AE/ STV-224 Naval Atmospheric Shuttle was nearing it's decent as Dr. Battista watched through the port view of the small flight cabin. The dust from the surface was slightly fading the view for him but he could tell from the flurry of activity that what had been discovered was quite spectacular. He had short coal black hair and brown eyes. From his view port he could see the main complex that made up the mining site, a large rectangular wall built around the complex was also seen. There were fifteen buildings, all shaped differently but he could tell which one was the flight control tower, the flight pad could hold at maximum fifteen shuttles. The shuttles were almost always coming and going, dropping people off and equipment. However, nothing had been touched from the actual entrance of the ruins themselves.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please remember to put on your atmospheric helmets before we touch down due to the conditions outside." the pilot said over his head. He was the head of the archaeological team that was sent by the United Colonial Republic to discover what these ruins contained. Human Corporation was under the order of not to enter the site, except to keep it safe and make sure no one stole anything. His team wasn't in this shuttle with him due to different shuttles that were leaving from different parts of the world. His shuttle left from Naples, Italy only a few days ago where he was then taken to an orbital facility above the Earth. From there he was sent straight to Mars, it took him five days almost a week to make the trip.

He'd be working alongside some of the most famous people in the field of science from different states around the Earth. He placed his helmet on his head as the shuttle landed. Locking it into position he grabbed his two suitcases, one had all his personal belongs while the other was full of some scientific equipment. The following days he would receive shipments for equipment from Earth. The shuttle door opened and not wanting to be rude, Abaco sat in his seat as the rest of the cabin left.

They were not part of his group, some were engineers, techs or just regular miners. Even though this site was of archaeological importance, Human Corporation got permission from the Martian Council (Mars's local government) to mine elsewhere for minerals. Exiting the shuttle he walked down onto the platform and was greeted by a person in a black but very dusty suit. "Dr. Battista I presume?" the figure said. He couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman from the voice. "Yes, is there a problem of some kind?" he asked. "No, sorry. I'm head operations manager for Site 77 and I'm in charge of the facility here. My name's Adrian Rich." he said and held out his hand. Battista took it. "Sorry if I didn't recognize you, the manifest from Human Corp mentioned you. So what can you tell me." he said

Rich motioned for him to walk with him off of the landing platform, they ducked as a gust picked up. "We have not done anymore physical work inside the mine where the structure has been located, for fears of a collapse in the tunnel. We've taken seismographic readings of the area and we've determined the complex to be at least ten miles down and over little then two and a half miles wide. We have not done anything else. Special Security has set up a checkpoint to the entrance of the mine, and just in front of the structure. The old man told them not to touch anything or risked being shot." he said. "Old man?" Battista asked.

He wondered who he was referring to, not Battista obviously since he was in his late 40's but due to rejuvenation drugs he looked in his mid twenties. Rejuvenation drugs could be used when a person turned forty at minimum, with regular treatment people lived up to on average now one hundred and twenty five years but look like they were in their eighties. The wind died down and they both stood up again, "Sorry, I was referring to the head of Weapons Development and Special Security, Victor Mason." he said. Battista had heard of the man's name on the space net and in the galactic news papers. He hadn't paid the man attention, except that he was very rich.


"It's ok Rich. So where do I stay." he said and looked around the complex. On either side of them were buildings here and there. A small bar, was becoming rowdy to his left as one of the doors opened and two miners broke out in a fist fight. Three men in black armor ran with batons towards the men, they were part of the SS. Both of the men immediately stopped fighting and put their hands up. Battista watched as one of the SS guards hit a miner in the leg very hard with the baton, he heard something crack and the miner let out a large cry of pain and cried very hard. "Don't pay attention to that." Rich said.

They eventually walked to the main operations complex of the mining complex passing maintenance people repairing panels and SS guards along the way. Following Rich through the complex he showed Battista the cafeteria, quarters for managers and otherwise important people who ran mining operations here. However they were not at all important to Battista's goal with the dig site. The duo finally arrived at a room where two people were sitting down. "Dr. Battista, I'd like you to meet Stacy Brauch our supply manager and our very lovely Special Security chief in charge of the complex Kyle Tanner." Stacy had purple eyes with short red hair and she was wearing only a jump suit she had a small nose and plump lips. Tanner was in his armor, his head was shaved to the degree that he was bald and he had green eyes. "I'm Dr. Battista and I won't try to upset your schedules." and nodded to them.


"No, I just have a couple of questions for you Doctor." Tanner said as the doctor sat down in a chair. "First will you require any security once you actually go inside , we'd like to have a light presence as Cachet doesn't want anyone touching a thing. Second how many scientists will be inside the complex itself. Those are my only questions." he said. "I won't require more then five people for my entire team when we do breach the complex, there shouldn't be anything down there, but I could be wrong. And there will be a team of thirty scientists, most of them will be here at the mining facility and Operations Manager Rich has showed me where we can set up a lab for them. The rest will be with me in the site itself trying to just find out what we've stumbled upon. I'd like to say it was built during the rebellion but well ISN says otherwise."


The security chief nodded slowly "That'll work just fine doctor." and nodded in Stacy's direction. "Doctor all I need from you is a manifest of your equipment, personal and when you expect them to arrive. We can also supply you with some of our own equipment if you wish." she offered out right. Rich gave her a glaring look but she glared right back. "It'll be our pleasure doctor." The doctor got up and started to leave before saying, "You all should be very excited, we will make history with whatever we find down there."


As he was walking out, little did he know that what would be discovered would change the course of Humanity....forever.

[Creator]

1/4/3359
Human Corporation Mining Site 77, Mars.
0943 local time

“RETURN TO YOUR HOMES. THIS IS A CORPORATE SECTOR. DISPERSE IMMEDIATELY”

 The voice on the loud speaker stated. Another glass bottle hit the Custom Security Officer’s shield and shattered. She then grabbed her shield and put it up again in defense as another bottle was coming towards her. It was the twenty third day of the protests and so far the protesters had not gotten into the compound yet. Unfortunately there had been some injuries among the security officers and protesters when the protesters got too close to the one of the main gates. There were only two gates and both were guarded heavily by the Custom Security Branch of Special Security. The guards were not allowed to wear XA9 MkIII Powered Armour. Instead they were wearing the XA1 MKI Powered Armour. It was one of the first Powered Armored Suits ever built for the Special Security Branch. They were a dark brown and had a golden visor that had the only two vision modes: Night Vision and Thermal. The suit had little armor and only protected against hand gun fire. The guards had gas operated pistols , specialized taser pistols to protect themselves against the protesters. They also had a electric baton.

The protesters were gathered once again at the southern gate and chanting “Show us the dig site!” “What are you hiding?!” . They were also carrying signs that had large photographs of the head scientists with the name of the scientists at the bottom of the photograph. The protesters had not been peaceful with the security officers. The government and Human Corporation kept quiet about what was being dug from what had once been a simple mine. Over the past few months the dig site had gotten bigger and the buildings had also been moved. It was a good thing that they were temporary buildings. The center of the site had a gargantuan dig site. It measured over fifteen miles deep and over three miles wide at its circumference. Every day more was dug out. At the bottom of the dig site was a tram rail which transported personnel and equipment . The tram rail disappeared into the hole. No one outside of the miners, officials and government representatives’ knew what was being dug up.

The news media had been at the site a few months ago but thanks to the political elections, there were very few if any reporters. The latest news article about the dig sit was over a month ago. While the media was welcome it did not mean that they had access into the site. This in turn helped to start rumors about what was being dug up. Some said that the dig site was actually a construction site for a secret research laboratory. Others said that the site was a new weapons range where illegal weapons were being constructed. And finally it was said that what was being uncovered was once a base of aliens that had once inhabited the planet of Mars. The one theme about all the news reports were that aliens built the site. Not everyone believed what the media had reported.

Richard Wendell had been down on his luck. At the age of only 19 he had been unable to find a proper job. He might of finished high school but applying for college was daunting. He was not able to pass entrance exams’ for many of the universities’. As hard as he studied he found the exams’ to be impossible. The one bright spot in his life which he had found out only last night was that his long term girlfriend Patrica was pregnant with his child. He was here today on a much more personal level. He had applied to become a miner and the closest place to apply was here at the dig site. He was from a town called Willardfield a small agriculture town. He had only applied two weeks ago and was turned down.

For the last three days he had been in a fit of rage. Getting into heated arguments with Patricia that is until learning that she was expecting a child. He was protesting with the mob, which had at least one hundred and two people. The security officials in their suits only numbered in thirty. They watched the crowd closely and put their shields up in case of a bottle or object. Richard was not protesting because of why the others were. But because he needed to have this job. He needed a way to be able to support his family in any way. How was it his fault?! Those bastards!

His skin suit was a dark red thanks to the surface of Mars, normally it was a dark green. “RETURN TO YOUR HOMES. THIS IS A CORPORATE SECTOR. DISPERSE IMMEDIATELY” A official on the one of the loud speakers stated. Suddenly four rocks were thrown at two of the Security Officers. One of the Officers went down as the object hit the visor. The visor cracked open and three of the Officers ran over to grab him.

It was then that eighteen people ran up towards the line of Officers. The Officers tased many of them. But it was not enough. Twelve of them including Richard ran up to the Officers and began to throw punches. He was so furious at the moment that he didn’t realize why he was doing what he was doing. It was at the heat of the moment and he was tired of the way the world was treating him. Literally throwing himself onto an Officer who was trying to carry the dead Officer who’s visor had cracked, the two were then on the ground. Richard and the Officer were on the ground. Richard was punching the man in the chest although it was only doing minimal damage to the Officer. The Officer tried to push off Richard but he was too heavy. Another Officer from behind grabbed Richard and began to pull him off. Richard screamed and with his right elbow hit the Officer in the chest. It didn’t work but Richard was becoming more and more violent each passing second. The crowd around Richard were still fighting the Officers.

In the chaos, one of the Officers got out his baton and hit Richard who was struggling in the arms of the Officer who had him. Again the baton hit Richard in the chest. Richard broke free of the Officer’s grasp by head butting the man’s helmet.


The Officer stumbled back placing his hands over the visor as it began to crack. He died within a few seconds. Richard threw a punch at the Officer holding the baton and missed. The Officer then hit Richard again this time the baton struck Richard’s oxygen line just in the back of the helmet. The line cracked and air flushed out. All Richard could do was scream as air escaped, he tried frantically to repair it, putting his hands over the crack. The officer not realizing what had happened (or not caring) again hit Richard this time the baton stuck Richard’s chest knocking him down. Richard’s eyes exploded as the oxygen escaped out of his mask. In moments the Officer put down the baton and fell to the ground and began to check the vitals of Richard. The Officer knew it was a useless gesture.