Skills
[Assembly]: Apprentice - [3D Printer Proficiency III] [Assembler Proficiency III]
[Battle Mechatronics]: Apprentice
[Business]: Apprentice
[Computer Science]: Incompetent
[Electrical Engineering]: Apprentice - [Structural Pathway Configuration II]
[Mathematics]: Apprentice
[Mechanics]: Journeyman - [Jury Rigging II] [Speed Tuning III]
[Metallurgy]: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression II]
[Metaphysics]: Incompetent
[Physics]: Apprentice - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization II] [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization III] [Melee Weapon Optimization Ii]
Abilities
[Superpublish]: Available. Can be activated once a year.
Evaluation: A mech designer who graves the abyss.
Ves completely splurged his reserves of DP this time, but he didn't regret it. The utility of his stealth augment should see him through a lot of crises from now on. He deactivated his Privacy Shield and removed his comm in order to place it on a charging station on a counter next to his bed.
After a good night's rest, Ves woke up to a busy day. A large amount of mechs had been partially disassembled and packed into standardized containers in order to ease their shipping down to the surface. Even Melkor's Stanislaw joined the stacks of containers waiting to be loaded into heavy-duty transports.
"Good morning, Ves."
"Morning, Ramirez."
Most of the mech technicians busied themselves with packing up their inventory. The maintenance department had to make sure they had every essential tool and material on hand.
"We'll be joining the second wave." Ramirez continued. "Last night, the survey bots sent out from the Ark have found a good location to establish a beachhead. The first wave is largely composed of mechs and scouts and will make sure that there isn't anything nasty waiting for us down there. Once they clear the site, we'll be joining them to construct the initial facilities to support a medium-term occupation."
The ground team had to construct a rudimentary wall and a barracks before the end of the day. After that, they'd put up mech stables and workshops while continuing to expand the base's security envelope. At the end of the week, the base camp should be fully operational.
"I'm not sure how much use I will be if I go in this early." Ves dubiously replied. After all, he didn't know anything about construction.
"There's little reason to delay your deployment. Relax. There are plenty of things to do outside of erecting some walls. A lot of screwups happen in the process of unpacking the mechs from their containers. It's always the patch jobs and sloppily applied mods that get in the way of such things."
The chief had a point. The mech technicians likely needed someone with a brain in order to handle any complications that arose without damaging the entire mech.
After several hours of waiting, Ves, Melkor and Lucky followed the rest of the maintenance department into boarding a reinforced passenger shuttle. The pilot wasted no time in setting off once everyone strapped to their seats. The shuttle smoothly glided out of the Ark Horizon's shuttle bay and started to plummet downwards.
No one came in a skinny vacuum suit this time. Even Ves had changed into the hazard suit issued by his client. The suit came with gravity compensators that eased the alien planet's elevated gravity. It also came with special lining that worked great against blocking out the persistent level of radiation they'd face in the underground world.
The shuttle started its violent descent down to the planet. Groening IV possessed a thick atmosphere filled with toxic gasses and dense metal shards even when the periodic storms entered their resting phase.
Everyone aboard the ship felt the vibrations and the shuttle strained to fly through the metal mist. Even with a magnetic screen pushing aside most of the metals in its way, the shuttle still suffered plenty of impacts.
Fortunately, nothing happened when the convoy of shuttles and transports finally reached the surface of the planet. The flight flew over the smooth and shiny surface of the planet before coming across a gaping cavern in the ground. Every shuttle plunged into the abyss and followed a series of narrow tunnels before ending up in a vast underground jungle.
As the sensors readjusted to the lower intensity of light, everyone beheld the beauty of the underground kingdom. The primal alien flora and fauna gave the environment an enchanting promise of hidden wealth and buried treasures. Anyone who braved the dangers could certainly stumble across a fortune.
"Alright, we're setting down in five minutes." Chief Ramirez spoke through the local communication channel. "Stick to the plan and don't wander off. I don't need to tell you what will happen if you end up in the belly of a hexapod."
The chief only spared a couple of words in order to keep the men and women from doing anything stupid. The novelty of landing on an untapped alien planet always sparked some delirium among the more excitable people.
Once the shuttle finally reached its destination, everyone stepped out into the open air.
The first thing Ves noted when he looked at his flourishing environment was that he couldn't see very far. All of the particles in the air along with the constant electromagnetic disturbances caused everything beyond fifty meters to be obscured in a hazy grey mist.
This mist obscured more than sight. It also played a lot of havoc with communications, to the point where the ships in orbit wouldn't be able to communicate with the base camp in real time. The base had to rely on its fragile quantum entanglement nodes in order to keep in touch.
The restrictions on communications also effectively cut off the mercenary teams when they went out to hunt. Anything might happen deeper in the jungle. House Kaine could hardly do anything if the mercenaries were up to mischief, not that they particularly cared all that much.
With the Ark Horizon and the rest of her fleet keeping a watchful eye in orbit, no one had the chance to make off with smuggled goods. Every haul the mercenaries brought back would be handed over at the end of the day. By controlling the metaphorical gates, House Kaine possessed an ironclad insurance that nothing went up without their say so.
"Buckle up, Ves." Ramirez bumped his chest. "We're going to have a lot of work on our hands. You can forget about relaxing for the next forty days."
Ves nodded in agreement, but had other thoughts in mind.