<span style="font-style: italic">Run, run, run, get moving Jon!</span><br/>It was a calm, peaceful night out in Tempest, but as with so many others, that was about to change.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">C'mon, move!</span><br/>Out in one of the many abandoned buildings there was a man. Tall and slight, the man was working on some kind of machine, a terminal of some sort. He was frantically picking apart the machine, his work illuminated by a small glow-rod.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">They're onto you, GET OUT.</span><br/>As he worked, the sounds of footsteps and indistinct shouting down the hall grew and grew. This only made him work faster. With a grunt he placed his tools into their appropriate slots on his belt, before reaching into the busted monitor. With a pull, he yanked out what appeared to be a clear crystal of some sort. An old power gem.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">Okay, Jon. But that Power Gem won't do you any good when those bandits are SKULL-FUCKING YOUR CORPSE!</span><br/>With surprising speed, he scooped up his tools, and bolted out the door. Only to meet that group of bandits. They were a savage lot, all of them clotthed in animal hides and plates of scrap metal to serve as crude armor. Their leader was NOT happy. "Oi! Dere's dat git wot made off wit our water! PERFORATE IM!" The leader shouted, spittle flying everywhere. With that, two of the other goons charged, wildly firing their cobbled assault rifles. "SHIIIIIIIIIIT!" The man shouted as he ran, serpentine-ing in an effor to avoid the wildy inaccurate fire.<br/><br/>This, is Jon. Jon is a scavenger working at the relatively nearby settlement of 'just ruins.' you would be surprised how many bandits that sign wards off every year. Anyway, our esteemed scavenger had gone into a bandit den after hearing about a tip off from some stranger that dropped into the inn a few days ago.<span style="font-style: italic">"There is technology out in the wreckage of Haven more advanced than you can imagine." My ass! A few good power Gems and some water, but better than I can imagine!? </span>Jon was inwardly cursing himself for listening to the woman. Tempest, so named for it's various kinds of deadly storms, was once a city by the name of Haven, before the Martian Workers Republic forces Utilized Rad-Cleansers against the Terran Protectorate forces stationed here. Now, the planet was a barren wasteland, and Tempest was one of the luck places all things considered. Nobody knows why, but the area as well as surrounding locales are free of the deadly radiation that plagues the rest of the planet.<br/><br/>Jon should have known better than to enter the ruins proper, But he had hoped that maybe there was something in there that could get him off this miserable world, or at least to make being here more bearable. The Solar civil war was over a hundred years ago, surely it had calmed down? Maybe the big cities and bustling starports he had read about as a kid still existed? No matter, he had shit to deal with now. It was clear he was faster than those idiots, and he had managed to get ahead of them. After turning a corner, he quicly ducked into a door. Unfortunately, the floor was out in the room he entered, so he fell. Luckily the bandits fell for that old cliche and ran down the hall, like morons.<br/><br/>He tumbled down at least three stories in total, before landing in what he thought might be a now inaccessable part of the building. There was a long corridor, though he assumed it was a much more open room as the ruined walls to the sides were more like packed rubble than an actual wall. At the end of the hall, there was a room filled with strange tubes. They were composed of some sort of black glass, and all but one of them was smashed open. There was some sort of clear ooze in the tubes, but it's purpose, he couldn't guess. "H-hello?" he asked, though even he wasn't sure what that would accomplish. He slowly made his way to the end, and stood before the one intact tube. There was a small terminal beside it, it was inactive. He took a look at it, before looking at the power gem in his hand.<span style="font-style: italic">No, Jon. Don't do this, you have no idea what could be in there...</span>he thought. But that was also a good reason to open it. What if he could trade whatever crazy thing might be in there for more ship parts? So with a deep breath, he reached around the console and planted the gem in the slot in the back, before turning it to lock it in place.<br/><br/>He shouldn't have done that.