An arm lifted to wipe small transparent beads of sweat off of a man’s brow. This particular person was hunched over a control panel that was slung open, revealing the cybernetic inner workings of a Boptronic hub located in a Structure Factory to the far south of the colony.<br/><br/>“I don’t know… everything in here seems to be fully operational, are you sure you checked the fans?”<br/><br/>He questioned to the man beside him as he slunk back so he was sitting on the cool metal ground. The man was fairly average in height, reaching to five feet, eleven inches with a lengthy appearance. He was wearing simple gray synthetic fiber pants that wrapped down into a rather nice pair of black boots, tied to his ankles by thick Velcro strips. His shirt was a simple white, tucked into his pants were they where wrapped shut with a belt. He brushed back his messy brown hair which scattered and sopped lightly with sweat. Green eyes where covered by the reflection of his glasses. He wore them when working with objects on a close range, his vision not being quite as up to par as he would like.<br/><br/>The man he was addressing was a simple worker who reported the problem at the factory. The air conditioning had somehow malfunctioned, causing a shut down of the factory for the safety of both the personnel and the machines.<br/><br/>“Yeah, it wasn’t moving.”<br/>“Nothing was trapped in the motor?” He asked again, furrowing his brow before pushing off of the ground and standing up straight.<br/>“Go check again Jonathan!” His boss’s scratchy voice butted in, a portly man wearing synthetic denim overalls and sporting a bristly red beard making his way over to them.<br/><br/>Edward shook his head, leaning over to pick up his jacket off the ground, holding it lazily in his fist, not wanting anything to do with it at the moment. He pulled his opposite arm across his chest, reaching over clumsily as he fought with his jacket to tap the screen that loaded his Clip Com.<br/><br/>“The computer is showing no electronic errors, only a hardware failure, which is pointing straight to the main fan.”<br/><br/>“Alright… I’ll go check again.” The man said, nearly pouting as he pivoted on his heal only be knocked off his center of gravity by a rather aggressive tremor. The men braced themselves as the quake tore through the massive building for only a few seconds.<br/><br/>“What the hell was that!?” The head engineer asked frantically, his gaze turning up to the various catwalks and hanging laser machines suspended from the ceiling. There was a moment of silence as they gathered themselves, but the silence was soon broken by the buzz of a frenzied alarm and the flash of red lights.<br/><br/>“An emergency?” Edward called out stating the quite obvious situation. He slung his coat over his shoulder as the announcement started. The three listened carefully over the sounds of the alarm as they were instructed to evacuate.<br/><br/>“Shit…” The young man with dusty blonde hair cursed, before the three took off towards the nearest garage.<br/><br/>The rest after this was a hurried blur; Edward managed to make it onto an evacuation transport with the other two. They where helping a few others that made it along before the computer inside the vehicle closed the doors and began to move.<br/><br/>Edward fell into one of the tightly fitted seats, trying not to bump elbows with the people beside him.<br/><br/><em>What in God’s name is going on?</em>He thought to himself, feeling as if his day couldn’t have gotten any worse.<br/><em>A colony evacuation? This has never happened before… what happened at the Hot Lab?</em><br/><br/>He shook it off and tried to clear his mind for the remainder of the trip, the tight crammed vehicle not where he planned on spending his evening.<br/><br/><em>Maria, I hope you’re ok… </em>His head swiveled downward until his chin met his neck and his eyes slipped closed, his hand idlely fumbling with the ClipCom around his wrist.<br/><br/><div align="center">----------</div><br/>It had been a few days since the incident, and Edward found himself too busy to even think about the current events going on. His day was filled from dawn to dusk with maintenance tasks and computer tests. Since the temporary colony had just been finished he had to walk to each site, not having the ability to use a Mag-Lev or a scooter, and to work with what little tools where available.<br/><br/>Thankfully, he was able to land some privacy by getting a bedroll in the break room of the Structure Factory. The break room was a small dome with armor glass windows and retractable metal shutters and was located on the upper level of the building. Structure Factories where among the largest buildings designed. From the outside they had large silver reflective walls and where lined with a few windows. The bottom floor was lined with heavy machines and structure kits that where being assembled, while above that where several service cat walks and hanging equipment. On the front of the building where large docking bays for ConVecs to receive the building packages and hall them off to be constructed wherever their destination would be. The Second level of the Factory is where all of the inner colony goods where made, this included tunnel equipment and things such as computer components. Above that was the break room. There was a table and chairs inside the small dome, but aside from that it was quite open. He shared it with the Engineering Director, the same man he had escaped with.<br/><br/>The nights were quiet enough in the factory; though the whirling dance of machines below where just loud enough to be annoying, and rest wasn’t easy. As soon as morning broke he had to make rounds to each of the new buildings and make sure the computers where working fine with the Command Center, which only had one SEBANT working in it rather than the usual six. SEBANT computers where something that Edward always wanted to work with, in a way he already did but it was very indirect. Instead he was working with basic level boptronic hubs that directed the equipment and vehicles that kept the colony working. Without this breakthrough in technology, there would be no hope for survival right now, at least, that is what Edward thought.<br/><br/>What was to come of Eden? Who knew, but he was focused on doing as much work as he could, desperate times like these needed hard workers, and nobody had the privilege of slacking off.<br/><br/><div align="center"> --------- </div><br/>Edward’s day was drawing to a slow grinding halt, and his stomach was nearly digesting itself with hunger. It had been nearly fifteen hours since he’d last had something to eat, and just about anything sounded good right now. He lifted his arm sluggishly as he pressed a button on the control panel beside the door to the Agridome, eager to spend his hard earned food ticket.<br/><br/>The large doors slid open horizontally from each other, a cool, fresh wave of air greeting him. It was always a nice feeling to go into the Agridome, it was the closest thing to going outside as you could get. You could leave the colony, but not without wearing a suit. That is, unless you would enjoy the depressurization from a lack of atmosphere. He entered the large building from the far side. The Agridome consisted of two sections: The dome and the storage facilities. The dome was large, and had a curved rectangular shape, lined with heavy ribs.  From there you could easily see the night sky lit up with dual moons and sapphire stars of the galaxies beyond. At ground level the jagged cliffs and mountains of the red soil on the planets surface.<br/><br/>Edward enjoyed the view for a moment before continuing his way towards the small desk at the other side of the dome, where a worker was distributing food. He walked in the direction, his pace growing slower and slower with each step, or so it seemed. The white, neatly packed hydroponic vats surrounded him, each in clumps of neat rows, all having different crops. None of the plants were near harvest ready yet, since they had just been planted a few days before, and the colony was running off reserves that where liberated from the mother colony. Edward brushed his hand over some of the vibrant green leaves while he walked past them, the sound of water rushing through the pipes below the vat somewhat calming. However, he was interrupted by a voice behind him, not even half way to the man giving out the food. Edward turned to grant the voice his attention, not exactly catching what had been said to him.<br/>