<div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/fa/Mars_test.jpg)</div><table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Character name:</strong></td><td>Lt Colonel Louise Cotter</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Location:</strong> </td><td>Outside</td></tr><tr><td><strong>With:</strong> </td><td>Those on the surface</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Doing:</strong> </td><td>Helping to unload and keeping a military command-grade implant's eye on the weather.</td></tr></tbody></table><br/><hr/><br/>Time passes quickly under two conditions - the first is when you are enjoying yourself - especially during sex - and the other is when you have not very much of it. I felt my stomach growl. I was missing breakfast, but so where a lot of others. Laura's suggestion to stack and secure some crates outside was good. I amended it. "Leave the heavier ones. the wind speeds are going to be up to one hundred kays per hour, but that's the equivalent of about thirty on Earth". Or about 15-20mph in the old money still used in some isolated parts of the USA.<br/><br/>We had the ship unloaded and refuelled and the storm was still an hour or so away. I could see the dust in the upper atmosphere getting denser, the sky darkening from pink to crimson in the east, the sun had disappeared behind the clouds and Phobos was heading into them. A readout on my HUD told me to look up at the wind gauge on top of the hangar building. Sure enough it was beginning to move. It wasn't the wind itself that was the danger - a severe storm on Mars with only one hundredth the atmosphere was little more than a gentle breeze in terms of force, but the danger was that it would whip up a cloud of dust that could cake the outer skin of the shuttle, obscuring the sensors and the view ports, but more dangerously, weighing the craft down.<br/><br/>I contacted the pilot.<em>"This is Base Commander Cotter, to Shuttle Tyre. You are clean and green to go. Suggest you get the fuck out of here before that sky goes orange".</em><br/><br/>The reply came back,<em>Roger that, Colonel. See you tomorrow at the scheduled time, weather permitting?</em><br/><br/><em>"Aye, see you then. Safe trip, Tyr."</em><br/><br/>The shuttle closed it's hatches and started it;s engines. I gout on the general frequency, command priority override. "All personnel, stand clear of the shuttle. And keep away from those rocket exhausts. Most of you only just got here,and we don't want any of you getting crispy!"<br/><br/>As the ship began to roll out, I was distracted by the other Nukee requesting permission to go inside. "It's Lieutenant Colonel, now, Mr Woodridge, we've unified the command structure based on the US army's. Permission granted, but keep me abreast of what's going on? I trust it's nothing serious?"<br/><br/>The roar of the shuttle's departure, muted by the thin air, was still loud enough to force a halt to conversation.<br/><br/>As Woodridge headed for the airlock, I looked up at the sky. "Right, people, lets get as much of this stuff inside as we can".