Edward gave a faint smile as the two women went on with their encounter, taking his bushel of assorted foods and making a retreat from the agridome, the chaos a bit more than he wanted to deal with at the time. With that notion, he slid back into the tubes; his attention grabbed for a small second as the VG from earlier was padding away at his ClipCom. Not wanting conflict, he decided the best course of action was to take a route opposite of the guard. He turned, taking a route down the south tunnel, crossing down to the intersection ahead before reading the signs hastily plastered up for direction. He was left with a couple of options: continue south and you reach the smelter, take the right for the CC, and go left to take the long winding path to the Tokamak Reactor. He plotted the course out in his head, if he went towards the smelter there was nothing more than construction for the new Vehicle Factory, which was started just the night before, and the Tokamak was a dangerous place, not one he wanted to have to visit, so he headed towards the CC, hoping there was another intersection to take him to the Structure Factory.<br/><br/>He moseyed along, stepping over the sleeping bodies in the tubes, their ratty bedrolls and makeshift spaces littering the tubes, as the high security building drew near. With no windows, one had to rely on maps and signs to navigate, and since this colony was temporary, any sort of map had to be a mental one, unfortunately in the short time they had inhabited; Edward hadn’t managed to figure out his way around. He gave a sigh, his wrist sending out a small blip signifying a notice. Wrestling with the parcel of food he brought the screen of his com to view and pressed the button before shifting into an unoccupied space of this particular transit route.<br/><br/>“What now…”<br/>He scoffed with slight agitation to himself, only wanting a moment of peace. He raised the screen, reading the mail notice he had just received, it was from Axen Moon, the current elder of Eden, and acting commander in chief. It was alarming, why would Axen want anything to do with him? The message explained to him his new situation, citing to him a task. He rubbed his chin, nearly dropping his rations before awkwardly regaining control of them.<br/>“Interesting…” He thought out loud to himself in a barley audible whisper before continuing his way down the hall once more.<br/><br/>He eventually found a rout to the Factory, thankfully it wasn’t too much of a hassle, and made his way up to the break room. Luckily the factory was closing down, since the hour the night was running fairly late. There where a few workers cleaning up, Edward giving them casual greetings to let his presence be known, incase the men weren’t aware that he was allowed in the area. He got to the room, and it looked like his roommate wasn’t there yet.<br/>“Finally…” He said, sighing in relief before sitting down and retrieving an apple from the small pouch, taking a bit of its crisp flesh, apparently he was supposed to have a meeting with a person by the name of Brook Panati, an unfamiliar soul whom he hadn’t ever heard of.<br/><br/><div align="center">----------</div><br/>After his meal, Edward soon lie to rest, sleep coming easy with his eventful day’s wake, however the morning wasn’t as gentile. There was the initial roar of machinery, mixing with the sunlight that was pouring through the window. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, grabbing his glasses as his mind slowly began to churn into motion. He stared blankly for a moment into that void between the waking world and the dream one, only to snap forth into reality, heaving his blanket off himself as he jumped out of bed, gathering his things.<br/><br/>He was late!<br/>He tossed on his coat, clipping his ID badge to it and shoved his wallet into his back pocket; there was no time to clean up, even if he wanted to. He silently cursed under his breath; laziness wasn’t going to be acceptable. He recalled the message he had received last night, and the place where he was to meet this Brook person, which happened to be at the construction site for the Vehicle Factory.<br/><br/>He whirled through the maze, reading the signs and going off his memory, fortunately during the day most of the colonists where working, so transit wasn’t as jammed as the evenings. The smell of the planets dust began to fill his olfactorys as he stepped down the short bit of tunnel leading to the new factory, a figure wearing a protective surface suit in front of him.<br/><br/>“Ah, you must be Edward!” The voice called out, unmistakably male, though his face was covered by the UV Protective tint in the helmets glass.<br/>“Yes, are you Panati? Ah… and sorry I’m late, I overslept a bit.” Edward returned apologetically.<br/>“Yeah, I’m Brook, a pleasure to meet you.” The man said, a tone of a salesman or business person resonating in his voice.<br/>“Don’t worry about being late, I had something else I had to attend to so there wasn’t any hurry, I’m just glad you showed up. Now, we should hurry though, because I don’t want to make a scene now that you are here, come with me.”<br/>He commented, and Edward knew that means he had to get on a suit… what was so private that they had to go out on the surface to talk about it?<br/><br/>He wasted no time to get himself dressed for venturing out into the planet’s harsh realm, something he’s only done a handful of times his entire life. And as soon as he was geared up, Mr. Panati opened the door to the factory, its skeletal frame being all that was composed of it as a Convec worked outside to install the components of the large building.<br/><br/>“Sorry for the hassle, Mr. Von Dozier.” He apologized, turning as a comlink formed between the two life supporting outfits, though it was somewhat hard to hear over the noise of construction. “Obviously, the information I’m about to give you is very sensitive… and therefore we have to talk where none of the other colonists can hear.”<br/>”Right, go on.” Edward stated, making sure Mr. Panati could hear him.<br/>”We’ve reason to believe that the Hot Lab incident was an inside job, or possible an act by Plymouth in protest to Eden’s Terraforming development.” Brook said his voice solemn as he turned to look out through the large metallic lattice that made up the factory at the moment.<br/>”That’s terrible! Do you have any idea who it was?” Edward inquired promptly.<br/>“No… But that is all the information I have, we also have some bad news…”<br/>”Go on…”<br/>”The explosion cracked open the underground testing wells, releasing a microbiological agent into the crust of the planet. This microorganism was designed to break down rock into its base elements to release oxygen, hydrogen etc… and to terraform the world at an accelerated pace.”<br/>”Wait… why is this bad?”<br/>”It was incomplete… and breaks down everything, including buildings …and people…”<br/>… “But!” He continued: “We are forming a new confidential laboratory, it will be basic… and we need to get together some research, and go back to the infection zone to retrieve our science databases since they where left behind.”<br/>”Wait… and you want me?”<br/>”We want you to head up the team, you are our leading researching in Boptronics at the moment, and we plan on doing a wireless mission to reduce any casualties.”<br/>Edward was relieved that he didn’t have to go out there by himself, especially if everything this man was saying is true.<br/>”But how can I trust you?” Edward questioned.<br/>”Let’s just say I owe the elder a favor, and he can’t always get around seeing everyone.”<br/>Fair enough… Edward thought.<br/>“The new lab is being built behind this building.”<br/>He explained, pointing out an Earthworker that was assembling new tubes. “Currently the “Blight” is spreading… and rapidly. It’s causing quakes and stirring activity on this planet, which we assumed was dead.” Edward watched as he shook his head. “Things are looking Grim, Mr. Edward, but if you cooperate, you will be able to help us out.”<br/>”Got it… I assume more details will be filled in after the lab?”<br/>”Yes, it will be done in three days, until then go on with your usual tasks, and don’t tell a<em>soul</em>about our meeting, there could possibly be a spy, or terrorists among us.”<br/><br/>Edward wasn’t quite sure how to take this information; it was a lot to absorb at once…<br/>But he shook the man’s hand politely and made his way back inside, the other obviously having more duties to fulfill for his employer. Edward removed the suit, hanging it back on its designated wrack, and wandered down the tube, his mind lost in thought.<br/><br/>“Maria… was this your fate?” he sighed, pausing before he looked up…<br/><br/>