Evelyn was finding her irritation growing with each and every moment spent piloting the Spatial, with it's design more focused on deep space exploration it had been a far cry from the performance she was used to from the cozy single seated fighter craft she'd normally find herself in control of. Then there was the added hassle of dealing with an extra passenger, which was a challenge in its own right, the fact remained that this particular passenger was likely the most obnoxious person she'd ever met, and it wasn't helping.
Pierre's sudden tangent about precautions required to make a landing came a bite late. Evelyn had already begun attempting to gracefully settle the fat whale of a vessel she had been put behind and was attempting to save her full concentration for the abnormal condition of lower gravity she was dealing with during the landing. For the first time, Evelyn silenced Pierre mid-spiel. "Unless you fancy landing a vessel as big as your mouth, you'll shut it and let me put it down before you worry about anything else." The strained politeness Evelyn employed whenever she had spoken during the trip previously had vanished in an instant, what had replaced it was a colder, frosted tone.
After the ship had came to a halt, with Evelyn double checking to ensure the ship's security, she rotated the pilot's seat to face the second occupant. Expecting nothing less than a myriad of complaints as a result of her outburst. She decided to try and position herself a step ahead of the inevitable. "My apologies, you were saying?" The strained politeness had returned, its purpose was likely as subtle as a Valor but she figured it was better than acting as if nothing had occurred.
Before Evelyn could even get a word out in response, Pierre had already left the cockpit and started seeing to his own personal equipment. What little relief came after setting the ship down had quickly evaporated, it had now instead been replaced by anxiousness.
She had been lead to believe this was going to be a simple ferry job, not once was the prospect of crossing a planet covered in razor sharp sand particles she'd never once heard of before been raised, adding the fact that they were going out of their way to remain undetected for what was supposed to be a simple communications booster installation on an research base that was supposed to belong to the Union and she was beginning to suspect Lusignan had left out some key details.
However she didn't have the time to ponder her suspicions for long, it was already far too late to back out now, her reputation was now on the line after all and delaying her passenger for too long would cause her no small number of problems. As such she pulled herself from the pilot's seat and set about organizing her own gear which simply consisted of her own sidearm, a nickel-plated auto-pistol with an old fashioned wooden grip, the short bladed combat knife she normally kept sheathed in her right boot and two spare magazines for the auto-pistol, the pistol and it's holster had been clipped to the right hip side of the utility belt on the bulky suit that was meant to serve as protection from the conditions on the surface, the knife and it's sheath also followed suit sitting slightly behind the pistol on the belt, while the two spare magazines were kept in a strap on pocket that was she wore on her left leg.
With the general discomfort of the suit and it's life support pack weighing on not just Evelyn's mind but also her back, she went out to meet Pierre at the exit of the ship, she was thinking about pressing the Gaul for answers to what was actually going on she instead decided on the simple and short. "If you are ready, let's go get this done." Her voice still carrying the same strained politeness that was maintained by focusing on the payment that would be awaiting her when she returned.
G22-3A had failed to impress Evelyn thus far, why anyone would even bother with anything on this desert hell excuse for a planet was beyond her, the fact that the only positive she found was that each and every slow step was easier than she had expected with the bulky suit. thanks to the same low gravity that even deemed their use necessary said a lot.
However what little positivity that had brought failed to last, as Pierre's assumption's had only worsened Evelyn's unease regarding their current situation, as while the suits were doing their job against the sand, she did not want to test the prospect of how effective they would be against live ammunition.
"And just how exactly do you plan to do that? Whatever the situation at the base may be, I'm certain that we will be outnumbered and outgunned if push comes to shove, and just in case you somehow missed the fact, I am a pilot not an assault trooper. A four hour hike across this dust-ball is already more than what I signed on for."
Her voice had now reverted back to the harsher tone when she had snapped at the Gaul during the landing, her uncertainty in the situation clearly showing.
Evelyn remained silent for a moment while she looked at the outpost, taking in the surroundings before her eyes came to rest on the containers. "So, nobody outside, not that I can blame them. The outpost is almost half-buried, and they seem to have left whatever might be in those containers out here assuming they didn't empty them."
Whatever was going on out here was getting stranger by the minute. Evelyn couldn't see any signs of combat or anything else of the like. The only hint they had that there was still anyone manning the outpost was that the outpost's radar had tagged them on their descent unless they were jumping ahead of themselves. She turned her attention back to Pierre with a burning question now on her mind. "What about the radar? Do you know if it would have needed an operator to tag us on our descent?"
"Well, you guys certainly didn't screw around with this place. I'm hoping we are lucky enough for them to have just decided to abandon this place and left the radar running by itself."
After double-checking her gear was secured and not sliding around as she moved, she began to follow in the agent's footsteps employing extreme care to avoid setting off the ultrasound detection system. Her thought's focused on the fact a reminder to Lusignan that she was just a pilot when they got back was due. If they made it back.
![[Image: a2HFZb4.png]](https://i.imgur.com/a2HFZb4.png)