USF Progenitor & Crew: Adventures in Cosmos 01

[#13] H&G Diamond Drilling Corp.

Voyager Bridge Ambience

Nina's voice lit up from the OH: All crew members embarking on your mission, remember to utilize caution and exit the spacecraft safely. Please stay vigilant and be aware of your surroundings at all times. Take precautions and apply standard safety procedures and protocols in accordance with the USF's SOP. Please refer to the SOP while conducting any operations and stay within your mission's work parameters at all times. While visiting H&G Diamond Drilling Corporation on official government business, it is also imperative to remember that you are their guests. It is imperative that you also follow instructions, guidelines, rules and regulations enforced by the H&G Diamond Drilling Corporation Security Forces. Utilize any PPE gear, demonstrated on the training videos in each industrial category, required for space vessel modification and repair, and the extraction of ores and minerals within the mining facility. The United Space Force, EEPC (Earth Environmental Protection Coalition,) all USF governed divisions, and our alliance members have you covered. Thank you for listening, and enjoy your visit to H&G Diamond Drilling Corporation, of the Zerengan asteroid mining field.

"AMF, asteroid mining field. There you go, USF, another brilliant, efficient idea," Ka'eo suggested openly.
Mana said, "I hope they're ready for this."
Stavros chuckled in the uncomfortable silence and asked, "Ready for what?"
"Ready for this d$ck! F$cking!" Mana forced out in restraint.
"Oh," Stavros replied, relieved. He and Peter chuckled.
Peter got up from his seat and began to stretch his back, leaning side to side.
Mana was sitting there watching him then turned to Ka'eo and joked, "What if you just heard his back go kklrRKK? AAAaaah!"
Ka'eo chuckled.
Peter said, "Alright, before we go, I'm gonna head back down and grab some gear I might want to take with me for this. I think everyone should do the same," Peter asserted. He doubled up, "You guys should follow me back to living quarters and get your f$cking a$$es ready for this mission. Okay?""I agree, I'll go with you," Ka'eo said, stretching his arms and legs out, twisting at the hips, yawning. Peter and Ka'eo started walking off of the command bridge."Uhh, wait for me... Ka'el," Mana said, finishing up a journal entry in his computer. "Why isn't this saving?!"Ka'eo replied, "We're not gonna leave your a$$ on the ship, Mana... OHH!! I forgot! Dude, we can actually recruit some people I know, if they're here! You guys might like them. We should check the crew rosters available." He went to the computer next to Mana and woke it from sleep."Nah, man, let's just go," Peter suggested, feeling iffy about adding anyone to the crew from a corporate mining facility that was pretty far out. He walked toward the exit from the command bridge, resuming, "And we should just go and find a pub to chill in first, and then we can worry about all that sh$t there. We have all those objectives to accomplish and some time to kill before we have to get serious.""Well. Are we going to just walk around looking for things, or do we have a map we can use, an RTL (Route-to-Location,) or something?" Stavros inquired duckishly. He walked up to where Peter and Ka'eo were waiting for Mana. "Does Google Maps still work? Waikiki! Kalapawai!"Peter scoffed at the idea of Google Maps, knowing better apps and solutions, though he wasn't sure of the answer himself. He avoided going into his PCD to check, getting antsy and insisting to leave the command bridge.Mana said, "There!" Then he flicked off the computer display and pressed the keyboard command to power it down. He got up from his chair and patted himself off.Ka'eo and Stavros followed Peter out as he was eagerly walking, ready to get to the next step like usual. Ka'eo and Stavros calmly discussed some probabilities they were thinking of, going over the what-ifs and illuminating some possible blind spots that Peter had a habit of missing. Mana tuned in to their debating, stepping heavily behind them, making loud metallic thumps.
The group got to the end of a corridor where there was an elevating platform. It lowered itself down to a few other levels of their ship, including to the living quarters area. In truth, the ship was more massive than the crew remembered, having spent majority of their time on the top levels. They were authorized to upgrade to a heavy frigate-a space vessel usually populated by a crew of between 25 and 65 shipmates. They decided to upgrade from their old, smaller vessel, and got a lucky deal. Their ship came equipped with USF's AI-guidance and the teched up AI OS installed into the mainframe, automating a lot of the ship work. They didn't need to expand the crew beyond themselves because of this, but the USF did demand they consider at least a 25-person crew. Having a small crew was a double-edged sword if you knew about space."
Mana, when they were teaching you engineering, did they teach you more mechanical things or more robotics?" Peter asked. "Because these lifts should be upgraded. Do you see how slow and old they look?"
"Nah, I learned mechanical and electrical engineering, on top of earning certificates in both, and a certificate in welding," Mana said proudly. "I avoided robotics and AI because the languages all sound like-Chinese, to me. They taught me some aeronautics and astronautics sh$t, too, but-I didn't finish those classes for the same reason."
"So-," Peter tried.