I rub my chin in contemplation. Probably some kind of software problem. It happens from time to time. A board gets exposed or jostled out of place, and Brian loses connection. However, he's usually able to send a couple of construction drones to replace the board. "Brian, what's the issue with number 3702?" 3702 being the drone in question. "Drone 3702 is not responding and avoiding the construction drones."

Avoiding construction drones? It must have a faulty collision sensor and a broken relay. But even that doesn't seem right either. "Hmm, pull up drone 3702's status, please."

The projection shifts and a blue screen pops up detailing drone 3702's status and history.

Drone # 3702 occupation Scout current status Unreachable

A scout? It must have hit something while it was scouting ahead. “Pull up camera feeds from any drones near 3702 and have them center on it, please.” The projection changes once again. This time drone 3702’s status moves to the side while three video feeds pop up in the center.

The feeds are all showing pointed in the direction of 3702. 3702 is a scouting model, meaning it is round, with 6 small insect-like legs poking out at the bottom. There are 2 ‘Wings’ on either side of the scout. The wings are just small ion drives that rotate and provide slow movement in the zero-g of space.

From just a glance, I don't immediately notice anything wrong. “Adjust camera feed two. Have it zoom in by 2 times.” I say to Brian. The 2nd feed zooms in, and I'm able to get a clearer look at 3702. “Ah, focus just above the left wing.” the feed moves slightly up and clears a little allowing me to see that there is a little hole that almost looks like it had been shot.

Common enough, there have been cases where small debris makes it past the reflection field and hits some component of the base. The hole is positioned right where most of the circuitry is located on the scouts. Looks like it pierced the outer shell and did some damage to the main communication board. It could be bouncing around in there, making it act a little haywire.

“Brian, is there anything that could subdue 3702 while I make repairs?” I don’t trust the repair drones to do precision work on something like this. They would have to strip it to get to the boards underneath due to their large ‘hands.’ meaning that, unfortunately, I’m going to have to do it myself.

“Yes, there are three long-range drones and multiple mover plates in the area,” Brian responds. The long-range drones move slightly faster and should be able to catch our little friend, allowing the heavy-set mover plates to pin the drone down while I work on it.

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Sighing, I tell Brain to have the drones subdue 3702. In the meantime, I stand up and dismiss the projection. Sighing again, I look out towards the ground and wonder what I’ll find out there today. I make my way back to the elevator and head down. Stepping out of the elevator, I see the hallway leading down to the exit bay and start moving that way. The tune from before is still playing, and it relaxes me as I walk.

The exit bay is a large room with multiple rovers and even a small hovercraft for recon work. But I don’t head to any of the vehicles when I get there Instead, I head for a pod just like my clothing pod in my room. The second I’m fully in the pod, the door closes, and arms once more extend from the sides. But instead of clothing and synthetic cloth, bulky pieces of metal are placed on me.

The pod finishes up quickly, and I'm allowed to step back into the exit bay. I am now fully encased in an exo-suit. The suit is designed to help me lift heavy loads and even survive in the vacuum of space. It also has a built-in HUD similar to the observation deck. I’m immediately assaulted by multiple panels of information from suit status to details on the vehicles in the bay.

“Brian, organize suit HUD to the previous setting.” my HUD clears instantly and is replaced with a general outline of suit status

Health 100/100 Power 100% time NA external Device NA

“Much better.” the problem with these suits is their limited memory. They have what they’re programmed for and not much else. Thankfully Brian is always there to upload new instructions and has an entire server built into the asteroid.

I begin to march my way down to a standard rover. Not much to say about these guys. They got four wheels, and they can hold an atmosphere. “Open rover 1’s driver door.” the rover’s door pops open and slides back like an old mini-van I used to own before everything happened.

I maneuver myself into the rover seat, and the door closes. “Open exit bay door 1.” the massive bay doors slowly slide open, allowing me passage into the airlock. I drive the rover through the first set of doors and close the hanger door. “Open hanger door 2.” A prompt pops up on my HUD asking me to confirm my request to open the second set of doors.

Open hanger door 2? yes/no

I confirm, and the second set begins to open. Even though the rover and my suit, I can hear the rushing air as it is sucked out into the vacuum of space. As soon as the doors are fully open, I drive out onto the asteroid. The only reason I’m not immediately ejected from the asteroid due to my own momentum is because of strategically placed thrusters pushing the rover to the ground.

“Plot course to rover 3702,” I speak out loud. This time nothing happens. “Hmm. Oh,” I had forgotten to connect the rover to my suit through a wired connection in the form of a cable. Lifting the cable from the center column. I plug it into a port on the side of my suit.

“Ok, let’s try this again, plot a course to 3702,” I say to my suit. This time I got a firm “Acknowledged” The voice is distinctly not Brian. Another limitation of this suit is its limited communication range, or at least for large data dumps that the rigs AI would require.

A path is plotted on my HUD's screen leading off into the distance. Alright, let's see what I'm dealing with. I think while driving forward.