Harold- "Here you go, nice and easy, this is the last crest, You should see the entry lock when you reach that crest."

Kate- "Got visual... t's fucking 'bout time, can feel the impacts in my knees! Can't wait to have metal under my feet to fake gravity with my mags."

Cere- Humans never evolved for low gravity, it's the momentum and velocity of your mass causing the hit in your knees.

Kate- Are you calling me fat? I'm not an idiot, I was born on the Moon stupid toaster.

Cere- You leave so much of your memory capabilities to me, how can I know what your stupid steak for a brain remembers or not?

Harold- "... can be treacherous. Good work on that trek kids."

Marcel- "I don't see a magnetic field on that door with my optics, no electricity I'm guessing."

Kate- "I think she came here, there are boot prints in the dust."

Spazz- "Could be old."

Cere- No, those are recent. The orbital factories dump enough dust to cover the surface of a thin film gradually, this is fresh.

Kate- "Cere confirms those are fresh, something about industrial dust from orbit."

Marcel- "I'll plug my internal to juice the door."

Kate" Right... WAIT! DON'T MOVE YOUR ASS!"

Marcel- "What? See something you like?"

Kate- "The prints... she shuffled a lot around the door."

Marcel- "Putain, you think she put a mine?"

Kate- "....... no.... No, I don't think so. Look, she stepped a lot in front of the control panel for the door. There are no signs that she moved the regolith, I can see the micro impacts of glass dust from ancient events, it take a while to build. If she did something..."

Cere- Kate there is a screw missing on the panel.

Kate- Right! " And here is the missing screw in the dirt... that bitch booby-trapped the door."

Marcel- "Maybe she just did the same thing I wanted to do?"

Kate- "Maybe, let's see... I'll remove it slowly... easy, easy... ok safe. Hell to the yeah! There are two small cables for a current detour and a freshly drilled hole toward the door. You said no magnetic field right?"

Spazz- "I got specialized engineering optics on the drones, I can confirm, nothing on my side."

Kate- "Right, I remember something from an old resistance field manual you guys made me read. You use a depowered door to entice your adversary to power it, juicing the circuit detour, blowing up the IED."

Marcel- "That's oddly specific."

Harold- "Lots of security doors left without power in the ruins of Earth at the time I bet."

Kate- "Cheap trap, makes your enemies bring batteries to power their own death. Might as well make them dig their own graves."

Spazz- "Nasty, I like."

Marcel- Maybe I should pry open that door, might be safer."

Kate- "Nah, that's an easy fix once you know. All I have to do is cut the detour and reconnect both ends to close the original circuit, then you can plug yourself to make the door work for us."

Spazz- "Are you sure this is safe, what if there is a redundancy to entice a false sense of security and trap clever people into a false sense of security?"

Kate- "We are hunting a master bomb maker so no, but I'm guessing she isn't really expecting a visit. She didn't hide the cables or the hole, that's probably a rush job to keep scavengers out."

Spazz- "Right... she probably doesn't expect that someone rigged a camera years ago with solar to keep it running to spot bounties here. She thinks she's safe and that at least here nobody is looking for her."

Kate- "Over time, we get complacent when we are always on a battlefield, start accepting pointless risks. Makes death a sort of inevitability that comes when luck runs out. You can't stay sharp... and she was lucky enough to do it for fifty years. She's getting sloppy. OK, we're good here, you can plug yourself, Marcel."

Marcel- "Why are you hiding behind that rock?"

Kate- "Better safe..."

Marcel- "Are you shitting me, putain, I don't feel this one at all!"

Harold- "Don't be a baby, you're a big mean combat cyborg. You should be fine, just don't stand in front of the door. If it blows up, the frame will channel the gasses parallel from your body and the vacuum will limit the impact. With your carbon nanotube armour, you'll be fine, unless she rigged it to blow up a tank. This door is not worth the investment."

Marcel- "Putain de bordel de merde!"

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Harold- "Common we don't have all day!"

*PSSSSSSSHhhhhh"

Kate- "Wierd, the access was pressurized."

Cere- That was for the bomb, there was a lot of gas, a few atmospheres worth. I bet she activated the pressurization system to pump up the effective radius on that IED.

Kate- "Cere say it was to give the bomb some oomph, she knows how to do her shit in space... that's not a good sign for us."

Spazz- "Look at that nasty fucker. She used screws for extra shrapnel in her explosive paste, looks like good homemade stuff too. Nearly completely untraceable."

Harold- "She left us some bread crumbs, Spazz, look in the industrial database for the construction of the dome at the time. See if those screws are used for something."

Spazz- "Let's see... good catch boss! Those were used in a lot of stuff, but notably for some wall and floor electrical maintenance panels. It could narrow down the search quite a lot."

Harold- "Don't rule out anything but that's a good start. Send your drone in first and scout ahead."

Marcel- "Hey babe, wanna get a drink later?"

Kate- "Don't know, should I?"

Marcel- "You won't regret it, I'm great!"

Kate- "Was that supposed to work?"

Marcel" Have you seen me?"

Kate- "You're terrible..." *Sigh* "Why not."

Harold- "Cut that chatter, Marcel you should know better in those situations."

Marcel- "Ella a dit oui il est où le bug?"

Cere autotranslate- She said yes, where's the bug?

Harold- "I'll chew you later. Get your heads in the game."

Spazz- " Found them, it wouldn't be visible with the optics but knowing the screws were missing... looks like pressure mines under the floor plates. Easy to dodge, hard to see."

Harold- "Send the map and keep going, I want to find her in this labyrinth. You two get on the way."

Spazz- "... One of the drones just went dark!"

Harold- "What happened?"

Spazz- "Replaying the video and sensory feeds, I see it, it's a Black Industry E-26 armour piercing anti-anti personal turret. This model emits a radio burst when it starts shooting to alert the owner. I can't hack it right now, I'd need cable."

Harold- "Nasty stuff, Kate can't go, her suit isn't tough enough for AP rounds and it's powerful enough to concuss Marcel if he gets hit badly to the head. Shouldn't be lethal though."

Marcel- "I got this one."

Kate- "Why are you getting naked? Are you expecting to seduce it? Rub shell against shell and some hot cannon action?"

Marcel- "That's hot but nah babe. I got that sweet virtual chameleon skin with thermal modulators to blend completely against stationary targets. The databank says this model doesn't have a magnetic field detection module. Just give me a bit to get at ambient temp..."

Kate- "I know, just pulling your leg. Don't get concussed out there, you're barely over the threshold of stupid I can endure."

Marcel- "Right, how do I look?"

Kate- "Perfect!"

Marcel- "You can see me?"

Kate- "No."

Marcel- "Then why did you say... oh! got me."

Harold- "Enough digs, we have to be quick, she's aware we're onto here."

Marcel- "Merde, right!"

Kate- "I'll try to cut her off, Spazz, find me a parallel corridor on the schematics."

Spazz- "Are you sure? We don't know what nasty shit she has out there."

Kate- "Nothing ventured... I need the cash today."

Harold- "Be careful, Spazz back her up on her optics, you might spot something."

Spazz- "Right!"

Marcel- "I got the turret, it's cabled, fastoche it's dead for..."

Kate- "WHAT THE FUCK!"

Spazz- "We lost Marcel! The drones are down as well."

Kate- "My implants got hit, they are not responsive!"

Harold- "Vitals?"

Spazz- "Fully dark, no way to know. Wait, I got a signal, he's rebooting with redundancies. He'll take a minute to make complete circuits with the stuff still functional."

Kate- "What hit us?"

Spazz- "Reviewing... got it, it was a spider drone armed with a small EMP covering the turret to stop any cyborg. Good thing brain implants are heavily shielded."

Kate- "I have visual, she's bolting, I'm going after her!"

Harold- "Kate you're like a pirate out there with your arm and eye offline. It's too dangerous!"

Kate- "I'll keep my distances, use me as a tracking beacon to guide Marcel when he's up and running! I'll need backup."