Twin land transports jetted across the rocky countryside road, bouncing up and down violently at odd intervals. Even though the rain had knocked down most the to profuse dust that freqently covers the air the deeply grooved wheels mercilessly cut through the poorly packed dirt, sending a a column of dirt high into the air with every revolution. Gravity had not yet been adjusted to be within Earth Tolerance when this moon rock had been colonized – which meant the dry dust would take its sweet time
Actually, now that Christopher was thinking about it, a lot hadn’t been brought into Tolerance as there was not quite enough atmospheric water, though there were lakes aplenty, the fauna/flora ecosystem was still pretty primitive, and it was HOT HOT HOT. Not hot just during the day, when the not quite as distant sun warmed the moon-wide desert with its rays, but also at night as if the moon itself did not have sufficient ventilation installed into its cloudless blue-green sky. Christopher mused that this might not be far from the truth.
Jason, or the Captain as Christopher had to constantly remind himself, had decided to take the show on the road. They left behind the brilliant Katrina and a few heavy lifters to continue to make repairs on the Thunderbird, as well as Jack the Beanstalk to keep watch, and everyone else piled into the two tansports that were still operations. Christopher hadn’t seen more than 4 or 5 people in the all terrain vehicles before and was suprised they found for around a dozen in each. They had to pull the atmopheric control roof off and leave it behind, of course, which made the ride much warmer than desied, but the wind helped. And it was nice to feel the air rip thorugh his rusty red hair again. For a moment, he was back home, racing ATVs with his brothers on his parents’ property. He missed those days.
As signs of civilization came into view – a smoke spire here, a small house there – Christopher realized how formidable the crew looked. Between bounces and divets he saw the image of the crew transport to their left. Geared up in mid level armor, with long guns interspersed with side arms, they looked like a regular band of bandits. Is that what we’ve become? The thought made Christopher uneasy.