[hider=Ruth and Drax]Now this was a situation, wasn't it? Foreman Jo'ones stared Ruth down the entire time she spoke, maintaining eye contact, but at the mention of being skinned alive he simply blinked dully, as though confused. Did she really just make that order? Surely it was a joke? After working hard for Galatec for the last 432 years of his life he was to be cast off, just like that? It had to be a joke! But it couldn't be, as Jo'ones knew that Drax was incapable of understanding such things. His fears were only confirmed when the colossal android grabbed hold of him and dragged him out of the control room. 

"Excuse me, Foreman Jo'ones, do you know of a secluded area that would be easy to clean up in case of an accident?" inquired the robot without a hint of remorse or irony in his tone. Jo'ones struggled, uselessly, for a moment, but then had a retort.

"Right here is fine," he growled as he pulled his hand out from his pocket and slammed his palm against the arm Drax used to hold the foreman up. A powerful electric current surged through the robot. The damage was minimal, negligible even, but it messed with his circuits just enough to cause a spasm, releasing the foreman.

Jo'ones landed on his feet skillfully, then held out his open palm for the android to see. He had some kind of shock device around his hand. A quick scan of his database informed Drax that it was the hand mounted Tesla Charger, standard issue to Galatec military personnel decades ago. Outdated technology, but still useful in a pinch as was just proven.

"I'm not going down without a fight, robot!" Jo'ones began a flurry of punches against Drax, fist pounding against metal faster than most people could react to, and powerful enough to outright kill. Then again, Adelram Drax wasn't most people, and the blows, if he had any touch sensors, would only tickle him.

Meanwhile, Ruth continued monitoring the mining station for anything out of the ordinary. For the most part everything looked fine. Slaves were hard at work, githkin kept a close watch on them, same old same old. Something did catch her eye, however. Two young humans, a male and a female, were walking together toward the vehicle docking station. They traveled together unsupervised. The monitor's scanners identified the two as Jonah Fallen, a human with Loyalty Benefit Status, and Clementine Mayweather, an office worker. According to the screen, both were currently under Red Rock's Director of Accounting, Shplorn. What were they doing entering the vehicle bay? Well, two humans with privileged status couldn't possibly be doing anything out of the ordinary, right?[/hider]

[hider=Jonah and Clementine]Clementine's attempt at conversation apparently went unanswered as Jonah remained stoic and quiet as ever, forcing the two to travel with minimal interaction. The walk took about four minutes, during which time they had had their access checked by no less than three security githkin and two keycard swipers, but finally they reached an elevator that took them to the ground level. Once the doors parted for them, Clementine and Jonah found themselves inside a large vehicle hanger. About two dozen vehicles of different shapes and sizes were immediately visible, while a few mechanics worked on them. In the center of the room was the largest of all the vehicles, the size of a building! Sadly it was kept from view under some kind of tarp, with a barricade setup around it and two githkin standing on guard.

Once they stepped into the hanger bay, a woman wearing a blue jumpsuit covered in grease approached them. She appeared human, save for silver eyes. Those knowledgeable in xenology could easily pick her out as a Mercurian, an alien species that could transform into liquid mercury at will. The name tag on her jumpsuit read "Kylo."

"Hello hello. My name is Kylo, and I'm the chief mechanic here. What can I do ya for?"[/hider]

[hider=Tommy and Oliver]Tommy was able to get a small portion of the oranium into his pockets, his own little personal treasure. When he called back for assistance, the githkin that kept watch over he and Oliver turned to look inside the crevice that Tommy had squeezed into. It looked around for a moment then shouted a single word in response. "Come."

The scar-faced githkin shot Oliver a look as it passed by, a look that just oozed smugness. Looks like it remembered Oliver just as much as Oliver remembered it. That was one thing, but whatever it planned to do with that kid was another entirely and Oliver could not stand for such injustice. He grabbed a rock and, taking advantage of his supervising githkin's distraction, attempted to sneak up on the scar-faced alien. He was able to get right up behind the creature, and brought the stone down right on its head!

The githkin released the child by reflex and grabbed its head in pain, but recovered quickly. It spun around and reached out, grabbing Oliver by the neck. With impressive strength, it lifted the young man off the ground, choking him. It was then that the other githkin came running up, having taken notice of the scuffle. In the middle of it all, the child took off around the corner, out of sight.[/hider]

[hider=Michael][b]BOOM![/b] Dust and hot air kicked up from the explosion, blasting past Michael. If he hadn't shielded his face, his eyes would be in tremendous pain right now. As it was, the dust cleared and Michael could make out the fruits of his labor. The large metal door had been blasted open, revealing a mine shaft freight elevator. It looked like it could hold about 30 people. The light flickered on and off, but hopefully the elevator itself would be operating better than the light.[/hider]

[hider=Samara]The mentor smiled in acknowledgement at Samara's accomplishments, truly proud of the tracking technology she had developed. There was no way he could have accomplished what he did without her assistance, that was for sure. He nodded once Samara located the first two youths. Once the second two were found, there would only be one to go. Fantastic! Only he wasn't found. Michael couldn't be found. What the...? After all the work he had put into shifting schedules around to get that kid at Red Rock, now he wasn't around? That couldn't be right!

Quickly he ran over to another computer terminal and tapped away at it. A few seconds later he looked back at Samara and said, "Facility logs show he checked in. This is worrisome."

"Do we continue with the plan and find him later?" she asked. He nodded.

"We'll have to. This is the only opportunity we'll have for this many of them to be together at once. The transfers I arranged for are only valid for one day. Activate the RD System." He stood up and composed himself. After a deep breath, the mentor took a walk to the center of the cavern they were using as a base of operations, near a light projector. The four they located should appear directly in front of him, if all went according to plan, and he would do his best to introduce himself and explain the situation.[/hider]

[hider=Mable]New Angel Grove. Capitol of New Earth. Galatec Regional Headquarters was located in this city, the city with the largest population on the planet, estimated at 4.3 million last census. Mable had a concert tonight, just as she had every night. This time she would be revealing a brand new song, one that, according to the news propaganda, was a "picture into her heart." This morning was the first time she had ever even seen the lyrics, and she was supposed to master the performance in time for a show in three hours? Yeah right.

It was mid-afternoon, and Mable sat in the back seat of a limo. The sky was sunny and warm, just as scheduled by the Galatec Weather Operators, while few people roamed the streets. And why would they? Most would be toiling away underground or in factories or in some dead end office cube. The few people she could see out the window were either the privileged humans that had special "Loyalty Benefit Status," or alien Galatec representatives. And githkin peacekeepers, of course.

Mables agent and manager, Gajoon, sat next to her. He looked like some kind of tall, bipedal octopus with hands squeezed into a suit, wearing tiny spectacles. He was currently performing some kind of business on his mobile phone, typing away with his gelatinous fingers, completely ignoring his environment.[/hider]

[hider=Jackson][center][i]Dumas Mine[/i][/center]
It was another beautiful day in the Dumas mine! Jackson had already been working for a good two hours amidst the rock and stone. Today he had the job of using a large drill to clear out some rubble. What fun! Wasn't Galatec super neat and fair? I mean, drills? That's just cool. And that githkin watching over his back at all times, what a swell guy. Galatec was nice to provide him with a good friend to keep him company! Vroom vroom! 

That's when a bell rang through the caverns of the mine, signalling break. Jackson got a solid 3 minutes to drink water, get a snack, and catch his breath. Once the bell rang, some of the miners in the area set down their equipment and began to make conversation. The nearest to Jackson were a couple of twin girls, probably about 20 or so. Even in the bright lighting Galatec wired throughout the mines (because employees need to be kept safe, right?) their skin was quite dark. One wore her hair up in a bun, while the other had hers in dreadlocks. Apart from that, they were indistinguishable from one another.[/hider]