[b][u]Roughnecks[/u][/b]

Ulysses sat quietly in the driver seat of the UTV as he cracked open a bottle of vodka, taking a sip as the dropship carrying them rattled lightly. Jack had joined in the passenger seat, clutching the assault rifle they'd brought along, magazines for it held securely in pouches on the front of his tactical vest. It was hard to break old habits, and the same rang true for Ulysses, whom had the semiautomatic rifle that was essentially a old-model SKS rifle with an older holographic sight affixed resting between his legs, muzzle pointed up at the roof of the UTV. In the back was most of the gear for their little start-up operation, the rest residing elsewhere within the hefty dropship. Ulysses had little interest in paying the freight company to put him inside a passenger dropship when the pair could just ride down to the surface with their gear, especially considering the two had been through plenty of aerobraking maneuvers before.

The pair began to vibrate along with the rest of the ship as it began to make contact with the atmosphere, essentially treating the gas like a liquid and surfing across the sky in a way. Jack looked over at Ulysses, whom simply handed the bottle of vodka over, figuring he wanted a drink too. There was the very real potential this might be their last drink in the event that the heat shield failed, causing a catastrophic event wherein they'd likely be torn to shreds, burnt alive in an instant, or sucked out into the near-vacuum of high altitude Ember in an explosive decompression. To put it simply, one never completely relaxed during instances like this, even with the ever-increasing routineness of space travel.

Ulysses breathed a sigh of relief when they finally made it through, hearing the thrusters begin to be used once more. Soon after, the dropship came to a lurching halt at what was presumably the right place, the cargo bay door opening. Turning the vehicle's engine on, they reversed out of the craft as the light of Ember's star first came down upon them. It was a stunning place certainly, but Jack and Ulysses had little time to stand around and watch the view. They got to work immediately, helping unpack what little gear was left in the cargo ship, before it once more blasted off into the sky, becoming not but a dot before nothing was left but the vapor trail from its engines.

Almost immediately, Jack got out of the UTV, activated the sensor on the back of the UTV, then returned to the passenger seat. In unison, the two chambered rounds in their "self-defense" weapons, and got to work, scanning for baltuskite. The rest of their gear was shoved off under some tree-object, covered in simple netting designed to camouflage it whilst they were gone.