The sun was bright, but the thin atmosphere always made it bright. A strand of her orange brown hair fell down over her face with sweat dripping from it, as she worked out the back of her outpost. Then her green eyes caught a sight through her visor. Her environment suit did not have any built in optical enhancements so she had to wait until she could identify it. She moved to her make shift landing pad waited. Standing waiting for the shuttle she got a little chill and realized her T-shirt was sticking to every curve of her body. It was from all the work she had been doing. Now that she had stopped she was quickly cooling down. She turned on her suits exhaust fan to remove the moisture. She looked at the temperature reading on her suit and thought, 'That is why I am sweating it is a balmy -5 degrees.' She was not conscious of the effects the sweat was having on her clothes because she had lived alone for so long and she also just considered herself one of the boys. She could out drink and curse them and did so on many occasions.

    She waited for the transport to land. It was carrying a group of xenoarchologist, they are going to stay at her outpost for the night and then she would take them out to the Glassmaker site in the morning. The transport landed and off loaded its cargo of old fossils, which were going to look at old fossils. She got them all settled and then started to load their gear into her ATV. One of the younger men in the group came out to give her a hand. He said,
"You do all this by yourself?" Jen smiled at him through her visor and said,
"Sh@t, I do what I have to until something better comes along." His voice then sounded a little sarcastic, he said,
"Do a lot of opportunities come out this way?"
"H@#l yes, I am the closest drop off to a major Glassmaker ruins. What kind of people do you think drop in on me?"
"Well to be completely honest, old farts like me. I would think you would be looking for something a little younger."
"Youth is totally over rated. They are all speed and energy, there is no technique, if you know what I mean." Then she winked at the older man. He blushed and left her to her work.

    She finished loading the ATV and then made the men their last home cooked meal for awhile. the evening went fine with all the intellects sitting around discussing what they thought they would find out there. She turned in early as she knew the next day would be a long one. Rising before Mantebron's yellow class G sun she had everything ready to go by the time the eggheads were up. They started out and the men really saw how truly desolate High Mojave really was. Once away from Jen's outpost all that could be seen were sand, snow, rock and sky, anyway they looked it was all the same. The ATV's external thermostat read -25 degrees and Jen said,
"H@#l gentlemen you have an absolutely balmy day to start your adventure." One of the older gentleman said,
"Thank goodness that your heater works so well."
"Yah if not for that we would all be big Popsicle." He looked back at her as if she were but naked, then asked,
"What is a possible?" She looked at him as if to say Duh! then said,
"It is a frozen fruit drink on a stick, you eat it. You guys are suppose to be smart and from a warm planet." Then she just shook her head.

    The trip out was uneventful and it was not long before Jen had them all set up. She told them they should take the rest of the day getting use to the cold, and also she reminded them they should drink a lot of water. They told her they were familiar with environmental extremes. She just nodded and said,
"If you have any problems call me, if not I will be back in a week with supplies." They seemed happy with that and so Jen left.

    Seven days had gone past and the archaeologists had only called once. Jen was impressed, they really did know what they were doing. With a fully loaded ATV she headed out to there camp. The trip was uneventful except that she could not raise the camp on the radio. When that happened Jen put on her stealth armor and loaded up on weapons. She had her blaster on her hip and a combat knife in her boot. As she pulled into the camp she was glad that she had.

    The camp was a shambles. Shelters were full of holes and tipped over, equipment and supplies were everywhere. At once Jen knew this was not the work of pirates. Some of the most valuable equipment was still functioning, while other valuable pieces looked to be purposely shot full of holes. These were two things that a group of pirates would not do. Grabbing her blaster from her holster she exited her ATV. Looking around at the tracks she could not really tell what had happened. She did notice some unusual tracks or at least she thought they were tracks. They looked like nothing she had ever seen before. Then she found multiple human tracks leading off towards the ruins. Following them she came to a building made of glass. There seemed to have been some sort of explosion inside.

    She walked in and did not get two steps before she found the first body. It had a major laser burn on the head, as well as shrapnel damage. She did not even know who it was, the body was more like a big pile of raw meat. She said,
"Sh$t, what the He#l happened here?" She looked around some more and found the rest of the group. They were all dead from multiple laser wounds and shrapnel. She picked up a rifle from one of the dead men. Looking at it she found it was completely drained. She dropped it and turned to walk out. She could just see through the door from where she was and saw something moving out side. Moving to get a better view and also staying to the shadows as much as possible. From her knew position she could now see the camp, and the things that were rummaging through it. There were four of them and they were defiantly what had attacked the xenoarchologists. This was obvious by the large riffles they were carrying.

    They resemble arachnid, with six legs and two manipulative forelimbs. Their bodies are about 2 meters long and about a meter wide at its widest point. Each leg ends in a claw while the forelimbs end in three digits with claws. The body, which is suspended between its legs, is covered in chitin. this covering is hard enough to be protection against small arms fire.  Its sensory organs seemed to be suspended beneath the body.

    Jen was moving to get a better look, when her foot knocked over some rocks. The noise caused two of the creatures to turn and look in her direction. The furthest one had a direct line of sight to where Jen was. Jen felt safe in her stealth suit and the shadows until it started to raise its weapon towards her. She just had enough time to jump out of the way as a blast of black light came streaking towards where she had just been. It hit the wall where her head had been only moments before, and turned it to rubble. Jen pulled out her blaster and fired two shots into the advancing creature. The first took off one of its legs, while the second hit it squarely in the middle of its body. The creature went down but she barely had time to see as her cover was being obliterated by a barrage of black light.

    Jen dove back into the building in order to find more cover. She eventually took shelter behind a large cube of what looked like glass. the creatures had not rushed her yet, so she looked around for a way out. It seemed she had made the same mistake as the xenoarchologists. The room she was in had only one exit and it was going to be full of giant bugs with lasers in a second.  At that moment two of the bugs rushed in , with their guns blazing. Jen barley had time to get behind her cover. She also wondered how long glass would protect her from laser fire. After the initial attack Jen returned fire and forced the bugs under cover. She thought, 'Sh@t, I can not just sit here they will have me if this turns into a long drawn out affair.' She made a move for some cover that was about three meters away and when she came up she had a clear shot at one of the bugs. They were both firing at her trying to keep her pinned down. She had risked her life for this vantage point and she was determined to use it.

    In a split second lull, she pecked around the corner of her cover to see one of the bugs moving. in a second it would be completely out of cover. She readied herself and when the time was right, she jumped up and fired two shots into the exposed bug. The shots both caught it in the body, the first one making a big hole in its armor. While the second made a big mess of it's insides. Jen then dove back behind the original glass cube for cover.

    Jen's situation was not much better even though she had taken out two of her attackers. There were still at least two more that she knew about, and she only had four shot left. She mentally kicked herself for not being better prepared, especially after seeing the mess of the camp. Now what was she going to do? at that moment she heard a large explosion and the bug started to fire again. She was not sure what was going on, but she was pretty sure it was not good. The bug at the door was well protected from her, so all she could do was to wait and see what happened next. she did not know anything about these bugs, maybe they had to eat all the time and if they don't that might cause them to make a mistake.

    After about half an hour of nothing happening except the other bug coming into the room and getting under cover before Jen could do anything, she heard another noise. It was from outside but she could not place it. The two bugs had not moved so she thought she might have imagined it. Maybe the waiting was started to get to her, but Jen knew she could hold out longer. Then a new idea came to her. If her mind was starting to wonder maybe the bug’s minds were doing the same. She could use that to her advantage and get the drop on them. The idea played around in her head for a couple of minutes then she came up with a plan. the one on the right was the easiest to get at. She would distract it with a noise and in that second she would attack.

    Tossing a small stone she heard it land and also the scurry of little clawed feet. She made her move, jumping up on to the cube and then towards the bug. She landed and rolled with her momentum. Coming up behind the bug she aimed and fired twice. Her aim had finally faired her and she hit only once. She quickly followed it up with another shot, which got under it armor, blowing the bug to bits. Before it died though it got off a shot at Jen. The shot had caught her in the arm and caused her to drop her blaster.

    She looked up to see the other bug almost upon her. She reached for her blaster, but knew she could not get to it in time. Then she heard it, two blasts from a particle beam weapon. 'Funny' she thought, 'The bugs did not have particle weapons.' Grabbing her blaster she looked up just in time to be covered in bug parts. The bug that was about to kill her was now splattered all over her and the walls. She looked around for an explanation and saw someone in battle armor coming towards her.

    He walked towards her with the confidence of a trained military man. She could see that he was in excellent shape, and all she could think about was wondering how she looked. He got close enough that she could see his face through his visor. He smiled and that was it she wanted him. He put down the rifle he held in his hand and extended it to help her up. She grabbed his hand and jumped up only to find she had hurt her leg. This caused Jen to fall into his arms. He said in a quite but strong voice,
"Are you alright?" Jen had blushed at falling into his arms, she said,
"Yes, I don't think the Dam thing is broken." Then she shook her leg to get it working again. Once Jen had regained the use of her leg she said,
"Who are you?"
"My name is Falconrune, and I am a Verge Ranger." Ata that Jen noticed the Concord military insignia on the battle armor. She then asked,
"What are you doing here?"
"I picked up a distress call and thought it funny how it was jammed. I decided to investigate. As for what am I doing on High Mojave, this is where I am stationed. I watch over the Glassmaker ruins just incase something happens."
"That sounds boring."
"Sometimes, then there are other times when I get to save a beautiful woman in distress," and he followed it up with a smile that could cut through the coldest day.

    They then started to collect up the bodies and take them out to Jens ATV, but when they got there she found out what the explosion she had heard was. Her ATV was now a pile of rubble. She cursed the bugs to every hell that could be imagined. Falconrune said,
"The Klicks did not want you to get back to civilization and let them know what was going on here."
"So that gave them the god dam right to blow up my ATV." Falconrune almost laughed and said,
"They were planning on killing you, so they figured you would not be around or did you forget?"
"How can I. I am covered in bug parts."
"Yes you are," then he paused, "But you did take out three of them, and you do know this planet, and the Glassmakers ruins." She looked at him trying to figure out what he was up to. He said,
"Why don't you work for me?"
"What become a Verge Ranger?"
"Yes, I will re-supply you." This got her thinking and after a minute she put out her hand to shake and said,
"Alright, I will do it."