[b]Asteroid XTS - 1537[/b]

It was an asteroid only about 2 kilometers in width and height and appeared to be devoid of life, mechanical or otherwise, until something started to move on the surface.  It would be almost impossible to make out visually because of camoflague but what could be described as a mechanical spider with a powerful telescope crawling along the rock.  The robot was now making its second pass of the area, the XEON III was already in its sights.  When the ship sent out its probe the spider scoped its trajectory quite intensely, ready to go into full hiding mode at a moment's notice, but then it noticed something curious, a distortion in the stars approaching the probe, increasing its intensity the scope soon noticed a shape that docked with the probe and started to hijack it.  Data quickly flowed from the drone to its masters about what was transpiring in the asteroid surveillance zone X-3, one of several such zones scattered around [i]Fish Tail[/i] comet to provide early recon data of anything approaching, serving as a first line of defense.  Pirate and explorer alike had no idea of what would transpire quite soon.

[b]XEON III - MESS HALL[/b]

Yet another person joined her seemingly ever expanding circle, Marsha was starting to loose focus on her painting.  Sometimes she was lucky and managed to get in a good 30 minutes without too much interference but obviously today was not such a day.  Like it or not in any real 'public' section of the ship she had the disadvantage of well, being a woman on a mostly male expeditionary vessel, making her one of the first targets to try and start up a conversation.  She was not about to be overly rude without a meaningful reason though so when Daniel Bhane extended his hand she did the polite thing and shook it back.  [color=darkred]"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Bhane.  I made sure to know the names and faces of all the other pilots on the ship before the start of this mission in case you were wondering."[/color]  She figured might as well get that bit out of the way straight up.

Marsha considered telling them all to leave her, but at this point she had lost her image of the nebula so there was little point in continuing, besides she had yet to finish her burger.  She repressed a sigh as she set her painting utensils down and reached for her meal.  [color=darkred]"I take it you have all completed your maintenance and checklists already?  No doubt we will be moving out in short order."[/color]  Marsha Wells had no idea how soon that time would be, but it would be sooner than she expected.