The three pilots step out of the spaceship, with Monique looking at the colony in the distance with a set of binoculars that expand out of her sunglasses. "There's a lot of people there, maybe a hundred or so, probably enough to find an outfit in our sizes?", she asks the others.
"Yea, and that'll be enough people to blend in. We could totally pass off as new recruits", Jody replies. The people in the little community just seem to be milling about, setting up machinery and constructing makeshift buildings. Almost like they're doing a trial run for an actual colony. They start walking towards the camp, doing their best to stay out of eyeshot from any of the people at the base. They have to move a little slowly to make sure that Clash can keep up with them, but it lets them try to connect a little bit.
"You think these guys have any clue they're working for someone like Shadow?", Monique asks Clash, hoping to get him to think about something besides the mission, which she figures is what's making him panic.
Clash is still nervous about talking to her, since she's more than a foot taller than her and built like a superhero. He takes another big, deep breath of oxygen from his rebreather and tries to speak like someone with basic human charisma. "Ummm, yea I'd guess so. Probably depends on how they got here. Maybe they're enslaved, then they'd definitely know", he says with a nervous chuckle. He's trying, and Monique can tell. She smiles and nods down to him.
The three get to another patch of trees about a quarter-mile away from the base, close enough for them to be able to see the camp without the need for the glasses. However, Jody asks for them anyway, and uses them to get a better view of the people in the village, and she's a bit surprised by how casual the whole place feels.
"They seem… happy? Or at least not enslaved. I've seen coffee shops with a more strict work vibe than this place. It looks like it's literally just a company of workers." Jody gives the glasses back to Monique to let her see what she's seeing. However, when Monique looks at a couple of the workers, they're pointing directly at them, with one of them motioning them to come over there. Their cover's been blown.
They all freeze in place, trying to think of what they should do. Jody's never been the best when it comes to thinking on her feet, and Clash has anxiety problems. Monique sees the two panicking a bit, and she tells them to follow her as she comes out from the clearing and heads over to the base, with someone who looks like he's in charge looking at them with a stern expression.
"What are you doing?", Jody asks through gritted teeth, trying not to look like she's freaking out. "This wasn't part of the plan."
"I know, but we need a new plan. Just let me do the talking, I have a good way with people. Just go along with this, I can make this work."
As they get within talking distance of the boss, he starts looking through his notes, seemingly trying to figure out where these mystery people are coming from, and if he should be concerned about them. "What the hell are you guys doing on my site? I don't have any new employees anywhere in my files", he says in a rough, Southern accent.
"Oh that's because we aren't employees, we're safety inspectors", Monique says with a friendly smile while the other two look at her, wondering where she's going with this.
"Safety… inspectors? I wasn't told about any inspectors coming in. This is my build site, why wouldn't Shadow tell me about something like this?", he asks, looking a bit worried, like he's failing someone.
"Oh don't worry sir, we're just coming in for a quick day or two, just trying to get the vibes of the place, see if things are running smoothly. Plus, they didn't want you to shine the place up before we got here, know what I mean?", she says with a little chuckle and a playful elbow nudge to make the boss seem like he isn't in danger of losing his job because of her, which makes things seem a little less tense.
Monique and the manager walk together for a bit looking over the town, with him showing the racers how their colony has been going. This tour teaches everyone a lot about Shadow's work environment. His workers certainly don't look like they're being held captive, which honestly makes the racers worry that much more. Just how many mind control orbs does Black Shadow have…? Sure these workers aren't in chains or anything, but they still have to be under Shadow's grip somehow.
"Oh, I didn't get y'all's names", the manager says as Monique has to think quickly.
"Oh, how rude of me. I'm April Arbaletrier of Straight Arrow Safety Squad. This is my assistant, Autumn. And that's my colleague, Dr. Battaglia", she says as the two nervously wave to the manager.
"Nice to meet y'all, name's Cameron. Sorry about the rough introduction, we're just in a bit of a time crunch here, shift change is about to happen, and I've got to get the night shift up and running before I turn in for the night", he says as he points up to the sky. There's a ship that's just left the base, and is heading down to the planet.
"Mmmmm, interesting. You think after we finish up our inspection down here, we could get up on that ship? Might as well get a full look at your set-up", she says as she writes something down on her tablet to look official.
"Yea sure, I can get that for ya", Cameron says as he walks off to his office. As he leaves, Jody and Clash let out a little sigh as Monique continues to look at the buildings around town, inspecting them like she's actually doing the inspection job.
"Uhhhh, Monique? What're you doing?", Clash asks.
"Staying in character. I am April Arbaletrier until we get back on the Wyvern. You never know who's watching, so I suggest we get to work, Dr. Battaglia", she says without looking away from her tablet, completely committing to the bit.
Cameron walks back towards them, carrying a set of visitor badges, so Jody starts looking at Monique's tablet, like she's trying to learn what she's writing. Cameron hands over the badges and Monique smiles at him.
"Thanks a million, Cameron. Oh, and if you don't mind, tell as few people as you can about us coming, for the same reason that we showed up here unannounced, you know?", she says with a sweet smile that could disarm a bomb.
"Of course, go on ahead", he says as he goes back to his work.
For the next hour or so, the racers are able to look over the base, pretty much unimpeded. "Why isn't anyone questioning us?", Jody asks, seeing as how the missions that the GSF have sent her on never go this smoothly.
"See, the thing that people don't think about is that as long as you look official and like you belong somewhere, people will just assume you're supposed to be there", Monique says as she scribbles something on her tablet. They look around the base for a little while, trying not to walk into anywhere that will raise too many questions, but still doing as much on-the-ground investigation as they can in the time they have allotted.
"What do you use that knowledge for then?", Jody asks, to which Monique gives her a sly, little smile.
"Just because I've never been side-by-side with my husband on his missions doesn't mean I haven't done some things to help him out."
"So, what exactly are we looking for?", Clash asks her.
"A reason for why they're going to the trouble of terraforming a planet for the sake of some criminal venture. Surely, there's gotta be a more cost-effective way to build your empire than building a darn whole planet", she says as she approaches one of the workers. "Hi Miss, my name's April from Straight Arrow Safety, can I ask you a few questions about this place?"
The young woman seems a bit confused, but shrugs and nods, "Sure, what do you have in mind?", she replies while barely looking away from the machine she's working on.
"Do you know about any of the people in charge of this project? Like the higher-ups?", April asks her.
She just shakes her head no. "The biggest person I know about is Mr. Cameron. Anyone else above him is too big for me to worry about."
"I see. Do you know what the goal of this base is? We've just gotten a few conflicting stories from some of the other workers."
The worker is taken back a little by that statement. "That's… weird, we're setting up for a mining company. Why would they tell you something different?"
"Oh ok, good. That's what most people are saying, there's just a couple of tablet-heads who aren't out in the field like you are", she says in a way to make her seem less worried.
"I'm sorry, where did you say… did you… you…", she says before she starts to slump over in front of the terminal before flopping to the ground, already fast asleep.
Monique's a bit surprised, until she looks over at Jody, holding the tranq gun. "I panicked. She did not believe us."
Monique wants to say something, but she can't deny that the woman was starting to see through her story. Luckily, the worker's on the outskirts of the town, so no one's spotted her yet. They take her body, and set her off the side of the machine where no one will see her, and she'll wake up in a few hours, just thinking she fell asleep at her post. Or she'll get in trouble when her manager finds her, one of the two.
"They're mining something here", Jody says as they finish hiding her body. "What do you think it could be?"
"Not sure", Clash replies. "This planet has been uninhabited forever and there's no natural resources to speak of. If there were, people would've settled it before now." The racers look at the machine the sleeping worker was stationed at, trying to figure out what it does. It looks like there's more of the machine underground, so maybe this pulls something out of the ground.
"Maybe it has something to do with the mind controlling things?", Jody asks.
Monique snaps her fingers and points to Jody. "I think that's it. I think you're right. They must've found something underground that helps with their mind control devices. Good thinking, Jody."
As Jody's starting to feel good about herself, a loud buzzer rings out through the camp, which the sleeping worker doesn't even notice. The transport ship lands at the edge of town, and the workforce starts converging to the ships, ready to head for their beds after a long shift. The three of them start heading to the ship and get in line to get on, trying hard not to stand out among the legion of workers, though having a giant woman in their party makes that difficult. They get into their seats and try to look busy. Clash looks around at the workers to see if they're being looked at, but is happy to notice that everyone's mostly slumped in their seats, worn out from a long work shift. Looks like nobody will mind if they get onboard the ship.
