NB011

Lupus arrived to planetoid NB011, their ship pierced through the atmosphere, and the snowstorm covered Brigham's windshield on the bridge. It wasn't like he would have had clear vision even if there was no storm, the fog was so thick you could barely see what was in front of you.

Thankfully they had the Navigation computer that Ana was in charge of, the navigation system was equipped with all sorts of radars, sonars, and scanners that made their landing a smooth one. There was a landing pad next to the base to which they were arriving.

The base was first established by the expeditionary force, sent by President Micki In 1974. to explore uncharted parts of space. They soon claimed the planetoid officially part of the Dominion of Nova Occasio once drinkable water and oil were discovered under the surface.

There was an idea of NB011 to be a kind of 'gas station' in space, along with hotels and casinos for would be travelers to this part of space and ships on long trips needing refueling and breaks. However, it was soon discovered that this part of space was relatively empty and pretty useless.

Warp-speed engines had also gotten more advanced in the coming years allowing for longer distances to be made through warping making the 'gas station' idea obsolete. The ever-present snowstorm, fog, and the bug-like killer Kortonians didn't make it a suitable tourist attraction.

Thus NB011 was abandoned with only one military base constructed for the soldiers to occupy, its only use being to sleep in and the pumping station came to be underutilized. Not to make this very expensive experiment go to complete waste, it was decided in 1979. that it will be used for practical exams for new would-be cadets of the new and prestigious Celio's military academy. And so the abandoned pumping station and the military base found new life as a baptism in fire for students.

The ship's landing gear connected to the ground, making the inside shake. Lupus went next for a change of clothes, their uniforms wouldn't do for this hostile environment, they had to put on special suits for the cold outside and special masks for breathing because of the light amount of oxygen in the air.

Despite their suits, once they had stepped out of the ship the howling winds of NB011 cut right to the bone. It was a cold that they never felt in their life, considering they had only been exposed to a comfortable 25 degrees Celsius. Their eyes felt assaulted by the constant barrage of snow that hit their faces.

They had goggles to cover their eyes, but most of the kids had naively thought they could bear the snow. They've seen snow a million times in various Christmas movies made on Earth, none of the actors wore special goggles made for the snow. The only students who practiced caution were Curro, Brigham, and Emidio. The rest quickly realized their mistake and put the protective gear over their eyes.

Not wanting to spend another minute in this deathly cold, class Lupus ran towards the military base as fast as possible. Inside it subjectively felt just as freezing as it did on the outside, the heating was turned off, and Curro checked and confirmed it was broken and couldn't be turned on.

The military base's hallways were all gray, and utilitarian, with very few windows and complete silence. The only sounds were of their own footsteps and the howling wind that continuously raged on the outside. They searched room by room, all of them empty. While this was to be expected, the lack of any human presence was disturbing to the young students.

Going room by room the class discovered the food crate designated for them, they entered the code and found food rations for them that would last 7 days. Given that Mok was now dead and a batch of rations was meant for him, it meant their 10-day trip would be well supplied at least when it came to food.

Unfortunately for Brigham, a serious new challenge was about to be thrust upon him that he would need to lead Lupus through. He could only grit his teeth at the frustrating revelation, once they came into the main room of the base. A giant table with many computers was in the center of the room with instructions on how to operate the pumping station.

The pumping station was not next to the military base. It was at a distance away from the base, and it would take a long march in the cold to get to it. The geography around the pumping station made it unapproachable by ship and the vessel was required to be on the landing pad next to the base to connect to the refueling cables.

The station had to be manually operated by 4 people and someone would also have to manually confirm the refueling process on the ship itself. It was going to refill their water supply and their fuel for the Lepoglava space station.

Another problem was the Kortonians, any group who would take the march would no doubt be attacked by them, and with their lack of combat experience, it could be a fatal encounter.

On top of all that, once the refueling process is confirmed on the ship and at the pumping station, it has to take 18 hours to finish, with the ship being totally powered down. Meaning, no heating for 18 hours, given the ship's functions would be off for that period.

Brigham took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and tried to devise a plan on how exactly they were going to approach this predicament.

***

After some deep thinking Brigham gathered his classmates around the table on the military base to announce his plan.

"Listen up! Here is how this going to go down! The huge problem for any group that moves to the pumping station is the Kortonians. They will attack them on-site, ergo we will need two groups. One group to activate the pumping station, the other to distract the Kortonians.

"The second group will cause a major ruckus and will relentlessly engage the Kortonians so that the first group can slip by without much hassle."

"So you are essentially saying one group has to be on a suicide run so the other can make it?" Hitomi asked while quickly blinking, You better not be fu**ing thinking about sending me to the suicide group.

Brigham opened his arms and pointed, "Ana and Roy, you two will be causing the diversion."

Ana and Roy immediately protested, the pair threw a barrage of arguments at Brigham and they soon started insulting each other.

Curro tucked Brigham's sleeve and whispered to his best friend: "Are you sure this is a good idea? They hate each other."

Brigham raised his voice to shut up their arguing "This is precisely why I chose you two!" Ana and Roy turned to listen to their captain. "You two need to realize your resentment and attitude have no place in our situation. Our survival and return home hinges on us working together as a team. Whatever political differences you two have you need to set them aside. Our lives are at stake right now and a greater enemy is in front of us."

"But people like her are the reason my parents had to suffer and why my mom is dead," Roy burst at Brigham. "I will never work with filthy communists like her."

"You seemed to work just fine with her piloting the ship," Brigham raised an eyebrow. "You went to school with her for how long now? Neither of you holds any responsibility for the atrocities you accuse each other of. Neither of you has anything to do with the awful governments that committed those crimes and that you both play defense for. Can't you see you are both individuals, in control of your own actions? This assignment will force you two to cooperate or be dead."

"Why do we have to be the ones to do the diversion," Ana frowned. "Why not send someone like Hitomi on this suicide run? I'm sure most of us would be glad if she died out there!"

Hitomi scoffed and ignored Ana.

Brigham said, "I chose you for this dangerous mission because you would be the best for it. You are at the top of the class when it comes to marksmanship, nobody is a better shot than you. Roy is also right behind you when it comes to scores If there is anyone who I think could take the Kortonians head on it is you two!"

"Well why didn't you say so…" Ana could barely hide her grin from the praise Brigham gave her. It even made her blush a little. "You should've said that from the start! Alright, I'm ready!"

Brigham approached Roy and placed his hand on Roy's shoulder. "You know Roy, you said I was the captain and these are captain's orders."

"I couldn't refuse orders,” Roy frustratingly folded. “That would be against the rules,” He sighs and lowers his head. “Okay then, I will go with the Russian girl on this diversion run."

Brigham explained the rest of the assignments:

Lei Mei, Hitomi, Ljubiša, and Khalid would be the group who would go to the pumping station using the commotion caused by Roy and Ana to slip by without the Kortonians noticing. Curro would stay in the Lupus ship, he would manually confirm the refueling and instigate the process on that side. He would also power down the vessel once the process is initiated.

Brigham and Emidio would stay in the military base's main room. Because of the impenetrable to the eyes fog, someone would need to stay and navigate the two groups. One to guide them to the station and the other to observe the movements of the Kortonians so they won't be surrounded and to avoid other possible problems of them being blind.

The main room had a communications system allowing them to talk with each other while on the planetoid. The main room had many equipment, such as physical maps, radars, and other useful functions for navigation.

Just as everybody was about to accept their assignments and begin the mission Hitomi spoke out:

"I am not going to do this. There is nothing you can say that will make me go out into that snow. Uh-uh no way. Do whatever you want to me, I don't care what all of you think. I am not going!" Hitomi crossed her arms in disapproval.