A satellite crashed on Hurston. On board was the prototype of a circuit board. Under no circumstances was this allowed to fall into the wrong hands. It was urgent. I was offered the mission to recover and destroy the board. That sounded tempting. Although the order was to salvage and to destroy, but maybe I could monetize the board, or the data, on the black market. I accepted the mission and flew to the crash site, which was not far from Lorville. The sun was just rising behind the mountains. So I should have daylight, which was an advantage.

When I arrived at the crash site, I saw a MISC Razor just starting. Was I too late, had someone else already taken the board? A persecution was ruled out, the Razor was too fast for my Cutlass. I decided to land and still look for the board, maybe I was lucky.

After landing, I opened the side doors of the Cutlass. The wreckage of the satellite was partly in flames. Hot gases surrounded me, my eyes started to water, I had to cough and could not breathe. It was impossible to approach the wreck without oxygen supply. I put on my helmet.

After I could see clearly again, I looked at the situation. The Satellite had pulled a furrow into the ground. An earth wall had piled up. The rising sun and the flames gave a strange surreal light.

Fortunately, I knew where the board was installed, unfortunately, the site was difficult to access. I had to climb onto the satellite, which was not easy. The board was at the top, where the shell was too smooth, there was no chance to climb up. At the bottom I found a spot where I could climb up. Everywhere was sharp-edged metal. I had to be careful not to hurt myself. Climbing in a protective suit and helmet was extremely exhausting, I wanted zero G.

Finally, I stood on top of the satellite. I rest my hands on my thighs and took a deep breath. The further way seemed blocked. A sea of ​​flames separated me from the board. My suit could protect me from the heat, but after that I had to jump. The Satellite was broken in two halfs. I was on the bottom, the board on the top half. Both halves were a distance apart.

I mustered up my courage and ran. Through the flames, to the edge and jumped. I sailed through the air, almost weightless. The impact on the other side was anything but weightless. I slipped, hit the satellite with my helmet, and just managed to hold onto it. I nearly crashed.

I scrambled to my feet and walked to the service hatch behind which the board was supposed to be. I opened the flap and the control module came out. There were four boards installed. I took a deep breath and took out the first board.

From the front it looked normal, I turned it. On the back was Prototype TDC-XX. That was the wanted board. I stowed it in my suit when I heard a beep. The sound came from inside the satellite.

I was able to get into the interior via the broken place. I found a location system. It showed very precisely the location of the prototype board. Such a crap, so I could not sell the board on the black market.

I went back to my Cutlass. There was one more hope. Maybe the tracking system was damaged and lost contact when I made some distance. And maybe I could download the data from the board and make money.

I flew away quite a bit. However, the board still indicated that it had contact with the location system. I could not disable that. Also, I could not get to the data. The data was encrypted. I could not decode anything with the Cutlass computers. For this I would have needed another computer core. I had no choice but to destroy the board. I put it on the ground, took my pistol and destroyed the board.

I stayed in the savannah for a while and enjoyed the fresh air before I returned to stinking hole of Lorville.