The following weeks proved most uneventful for our three soldiers of fortune. Mr. Steepledorf, on the other hand, was kept quite busy measuring the progress on the main complex construction. Three weeks after his arrival, he began taking excursions by himself out into the desert, presumably testing the rover and searching for sites to start mining. On one of these 'trips', he ventured further away than ususual. He told everyone he would probably be gone for an extra day, but would keep in radio contact. Once he was well away from the settlement, he changed course and factered in some special coordinates to the rover's nav system. He arrived at the spot and found a young man waiting for him. His name was Memphis Hodge, a most disreputable and dishonest space pirate. Mr. Steepledorf was in cahoots with him and had arranged to meet him once he was able to determine the capacity of unobtanium production. Mr. Steepledorf had been doing more than just keeping the building project on track in the weeks he had been on planet. He checked over all the geological reports for mining potentials and had reached a fairly accurate estimate for potential mining production upon startup of operations. Memphis and Mr. Steepledorf went back quite a long ways. Mr. Steepledorf had rescued Memphis from an orphanage on a distant planet and had a hand in shaping his character. Mr. Steepledorf put on a pretty good act of being the honest, straightforward character of high morals when working for the company developing this planet, but his ultimate motives were much less than honorable. He, with the help of Memphis, planned on skimming a tidy profit off the top as soon as the mining operation get into production. Memphis and Mr. Steepledorf went over their plans in detail. Mr. Steepledorf warned Memphis about the three soldiers of fortune. When he told Memphis their names, Memphis laughed at the irony, for he had fought in many of the same wars as Zack and Renn, only mostly on the opposing side. This was going to be an interesting adventure, Memphis thought to himself. He couldn't wait for the next developments! Thank you for taking a peek! Your support is greatly appreciated! Thank you, renecyberdoc for giving me the idea of making Mr. Steepledorf into a villain. I think you are a keen judge of character and it should lead this story in many unexptected directions.