Fortunately, Archie's gang shuts down the transport gate before any more tragedy befalls them. It was bad enough to lose one of their valuable blue robots. They valued him as a friend. Even though he wasn't programmed as sophisticated as the three botcydroids, he was still a valuable worker. Archie didn't know how the other three blues were going to take his loss. Just as they were reviewing the video of the Martian catastrophe, the alarms go off indicating someone unauthorized is entering the biosphere outside the moon lab. A quick look at one of the monitors reveals it is the spaceman again. Returning so soon? He walks into their midst and looks straight at Archie. 'I see you had to find out for yourself about the Martian planet. Pity you couldn't take my word for it. Now you have lost one of your valuable friends and for what? Just to satisfy your curiosity. You are quite the modern day Pandora! Well, now that you have had the experience, it won't do any harm to tell you why Mars is cursed. Many millions of your years ago, Mars was a beautiful planet, much like the earth below. You could almost have called it a paradise for all the varied plant and animal life that abounded on its surface. There was a fine civilization of humans much like yours on earth. They lived and thrived on the planet and were happy. Until! A small group of them began to get greedy. They weren't happy with what they had. They also wanted what their neighbor had. This went on for some time. Gradually, this disease spread throughout the population. As it grew worse, the planet started becoming less and less beautiful. Many animal and plant species began dying. The oceans became poisoned with the waste the greedy individuals dumped into them in ever increasing amounts year after year. As this disease became more prevalent, more of the planet began to suffer from its effects. Until, finally, there was a showdown between two of the largest groups of greedy humans. Their science had progressed to the point that they created weapons of mass destruction. It only took one of the greedy sobs to set off the chain reaction. The planet's surface was razed in a fire- ball of incredible strength. All life was extinguished and the atmosphere was ripped away into outer space. Members of the interstellar community who witnessed this senseless destruction decided to make the planet an example of what can happen when the needs of a few override the needs of the many. They placed monitoring bases on the moons with firepower of great intensity. Anyone from outer space that tried to inspect Mars was either redirected or destroyed. One of those bases is what destroyed your blue robot. Now, you know the entire story. I hope that satisfies your curiosity so that you can move on to more enlightened explorations. We won't discipline you unless you step too far over the line, but you are warned! We can be a most formidable enforcement force.' Archie apologizes to the spaceman and promises to follow his advice more closely in the future. The three botcydroids shake their heads in assent and agree they will be more careful in assisting Archie when he chooses the direction for future explorations. M4 characters. Rendered in Poser Pro 2014. Post work in Photoshop 7. Thank you for taking a peek! Your support is greatly appreciated!