Chapter 4: The Family Man's Fight
Miles away from Edgewater, Tobias Clarke stood at the edge of his newly acquired mining site, a sprawling canyon of jagged red rock. The purchase had cost him nearly everything—his life savings, years of work, and a hefty loan from one of the Martian banks. But Tobias was a family man, and he believed this mine could secure a future for his wife and two children.
The operation was modest: a couple of old drilling rigs, a team of bots for extraction, and a small processing unit. The first few weeks had been promising, with deposits of lithium and rare metals showing strong yields. Tobias had dared to hope. But that hope began to fade when his equipment started failing—first one drill, then another. The bots malfunctioned, their precision programming overridden by inexplicable errors.
One evening, as Tobias ran diagnostics on a bot's damaged control unit, his wife, Elena, appeared at his side.
"It's not wear and tear, is it?" she asked quietly.
Tobias shook his head, his jaw tight. "No. Someone's been tampering with them. I've seen signs of sabotage."
Elena's face darkened. "Corporate?"
"Who else?" Tobias said bitterly. "They want the rights back, and they'll do anything to force us out."
The next day, Tobias set a trap. He programmed one of the bots to run a dummy operation and waited in the shadows of the canyon. Sure enough, just before dawn, three sleek corporate mining bots appeared, their polished exteriors stark against the dust-covered ground. They began systematically dismantling his equipment, their mechanical arms working with eerie efficiency.
Tobias emerged, rifle in hand. "Step away from my rig!" he shouted, though he knew the bots wouldn't heed his warning. He fired, the plasma bolt striking one bot squarely in its control unit. It sparked and collapsed, but the other two turned on him, their robotic arms bristling with tools that could easily become weapons.
He managed to disable another before the third pinned him against the canyon wall. Just as it raised a cutting torch, a bolt of energy struck it from behind. The bot crumpled, revealing a familiar figure standing on the ridge above: Lyra Kane.
"Looks like you could use a hand," she called down, smirking.
Tobias sagged with relief. "You're a long way from Edgewater."
"Dax heard about your trouble. Thought I'd come check it out," she said, descending the ridge. "Looks like the corporations are playing dirty. Let's see how they like it when we play rough."
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