Unlike yesterday and the preceding days of tremendous blizzards, today is one hell of a sunny day. . "The Antilia Colony is a hub port constructed by NUT near Jupiter for the 'rural development.' Thanks to the recycling system enabled by NUT's technology, Antilia is virtually self-sustaining -- it does not require shipments of raw materials from Earth or Mars." Standing right next to the wall of a cafeteria filled with chatting LEV pilots is a reporter in his out-of-place suit talking at the TV camera. "And here on Callisto, Jupiter's 8th satellite, miners collect ice to secure the water supply of Antilia. In the 20th Century, it was said that approximately 40% of humans on Earth struggled daily to secure water supplies. In this space age, virtually 100% of --" The cafeteria was quite packed with ice mining laborers during lunchtime. There is this open space around the lady with the microphone and the cameraman, creating a population imbalance in the room. The laborers in their mining suits never look at the wall but make sure they are listening to the reporter while standing in line for food. Although Angie seems to be eating stew in the seat in front of Dingo, there is something unnatural about how she is behaving. . Among the group is one guy who seemed a little irritated. The only person in the room who had no clue of what the lady was doing in the cafeteria seems to be Dingo. Instead of poking at the big heap of carrots, Dingo lifted his fork and pointed at the wall. "Who the hell are they?" After moving her eyeballs in a circle while gazing at the ceiling, Angie grabbed Dingo's hand and lowered his arm. "Weren't you listening to the announcements in the morning? The PR people from our headquarters are visiting. They told us to behave." "Oh, that announcement." "Yeah, right. You probably slept through it." Dingo made one nasal sound and turned his back toward the wall as if he lost interest. "Why would they spend 2 months just to fly over to this middle-of-nowhere hellhole?" "Because it's the 25th anniversary of the colonization of Antilia. Our headquarters want to make a big deal out of it. It's about time for some celebrating. Our scars from the incident 2 years ago have finally healed." "B*ll sh*t. No one's gonna want to travel to this place, no matter what kind of advertising NUT does." . Two years ago, there was an incident on Antilia -- under the joint control of UCM (United Colonies of Mars) and the UNSF (United Nations Space Force) in which the UNSF took over Martian firm NUT's research facility area using militaristic means. A month later, Vascilia County -- one of the Martian counties that were opposed to the actions of the UNSF -- sent its military for "the liberation of the colony." This was the first time gigantic humanoid weapons called Orbital Frames -- much more powerful than the conventional military LEVs -- were used in real battle. The battle itself was a quick and easy one for Vascilia County. The UNSF, suffering a major loss, retreated from Antilia. Since the colony suffered substantial damage during battle, immigration plans from Mars had to undergo major changes. There were rumors that the reason why Vascilia sent in their liberation force was because they were backed up by NUT headquarters. But as a result, the contrary to the hopes of NUT happened. People looked at the vicinity of Jupiter not as a frontier of hope but instead a dangerous conflict zone. "I wouldn't go that far. Actually, there are a bunch of newcomers from Mars and Earth's colonies." Dingo made another nasal sound to show that he wasn't happy to be proven wrong. Sports programming provided from Mars included a lot of immigration ads by NUT. There probably is a campaign going on on Mars. True, there are more laborers coming in lately. Dingo knew that many of the faces in the cafeteria, he did not recognize. But it is also true that many return to their homes even before Dingo had the chance to remember their faces. Callisto, with its unwelcoming extra cold climate and floating debris (wreckage) from the incident 2 years ago constantly falling onto the surface, was not exactly "home sweet home." Dingo himself had been busier dealing with debris than mining ice. Who would want to deal with debris? Miners who have to meet their quota have better things to do than deal with debris. Moreover, it is quite dangerous stuff. With a high accident rate, Callisto was in no way "a frontier of hope." . "Oh my..." Dingo looks up to Angie's voice. The cameraman and report have begun interviewing the laborers while they ate. A laborer, obviously not used to being interviewed in front of a camera, recited his name and registration number and clumsily answered the reporter's questions. Dingo happened to catch the eyes of the cameraman who was looking for the next interviewee. Dingo gulped down the rest of his meal and drank his drink. The reporter approaches, winding through the laborers. "How does my hair look? Do I look OK?" Angie starts fixing her hair. Dingo stood up and wore his mining suit. He looks down upon Angie and messes her hair up with his hand. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" "I'm heading back to the ship." "What? Let's get interviewed together.! "Meeting my quota is more important to me." "Dingo, you're the one who slept over and lost time to get the job done." While fixing her hair again, Angie looked up at Dingo and let out a big sigh. "You're really one moody child." Angie stood up and gave a stare at Dingo who was smiling in an unpleasant way. As Angie returned her tray, Dingo was alreay about to disappear into the route to the dock. "There's supposedly a lot of debris today. Be careful." Continues to "ZONE OF THE ENDERS THE 2nd RUNNER"... PREV