Steel pickaxes cling off the walls sending echoes throughout the mine. Drills can be heard whining and grinding against the ores. Three hundred miners consisting of men, women and children young as twelve can be seen laboring away at the hard rock walls. The miners are continuing their eighteen hour shift running off of only six hours of sleep, two meals a day, and a lot of pressure. The miners must meet a quota of forty tons by the end of the shift if they want to return to the barracks. The miners reside east of Jorvel, the once city capital of the cold desolate planet Morior.

A lone miner, male looks to be in his twenties, swings his pick axe furiously into the wall trying to dislodge a stubborn iron ore from the stone wall. An older woman pushes her hover cart to the young man. The woman seems to be no more than sixty years young. As the cart's "hum" quiets to a stop the old woman shakes from the cold. " Careful you idiot! If you break another ore we'll both be put back in solidary corrections again! I'm already freezing, I don't want to be freezing more than I ought to. " yells the old woman. The young man's temper flares as he tosses his pick axe to the side, shivering. He turns to the old woman and yells. " OH JUST SHUDD UP ALREADY! WE'RE ALL FREEZING HERE!" The old woman is unfazed and doesn't back down. She stands her ground shooting a warning glare at the young man. "Just be careful son. That's all I'm saying." calmly replies the old woman.

A "flutter" can be heard from a different cart. Much louder and faster than a mining cart. The Supervisor speeds through the mines with a small arsenal of drones. The Supervisor speeds through the cold open space to the young man's location having a smirk wide on his face despite the cold. The miners stopped their work to see the show about to unfold. The supervisor hovers above the two with his arms crossed wearing a thick coat and a disappointed smirk. " My two favorite and hardest working miners. What seems to be the issue? I don't see frozen limbs so why have you two stopped working?" Asked the supervisor sarcastically in a deep toned voice.

"GO TO HELL YOU OVER WEIGHT REPTILE!" yelled Rence. Rence picks up his pickaxe and proceeds to lift it over his head intending to throw it at the supervisor. The Supervisor smirks, uncrossing his arms and pulling up his right sleeve, with a press of a button on his wrist, the supervisor orders the drones to shoot bolts of electricity at rence. Rence falls to his knees groaning in pain as he glares at the reptile supervisor. The old woman sighs as she picks up the pickaxe chipping away at the rock to free the ore. "Oh? Do you think you're getting out of this as well, Bellona?" asked the supervisor. "No Diro I don't. Either zap me now or send us corrections." replied Bellona. Diro's smirk widens at Bellona's reply. "Yes, you do drive a hard bargain miner. I'll leave you to finish it up, then. Then I'll see both of you in the comfy correction cell." chuckled diro. With a press of the button the drones stopped zapping rence and returned to diro's side. Diro laughs to himself as he hovers away to his heated office. "Get back to work, miners, or I'll have you all swimming in the fridged waters of Jorvel! " The miners hurried back to work as if nothing happened.

Bellona stops chipping at the wall and tosses the pickaxe to Rence's side. "Start mining the damn ore and don't cause me any more trouble than you already have boy." Bellona commanded. Her arms were crossed and trying to keep warm. She shoots a glaring warning into rence's soul. He wiped his mouth and stumbled to his feet. Without a word he returned to mining at the iron ore despite the pain and cold. It was the seventeenth hour, with one more to go, rence and bellona finished there work without a word nor further issue.

Forty one point six tons was met by the end of the shift. The miners were grateful for no casualties this time, but the lack of a new transport worried them all deeply. For now they were grateful to get into the isolated barracks to warm up. A bird-like humanoid creature called a karlith glides over best he can despite his long leather coat to a pyraxian in a thick coat, a dwarf race. The karlith looks nervously at the dwarf and begins to fidget with his feathers and rub his arms to keep warm. He finally musters up the courage to speak. "Hey pops, a-aren't you worried that there wasn't a transport today?" With a heavy sigh pops simply says. "You have a frozen worm three meters to your left." replied pops. The karlith gets excited and frantically looks for the frozen worm as pops walks away with heavy steps. Just like all the other miners, he heads to the warm barracks that lie outside the mine to the left. He knows it just as well as the rest, no new transports means something is up.

Rence and Bellona travel deeper into the mine. Rocks grow narrower with ice forming more frequently. Skeletons and preserved bodies of the dead line the walls the deeper they travel. There awaits Diro standing near two iron cells. He is tapping his foot impatiently. "Come on, come on, some of us have a warm place to go too. One cell is filled with a tub of cold water, the other cuffs hanging from above to restrain arms. Bellona gets in the ice cold tub slowly muttering curses under her breath. Diro lifts the large flat rock lacing it over the tub forcing Bellona to remain submerged. Bellona has a small air pocket to breathe air , but due to the cramped space she is forced into an uncomfortable position that forces her to use what remaining strength in her arms to stay afloat. To her right is a viewing port window to Rence's cell though it is iced over, she can make out the details decently. His hands are cuffed above his head and upper clothing removed revealing his previous scars. A loud whip cracks across his back from diro who is laughing with pure pleasure on his face, and rence yelps in pain and agony. Bellona looks away and does what can to cover her ears to silence his cries, but it's no use. "AH, Reeenccee, I never get tired of this. Well, I do because of the cold and I'm a lizard but, what do think about the old hag over there? Will she drown this time? or should i add more water?" he laughs. " Maybe she should take your place instead of rising frost bite." Diro laughed.

Rence begins to mutter something but Diro can't hear him. Diro stops what he is doing and inches closer to rence to listen. Rence bites Diro's bottom lip holding Diro in place. With a swing of Rence's legs, he manages to wrap them round Diro's fat waist repeatedly headbutting the Thrylar lizard. Though bleeding a copious amount of blood from his head, rence was successful in subduing Diro.

A group of three come around the corner opening the cells to free Bellona and Rence. As soon as the cell to bellona is open, the flat rock is moved aside with the help of pops, the karlith from earlier and a female thrylar. Pops pulls Bellona out of the water and wraps a blanket around her to warm her body. "There there Bellona, I am here you and boy will be okay." Pops barely mutters his voice on the brink of giving out as he holds back tears. Pops turns his attention to Rence. " Celi, chix. Get the boy and carry him to the transport cart! Hurry!" Karlith and Thrylar find the keys to uncuff rence. '" Careful, careful chix. we don't want to hurt him- i mean hurt him more? worse? Wait, what about his coat?"

With a gentle hand placed on Celi's shoulder, Chix begins to speak. "Celi, he is going to hurt regardless. Right now is not the time to be gentle, see if you can get Diro's coat. It's thicker and warmer than there's." " Right, right, sorry." As chix and celi load, rence up on the cart and go back to get Diro's coat off his unconscious body. Pops helps Bellona on to the cart, Celi and chix manages to get the coat but accident hits Diro's wrist causing it to summon drones to their location.