MINI-READ Sixteenth Installment
This sixteenth mini-read installment ran for two weeks from 23/03/20 to 06/04/20 which features the seventeenth chapter of Participant In Entropia by Andrew Jenery.
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Participant In Entropia
Palms Corner Escapade
With the meeting over at Jason Centre I racked my brain as to where would be a really good place to go to try and get more resources, ideally somewhere with the promise of higher value commodities than usual, when someone on Calypso's televoice network came through on my headphones. 'Greetings John! How's it going?' 'Ha, ha! I'm OK... You still on the asteroid?' It was Delos, an old friend of mine that had emigrated from Calypso nearly two years ago. 'Nope! I got back down just yesterday - they hiked the rents way up last week, so I had to relocate back down here... Anyway, I've been messaging you but I never got any response, so I gave up a few months ago - I'm sure there must have been a reason...' 'Yer - sorry about that. I had to quit televoice about a few days after you went up there - I was having all kinds of network problems, but just got back on it just over a week ago. But I'm glad you called as I'm trying to think of a good place to go where mobs and or minerals are better value than most places, so nothing every-day easy, but I don't want the mobs to be too hard either, at least not solo.' It turned out that Delos had a small team in the making. 'Snap! I've got something similar in mind. I'm with two people in Zychion and we're thinking of going to Palms Corner, so I'm wondering if you wanna join. There's a lot of big Exo's due north of a lake that's near there, so I've been told... Four people should get a lot of stuff, there's Hiryuu there as well.' 'Yep, I know it... Haven't been there in ages...' I'm wondering at this point, if he remembers that someone owns this area and that you have to pay taxes every time you acquire anything. 'There's hunting and mining taxes there though...' 'That's true, but that's why hardly anyone goes there. So I've been told, anyway. We should get a clear run... Anyway, up to you.' I had to admit that this little factor made sense for going there. 'OK, I'll meet you all there in about five-minutes. I'm in, you convinced me...' - Once at Palms Corner, an idyllic tree and fauna place with some ornate and uniquely shaped dwellings, we made customary introductions and went over some sort of plan. I pointed out that there were also Bristlehogs there that could deal lethal electric charges if the right armour wasn't being worn, but luckily everyone had the right type. 'So you've not been here Delos before?' 'To Palms itself, yes! But not north of the lake. We'll follow your lead...' Minutes later and we're nearing the lake in question. 'We'll go around it instead of across it - it's quicker that way.' I hug the coast for the next ten minutes, checking my scope every now and then to make sure everyone's more or less following, when the lady in the team announces a discovery. 'Delos - it's Steph here... There's fish like things in the water! Do we get them?' Tyler gives his much appreciated ten-seconds worth. 'He, he - they're Rippersnappers. Personally I'd leave em. They're not worth much if you do get them and they're harder to hit then you think. In the water or out of it.' 'You mean they come out on the land? Ell's bells!' Steph obviously hadn't had much to do with Rippersnappers. For some reason, Delos, myself, and the fourth member, Tyler, find this incredibly funny, which was probably as much to do with the balmy conditions as it was with the fish themselves. Steph knew that we weren't laughing at her, but at the sudden revelation - and even Steph started laughing anyway. Delos cuts in. 'They certainly do Steph - but leave them. Waste of ammo for nothing!' I can only agree with this too strongly. 'Yep. There may be just a few now, but as soon as you're in there you can guarantee that more will show up all of a sudden on the scope - going by my experience! And the bigger one's do more damage than you might think. They're certainly a waste of ammo and we'll also waste time...' Now with a unanimous agreement for leaving the fish alone, I continued the lead up to the apex of the lake and then headed due north towards where I knew more interesting activity would be. Familiarity of the area was all coming back to me now. First it was just barren coastal land sparsely covered with stumpy plants, then all of a sudden the hillside ahead of us was covered with Exarosaurs, confirmed by a mass of red dots all over our direction scopes. 'Right, we should stop here - and ping them from here. The Exo's have a fairly safe tolerance range, though they can surprise you. It's the the odd Argonaut Hunter we've got to watch out for...' The next hour or so was great fun all round, having killed so many mobs with concerted annihilator and carbine rounds, that we lost count - and there hadn't been one retirement to any revive station. Not one. We then teleport-chipped back to Palms and did a careful stock-take of all our hard-earned goodies, now safely matter-converted in our portable personal inventories. End of this mini-read instalment. Click here for the next chapter or chapters of Participant In Entropia which runs from 13/07/20- 27/07/20.
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