| Hunter Larson Commander of Explora Corporation's MC-101C Mission to the Laramax Caverns on Mare Cetus Novian Date 101.4 (Earth equiv. March 2165) |
| Hunter Larson, employed by Explora Corporation since 2153, was born on Earth in Topeka, Kansas on July 10th, 2121. After earning a BS in Mining Engineering from The University of Wyoming while minoring in Cavern Science, he earned a PhD in Natural Resource Science from Texas A&M University. He soon began work as an exploration consulting engineer with National Mineral Resources based in Reno, Nevada. In his free time, Hunter learned to excel at spelunking and cavern exploration, and seemed to have an uncanny knack for finding mineral deposits almost anywhere he went. Besides spelunking in a number of the well known caves on all seven continents, including ice caves in Antarctica, he explored several newly discovered cavern systems, including one he personally found in West Virginia in 2150. Ramon Ramirez, who became a close friend of Hunter's after they met in 2147 while exploring the extensive underwater cavern Sistema Ox Bel Ha in Mexico, proclaimed Hunter's West Virginia find as Larson's "Hot Dog" Cave. Hunter and Ramon, looking for new caving challenges, left Earth for Novia Cetus in March of 2153 because of what they had learned about the fabulous "untamed" caverns on Mare Cetus as well as rumors they had heard about the beautiful and "untamed" women of Novia Cetus. Hunter and Ramon hired on with Explora Corporation, and Hunter quickly gained much favor with its owner and CEO, Abigail Kensington, because of his spelunking expertise and willingness to tackle any project or cavern he was assigned. Because of his loyalty to his job and his success with almost everything he attempted, Abby often overlooked his unorthodox exploration methodologies and his disinclination to follow the Standard Exploration Procedures. From literally day one he was bringing in valuable mineral claims for Explora as well as media attention from his caving exploits. After he discovered a velandrite deposit - the antibiotic "wonder ore" - on Mare Cetus in Novian year 96.7 (Earth date early 2162), he was promoted to the top echelon of Explora's Cavern Exploration Team Leaders. For Abby, there was no question that Hunter was the man who was going to lead her to resources beyond her wildest dreams. After the first ill-fated preliminary expedition (in Novian year 100.4, Earth equivalent, Sept. 2164) to survey a velandrite deposit buried deep in the Laramax Caverns on Mare Cetus, which was led by the late Sid Banyon, Abby called on Hunter to deliver the goods. Though Hunter and Abby discussed the mission at length, he already knew the importance of "his" mission just by the manner in which Explora management was working to fill his team with the most experienced exploration personnel it could gather. Once he had learned his team would be outfitted with the latest state-of-the-art robotics and exploration technologies, he could almost imagine Abby drooling at the thought of his success. As Abby pulled every string she could find to obtain the Novian Government work permits for Mare Cetus in time for mission liftoff, Hunter and upper management worked on assembling his team. Everything was going perfectly, or so it seemed. Unfortunately, blinded by Hunter's successes, Abby overlooked one crucial element to Hunter's persona. Hunter really wasn't as much a commander of people as he was a driving force to accomplish a task. Yes, the experts being assigned to his team were the best Explora could offer, but even Hunter was aware that having such expertise often went hand-in-hand with festering problems. Hunter's most difficult times on his previous missions had always been personnel issues, not cavern issues. He could motivate his team to tackle the toughest of subterranean passages, but he was often flustered by petty arguments and disagreements between team members. In most cases, he tried to let the problems work themselves out, or would assign tasks to keep the explorers from having any chances of heightening their animosities. And for the most part, that worked. With the slender branches of fame and fortune swaying in front of his nose, he ran into his first stumbling block with his mission team - upper management had discretely contracted out to Ceti Exploration for two personnel, a biochemist and an organic sedimentologist, neither of which Hunter knew anything about. To compound his problems, he learned management had also assigned two Explora Security personnel to the mission. He despised Security and felt there was no reason to have such ilk on any cavern mission. Despite his protests to management, he was overruled by order of Abby Kensington, who refused to even discuss the issue with him. But as the mission liftoff date came storming toward Hunter, he began to have misgivings about his "hand-picked" team. Renata Stone and Ramon, though two brilliant scientists, abhorred each other. But Hunter needed Ramon on the mission to gain "access" to Ramon's girlfriend - Arielle Talarian. Though Arielle was drop-dead gorgeous and any man alive was likely to be beguiled by her looks, it wasn't her looks Hunter was interested in, it was her brain. She was the most astute planetary geologist Explora had to offer, but she wouldn't have accepted the assignment under Hunter without Ramon going on the same mission. Over the years, a bit of "bad blood" had developed between Arielle and Hunter. He didn't like her sometimes fiery temperament, and she had no love for his trademark methods of "stepping around" the procedures. Though Hunter knew Ramon and Renata were probably going to give him fits at times, Hunter was adamant about having Renata on the mission because she was the most brilliant scientist he had ever met - she always had the answers, always found the solutions - and besides, despite her icy personality, he had developed an attraction to her over the years, though he had never actually told her. This might just be the mission to get things out in the open. As Hunter mulled over his team and its personality conflicts, he realized it was too far along the mission timeline to change things anyway. He was glad now he had gotten Trent Logan to accept the assignment. If there were personnel problems, and Hunter certainly expected a few, he was confident Trent would know how to work them out. On this most vital of missions, knowing Abby was depending on him to claim the velandrite, Hunter wasn't about to let anything get in his way - including his team members. He had to get in those caverns, not only to find the velandrite but to find the answers to the mysteries surrounding the tragic end of the previous mission in which his good friend Sid Banyon had died. And also in Hunter's thoughts were the fame and notoriety he would achieve by claiming the largest velandrite deposit ever found in the Tau System in the largest cavern complex ever discovered on Mare Cetus. He expected to be set for life after this mission, and he figured he could form his own company. He was pretty positive that because he was going to make Abby wealthy beyond imagination with the velandrite claim, he would be able to entice away some Explora personnel with Abby's blessing, maybe even Renata, and explore caverns for the sake of exploring them - nothing more. As the engines of the two Planet Jumper spacecraft that would take his team to Mare Cetus began to fire for liftoff, unknown to Hunter, the rope that held his team together, and ultimately the success of the mission, had already begun to fray . . . |
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