OH. MINE. GOD!

<snip>
Jay scowled and looked down at his feet, and the sticky strands that were
clinging to his shoes. "I don't need to know that!" He said, and walked further
without even looking down at his feet – until he stood on something that wasn't
soft and squelshy, it was hard and cold, like metal.
It beeped.
"Oh smeg." Said Jay.
"What?"
"I've just stood on a mine."
Justin looked down at Jay's feet. "It says 'made in China' on it!"
Jay sighed. "It's a SpaceCorps mine. Pressure sensitive, issue 4, highly
explosive. Amber's team must have been spreading them around in case the
Hymenoptera came at them from all angles."
"Why hasn't it gone off?" Asked Justin.
"It will go off if I step off. Or it's programmed to go off in 60 seconds."
"Smeg! What shall I do?" Asked Justin.
<end snip>
Jay looked at the pool of liquid forming at Justins feet.
"Well not THAT!" he snapped "I'M the one standing on an active mine, and YOU'RE
pi55ing yourself?!"
"I'm standing next to it!"
"For smegs sake.." Jay muttered. "Go back to the Phoenix, theres a fire
extinguisher under the pilots seat…"
"How will that help?"
"JUST GO! WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!"
Justin nodded, and ran as fast as he could back to the ship.
Jay may not be a Space Corp officer anymore, but he still knew a few tricks…he
had more combat experience from his years on Blue Dwarf than most of the
Admirals at HQ had in there decades-spanning careers, and one thing he had
learned, was how badly the Space Corp equipped the privately owned ships, like
the Blue Dwarf, that they provided command officers for. Most of the equipment
was years out of date, (this type of mine for example was once used in the Great
Console War of 2074, in which the Xbox and Playstation fanboys nearly wiped out
humanity in a war started when an Xbox owner pointed out that the Xbox could
charge it's wireless controllers while the console was in standby, and the
Playstation fans, in denial of Sony's inadequacy hijacked the US defence
computers, and launched a devastating nuclear attack on Microsoft headquarters…)
and the equipment that was provided was very rarely without major design flaws.
Jay knew exactly how to exploit this particular mines flaws, all he needed was
the fire extinguisher from the Phoenix.
Justin returned, carrying it. "Here!" he said, handing Jay the extinguisher, who
pulled the pin, and sprayed it directly downwards toward his feet, smothering
the mine in fire suppressive foam.
Once it was fully covered, Jay casually stepped off, followed by a loud click,
which made Justin scream, and curl up in a ball on the floor, covering his head
in his hands.
"Get up.." Jay said "I've clogged the mines systems with foam..it'll never hurt
anyone now."
"Easy as that…?"
"Fraid so…that's military budget cuts for you..we have to make do with equipment
that doesn't work so that our politicians can get a new extension on their
houses…"
"You see this would never happened with the Hym…"
Justin was silenced by Jay smacking him in the back of the head with the empty
extinguisher.
"Ok…I get the point.." Justin said in response "What now?"
"We catch up to Ambers team…lets go!"
<tag anyone on the hymie ship!>