Nobody asked for the rain. You can’t ask for rain but even if you could, nobody would. You don’t want rain here, where every drop is a death sentence. They lived on a small experimental colony on the edge of the Crater. The Crater had been there forever, the colony: just a few years. This was the third colony: Colony Three. The first two had been destroyed by

THE RAIN.

The Union had finally figured out how Colony Prime and Colony Two met their ends: insufficient aluministration filters. Even the most rigorous tests back on Corvalis proved inadequate. The result? Two colonies and two hundred lives

LOST.

Then:
five years of delays and research,
political maneuvering,
securing shady funds from shady corporations to finance a third Colony,
bribes,
public relations campaigns,
development from scratch

FINALLY: Colony Three was ready for deployment. There would be no need to worry, assured Indaniminimum Co, the sacrifices of the previous colonies were not in vain.

So when a large wet drop of sizzling water slashed through Endemerson’s mask and sent him rolling down into the great basin of the Crater, everyone panicked.
Panicked.
PANICKED.
<{{!PANICKED!!}}>>
Nobody thought it would rain again, not after last year’s deliberate safeguards! Nobody had read the rain protocols. Nobody knew what TO FUCKING DO.

The lethal drizzle had taken out over half the Outdoor Team in the time it took the expired contents of Endemerson’s CraterVac Suit to settle at the bottom of the Crater amongst the rest of the beeping instruments. Huxtin, Jabbler, Arakawar, and Chordram: all reduced to smoldering chemicals, their work eradicated. The survivors amounted to one guy named Goocher and he only made it back to the compound because he was just a meter outside of it when the rain started. Lucky Goocher.

He ripped off his smoking CraterVac Suit in the intermediate airlock and lay on the shiny chrome floor gasping for air, reaching for the water stored at the hydration points in the walls. His comm had been fried, destroyed by the rain. If he had not been held up when they all stepped out to the surface, three minutes earlier, he would have been so much human wreckage with the rest of the Outdoor Team.

His next step would be difficult.