ROOT dir: lms.explorer / secure.owner: SET.HALT / ROOT.MAINT

[Kopaka]

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Access -> shiplog -> users -> 004JET:

Dir.Termsearch/ "Gold"

-- 321 results found

Dir.Fileage/ <1year

--5 results found

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#008991 "Goldcity"

#009067 "BlackGold"

#009151 "AU_Highyield"

#009255 "GoldStandard"

#009276 "Bleeder" <--

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BEGIN EXPEDITION LOG

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ENTRY 009276-001

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So this is it; after three months in orbit I'm finally getting sent moonside for a mission, special order from Chief. Personally overseeing thirty men on this one, full kit and EC stipend. I can still feel the Nerves in the back of my head, but can't let that be a factor when I'm being bought onto the ticket for twelve percent.

TWELVE PERCENT BABY straight to me, before crew cuts and equipment costs. Even on a regular prospect that would be big money, but this job is extra special.

Seems Kaalakiota lost track of their special little dragon corpse after Unmade borrowed it to go beat up its kid or something. Not entirely sure of the details, but the Zero formation that KK has been excavating for a few weeks is all of a sudden looking like a bust.

We go ourselves a few people on the inside of the cave, however, and brought back some promising surveys. KK already got most of the wealth out of there, but they were really after that dead(ish) things blood. Based on some intel that Docs scalped, KK estimates that deposit was rotting away in that cave for the better part of a thousand years. Based on local glacial flow (range -7 to -12.7 k, 36mpm, prevailing drift heading 117, approx), that's almost seven thousand fucking miles by ten for a grand fatherfucking total of a SEVENTY THOUSAND SQUARE MILE prospect area for permeated sublimate originating from the Zero formation's glacial track.

Thankfully, the cave itself is made of some fairly unique mineral blends, and the Dragonblood we're hunting for also has a particularly unique mineralogical, chemical, and magnetic signature. Docs has been driving himself crazy analyzing the small sample we were able to 'liberate' from KK field station.

Chief sees it this way; KK might have claim over the Zero formation proper, but that big bastard was bleeding into the ice for a long fucking time. There could be rivers of wacky, gold, space dragon soup just trickling all across a quarter of the moon, and you can bet your ass Kaalakiota doesn't own ALL of Inverxe.

So yeah. Twelve percent of that.

It's gonna be another week before Docs gets back to me with his final search area estimates and ice core samples. Apparently he's already found traces of dragonblood in at least half of his drill results, going down to the depths I stated earlier. Given that the haul is hydrodynamic rather than a solid deposit, though, we can't entirely rely on cryotectonics to identify a density map. Gonna come down to good old fashioned rock raiding - dig dig dig.

In the meantime, Sparks and Axel are gonna make sure my requisition equipment is all bricked up and ready for the plunge. I've attached the full list below, but it might be on a rolling basis, depending on whether or not the Explorer's teleport beacon's can get a fix on our TS node down in the deeps.

Twelver percent baby. Just remember. Twelve percent.

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REQSHEET009276.list

x55 | 3349 HI Hammer Cutters
x20 | 3348 Mark2 Hydro Saws
x40 | 3300 Handtool Sets
x20 | 3401PD Maser Carbine
x20 | 3402 PD Grav Sledge
x2 | 4920 R. Rider (Wide bed, Mark2 Mod)
x3 | 1276 T. Scout (Mark2 Modified)
x4 | 1275 S. Digger (Wide bed)
x3 | 4910 SMLC (HALF TRACKS PLEASE!!)
x2 | 4980 T. Transport
x1 | 4970 C. Crusher (Big Rick, if he can be spared)
x2 | 4940 G. Grinder
x1 | 4950 L. Dozer
x1 | 4990 HQ Prefab - Package b
x1 | 4960 V. Prototype (Sparks Special Order- Don't worry, I'll be gentle! :3)

Recommend x30 EC Ration for LC operation. Recharge Seam prevalence has not been ascertained.

All other building modules to be fabricated on rolling site basis

KEEP THIS TICKET OPEN!! CHIEF SAID THIS ONE ISN'T CASHED TILL HE SAYS SO

 

[Kopaka]

ENTRY 009276-002

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First excavation site is 50km, bearing 121 from the Point Zero at -5.5 km subsurface. This is just barely tickling the outer limits of KK's claim, and by the time I have this log entered, we'll be long gone. Risky business, snifing around for deposits this close to a KK dig site, but Docs figures that if we run a series of core samples along a NNE axis every five klicks or so, we'll get a good idea of whether or not this whole 'blood-river' theory holds weight.

Luckily, since KK is still primarily occupied with getting The Hub fully secured and operational, we can operate in relative peace. Granted, the ice up here still has quite a bit of motility, even to the point that we've already had to evac two crew cycles due to cryo-quakes. The Dozer is putting in her work for sure.

Figure we'll drill samples here for another day or so and then examine our results at the temp HQ

 

[Kopaka]

ENTRY 009276-003

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Zilch.

I've never seen Docs sweat this hard.

He's been rattling off about a lot of excuses regarding drilling for hydrocarbons and other liquid mineral deposits, stuff about high glacier movement, subsurface rivers, yadda yadda yadda. I'm sure he has his own expedition log going that's much more detailed.

For me, I just need results. To that end, I decided to be a little more proactive. While Docs was examining core samples, I was running VLF and GPR scans all the way down to -120. They won't necessarily show discrete mineral deposits, but they'll reveal large caverns easily enough. I mean the logic is that...like...if Monster Zero was bleeding, that means it was pumping out hot and fresh, right? Who knows how hot dragon blood gets. And even though the conglomerate mineral shell around the Zero formation is only semi-permeable, I bet that stuff could drip straight through even deeply compressed ice in a snap.

So, deep caverns and underground rivers might be the play. My only concern is that Inverxe is gonna hit perigree in about a week, which is usually when she starts to get upset, tectonically speaking. Here's the play:

We use our scan results to resolve the highest concentration of underground cave systems bearing 100 to 130 from Point Zero and dig our way down to that strata. Then, we start drilling *lateral core* samples instead of verticals. Seeing as we're not even sure if this goop gets trapped in anything other than solid bedrock, I'm not expecting much...but even if we don't find it in the core samples, that starts to chisel away the possibilities of where we *could* find it.

My money is that the dragon blood is forming a sort of 'water table' against the upper strata of Inverxe's sub-glacial mountains.

This does, of course, mean that if the Zero Formation got dragged over any of the sub-glacial oceans within the past millenium or so, there could be quite a bit of the goop lost; diluted inside the greater Inverxe subsurface ocean system. This is another homework project for Docs, of course, but he's a geologist, dammit.

For me? Time to dig.