Discovery Gaming Community

Delta Planetoid Ore Research

by Sherry Aguilar and Ezrael Vertiga
Battleship Apahanta
[Image: pda03_by_rhulaner-daq3a13.png]

On request of Captain Ezrael Vertiga as well as with his support, we took a closer look at the new asteroid field in Omicron Delta. The asteroid field was spotted at 11-18-824 in the afternoon, sirian standard time, in Omicron Delta at grid coordinates B-2.

Public neural net info entry, 11-18-824

We'll start with the general data on the asteroid field.

- The new asteroid field is located at B-2 of the Omicron Delta system grid, on the plane. The field is elliptical, the radius from the center of the field ranging ~8K in x-width and ~6K in z-width while only ranging ~1K on the y-axis. The asteroid field is more of a flat disk. The central point of the field measures following distances to other cosmical bodies of the Omicron Delta system:

- Omicron Delta Medium Red: 36.1 K
- Omicron Delta Medium Blue: 93.8 K
- Planet Vaitupu: 37 K
- Planet Nauru: 90 K
- Planet Tuvalu: 96 K

- Freeport 11: 50.4 K
- Dabadoru Station: 70.2 K
- Yaren Base: 91.3 K
- Object Lichtenfelde Complex: ~45 K (Palau Ice Cloud Inaccuracy)
- Object Azurite Reactor: ~65 K (Palau Ice Cloud Inaccuracy)

- Omicron Lost Jump Hole: 13.9 K
- Omicron Chi Jump Hole: 48.7 K
- Omicron Minor Jump Hole: 70.6 K
- Omicron Rho Jump Hole: 84.4 K
- Omicron Kappa Jump Hole: 86.1 K

- Kiribati Asteroid Field Center: 74.1 K
- Palau Ice Cloud Center: ~59.0 K

- Asteroids often contain large clusters of pure ore, which is why they are so much more interesting to corporations for mining than planetary ore mining: It is less resource-intensive, costs less time and there is rarely environment to take care about. Usually, Omicron Delta is known for large Iridium deposits, both on Planet Nauru and in space. Over the years, the center of Iridium mining has shifted with the Omicron Delta Anomaly moving the most lucrative mining areas away from the plane. Today, only Nauru and the giant Iridium fragment in Omicron Lost are the most frequent used sources of Iridium, although there are remains of Iridium geodes in the Kiribati Asteroid Field, the Palau Ice Cloud, the Oreor Fragment Ring around Omicron Delta Medium Red as well as stray asteroids all around in the system, mostly far off-plane. Iridium Ore is known for attracting the so called Delta Anomaly Baryon (DAB), a red particle found everywhere in Delta. It can also be found in the Palau Ice Cloud and the Kiribati Asteroid Field, where it merges with local ice dust particles to change the color from red to purple.

The interesting part about the new asteroid field is a complete lack of DABs within the field. This indicates both a complete lack of Iridium as part of the possibly found minerals within the field as well as the existence of an element that pushes the DABs away from the area.

- The bigger fragments are pretty interesting. They seem to react to the Omicron Delta Anomaly Background Radiation (BRAD), turning the surface partially more dark than the actual asteroid rocks are. When cutting or shooting parts off the bigger asteroids, the inner parts of the rock are clearly white, reflecting the purple ambient light of the system way stronger than the bigger fragments do. This indicates the presence of elements that react to non-harmful radiation (Omicron Delta's BRAD is declared non-harmful compared to other systems' BRADs, as for example the BRAD of the Omicron Kappa Anomaly.)

- Close-ups of the bigger fragments show clearly various colors of different ores surfacing. Here we're coming to the interesting part.

Identified elements listed from common to rare:
- Titanium (inviting amounts)
- Niobium (inviting amounts)
- Plumbum (inviting amounts)
- Vanadium (mediocre amounts)
- Selenium (mediocre amounts)
- Carbon (minimal amounts)
- Fluor (minimal amounts)
- Aluminum (minimal amounts)
- Silicon (minimal amounts)
- Sulfur (minimal amounts)
- Chlorine (minimal amounts)
- Gallium (minimal amounts)
- Strontium (minimal amounts)
- Yttrium (minimal amounts)
- Platinum (minimal amounts)

Of course there are remains of other elements, for example simple iron, however there are more lucrative spots for mining those resources in Delta or other systems. Recommendations are to focus on mining operations regarding Titanium, Vanadium and Selenium, simply because the distance of other lucrative sources of those elements are far away from the Omicrons. Vanadium, for example, is usually imported from Gallia and they say people pay high prices for it on the black markets. Titanium is usually mined in Omega-3, mostly in the area around Sprague and even planetside. Selene however is usually mined all over Sirius without certain hotspots. This could be the first one, matter of factly, for a short time.

We only got our hands on so many samples. It is quite possible that there are more fragments with other clusters of minerals and elements. Depending on the political situation in Omicron Delta, it may or may not advisable to send more prospectors and mining ships to the asteroid field.

→ Side note: We're not risking our ships to get shot down another time in Delta. This is only for bigger groups who can afford deploying a fleet to secure, prospect, mine and haul. We have other sources for resources. - Ezrael

Theory: At this point, we don't know clearly what happened, but from the looks and the facts we have so far it is sort of obvious a larger stray asteroid got attracted by Omicron Delta Medium Red and collided with a similarly sized asteroid. They broke apart and created this new field. This would be the first time we've been so 'close' to an event like this. This is something very interesting, given that the Omicron Delta Anomaly has unknown effects on the cosmical bodies of Delta. With other words, this is stuff for researchers to spend years with. What we definitely know: This is unrelated to any nomad activity, unrelated to the Daam K'vosh, Narcrahtite, Beam Weapons, Cultists or AJAX. Conclusion: Nothing we should waste our resources on.

Sherry Aguilar & Ezrael Vertiga
Commander and Captain of Battleship Apahanta

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