To: Bernhard Schroeder
First off I would like to apologise for this rather timely delay with hope that it wont effect our reputation. After all, delays are not something common Rheinland.
We are sending you a shortened version of our research.
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It is well known that the Omega 11 system was first located by our Fatherland's greatest explorer, as it was the last system he strove to explore, even at the cost of his crew's and his own life. The system bathes in eerie red light, as its giant star slowly nears its end. Enormous radiation levels surpass those detected in any known system, thus making it extremely dangerous to navigate, not to mention conduct research in it. As such it proved fatal to Von Rohe and his crew. The predominant opinion is that his ship plunged into the deathly embrace of the dying sun, as none of the crew remained alive, presumably because their ship was critically damaged in collision with an asteroid. However, by taking into account the latest findings of documents from that period in Rheinland's state archives, we came to a conclusion that the most likely scenario was slightly different.
Sequence of events as we deemed most likely is portrayed on the neural net map which was constructed using astronomical data modified to reflect the correlation of planets to the Red giant and surrounding systems at the time of Von Rohe's journey.
(the green dots indicate the relative positions of FLT bouys that were used to relay data back to New Berlin in their orbits)
![[Image: screen63.jpg]](http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac80/Kolpa/screen63.jpg)
As seen, after charting planet Schutz and the outer asteroid belt, including planet Deidus they continued to explore the inner system. Somewhere in the Von Rohe belt all contact with the ship that has previously been relayed through series of FTL buoys was lost. Thereafter everything is shrouded in mystery. However, by carefully studying ship designs of that period the conventional theory, that Von Rohe's ship simply smashed into an asteroid and consequently disintegrated becomes rather unlikely. The fact that the rest of the ships that took part in the expedition safely returned, despite several contacts with objects that moved at orbital velocities points to a conclusion that Rheinland built ships were able to withstand severe stress, even by today's standards. Thus, we can conclude that it is highly possible that the ship did indeed survive damage inflicted by initial collision and that the crew then did their best to save themselves. If we apply simple logic, we can easily assume that the closest celestial body that was capable of providing at least some protection against deadly radiation was planet Deidus. Radiation in low orbit around that planet is insignificant in comparison to the deadly levels of open space. It still exceeds normal background levels found in most systems and interstellar space by 10.5 %. All exploration ships of that period were capable of planetary landing and had a relatively advanced artificial intelligence systems integrated. It is possible that if the ship's crew was had been disabled, the orbit of it around any planet would slowly deteriorate, eventually leading to imminent planetary landing. In such case the thin atmosphere of the planet would allow the ship to survive its descent to the surface in relatively good condition, in one piece that is.
Thus planet Deidus is a likely final resting place of Von Rohe's flagship.
Expedition led by Franz Maister reached Omega 11 system on December 12 (SSD) 817 A.S, equipped with a scanner paired with a quantum computer specially modified for the specific task of finding wrecks and determining their age from low orbit. The scanner itself was designed and mounted by Kshiro technologies. Scanning of Deidus's surface took 32 days of continuous labour.
One possible wreck site was confirmed.
Unnatural radiation levels are portrayed as collared areas, ranging from the lowest readings in white to the highest in dark red.
Surprisingly, the contaminated area is situated on the northern hemisphere of the planetoid and not near the equator. This can be explained by constantly shifting sand that forms several kilometres deep layer. In fact, findings indicate that the rate by which the object moves is roughly 50 meter per day.
Object, that is the source of radiation detected lies at a depth of 352 meters. Its age was determined by analysing the radioactive materials that were detected.
Plutonium 239 was detected and its age was determined to be 600 to 800 years.
That alone makes it rather interesting sight, however only few ships have dared to venture far away from standard flight paths and orbits, as the Solaris station was the only hideout from intense radiation. Thus it is extremely likely that the object found on Planet Deidus had indeed been part of Von Rohe's expedition.
Because standard probing technology fails quickly because of minute dust particles that cause optronics to malfunction the only way to reach the object is to actually excavate a shaft to it.
Due to the rather unstable geological nature of planet Deidus exact location could have changed.
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The possible archaeological site is located on planet Deidus at a depth of 352 meters. At such depths our own equipment is not sufficient, especially due to the fact that sand is a natural enemy to any common tunnelling method. Orbital scanning does not provide us with all the information we need about the object. Thus we have to physically reach it to gather data.
A small supply depot, possibly a freighter sized one would have to be placed in low orbit of planet Deidus to supply the archaeological teams with provisions during the time when the planet is on the far side of Omega 11's star.
The actual object we found is believed to be contaminated with radioactive materials. Adequate protection for archaeologists is important.
All the above mentioned aspects of our plan require your company's assistance. Regarding finances...to an extent our budget should cover for expenses. However it may not be sufficient.
Franz Maister
![[Image: trans.gif]](http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac80/Kolpa/trans.gif)
![[Image: schroeder.png]](http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/405/schroeder.png)
![[Image: Dedus.jpg]](http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac80/Kolpa/Dedus.jpg)