Introduction to Void Opal mining.
23 Oct 2019Tredwell
It was about a month ago now if I recall rightly. I had just completed a long haul of data missions and combined that with a passenger mission, and was pleased to be back at Jameson Memorial in the bubble. I was in the galley when I got a call from Shad, a squadron member. He’d been monitoring my logbook entries and noticed he was not far away and wondered what I had planned for the next twenty-four hours – would I like to go mining? Now, mining was something I had always considered, too complex and expensive. I made my money from passenger hauling and where it fitted in, carrying data on my computer. That way If I got blasted by some inconsiderate pirate, the data would still be on my computer and I would not lose much - perhaps the passengers did not see it that way though.I took down some notes about the type of ship and load out, specifically for mining. The carrot was that I could soon be hauling cargo that would pay for the new ship. I did a deal with Jameson outfitters on both ship and equipment, maximising the discount available at Jameson with my Elite badge status. It was, in fact, two days later that Shad called me up again and by that time I had visited Felicity Farseer Inc and engineered the 5A Frame Shrift Drive so that I could enjoy a little increased performance. I wrote down the coordinates and looked up the journey on the Galaxy Map. “That will take me about half a day to get there. I’ll tidy up here and head on out. Look forward to hearing from you tomorrow.” Apam Napat has a number of planets. Planet 9 is about 1,265 Ls from the system star and Majida station, a Coriolis station, where I stayed overnight.
The comms unit buzzed early the following day. “We are going to travel to Planet 9. It’s a Class 1 Gas Giant, which has two rings around it. The inner one is metal-rich but we want the outer one, icy. I’m sending you a Wing request. Accept it and I'll see you when you arrive. Over and out.” The comms went dead, but it buzzed a few moments later. I accepted the Wing request.
I cruised closer to the planet and enjoyed the view as the grey gas giant appeared, circled by its two rings. Shad’s voice came loud and clear over the comms. “Use your Detailed Surface Scanner to ping the planet, but stretch it out to cover the two rings, the outer one if you can.” Moments later part of the outer ice ring had a yellow circle on it. “Head to your Navigation Panel and target the Void Opal Hot spot. Then follow me in.”
I was a little apprehensive as I approached the yellow rings of the hot spot that rose up before me. “It’s OK. The ship will nose up before you hit the belt. Just follow my beacon. It’s a big place out here, it’s easy to get lost.” The yellow rings turned into grey asteroids and I flipped over and nosed up to gain the benefit of being mass locked. “OK. I’ve found one. Use your pulse laser to ping the asteroids in front of you. You are looking for a bright yellow rock that should also have a warm red colour, perhaps a deep orange. The really good ones will also have a bit of deep green in them.” I was amazed at how the icy asteroid rocks changed their appearance.
“I’m going to blast the asteroid fissures on the one in front of me with my seismic charger. It will set a charge to detonate in two minutes. During that time, I’ll try to set a few more charges so the whole asteroid will separate and reveal its true colours.” The coms went dead and I watched from a safe distance. “Ten seconds. Make sure you are at least 1km away.” Even from that distance, the explosion shook the ship and the vista in front of me turned a misty grey, while at the same time my screen began to ice up. “OK. Release your Collector Limpet drones, and make sure your cargo hatch is down. Enjoy. The Void Opals still located on the asteroid will show as blue, target them and blast away with your abrasion blaster. I’ll pick up the difficult bits on the hidden side of the asteroid.”
We continued to pick off and collect the opals for about ten minutes. Making sure our ships did not collide with the neighbouring asteroids that were turning and rolling around us.
“OK. How much have you got? That was some big asteroid.” I told him. “We can find another one, but that’s mining for you. It might be wise to try and sell your haul and I've got an idea where we can get a good price.” Once again the comms went quiet. “I’ve sent you the station details. I’ll see you there shortly.”
I opened up the galaxy map and logged in the details. It was three jumps to the Reddot system and then I had to locate Whit’s Station. As I refuelled for the third time, I opened the system map and locked onto the station. It was then that a local comms message appeared on my screen. I was about to be interdicted. I turned, ducked, dived, and did all the usual things to survive, eventually coming out a winner, very close to the station itself - a little relieved. A call into the station had me docked and then it was a case of searching on the commodities list to realise I was about to sell my haul of Void Opals for 25M credits.