Entry 127 - 07.12.3304 Polonium is a lie
14 Jul 2018MBaldelli
Current System: NGC 4463 Sector UZ-O d6-11I'm beginning to come to the end of this leg of the mission and I have to say that there had been a couple of noteworthy mentions that should be included in this entry.
The first is the more recent discovery: NGC 4463 Sector UZ-O d6-21.
Overall from the outside it looked pretty routine for a system survey. However all the planets -- including the moons -- had a higher than normal gravity. Like the system was unusually more dense than most planets and moons within the sector, as gravity was over the routine averages by 75%.
Going to stars, 2, 3, 4 and all the other planets seemed to have returned to normal.
Then last week as I was surface mining -- and the inspiration for this entry's title -- I came across this site:
The SRV was recently smoking as though it had been destroyed within minutes of my detecting it on the other side of the ridge. Whoever they were -- miners, smugglers, pirates -- they had to have been in quite the rush as they had left behind cargo containers of Uranium, Indium, Beryllium and a couple of others I don't remember seeing on the market.
Personally, I couldn't see why they ran. At the time I was more than 3,000 LY from the Bubble, and couldn't imagine System Authorities patrolling this sector of uncivilized space. But whatever the reason, hopefully I'll never cut across their life pods in the process.
So, the reason for the entry title... Seems that out of all the rare materials one can surface mine, Polonium seems to be rarer than rare. Even on planets with greater than 1% of the composition, I can't seem to find it no matter where I try to surface mine: easy plains, rocky meteor craters, rifts and ravines. It just can't seem to be found.
Even with similar rares in around the same percentage range -- Technetium, Ruthenium, Tellurium -- I have had better chances finding those materials than I do, Polonium. Sure, Polonium isn't used for much synthesis -- rare weapons munitions I don't use and FSD boosts -- it would be nice to have a supply for those just in case sort of moments. But nope, it would seem that the galaxy is trying to ensure I don't have any onboard. Like this meme here is alive and well and residing onboard the Zheng He.
And with that, it's time to finish up this leg of the trip. More to come on the next leg.