Southern Formidine Rift Expedition Log 1 | Life Detected
28 Feb 2022HalseySpartan2
Date: 2/27/3308System: Outorst JR-W B15-0 A 5
Independent Exploration Vessel Destination Unknown
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Well, here we are. I set out from the Bubble a few days ago on an expedition to explore, map, and survey the Formidine Rift. Everyone knows about the mystery of the Rift, and that it's part of the intrigue surrounding the myth of Raxxla. I know, I know..every CMDR thinks they're going to be the one to discover the fabled Raxxla. I guess I'm not immune to that myself, but hey..there's always the chance, right? At the least I can do my part to help the cause by exploring, and you never know what you might find.
I'm currently orbiting Outorst JR-W B15-0 A 5 after having detected signs of biological life coming from this planet. I'm going to scan it, land, and see what's down there.
Hmm..Bacterium and Fonticulua. This sounds interesting.
As I descend, let's check out what I can expect to find down there.
Checking the scan results, we've got a microplanet with 0.06G, a brutally cold 35-68K surface temperature, no atmosphere, no volcanic activity...What could possibly live in these conditions? I have to know!
Touchdown!
As I examined the area with the remote cameras, I saw some odd formations on the ground. This must be one of the biological lifesigns the scanner reported. I'd have to get a closer look. I went to the storage locker and grabbed my ARTEMIS Exobiology suit and tugged it on. After descending to the ground, I got my bearings.
Temperature: 58K, or a rather brisk -355 F
Gravity: 0.06G...better not jump too high or I might not come back down.
Atmosphere: Argon, 100%
Composition: 68.1% Ice, 21.5% Rock, 10.4% metal
An array of elements..sulphur, carbon, iron, phosphorus, nickel, selenium, and others.
Okay, I'm oriented. Let's take a look at these biosigns.
...Aaaafter I jump around a bit, I couldn't resist. Red Bull, it gives you wings!
I walked up to the thing, whatever it was. Looked like a space mushroom to me, anyway. I wonder if it'd go well on a pizza? I pulled out my Genetic Sampler and took a reading.
The Genetic Sampler finishes its job and reports back:
Fonticulua Campestris. Never heard of that before but the Sampler must have assigned it a scientific classification automatically. This is an unexplored world, after all. I need to find two more samples of this to get enough genetic biodiversity data to make it worth the xenobiologists' time to analyze. I need to get in my SRV and find additional sites.
Wheeeee!
Okay, enough goofing off. I'm not being paid to have fun, so let's get rolling. After driving a few hundred meters, I came across another colony of fungi. I pulse scanned them and they were genetically different enough to be a valid data point. I scanned them and hopped back in my SRV. Time to find one more.
I spot a third colony shortly after, along with some sort of gas vapor in the distance. I'll have to check that out soon, it could be geologic. In the meantime, let's scan these shrooms.
Amethyst Fonticulua Campestris, confirmed! I hopped back in my SRV to review the data on this xeno life.
Huh, that's pretty fascinating! But didn't my surface scanner say something about bacterial life? Let's try to find that before we head back to the Destination Unknown.
After searching for a while in my SRV, rather than burn fuel, I opted to recall the Destination to my position and do a low level survey flight in search of a bacterial colony.
Ultimately, I was unable to locate the second biosign on that planet. Eventually, I had to move on. This little planet orbited around its star quickly, so I had time to catch a nice sunrise through an argon atmosphere.
It was time to say goodbye to these odd little space mushrooms and see what else awaited in the Formidine Rift
