Countryman leaned over the console beside Misaki, “So what do you have?”
“We’ve been picking up some chatter. It seems our friends have had some excitement,” said Misaki as she opened a recording and started the playback.
Countryman listened as a rather... distressed commander reported an encounter with a figure they called the Spectre Queen. Her frigate had engaged them in battle and taken a pounding. She was requesting additional support to locate and engage the Spectre Queen.
“Huh, well that’s interesting. Good news for us though, let's hope she draws their attention away from us. It would give us more time for repairs.”
“I’ve been getting a lot of chatter on this. I think we might just get that distraction.”
“Keep an eye on this, let me know if there are any developments.”
She smiled, “Will do sir!”
Shifting gears, he inquired, “Now do we have any information on the D6?”
“Outside of what was mentioned in the report? Afraid not.”
He sighed, “I was afraid of that. Still it's nice of them to confirm there are other people out here.”
“Pirates mostly, from the sound of it.”
Kaori commented, “I’m not sure I’d want to run into a pirate just yet. I feel a bit vulnerable down here on the ground.”
“I do as well, but we didn’t have much choice. We needed extra space to put people while we do the overhaul, and the dust clouds up there might have caused problems while we're working.”
Misaki nodded, “Quite true, still Megumi has been complaining about the ice. It's a bit of a problem.”
“I’ve heard, but I trust she has that issue handled?”
Misaki nodded, “Vera’s been setting up force shield projectors around the exposed sections. They seem to be helping in keeping the worst of the elements out, and what’s left can be cleaned up by a work crew.”
“Excellent, now if you’ll excuse me, I have an inspection of the mines lined up.”
Kaori interjected, “Right, what about the next weapons test? I was rather impressed with the last one.”
Countryman blinked, they’d been conducting tests all month long. Once Richards had sorted out production of hard targets, they’d moved some of the tests into space, but most of it was conducted at the test range located here on Frozen Oasis. Ruri and Vera had gotten a good baseline, most of the work at this point was for refining the design and they were making good strides. He was expecting a production version in two weeks, which would line up with the rebuild of the dorsal turret mounts.
Overall, they were making good progress in rebuilding the dorsal hull structure and overhauling the engines. If they had a proper shipyard, things might have been going faster, but some of the delay had been in getting the mining camps and production going full force. By now they were pulling in hundreds of trucks loaded with ore every day, which in turn became a wide array of new components, hull plating, tools, and more.
Some of that production was even being used to make the hard targets Ruri needed for her weapon’s testing. At this point, the materials department had gotten in on the weapons testing and were also testing new material compositions they’d designed in simulation. How they held up under fire was proving to provide invaluable data for both teams. “Well the next test scheduled is a beam weapons test, which is currently set for Friday.”
Kaori sighed, “I was hoping for a bit sooner, but I can wait till Friday.”
He chuckled and promptly left the Bridge. A pair of guards saluted him as he passed through the blast doors, and then he made it to the lift. Stepping inside, he pressed the controls and set a destination for the lower bay.
The lift hummed to life, the doors closed and in moments he was whisked down to the belly of the ship. Stepping out of the lift, he was greeted to a din of activity, as numerous trucks were moving up and down the main ramp. Hundreds of work crews swarmed the area, trucks were being serviced, cargo was unloaded, and materials were sent on conveyors to where it was needed. It was interesting seeing this bay as busy as it was. Last time it was like this was over four years ago, back on Earth when they were taking on their initial supplies. Supplies that should have lasted them years longer, but reality and theory weren’t always the same.
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A familiar figure greeted him as he left the lift. “Good evening sir, I have your transport ready to leave.”
“Excellent work, ensign,” he replied as he gestured for her to escort him. The young officer led him around the bulk of the work, to an area where several APCs were parked. One of which was powered up and waiting to go.
He smiled and boarded the vehicle, as she took the controls. A couple of guards joined him in the back, and they were soon leaving with the traffic, heading out to the mines.
----------------------------------------
Countryman stepped out of the vehicle and took a look around. He was at the northernmost camp, it was one of several to the north, with this particular camp being the largest of the mining camps. They had a massive vein of high-grade titanium just beneath the surface here, more than enough to fuel their repairs and rebuild a stockpile.
The mining camp was built into the side of a hill, a number of prefab structures had been erected in the area, and he could see a generator off to the left. A series of forcefield projectors had been set up along the perimeter, creating the impression of an energy fence. Likely something Vera had set up to keep the worst of the local winds away from the miners. While elsewhere they had started digging open pits to extract the ores they were after, this deposit was a good distance under the earth, and very rich. They’d used resonant particle beams to dig a shaft, and now modulated beams were being used to extract the ore, while conveyors brought it back up. Most of the miners were up here in the camp, while drones were used to remotely do the work.
This was much safer and faster than sending men down into the tunnels. Drones were expendable and quite effective at the work. From here he could see the main entrance, where ores were steadily leaving the tunnel via a conveyor. Robotic drones were returning, where a couple of miners started checking their systems before hooking them up to a charging dock for recharge. One of the reasons why the camp needed a generator, those drones could only store so much energy, and they weren’t the only tool that required power.
One of the nice things about being on the ground was that they could employ more conventional mining techniques. This rich deposit of titanium would have been out of reach with orbital methods, but conventional ones were more than capable of tackling the deposit.
Noting that things appeared to be moving at full capacity he quickly located one of the techs in charge, who welcomed him. “Captain! It’s a fine evening don’t you think?”
“Yes, good weather too, beats the snow storms we had over the last week.” Countryman gestured at the work. “Seems things are at full tilt here.”
“Right, we’ve hit one of the primary veins. I’ve got our drones working at full capacity right now, and I was just organizing a request for additional equipment and personnel.”
“Oh? Getting ready to open another shaft?” asked Countryman as he recalled how busy the main shaft looked.
The chief tech gestured him over to a table and unveiled a chart, “I’ve already started the work, I’ve got four workers operating a drill to cut a new path to the deposit over here,” he said pointing at a spot on the map.”
Countryman nodded as he looked over the map, a special holographic chart that showed surface topography and underground features. The team had fully mapped the richer primary veins, but this entire area was pretty rich in minerals. There was a good amount of titanium in all the rock strata here, they were focusing on the main vein however, since it was almost pure high-grade titanium. They’d get more metal from less rock. He noted several possible shaft sites marked, “Looks like you have plans to really expand the mine.”
“Well, yes, with all the demand we are getting overwhelmed with requests for ore. The foundries need more than we can provide.”
“I’ll see what I can do to get you that equipment then.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Now are there any other concerns?”
“Not really sir, everything is running like a well-oiled machine.”
Countryman smiled, “Glad to hear that. Mind showing me around?”
“Sure thing sir!”
The tech happily led him around the camp and showed off the work they’d accomplished. The main shaft was crowded with drones, and not far from it, one of the tents had become a large workstation where numerous techs worked, remotely operating the drones.
“This right here is the nerve center of the operation,” said the tech gesturing at the consoles, “The nice thing about drones is that they are fairly cheap, but they do need a remote operator.”
Countryman nodded, AGI systems like the ones used to create Rose were nice, but for mining work that was rather overkill. The current ones they were using were easy to manufacture and used a remote control system paired with a basic AI. “I see what you meant, they seem to know what they are doing.”
The tech was pretty proud of the people here and bragged about them being the best. Countryman just smiled, and didn’t say anything as he moved about the camp. People bustled about, drones worked, and trucks were being loaded with raw ore. All told, he left the camp happy with what he saw, his next stop was a riverside mining camp to the west. The rocks there were rich in carbon, another vital material. Carbon was a rather versatile element used in countless applications. Small amounts of it were used in a number of different alloys they needed to repair the ship.
Reaching the camp, he looked it over, noting that this camp looked similar to the last one. A perimeter of forcefield projectors were set to keep the worst of the local winds out, while a number of prefab structures were clustered around the mine. The main difference was that instead of a tunnel they’d opted for open pit mining here.
From here he could see multiple particle beams being used to carve the rocks into workable pieces, then drones would move in after to transfer the ore to trucks where it would be sent to the ship for processing.