Lore of Yore
Histories of the known universe... and beyond
The inter-quadrene diamond trade is, as they say, going places.
Having discovered volanium in the Colombo Gap, the Saturn Mining Company became a galactic player, and its parent company, the Free Agoran Trade Conglomerate, became drunk with power—and even more drunk on a variety of celebratory Venusian alcohols. The Trade Directorate followed in the footsteps of the British Empire and began a campaign of aggressive expansion, laying claim to the entirety of Saturn's ring network as well as all sixty-six of Jupiter's moons—the incident that vaporized Pasithee was written off by the government as a "misfiring of experimental thermo-nuclear warheads developed for the purposes of intensive soil fertilization". The Conglomerate kicked several indigenous species off their moonlets to stake claims on every precious mineral in sight. Only one of the displaced native species was foolhardy enough to file a law suit: The Eponis of Sinope, a somewhat backwards race as it was, came out of the court ruling with a single asteroid to their name: It was sixteen cubits wide and decreed fit for habitation for all seven thousand and nine members of the species. The Eponis, Latterly of Sinope, have not appeared in the galactic records since. Mining operations became famous across the system, with ore tankers shipping out across the Albion Reach and into the Armillary Sphere. However, stories of the Conglomerate's cut-throat business dealings also earned infamy, and for freelancers such as cargo pilot and occasional mercenary Jax Farrago, it became wise to keep one's head down during his transits. Some of his fellow haulers didn't, and Jax began to realize just how quickly a revolving door policy could operate—especially if that revolving door led out into, say, a pool of lava eels from Pyyrus I. He hoped to eventually leave the Conglomerate with a tidy sum in his account, and maybe a volanic gemstone or two stuffed into his britches. That was, however, before Overseer Spick closed down Saturn's central facility, and, in attempting to sneak into the tunnels to learn the truth, Jax discovered something hellish at the heart of the Diamond Mines....
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The bountiful Diamond Mines of Saturn are one of the Wonders of the Cosmos, ringing the sixth planet in a marvel of architecture and engineering. During the Industrial Revolution, cosmonautical miners undertook the incredible task of connecting each of Saturn's ring particles into a single network of habitable tunnels; as of the present day, the Saturn Mining Company maintains a colossal operation that spans the entire planetary ring. Although expansive, the enterprise only gained traction in the wider Space Empire after a mining team led by Peter Gaskett discovered volanium in the Colombo Gap. Six months later, during an excavation on the planet's surface, diamond shards were discovered embedded into the rock; the Laplace Institute confirmed these shards had rained down from the rings above, and soon enough further mining operations unearthed diamond deposits in orbit. This led to a surge in tourism, and the so-called Diamond Mines of Saturn became a popular destination for holiday-makers and honeymooners. Currently the Overseer, Puccint Spick, has vetoed all civilian travel to the central mining facility after an incident in the Bessel Gap which saw the loss of his Cassini Division. Other dangers included cases of diamond blight contracted by miners, and reports of crystalline spiders living within the glittering deposits, ready to burst out from their ore cocoons upon unsuspecting diggers. There have even been reports of something far larger, and even more hellish, rampaging through the tunnels—but on these outlandish rumours the Overseer has remained firmly silent.... |
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