The Mech Touch

There was no uniform standard to bestowing localized names to planets, moons, asteroids, comets and other phenomena in space.

Different states and organizations might agree to one of the many standards supported by different scientific associations, but the Larkinson Clan didn't sign up to any of them. There were no legal constraints that limited the names that it could bestow to newly-encountered planets and moons.

Although the right to name satellites sounded like an impressive way to make a mark in humanity's history, the truth was that there were far too many star systems in the Milky Way and the Red Ocean.

The sheer abundance of satellites to be named reduced the value of bestowing them with artificial labels.

The only instances where naming planets and moons were valuable was when the star system had all of the signs of becoming an attractive destination.

Even then, a lot of people never bothered to pay attention to the local names of the satellites. They continued to adhere to the universal standard of distinguishing them by referring to their distance from a star or planet.

This was why Ves did not pay much attention when he named the various moons and planets in the Garimel System.

He could call them silly names such as 'Party Planet' or 'Gloriana's Treasure Chest' without any issue.

Of course, that didn't necessarily mean that organizations such as the MTA were willing to adopt the names and register them in its database. People eventually learned the Association's limits and made sure their suggestions weren't too vulgar or humorous in order to get their names recognized.

Ves didn't know why, but he found himself in the mood to name the more significant satellites in the Garimel System after the mechs and starships that he encountered throughout his life.

Garimel I gained the name of Auralis after Ves named the heavy terrestrial planet after a Fridayman fleet carrier that the Larkinsons managed to capture.

Garimel II acquired the name of Lemogo Distat which Ves had derived from a fleet carrier of the 34th Slug Ranger Mech Division of the Ferril Provincial Army.

Garimel II-B, the largest moon in the neighborhood, became known as Iron Crusher, which used to be one of heavy hammer-wielding mechs fielded by the Forgehammer Mech Regiment of the 7th Molten Hammer Mech Division.

Iron Crusher happened to be another potentially lucrative mining site.

The difference between Iron Crusher and Gatecrasher was that the latter exhibited a lot more tectonic activity than the former.

The frequent volcanic activity caused Gatecrasher to push a lot of underground matter to the surface.

Iron Crusher was a significantly calmer moon. Its surface, which featured substantially more craters due to asteroid impacts, was generally lighter and less remarkable.

If the Larkinsons wanted to mine for goodies on this moon, then they would probably have to dig underground in order to reach the more profitable veins. All of this required a lot of effort. Just finding these valuable mineral deposits was a lot of work!

As the rest of the expeditionary fleet arrived in the neighborhood, the ships all settled into a high orbit around the gas giant.

Calabast made an infrequent visit to the Spirit of Bentheim in order to report on the Larkinson Clan's findings of the Garimel System.

Ves looked up from his desk terminal the moment her suited form entered his office.

"Long time no see."

"You're the same as always, Calabast. Is it really necessary to dress for an infiltration mission?"

"I could say the same to you, Ves. Your combat armor is packed with more protection than you ever need these days. It's not as if you are fighting on the frontlines anymore."

He shrugged. "Who knows. Anyway, please take a seat and tell me about all of the interesting details that you have found about the Garimel System."

"I may have to disappoint you today, Ves, because we have yet to discover too many facts that you may probably find interesting."

Calabast activated a projection and began to present information that she thought that Ves needed to know about their current environment.

Details such as the predicted solar activity of the blue supergiant star to the probability of discovering minerals worth mining in the nearby moons were all important to the expeditionary fleet.

"The Vandal survey teams have already discovered numerous small to medium-value mineral deposits on the surface of Gatecrasher." Calabast said as she referred to Garimel II-F by its new pet name. "The scout mechs are far from done with exploring the moon, so it is only a matter of time before they find more valuable resource concentrations based on extrapolations of its known distribution of surface deposits."

Ves took a good look at the incomplete survey map of Gatecrasher. The deposits found so far were not that valuable in the greater scheme of things.

Even in a dwarf galaxy where resources were in short supply, the expeditionary fleet could earn a few dozen to a few hundred MTA credits from mining these sites.

While this made the mineral deposits far more valuable than anything else discovered so far, it still wasn't enough to make this expedition worthwhile considering how much time and effort it took to scrape all of these smaller deposits!

"Do you have any clues about what kind of valuable exotic materials that we can find on any of the moons?" Ves asked.

"We have discovered that the blue supergiant star is prone to ejecting a substance known as Ferite-8. It is an iron-like exotic that is often used to produce the alloys found in first-class mechs and starships."

Ves looked shocked!

"Are you saying that we've found a first-class exotic in this star system?!"

"Don't get excited too quickly, Ves. It's a lower-grade exotic among first-class materials. Ferite-8 may have applications in first-class mech and starship production, but it is only valuable if we are able to accumulate tons of this exotic. So far, we have only found trace amounts of it across the surface of the calmer moons. Compared to Gatecrasher, the moon that you have aptly named Iron Crusher should be especially rich with Ferite-8, but we are still talking about the equivalent of collecting a lot of dust."

Iron Crusher essentially acted like a neglected couch in an abandoned room. The couch became covered by an increasing amount of dust after many years of inactivity!

While it was fairly easy to collect the dust from a couch, it was a lot harder to collect all of the dispersed particles of Ferite-8 from the surface of an entire moon!

"Do we have the mining equipment to efficiently collect Ferite-8 from the surface of those moons?" Ves critically asked.

Calabast shook her head. "Nope. The mining assets on the Andrenidae are mostly geared towards traditional mining activities. They're good at extracting materials from ore veins but they are not capable of absorbing specific substances over an enormous surface area. The survey teams are currently in the process of finding more concentrated deposits of Ferite-8. There is a small chance that a past solar flare has ejected a particularly larger amount of this substance into space."

That didn't necessarily mean that this mountain of Ferite-8 landed on the moons of Lemogo Distat.

If such a bounty ever strayed in the right direction, the chances were great that the gas giant pulled it directly onto its solid core!

"Keep looking, then. We might get lucky. This rogue planet has been captured by the Garimel System for millions of years. That's enough to collect a lot of dust and 'rat droppings'."

It was fine even if the search for significant concentrations of Ferite-8 turned into a bust. The moons had to contain other valuable mineral deposits. They just had to perform enough carpet searches.

Once Calabast finished this part of her presentation, she moved away from prospecting and presented her findings on the only possible sign of unusual activity in the star system.

"Remember that space rock that looked like it got cut in half?"

"I do."

"We haven't managed to find another rock that shows similar signs. Believe me, we tried. Our Blinding Banshee's sensor arrays have scoured through a lot of space and failed to identify any rock that looks as if it was tampered with in any fashion."

"That… is probably the expected outcome." Ves sighed. "This star system is so huge that it is extremely rare to find two or more similar abnormalities in quick succession. This is especially the case when we stumbled upon the cut space rock so far from the center of the star system. It must have drifted for a long time."

Calabast smiled at him. "An absence of findings tells its own story, Ves. In some cases, we can make inferences from what isn't happening. For example, the chances are greater that a passing alien or human fleet has cut the rock. That said, we have traced back the trajectory of this space rock. This wasn't easy as we needed to construct a gravity model of all of the planets, moons and other objects moving in this star system. Once our scientists managed to complete this model, we ran a simulation and came up with a result that you should view."

Calabast projected a plot of the Garimel System. A green light appeared at the place where the Larkinsons originally stumbled upon the space rock.

Time then proceeded to go backwards. The planets and moons all spun and orbited in the wrong direction. Many years went by as the space rock followed a fairly wobbly arcing trajectory as its trajectory became influenced for various reasons.

The model also became a little bit uncertain about the space rock's coordinates the further the simulation went back into the past.

However, the suspected origin zone of the space rock was close to where Garimel I, now named Auralis, was situated in the distant past!

"Are you saying that someone or something close to Auralis cut this space rock as it tumbled away?"

"Correct, and it likely happened hundreds of years ago, far before humanity ever set foot in this dwarf galaxy." Calabast answered. "There are many theories that we can think of that might explain what has happened. The most likely one is that an alien ship or fleet used to visit the Garimel System and approached Auralis for whatever reason."

"I see. What are the chances that we'll find any aliens on that hot planet?"

"It is extremely unlikely that we will find any aliens or traces of their visit. The visitors likely went through the trouble of approaching Auralia all of those years ago in order to mine a specific material or conduct studies on the planet. It should not have any further merit as it is located dangerously close to a blue supergiant star. The big blue ball only needs to burp loudly in order to wipe out whatever base or settlement the aliens have built on the surface."

Auralis was anything but livable to the vast majority of races. Even those that have evolved to like all of the heat and radiation would not choose to live next to such a humongously powerful and relatively less stable star!

Still, if there was one lesson that Ves had learned throughout his career, it was that exceptions always existed!

He looked towards his spymaster. "I hope that we don't leave it at this assumption and actually investigate that Auralis is empty."

"We are already in the process of setting up a deep exploration mission. The combat carrier that we have chosen to travel deeper into the star system is currently undergoing refitting at the Diligent Ovenbird. Once we have increased her resistance against heat and other environmental hazards, we plan to send her on a quick trip to Auralis. We will be able to get a better look of what is going on on that planet. If nothing else, it should hold a significant amount of Ferite-8. It is one of the reasons why we cannot gather detailed data from this distance. The high-grade exotic and all of the other energetic materials on the planet are generating a lot of interference."

"I see. Have you tried to send a few drones at first?" Ves asked.

"We have already done so shortly after we entered this star system, but there is a decent chance that we will lose contact with them. Let us hope that doesn't happen."