Hutts... In SPAAAAAACE! (Phrik dev thread - Roche Asteroids)

[Popo]

Popo had never been to the Roche asteroid fields before. It was an interesting place in all honesty, full of... Rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. Not a lot else, just lots of rocks. And space. Rocks and space.

So exciting.

The excitement of a large amount of rocks and space in one area wore off quickly after arrival, but Popo knew that the expedition was necessary. He had two jobs to do in the asteroid fields.

First, he had to find a good area to start working. He had his permits in order, he had his paperwork together, and had notified the proper authorities of his presence and intentions. Turned out that being the former Supreme Chancellor of the Republic had its merits in the Republic still. The process had been faster than normal and far, far simpler than usual, which was good.

Second, he planned to establish a permanent Tenloss presence in the fields. The reasons for this were two fold. Primarily, it was to provide a constant supply of Phrikite ore to Tenloss for various future projects the company down the line. The secondary reason was to supply his current project with a supply of Phrik as soon as possible.

For the moment, however, Popo was content to sit back and let his people do their jobs as the small civilian fleet of Tenloss industrial ships moved along in search of a proper place to start mining and processing.

 

[Popo]

It didn't take long before reports came in on a probably section of the belt capable of yielding the ore Popo desired. In fact, it was almost as if the fates had aligned and come together in this one place at this certain time to grant the Hutt the things he truly desired in the galaxy at that particular moment. It would have been a moment so profound as to shake the massive Hutt to his very core... if he believed in fate at all.

"We'll start excavations there," he said and gestured to the asteroid belt section with a massive hand. "Prepare the mining ships and find a suitable asteroid to place the mining base."

A small chorus of answers met his orders and his crew and captains scurried to obey. Within moments reports came to Popo's terminal and datapad as ships moved into position and crews confirmed ready statuses. A few of the mining vessels began to lower themselves into the asteroid field itself, their mining equipment coming online and their captains finding the first few rocks to begin processing. In a handful of days, the smaller rocks found would be nothing but gravel and dust in the void of space, their veins of ore forcibly chewed out of the space-borne stone and into Tenloss holds. From there, the ore would be delivered into the proper places of the mining facility.

Once the facility was built, that is. Popo turned his attention back to the ship's sensors. With luck, he figured, they'd find an appropriately sized rock to construct an actual base...

 

[Popo]

It took some finagling, but the sensors eventually pointed them to a few likely rocks to set up shop. Popo took some time to properly inspect each reading as the actual mining ships of the fleet got to work. He wasn't too worried about the base being up so the ships could offload ore, that took a lot more time than most thought. You didn't just fill a mining ship's ore hold in a few hours. It took at least a day's worth of work for the smaller and medium sized ones and usually two days or more for the large ships.

The first asteroid looked promising to the Hutt. It was large enough and sections were flat enough for a facility to be placed on the rock itself. For all intents and purposes, the rock looked like the best spot to set up shop. However, Popo figured there might be something wrong with the thing. You didn't find the perfect place on the first try. That was a one in a million chance, really. Popo ran casinos. One in a million chances didn't happen to someone once in a million tries.

It happened to one person out of a million once in a million tries. His bank accounts proved it.

He sent one of the smaller ships in the fleet off to scan down the rock. If everything checked out, he'd take his one in a million chance and be happy, but if not, then he had to find another place to set down.

The second rock looked promising, but a closer look told him otherwise. The rock was unstable and it showed. Clouds of debris clustered around the asteroid, often obscuring it from view in places. Debris and dust was normal for an asteroid field, but it seemed heavier there than usual. A quick scan showed that the rock's density was low and, as Popo pondered the asteroid a little longer, the scan finished. The results told him all he needed to know just as he watched the viewscreen as a few more chunks of rock managed to find their way off the asteroid and into the dust cloud.

The third rock was stable and large enough to support a facility, but seemed uneven and lumpy. Sure, he could still build on the thing, but that would require either building the facility up off the rock or physically flattening a section of the asteroid. Both options cost a hefty sum of credits and, as a closer look showed no flat areas to set up shop, Popo moved on.

The last rock the sensors had found looked akin to a flat-cake, the kind the Mandalorians made in the early mornings sometimes. It seemed sturdy and there was plenty of flat areas to set up a facility. At a glance, it seemed perfect, but like the first rock he'd found, he figured a better look was warranted. Another ship was discharged to inspect the possible build site.

So far, so good. Popo sat back in his chair and waited for the results to come in. With luck, one of the two asteroids would be perfect for his purposes and construction could begin.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

Shard 42, Roche Asteroids
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Eridium Industrial HQ[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][member="Popo"][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Eridium Industrial had soon found the value and worth of the Roche Asteroids, the Verpine were geniuses when it came towards the creation of [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]unlikely[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px] architecture, perhaps it was the hostile environment they lived on or perhaps it was simply an innate trait of their genetics. Not that it really mattered, what did matter was that the choice to employ them… hadn’t been a tough choice.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]After lobbying with the Governmental Hive Mind of the Asteroids, Eridium had been given permission to establish a permanent location on Shard 42, one of the more bountiful asteroids in the field itself and it was there that construction had begun for the headquarters.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]It had taken close to a year, but with the help of the Verpine and the experts at Saiba and Eridium? It had been more a question of when and not if. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]The arrival of Tenloss to the Asteroids hadn’t gone unnoticed, not that Irani was even pondering about causing any trouble for their probing efforts, the Asteroid Fields was big enough for all of them. Instead he simply went over the latest details and reports, the yields were promising indeed.[/SIZE]

 

[Popo]

[member="Darell Irani"]

The first report came back. The asteroid that had potentially been a one in a million chance was, indeed, a one in a million chance. Just not for a mining facility.

The reports showed that the big rock had more phrikite ore inside the thing than probably the majority of the section Popo had for himself. The Hutt didn't bother hesitating and immediately got to work.

Ship after ship dropped what they were doing and bee-lined it for the floating rock. With that much phrik inside that much rock, they'd need all the ships available to dig it up. Sure, he could set up a facility there anyways and cut transport time out of the equation, but that risked covering up a mining point to dig up a phrikite ore vein. No, instead he'd just eat the slight cost in fuel to haul it away rather than risk potentially tens of millions of credits in lost ore.

Popo kept the ship he was on and the haulers with him. The rest of the fleet was either on their way to the payload rock or already there and getting to work. The Hutt turned back to his systems and waited. The second report hadn't come in yet, but it should soon.

Meanwhile, the mining fleet ate rock and spat out debris, all the while making Popo that much richer.

 

[Popo]

The rest of the reports came back one after the other, each brightening the Hutt's mood considerably. The unstable rock was indeed highly unstable, but that was perfectly fine for two reasons.

First, the flat, disc shaped rock turned out to be perfect for the base he wished to construct. It was stable enough and gave enough flat surface area for a sizable facility. The area around the asteroid was mostly clear of debris and what clutter was there could easily be removed. Lastly, the rock had little in the way of phrik ore and consisted mainly of iron and nickel, meaning the asteroid, while valuable, would be easily overlooked compared to the money made elsewhere in asteroid field.

The other areas yielded more phrik ore or various other materials worth good money to the right people. Overall, however, it was the main asteroid he was interested in, the one in a million he'd found on this venture. As ships dropped to the disc asteroid to begin laying foundations for a new mining base, Popo hailed the rest of the fleet.

Soon, he would have a base of operations in Roche. One that would bring him many, many years of profit.

[member="Darell Irani"]

 

[Popo]

Months passed and went and the mining operations continued. The base of operations had been set up and was running smoothly while the asteroids in that particular section of space held enough phrik to keep Tenloss well supplied for a fair amount of the foreseeable future.

Popo looked over the readouts as a personal shuttle took him down to the mining base. In his hand he held a glass of wine, fresh from Naboo. In the other he held a sheaf of documents detailing various production levels, discoveries, and revenue predictions from the Roche mining venture. So far, things were looking very, very good for Tenloss. Ore harvesting was up, revenue loss was down, and the Republic hadn't bothered him in his operations. Life was good.

He felt the slight jolt as the shuttle landed in the mining outposts' bay and shut down. Shrugging once and finishing off the glass in his hand, he turned and slid his way to the back of the craft. The ramp dropped down and Popo slid out onto the hangar deck where a human stepped forward to meet him.

"How is the operation," the deep voice of the Hutt asked his mining foreman.

 

[Popo]

"Everything is going smoothly," the small man said with a nod. "Each week we send out scan ships and each week we find new asteroids to harvest. Production is up massively from your last visit and we still haven't fully harvested the Big One completely."

Popo glanced at his foreman, his expression one of curiosity. The foreman, now familiar enough with Hutts to recognize the facial expression, explained.

"The Big One is the massive and massively rich asteroid found during the initial expedition. We're still not fully finished harvesting the rock of all the phrik inside," he said as they entered the mining center's command room. "There's been some speculation to break it apart to better harvest the materials. At the same time, there's been a push to use the rock as a new outpost base or perhaps a Tenloss refuel station of some kind after the minerals have been removed."

The massive Shell Hutt nodded once in response. It wasn't a bad idea for the long run and Tenloss could use some refueling capabilities in time. Unfortunately, his business here today was less to do for the future of a Tenloss fleet and more to do with the Phrik here.

 

[Popo]

"The phrik ore, how much of it has been harvested and how much is ready to be shipped?" Popo asked, his voice booming even though he spoke at a conversational volume.

"Enough for the purposes you requested the materials for, I'm sure," the Foreman said, gesturing at one of the terminals in the command center. The technician took the cue and brought up an image on the holodisplay dominating the center of the room.

"As you can see," he continued as the massive ore bay rotated before them. "We have a great deal on standby and set aside. Plenty of which we can ship out at a moment's notice should you so desire."

"I do desire it to be shipped," he said with a shrug. "How soon can you ship the raw ore out to refineries?"

"If I have a ship ready to haul it out, in a few hours," the Foreman said after a moment's thought. "That requires the ships necessary to haul it away, however."

The Hutt pulled out a datapad and tapped a few controls on the device before confirming his orders and stowing the machine away.

"Consider the ships assigned."

 

[Popo]

The visit ended, Popo reboarded his shuttle and poured himself a second glass of wine. The visit had been mainly a formality, really. Though, if he were honest, he had been a bit stir crazy in his penthouse at the Wheel. He considered the visit to be akin to an evening walk, really.

Thankfully, though, the phrik ore was ready to go and would be shipped out soon enough. From here, it would go to refineries owned by Tenloss where the actual Phrik would be extracted and properly readied. At that point, it was ready for production. Popo knew that he could use the phrik for a variety of things from tanks and weapons to droids and ships, but he had a different idea in mind for this particular lode of ore.

Before him sat a holodisplay built into the shuttle's deck. Hovering over the table and slowly rotating before Popo was a new design for a project he'd been working on. Sprouting off the figure were technical readouts and data streams giving detailed information on the project stats itself. With the touch of a button, the figure and data updated with new phrik armor plating and the readouts changed. At the bottom, he watched the theorized efficiency percentage double with a quiet and slow grin.