Event: Target Zone (Day T-1, Afternoon, Briefing Room)

[Dr. Reinhardt]

"If I remember correctly, Illium was the private vacation world of the Amaris family, up until the Star League Defense Force conquered it in 2589, the city of Troy specifically on the continent of Tartarus was supposed to be quite beautiful"

[Jan Novak]

Throughout their chat, Jan was typing in equations and approximate values of variables into modelling software. The values were his rough assessments as he didn't have and couldn't reasonably acquire some them for Illium, like the power of nuclear ordnance, relative crust depths and rock densities, but that was something Reinherdt might be helpful with. A bit hard-and-fast, his model for deep crust exposure due to tectonic shifts was quite sound, however, and he turned the screen to the one of them more able to do the geological part, with a chin movement that substituted for unnecessary words.

A-1. Tectonic Modelling. Science: Physics. Tech. VP. FL. 4R.: 10d10o10k6 41

[Success with 4 Raises]

[Colette Rupelle]

"This may be a silly question Madame but... how well known would the team want? I know this is a somewhat deserted planet but do we want ze scans know what we are doing here?" Colette shrugged. "It might help to know so ze mountain range might bring some safety."

[Dr. Reinhardt]

Target Acquisition - Geology TN 20, 2 FR 2 CR Tn 30 Spend Edge: 9d10o10k5 33
Success with 4 Raises

Reinhardt listens to Jan's estimates and adds a few of his own, based on likely rock formations and movements.

[Lucretzia Winters]

Lucretzia listend to Colette, and then nodded. "Ideally, we don't want to be too involved with the locals... we didn't even know they were here when we planned the mission."

A faint sigh. "Unfortunately, we may be forced to at least get somewhat involved. We'll see... it depends where our work takes us."

Glancing at the two men, she arched her eyebrow as the finished their quick work and gave her their estimates. That was why she 'hired' them.

Browsing down the list of assumptions and requirements for such a deposit to appear, she shook her head.

"Well, I think, with a great deal of confidence, we can conclude that these readings aren't natural, nor are they a result of tectonic activity."

Tapping the screen to bring up the continent of Limbo, she pondered the results in silence.

---------------------

Results of Physics check: tectonic stress from saturation bombardment of Tartarus would not disrupt the crust of Limbo sufficiently to bring deep deposits to the surface, so any material would be coming from shallow deposits. Yielded 2 free raises to Geology.

Results of Geology: These materials could not have come from deep below the crust thanks to the current geological patterns - nuclear intervention was not sufficient to change that. Also, this density is anomalous, particularly for an otherwise mineral poor region - meaning that the strong reading did not come up from below the crust but were instead deposited by some outside force, whether a meteorite or human intervention.

[Dr. Reinhardt]

"Do we know what minerals are down there? I could do a comparison between the minerals detected and the average metallurgical make up of Star League or Succession War Era starships and see if we might be picking up a crash site of one of the larger battlecruisers? "

[Jan Novak]

Jan nodded, and took the other angle, starting from spectroscoping readings of mieral composition, if available - what else could have left it? He had several other wild ideas, including metabolites of some gigafauna, but Mendleev's table, anomalous istopes, and half-life degradation rates for getting the age of it would come first.

[Lucretzia Winters]

"We can't figure it out without a proper look, we only have enough weird magnetic readings and the like to get an idea that *something* is down there."

Unfortunately nobody had invented an atomic scanner yet, so they'd have to check the composition the old fashioned way - by taking samples.

"If it were a crashed warship, it could be quite the find, but the... so might lostec if we find it on Tartarus. In your opinions, which location seems the most reasonable place to start? Do you have any preferences? Just understand if we land in Limbo we're committed there until we get answers. Alexei has informed me that he won't deplete his fuel supplies hopping around the planet every day." The refusal seems to have annoyed her.

[Jan Novak]

"Hope they won't mind too much if I take a look myself."

Jan logged into sensor operating console with some difficulty because of crude UI, and angled and tuned them a bit into impromptu spectrography. His bet was he could get something out of it even after accounting for equipment quality and conditions on the ground. Photons rarely lied. His preference was obvious at this point as he was already committed to cracking the mystery this way or another.

A-1. Hard-and-fast spectrography. VP. TN30.: 6d10o10k5 31

[Colette Rupelle]

"Madame... have the local sent any communication to the outside of the world? Maybe some more data can extrapolated" Colette is no scientist but knows a thing or two.