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DESCRIPTION:
Obsidian itself is an F Class planet with no atmosphere. As such, its surface is completely uninhabitable. However, despite the harshness of its surface, the planet is rich in underground caves and tunnels that, oddly enough, are filled with a rich Nitrogen and Oxygen atmosphere with a slightly higher concentration of oxygen than earth. This makes the planet colonizable, as long as it is colonized via orbital stations, or underground.

LOCATION:
Obsidian is located in Sector R-19

PEOPLE:
This world is uninhabited.

CLIMATE:
The entire planet is a freezing, solid ball of rock. It is geologically inactive as well. This means that the temperatures on the surface are sub zero constantly, even in daylight. Environmental suits are a must to survive longer than a few seconds on the surface.

RESOURCES:
This planet is rich in Dilthium ore, however, its extreme distance from all other known distribution points makes it a very long-haul job to mine the resources. Nonetheless, for those willing to make the trip, great fortunes could be hidden beneath the rocky crust. The multitude of asteroids in the system are scattered with deposits of Monocrystal Cortenum as well making the system a virtual gold mine...

OTHER SYSTEM INFORMATION:
The central star of this system has stripped away most planets in the system, however, its gravity has kept the remains within the solar sphere of influence. This means that Obsidian is surrounded with vast asteroid fields, providing some meager means of protection to orbital structures (-10% to orbital damage). The outer planets are all gas giants, and have no real significance whatsoever. But the outer rim of the system is only a small distance away from the Phantom nebula, making it a prime place to escape or hide if the system is under attack.

Slowing the 1/10th impulse the Mythic entered a standard orbit around Obsidian and began scanning the world inch by inch, working off a tip the Captain had received after paying of a member of the original survey crew. As the sensors probes the surface of the world, it began to return the results Toko had expected. hidden under the surface was a network of Oxygen and Nitrogen filled caverns, hidden just under the surface. Created by a system of underground lakes and streams the caverns were massive and many, the largest of which being roughly the size of Manhattan Island on Earth. Toko ordered a sensor probe to be beamed into the cavern and for it to feed back what they saw. What they found was amazing, the caverns were lit by a lichen like organism that lived on the upper part of the domes and caves. The probe took a sample and descovered that the things lived by absorbing the water that seeped through rocks ever so slowly, feeding on the minerals that the water carried.

There was also a number of small moth like creatures that fluttered about the cavern, looking like a white blizzard. As the probe activated its like to examine then further it was suddenly swarmed by hundereds of the creatures, who were apparently attracted by the intense light. The light was shut off and the Ships Biologist went to work, attempting to piece togeather what he had found.

It seemed that the 'Moths' Feed off some not vital part of the Lichen to live and were attracted to the light. The Lichens gave of a soft luminesence that attracted the moths, inticing them to feed and spread its spores to other of its kind, allowing for reproduction. The result was a symbiotic relationship between the two that let the Lichen reproduce and the Moths to feed. A biproduct of this was the caves were filled with a soft, dusk like light.

After a few moments of experimention it was descovered that slightly altering the wavelength of the probes light caused the moths to no longer be attracted letting them explore the caverns more. What they saw was good, the caverns were structualy sound and mantained a liveable envorment, the air warmed by the heat of the planets core.. A Colony could be built here quite easily, entire cities hidden in the bowls of the world.

U.S.S. Fenrir
NCC-82063
Flagship

"We are strange, for we know ourselves."

Location: Obsidian

Warp Factor: 8/Negligible - Impulse

The Fenrir arrived much later than had been expected, for the simple reason that their sensor array had decided to pack up just before they were due to enter the system; what with Toko's message, Jacob knew the risk of flying blind in the Obsidian system was altogether too big, and so had delayed their arrival. After a while, Leo had gotten the array working once more, and they had continued on into the system

Seeing that the Mythic seemed to have finished with the only planet of worth, and was moving on to the asteroid, the Fenrir followed suit, ducking between asteroids with a speed the larger Mythic wouldn't be able to imitate. The sensor array was working hard to maintain the intensive scan cycles O'Donnell had ordered, and the sensor room was getting quite crowded as the Science division got their hands on the scan results.

Upon closer inspection, most of the asteroids scattered liberally around the system contained good-quality monocrystal cortentum. The resource was only just below dilithium in price on the resource exchange rates, which meant that the system was the 24th century equivalent of the Wild West - Jacob could only hope that the riches to be earned here would produce a gold rush in the Beta Quadrants inhabitants despite the long distance; after all, Toko and he didn't quite have enough space on their own transports to move all of the ore they wanted.

It was a puzzle to those on the Fenrir how such large quantities of the crystal had come to be here; single crystals of significant size, as monocrystals were also known, were exceedingly rare in nature. As could be expected, the Fenrir didn't have a resident crystallographer aboard, so those aboard could only speculate as to the cortentum's origin, but most seemed to agree that stellar gas had deposited directly into the crystal they had found, then becoming embedded into the asteroids they were found in today. Regardless of their origin, however, Jacob was heartened to see that the 43rd Fleet hadn't gone all this way on a wild goose chase.

U.S.S. Fenrir
NCC-82063
Flagship

"We are strange, for we know ourselves."

Location: Obsidian

Warp Factor: Negligible - Impulse

The timing of Deep Space 12's claim confirmation couldn't have been better - the Solstice arrived, quickly followed by the construction fleet intended for the Type One Mining Station Jacob had ordered. Bella sent the scan information they had collected on the monocrystal to the vessel that seemed to be coordinating things, which promptly went about building the mining station as close to a focal point for the resource as could be - the Solstice transferred the Station Commander, a man called Seth Kovacs, who was an old friend of Captain McCloud's; he had a good rapport with Captain Samuel Osterman, the commander of the Solstice, which was what had netted him this assignment in the first place. It might take a while, but things were in motion for the Obsidian system . . .

U.S.S. Fenrir
NCC-82063
Flagship

"We are strange, for we know ourselves."

Location: Obsidian

Warp Factor: 8.5/Negligible - Impulse

Satisfied that the Obsidian system was adequately defended (O'Donnell held no illusions as to the torpedo power of the Mythic - it could probably take out the Fenrir within two or three barrages, at the most), O'Donnell sent a quick message to Akumu, informing him of a desire to get moving - O'Donnell had, after hearing quite a few stories about successful salvage operations to the Typhus Debris Field, decided to give the place a looking over, as it were. After all, one never knew what might come in handy. After the message was confirmed sent, the Fenrir came about, reaching the edge of the Obsidian system before jumping to warp, accelerating to warp 8.5 quickly.

Toko watched as the Ferir winked away and ordered the Mythic to make a looping patrol through the system, an elongated oval that went around all six construction zones.

Near Planet Obsidian, three orbiting structures were being built. One was the 1/3rd finished Chulak station, a class 2 mining platform that would take twice as long to complete as anything else in the system. Flanking it was a pair of orbiting phaser turrets, PT1 and PT2. The first was just over 2/3rds completed while the other had just started.

As the Mythic made her way to the other end of the patrol she passed the other three construction zones, the Class 1 Mining station Androzani and its bodyguards, PT3 and PT4, both just begining construction. Androzani Station itself was also 2/3rds competed having started at the same time as PT1.

Smiling to himself he informed his XO that he was ending his watch and was heading to his quarters. Commander Martinez wished him a good night and promised to inform him of any developments.