Log #53 – Mixed mining on Arial

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Mining on Arial, with the Prospector and by hand. The conditions were tough.


The hand-mined crystals brought in a lot of money. But I did not want to go back to a cave full of ghosts. I needed the sky and the stars above me. So I equipped my old Prospector with a new scanner to search on the surface of Moons. I decided to fly to the moon Arial. If I did not find any crystals, I could mine Bexalite. That also brought a lot of money.

I searched for a while until I found the first rock with Bexalite. I only took with me what had a high concentration of Bexalite.

Finally I also found the first stones with crystals. I landed, got out, and got to work with the multitool. It was not long before I realized that spending a long time outdoors was not a good idea. The heat crept through my suit. Arial was hell. I felt the suit was burning on my skin. It started to hurt. I broke off and got back into the ship.

Back in the ship, I treated myself with a burn ointment. I had to change my plan. I could not mine the stones this way. At the next stone I landed so that the stone was in the shadow of the ship. That was better. It was still unbearably hot, but I did not feel like I was burning.

I decided to wait for the night. With something to eat, I made myself comfortable on the bunk.

At dusk I started my search again. I searched all night long. I found no stones with crystals and only a few Bexalite.

At dawn I finally found some crystals. Stanton was still below the horizon. The temperatures were ok. So mining was pleasant.

I flew further towards the night side of the moon. But I was not fast enough. When I found the next crystals, the star of Stanton came straight over a mountain range.

I hurried. Every second it got hotter. This time I did not want to give up. I felt my legs getting hot. The heat climbed up my back. The energy level in the stone rose. The heat rose faster. It was a race. The first drops of sweat formed on my forehead. I was not on the winner’s street.

Then a bang. The stone broke and I had the crystals in my hand. I quickly collected them.

I returned to the ship in the increasing light of the ember. The conditions on Arial were tough, for man and material. I had the first failures with my scanner.

When the ore bags from the Prospector were full, I returned to Hurston. In Loreville I sold the ores. The profit was quite good. But I also had to do some repairs at the ship and my equipment.