February 2, 8252

You let out a deep breath and stare at the overhead. It's taken forty days but you, your crew, and the Night Horse are finally ready to jump out for the Murnmore system. Azur has proven a haven of sorts with a plethora of features to decorate it's worlds and moons. You push that report aside to scan over the damage and repair report summaries.

Midshipman Huckle has, with the able assistance of automaton crew working around the clock, put right most of Night Horse's damages. He can't do anything about the paint or armor scaring but all compartments are now radiation free and hull integrity is back up to one hundred percent. He even managed to get the two irradiated eggheads back online, but at the cost of scavenging parts out of the other damaged crew androids and dipping into the supply or replacement parts. Morale still isn't back up to where it was when you set out. It was boosted by all the things that you have found in the Azur system, but ground back down by just how long it took to finish mapping out the system.

Storing the damage and repair reports away you pull up the system survey summary and start going through it. You skim over the entries for Azur the star as well as Azur 1 and Azur 1-1 and then begin to read.

INNER CAULDRON

Azur 2 is a massive gas giant possessed of immense gravitational pull, second only to Azur the star in the whole system. It sports a dual band of planetary rings, a mixture of dust and rocky debris. It also managed to snare ten moons into it's orbit. Given it's position in the inner cauldron of the system you have to think it a failed star or near-star missing only that little something extra to ignite and turn Azur into a binary system.

Azur 2-1, the first moon around Azur 2, was also the first location where you and your crew metaphorically struck pay dirt. Azur 2-1 is a full-sized moon complete with a reasonably dense atmosphere rendered toxic by its composition. It's mass readings came in persistently low for a planetary body of it's size, and it's gravity is correspondingly low. Surface temperatures are scorching hot or freezing cold, but that has resulted in some fairly unique crystalline formations. There aren't many of them, and they are a pain to extract due to planetary conditions, but they were enough to trigger the Survey Pay threshold. Each of your midshipmen got a one-time bonus of twelve credits that day added to their monthly salary of one hundred credits.

Azur 2-2 and 2-3 were lesser moons of no importance, little more then balls of rock, but Azur 2-4 came up big. A large low-gravity moon with a thin but breathable atmosphere, the only barriers to colonization are the surface temperatures and the lack of planetary water. It was also home to immense deposits of industrial metals, enough to score another one hundred and twenty eight credits each for your midshipmen.

Azur 2-5 was home to a crashed golrak seeder ship which you bombarded from orbit and called in. Royal Marine extermination teams arrived in early January and 'burned out the infestation', but you suspect that was possibly a waste. The large moon had earth-normal gravity, a thick, toxic atmosphere, no water, and extreme surface temperatures. You suspect that any golrak that made planet fall didn't adapt in time before they perished. The surface in Azur 2-5 was moderately rich in industrial metals, gems, radioactive isotopes, and other exotic compounds. Rich enough to net each of your midshipmen a further one hundred and sixty five credits.

Azur 2-6 was another bust but Azur 2-7 was both a prize and someone else problem for a later date. A moon large enough to be verging on dwarf planet status with gravity thirty percent higher then earth, a moderate atmosphere that was a caustic corrosive stew, planetary temperatures too hot to be comfortable, and lacking any water, it never the less was absolutely lousy with industrial and ornamental metals plus a hefty portion of radioactive isotopes that won each of your midshipmen three hundred and fourteen credits. One of its continents also sported a cluster of subsurface astoriel ruins. The 'space elves' had listed a standing bounty for the finding and eventual recovery of any of their lost colonies or outposts, and a portion of that tricked down to the crew that found it. It was only another twenty seven credits for each of your midshipmen but it was better then nothing.

Azur 2-8 was another interesting, and profitable, moon. Small and dense with high gravity, a corrosive atmosphere, and temperatures on the toasty side, it was soaked in radioactive isotopes and vast lumps of cyclocarbons. It netted another one hundred and twenty credits apiece for your Midshipmen.

Azur 2-9 was another worthless moonlet, but Azur 2-10 had played tentative host to a golrak seeder ship. The Royal Marines had checked the moon over before moving on to Azur 4, but you had caught the seeder ship before it could make planet fall. A vast moon boasting earth nominal gravity and a moderate atmosphere rendered toxic by virtue of being almost pure nitrogen. Surface temperatures were back up in the 'way to hot / to cold for comfort' ranges, but the surface held a wealth of valuables. Plentiful deposits of industrial metals and radioactive isotopes, significant deposits of ornamental metals and gemstones, and extensive astoriel runs including clusters of standby power signals indicating near mythical lost technology. Enough for your midshipmen to receive a further three hundred and sixteen credits each. You were tempted to make a play for the lost tech deposits, but considering that they were buried in the astoriel ruins you decided against it. Better the hard credits then a diplomatic incident for only the chance at something useful.

Azur 3 orbits just inside the edge of the primary biosphere of the Azur system, but lacks any atmosphere over it's large surface. Accordingly the surface is either baked to the point of boiling or frozen completely solid. Surface mineral riches are pretty limited with only small stockpiles of industrial metals and radioactive isotopes. But the presence of yet another major set of astoriel ruins means a reasonable payday for your midshipmen, another eighty eight credits apiece. It's moon, Azur 3-1, was little more then a ball of rock just a bit too large to be called a moonlet.

PRIMARY BIOSPHERE

The movement of Azur 2 in the inner cauldron causes some fairly nasty gravitational tides in the primary biosphere, but nothing that the computers of the Night Horse could not compensate for. They were dutifully recorded and logged for future travelers to the system before you moved onwards and outwards though the system

Azur 4 was a vast world with a reasonable atmosphere that was almost human-breathable were it not tainted with golrak spores. The resultant atmosphere tampering rendered the world too cold for comfortable habitation. The Royal Marine extermination teams were still on the world burning out a well-established golrak spore colony. They get to claim the credit (and bonus pay) for wiping it out but you and your crew get the rewards for the plentiful industrial and ornamental metals found on world. Another two hundred and thirty two credits each for your midshipmen. Azur 4-1 was an unremarkable ball of rock, though it did manage the have some fairly gnarly craters.

Azur 5 was the crown jewel in the Azur system from the standpoint of a future colony to anchor control of the system around. A large low gravity world with a thin but breathable atmosphere tainted by exotic organic compounds. It's climate could be described as a jungle world, complete with hot and perpetually humid climate and frequent rainstorms. The single mega-continent on Azur 5's surface was split down the middle by a massive plains biome flanked towards either pole by equally large swamp and jungle biomes. While your orbital scans are far from a complete index of native species on the surface you do manage to log two large and one small species of plants that are demonstrably unique, an apex predator, a species of mega-fauna, a hyper aggressive reptile, two different species of large flying predators, a quadrupedal aquatic scavenger, and three separate species of herd beasts. Mineral wealth is plentiful, with industrial and ornamental metals dominating, backed up by a scattering of more exotic crystalline compounds. The toxins in the atmosphere also prove valuable as a unique and plentiful organic compound found nowhere else, though the moon (Azur 4-1) is another let down. Your midshipmen pocket two hundred and thirty five credits each when they survey is complete.

OUTER REACHES

Azur 6 is another gas giant with a strong gravitational pull and twin rings of dust and rocky debris, a colder sibling to Azur 2. of its three moons, Azur 6-1 and 6-3 were unremarkable balls of frozen rock but Azur 6-2 held the true prize. A large moon with a thing but human breathable atmosphere and normal-ish gravity, the climate is too cold for a prolonged exposure. There are notable deposits of industrial and ornamental metals plus radioactive isotopes, enough for your midshipmen to receive another one hundred and fifty four credits each. The unexpected cache of lost tech was a welcome surprise and, with no diplomatic incident in sight, one you decided to salvage. A venerable pattern of exo-suit with integrated jump jets is recovered and swiftly stored aboard your shuttle to be transferred back to the Night Horse to be sent onwards back to Surveyor's Corps headquarters for examination. The scattered remains of a ship's external sensor array are much harder to locate despite their strong return on the orbital sensors. When Midshipman Huckle does eventually locate them he plants a set of recovery beacons so that a recovery crew can find the damn things later. He also makes note of the configuration of a few features that you can't figure out and later 'tunes up' the Night Horse's Mk8* Deep Void suite, smoothing out a persistent senor ghost that has plagued the installation ever since you came aboard.

You close out the report and bring up a calculator to run some quick math. Your own share of the Survey Pay is not much of a drop in the bucket compared to your earlier prize money awards (and the returns on investing them) means that each of your midshipmen received one thousand two hundred and fifty three credits. All told that's just shy of a full year's salary earned in a bit over a month of work.

You make a note to remind them to not spend it all in one place when you get back to port.