Chromeworks

[NobodiesPoet]

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Chromeworks: Station Log
Commander Alex Drake
17/1/835

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It’s been a productive first few weeks since our fleet arrived in the Galileo system. Project Beach was a success; we escorted the Hercules and a wealth of construction materials into position. The base deployment was almost textbook. While we had accounted for communication interference from the dark matter clouds, our instruments still required fine-tuning upon deployment. Resolving this took 56 hours.

Shortly after bringing the communications equipment online, we received a transmission from Bristol Constructions. I had been told to expect this, and the message was a welcome one. Esme Blake proved reasonable to deal with, and I foresee good relations with the Bristol faction in the future.

Since deployment, we’ve constructed two cargo expansions and a platinum refinery. Work is underway on additional modules to bring our operations fully online. Dr. Lin is close to having her lab running at full capacity. Our research on dark matter-platinum interactions shows great promise, and the unique conditions in Galileo are ripe for testing our hypotheses.

I have to admit, I like how Ecliptica runs things out here—minimal oversight, ample funding, and expert support if we run into trouble. Giving a group of physicists a large hill (maybe a small mountain) of credits and a lab far from prying eyes? It’s not hard to see how we’ve attracted so much talent. If our work bears fruit, we stand to make serious credits.

That said, getting started was no small feat. Despite Ecliptica covering the entire operation’s startup costs, we still had to wade through an unbelievable amount of red tape. To Ecliptica, we’re just an external entity in which they hold a financial interest—nothing more. This meant endless meetings and paperwork. Yes, actual paper. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d used a pen before this. Ecliptica’s approach is unconventional, but in hindsight, all the initial hassle was worth it for the independence we now enjoy.

I recently spent two days shadowing Dr. Lin to gain a deeper understanding of her research. The science excites me. As a physicist, curiosity is in my nature. Dr. Lin is brilliant—her ability to explain concepts far beyond human imagination in a way that feels tangible is remarkable. During those two days, I gained insights beyond the fundamentals I’d reviewed before taking command. The hypothesized interactions between dark matter and platinum could be groundbreaking, and the [REDACTED]. I’m trying to temper expectations, but thinking about the possibilities makes it hard to stay composed, especially when listening to Dr. Lin’s enthusiastic pitch.

As Chromeworks has scaled up, so has our need for larger cargo deliveries. Initially, we managed logistics internally, but yesterday we made the call to outsource a significant portion of this to a third party. Voss quickly shortlisted options, and we settled on Universal Shipping. They began fulfilling contracts promptly, and the supply line has been stable. I was careful to keep our initial contract with them short, but if their performance continues at this level, I see no reason not to extend the partnership. Meanwhile, I’ve reassigned our internal fleet to support nearby Arcetri Station. Trading platinum with Arcetri has been a reliable source of credits to keep our reserves healthy and aligns with our objective of fostering cooperation with existing entities in the system.

Security has been busy since we lifted docking restrictions. You get all sorts passing through Galileo, and Chief Zahra has had more than her share of incidents. Her focus, however, has been almost entirely on a suspicious signal Dr. Kade detected a few hours after our sensor array came online. They haven’t pinpointed the source yet, but I’m closely monitoring the situation.

On another note, there have been multiple sightings of Blood Dragons near the station. While I’m not immediately concerned—they’ve shown no overt hostility—their status as a terrorist organization understandably puts the crew on edge. There’s speculation that the suspicious signal and Blood Dragon activity might be connected, but no evidence supports this theory. The crew should know better than to jump to conclusions. I’ll raise this in our next status meeting.

Finally we received communication from our exploration fleet leader The Ecliptica, the crew are a week into a 4 month expedition to study anomalies that have appeared in at least two systems that we know of, the samples I saw in the communication were fascinating, the R&D team have already poured over the data and are talking about using it to upgrade our printers, if true this could mean important upgrades for the station in the not too distant future.

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[08:45:15] Disconnecting from data feed...
[08:45:20] [Session Terminated]