Thallium Refining Colony TC-AE265

TC-AE265 is an Aryx modular habitat in the Outer Regions of The Abyss. ThalCorp Industries (TCI) operates the base as a Thallium-203 mining colony.

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It is the main location for the Into the Abyss adventure.

Purpose and Founding

Thallium-204 (T²⁰⁴) is vital to most high-tech electronics manufacture and while there is some of it in the world, The Cataclysm made finding it exceptionally difficult, not to mention dangerous. When the first T²⁰³ deposits were found by Abyss prospectors, a gold rush started to find rich deposits that could be exploited.
TCI is by far the largest and most successful supplier of T²⁰⁴ thanks to its numerous mining colonies in the Abyss. Most of the refined material is supplied to their owner, ThalCorp Enterprises, but any excess is sold to other intressents.
TC-AE265 is the most remote registered colony in the Abyss, located in the Outer Region almost 4 000 kilometers away, taking over 60 hours to reach at regular cruise speed (35 knots). TCI prospected the site approximately 16 months ago and had the Aryx habitat built on site 11 months ago. In spite of its short operating time, TC-AE265 has already reached an output equal to three of the top producing colonies of TCI. It is an extremely profitable base for TCI.

Design and crew

TCI built TC-AE265 for extracting and refining T²⁰³ into T²⁰⁴. To fulfill this purpose, it needs a crew of 65 to operate the mining equipment. In addition to this there is need for maintenance crews, engineers, service personnel, administrative staff and nuclear technicians. The base’s life supports can handle up to 300 people and with all the crew needed, and select families, there are just about 300 people living on the base.

Construction and Value

TCI knew well before construction that TC-AE265 would be a ludicrously profitable venture. After initial prospecting the Probe Site was built to find the richest pockets and determine exact placement of the Mining Site.
Including prospecting and probing, the cost of construction for the entire habitat landed around 660 million credits of which most was transportation and construction crew salaries. Experienced divers capable of working welders and submarine construction work are expensive. The modules were transported using Nixie submarines and assembled on site.

Maps

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  TC-AE265 Blueprint

  The ThalCorp Industries Thallium-203 mining facility TC-AE265.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
17th Millir, 117 PC

Type

Orbital, Station

Population

Approximately 300

Location under

The Abyss

Included Locations

• Decontamination
• Engineering
• Habitation
• Mining Site
• Moonpool
• Nuclear Powerplant
• Probe Site
• Pump Station
• Recreations

Owner/Ruler

Ægir Gjalladoðr

Owning Organization

ThalCorp Industries

Related Plots

• Into the Abyss

Purpose
Thallium-203 extraction
Thallium-204 refining

Modules

To fulfill its purpose as a mining base it has several modules built and connected to it to allow the base to function at peak performance and handle any emergency that can occur.

Every modules is directly connected to its neighbor, with only a small corridor separating some modules from others due to necessity. The Moonpool is placed off of a cliff side to allow clearance for entering submarines.
The whole base covers and area of 600 by 1400 meters, not counting the Service Umbilical and the Nuclear Powerplant. The NPP is placed approximately two kilometers from the base, connected via the umbilical. This is to protect the base in the case of a meltdown and allow crew to evacuate the base.

Relationship with TCI

Ægir Gjalladoðr was appointed as on site chief administrator of TC-AE265. Ægir had significant experience with supervision and management, previously having worked as management chief for the TCE research division. Initially, things were sour between TC-AE265 and TCI upper management as Ægir had significant changes in mind for crew rotations and deliveries that upper management did not agree with. Eventually, TCI came around to Ægir's changes and TC-AE265 became TCI's most profitable outpost in the Abyss.

The Incident

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On the 15th of Millir the base came under attack by a local wildlife native to the rocky substrate, named Skirrka. They entered the base through Probe Site, which they rapidly converted into a hive entrance. Administration was attacked first, killing anyone in charge immediately. Security was lax and unprepared for an attack, so when the Skirrka melted their way through the doors between Recreations and Administration, they rapidly turned Recreations into a mass slaughter.
With no one in charge, the automated systems went into auto-shutdown to prevent a nuclear meltdown. The surviving crew were either found by roaming Skirrka or died of hypothermia after the heat system turned off and the base went subzero.
ThalCorp Industries sent an emergency team to find out what happened, following an automated service message sent by the base. The team found the base in shutdown and eventually uncovered the Skirrka invasion. Fearing that the creatures were intelligent enough to make use of the base equipment, Senior Nuclear Technician Brok Borgo set the reactors into manual overload and the team fled the base, narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Skirrka.
A playthrough of the above adventure can be seen here.