[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by doctorevilbrain

What do wizards have to do with science fiction? Why can't we keep this in science fiction? Why does everything have to turn into the same old fantasy garbage? I'm so sick of it.

I agree with the sentiment, though I probably wouldn't have used this wording.

I think there's room for fantasy-inspired sci-fi setting seeds, but magic should be replaced by psionics in those settings. (*coughortheforcecough*)



But getting back on target:

Ukufinyelela Okude (Zulu for "The Far Reaches") is a sednoid in the Sigma Draconis system which is noted for being a source of a chemical that is easily and cheaply refined into fuel, though the fuel itself tends to wreak havoc on ship engines and reactors that use it for sustained periods. However, the chemical tends to explode at high temperatures; thanks to an incident several years back, Ukufinyelela Okude now has a major crater reaching down into the middle mantle, and a new ring composed of rock and ices the explosion knocked into orbit - yeah, it was that big an explosion.

Mining now takes place in the asteroid ring surrounding the sednoid; the usual mining base has about a hundred miners and three times that many drone robots, using low-tech mining tools such as jackhammers and diamond-tipped drills rather than the plasma cutters most other mining facilities use.

However, the largest mining station has gone silent. What happened?