Planet Trinity, surrounded by a blanket of corroding junk, the lifeless remainder of the battles fought in her orbit in the decades past, is where I call home. Or at least that's where I spent most of my youth, just mom and me, waiting for those rare days when my dad returned from this or that deep-space mining facility on leave.



My father mined asteroids for the Miner's Guid just as his father and his father before him. It seems my destiny was already decided before I was even born. In fact I was born off-world, in the cargo bay of a dirty freighter as my mom was returning home from a visit to the remote mining facility my father was working.

Of course, that was before he was killed during the first Gemini War. Mining facilities were routinely targeted in an effort to destroy the supply lines of metal ores and minerals necessary for starship construction. My father and 15 other miners were sitting ducks when the Empire fleet attacked. In those days mining ships were less armored and barely sported weapons other than mining beams. It ain't that way no more.

My friends, all two of them, call me "The Barren", like "baron" only not, on account that I spend most of my days out among the barren asteroid fields spread throughout the Gemini System. It suits me I guess. There's nothing but me and my girl ... my ship... the "Heart of Stone", so named only 'cause "Stone Cold" was already registered, working the desolate rock fields for the highest bidder.

Hopefully the information in this guide will help you get a feel for mining in the Gemini System, and provide you with a better understanding of the diversity of rocks that populate the vast expanses of the solar system. I hope you forgive the cliche, but "Rock on dude!"

Most folks might start a greenhorn off slow and easy, but I figure many readers will close the book before finishing the first chapter, so to speak, therefore best to start with the most important stuff first. There's plenty of time to talk about the tame stuff later.

Scattered through the Holger Cross region these oft-times radioactive asteroids should not be the first choice for a novice miner. Due to the heavy concentrations of uranium and plutonium embedded within the rock, cracking these glowing boulders can result in radioactive damage to your hull. This is one type of asteroid I wouldn't take for granite! Ha ha.

If you plan to mine in this region for any length of time it makes sense to aquire a license at the Trier or Dosier Station, which grants the owner free hull repair. You might also consider increasing the sheilding around your cargo bay, unless of course you weren't interested in having kids one day.



This is the typical spread of mineral this type of asteroid yields.

Found in the aptly named "Land of Despair" region these cold, steel blue rocks stand as silent sentinels in the lonely stretches of space. They almost appear transparent but they are not, and despite their nickname, they contain no ice, but are rather solid rock.



You can expect to fill your cargo hold with the following types of minerals when mining these rocks.

In the far reaches of the Aristes Belt, surrounding the Rotterdam Naval Yard, giant blocks of blue titanium, drift aimlessly through space silently watching the centuries fade into oblvion. Bring your top-notch mining tools if you plan on coaxing these boulders to give up their treasures.



Titanium, used for starship hulls and other armor and plating, won't fetch huge sums, but since these rocks are solid ore you won't be filling your cargo space with ice and carbon either.

Closer to my own neck of the woods you'll find that the "divide" is home to a large collection of leftover chunks of creation affectionately known as "dirty snowballs". This type of asteroids is usually nothing more than densly packed ice interspursed and crusted with minute quantities of minerals. This makes them easy to mine without the use of expensive borehole torpedos, but also makes the effort less profitable. Still arriving at a station or planet with something is better than dead heading it with nothing. Empty cargo holds don't pay the bills!



Depending on your proximity to a station and based on how much cargo space your vessel has, you may find it more profitable to destroy the ice to make room for the more expensive minerals. The list below illustrates what a typical haul from mining in this area will be.

Related in appearance to the "dirty snowball", but appearance can be deceiving as they say. This asteroid is solid rock that requires diligence to obtain the valueable ores within. Borehole torpedos work well with a tight cluster of stones for maximum yield.

Brown Boulders can be found in and around the Hornst area, with the Freiburg Station being the nearest port. If you stop into to trade or to make ship repairs and you meet a pretty little thing at J's Tavern, don't mention me. She's got the temper of an Iolian Saber Cat and claws to match!



As you can see there is little variation in the ores that can be extracted from the Brown Boulder, but there is no wasted cargo space with the likes of ice or carbon when mining in this sector. If you were to take this asteroid for granite you'd be spot on!

On the outskits of Planet Iolia, in the area of Talgarno, out beyond the Stillwater Station, is just one place you will find these oversized glowing embers.



Ignited in the eons past when the newly forming planet exploded under the vast pressure of gravity and condensing gas, the spidery veins of coal running through these asteroids was ignited, but in the vaccum of space there is no oxygen to feed the smoldering coal. The end results is rocks filled with carbon, silicon and diamonds that will slowly burn until their fuel source is exhausted.

Slithering through the cosmos like a snake in the grass, the asteroid belt in the Serpent region is home to the grey nuggets of left over ores from the early planetary formations. Depending on the day, this is a relatively peaceful place to spend time mining. Nearby Clearmont and Troy Stations make good outfitting stops as warranted.



General spread of minerals and ores you can expect from the "Grey Nugget" is shown below.

In the hostile space around the Necalli zone, thousands of asteriods glow faintly in the bright light of Gemini's binary suns, like a swarm of fireflies wafting on the cool breeze over a wildflower meadow. Some folks even swear these electric blue slabs of stone hum like high voltage zipping along a power line. I've never heard 'em myself, but then again it's hard to hear much of anything over the roar of my railguns making me money!



If you're ever in need of a diamond for some jewelry and you're a cheap S.O.B. then this area is where you can pick some up nearly for free, provided you got the balls and the shields to match. Course, you still need to pay a jeweler to cut and polish anything you mine.

Nestled between the planet Nyx and the planet Eanakai, herded into place by their gravitational fields, like sheep gathered by a dog, lie a plethora of sold gold asteroids. Yes! There's gold in them thar' asteroids!

The discovery of these precious rocks spawned the galatic gold rush of the 31st century. Now, all that remains are smaller-sized slabs, with lower yields, yet a gold digger can still earn a pretty penny mining here. Even though gold is no longer scarce, and thus not worth as much as in the past, it remains a valueable ore for technology applications. Keep in mind pirates a' plenty also find an unwary ship easy pickings in these parts.



"Not everything that glitters is gold", as the ol' saying goes, except in this case it is.

The "Buster Brown" asteroids have the luster of wet leather, and they're just as tough as a pair of steel-toed boots. It takes more time to mine and you'll obtain less ore with these tough-skinned stones. However, if a contract calls for loads of silver or aluminum, this is as good a place to get it as any other.

Hyrum Station, in the vicinity of the Fenicia, is just about the only friendly place in the sector, so make sure you have better armor and bigger guns than the other guy!



Not exactly high-priced items here, but if you're in the area, it might be worth a look.

When you first glimpse these asteroids from afar, glowing orange against the grayish nebula beyond, they appear like specks of red hot ash rising skyward on the heat emitted by the fire. For me it brought flasbacks of a roaring campfire on that chilly night out in the dark forest when I was in the Cosmic Cadets. I spent the evening singing silly ditties with friends, toasting hot dogs and marshmallows, and staring up into the star-studded night sky wishing for my chance to sail the solar winds.

Found in the outer reaches of Planet Hogasha, near sector 112, is the region known as the "Needle", This is where you will find the thousands of ember like asteroids. The tellurium on the surface of the rock is reflective giving it a wet sheen, while the exposed magnesium slowly burns to produce the ember effect, or so I've been told.



Typical combination of elements and minerals in these rocks is outlined below.

The aptly named Crysalys region is home to countless shiny blue, glass-like crystaline asteroids, that dance across the expanse of space like ballerinas in a performance of Swan Lake, which is a famous ballet from planet Earth in the Sol System. They sparkle and glimmer as they twirl and whirl against the backdrop of stars. They are almost too beautiful to destroy... almost.

Pilots should be warned though. In the course of mining your standard asteroids, receiving some dents or scratches from the occassional side-swipe or errant rock comes with the territory, but fail to pay attention to your surroundings here and you may find yourself impaled through the cockpit window by one of the sharp protusions. Stay focused.



Along with the standard goodies these beauties are the only known source of pure crystal, used heavily in superconductive materials, beam weapons and the like. You can make some serious money in a short amount of time with the proper equipment and due diligence.

If your cargo hold is on the smaller side, and you're more than a stone's throw from a station or outpost, it may be worth destorying any flourine to make room for crystal.



If you've got the guts, and you can pull it off, you can score a big haul by capturing a starship from your friendly, neighborhood pirate, and then while grappled to it, transfer as much cargo as you can to your "mule", allowing you to refill your hold with more crystal! Yee doggie!

Congregating in the Seraphin area on the leeward side of planet Hogosha are the plain Jane, no nonsense asteroids. Sort of the working man of the asteroid community. Hopscotched pattern of browns and greys, these hulking brutes dutifully wait to be mined. These boulders seem to scream "hit me with your best shot!"



Flourine and Iron are the only valueable elements to be had in this rock.

These large gray monoliths appear to have blue and silver tattoos etched on their surface.



Like the so called "glass cystal" asteroid that is a source of crystal, these "shard stones" are the only source of shard, which is a very valueable commodity in the Gemini System. You will find a variety of other elments mixed in the body of these stones, as shown below:

These forgotten clumps of florescent rocks float freely in the Fjord, frolicing in the fading light of the far away suns. Running along the eastern edge of the solar system like a stone wall, these flourine clusters forego the glamor of other asteroids. There are almost as many remote mining facilities in this area as there are asteroids.



These asteroids are composed of flourine and carbon, with trace amounts of diamond thrown in, probably left over from the main object they split apart from.

If you've ever had the misfortune of being marrooned in the Mossy Rock marshes of planet Fairuz, then you'll be right at home in the green mists of the nebula surrounding the Yxaril Wasteland Depot. Thicker than any swamp gas though, the nebula gases force everything in the visible spectrum to be hued green, permanently disguising the true color of the basic asteroids that you will find littering the Perimeter and Wedge areas.

Not many folks remember if the massive cloud of green, ionized gas existed before the Yxaril Waste Depot was built in the area, or if the recycling processes performed at the humongous junkyard created the nebula. I reckon the truth of the matter is moot now as what's done is done.



I guess a word of caution is in order. There a many unseen dangers hidden within a nebula that the novice miner should be aware of: gas pockets. A single spark thrown by scraping a rock with your ship, or by an uncalibrate laser beam can engulf your entire ship, and any other ships or stations unluckly enough to be nearby, in a fiery ball of super-heat gas, reducing everything within to slag, or worse. I'm sure you'll be fine...

I apologize for making light of someone's death, and I'm not trying to be cavalier, but this type of accident by a greenhorn makes 'em a "Blue-Eyed Pilot". So-called, becasue one eye blew this way and one eye blew that way! My apologies to their families for any offense given.

A hodge podge of ores, minerals and elements can be collected from these basic behemoths.

If you don't mind me diverting from the discussion of asteroids, I can give you a little history on the now infamous Yxaril Wasteland Depot. Man-made objects, affectionately referred to as "space junk", was a growing problem in the years before the wars, with left over booster rockets, dead satellites, failed solar-panel arrays, and much more, littering the orbits of most, if not all, of the system's planets. However, it was not nearly to the scale that it was after the wars.

As the planets orbited the suns, their orbits often intersected with debris fields from large battles and with each pass more and more debris was captured by the planet's gravitational field, which caused the space junk to be trapped in orbit or to crash into the planet. Fiery chunks of metal, oft time the size of a small house, crashed in both populated and unpopulated areas, often times impacting pristine environments; polluting them with oils, gas, and even nuclear fuel isotopes.

The now defunct Gemini Planetary Council (GPC) decided to create and enormous recycling facility in the least populated area of space in the Gemini System, where the hulking souvenirs of the previous wars would be processed, melted down, decomposed, detoxified, reclaimed, and so forth. An attempt to turn the evils of the wars into good for the populace of the Gemini System.

It took years of salvage vessels, Military tugs, garbage scows and the like, towing tremendous amounts of scrap metal and waste from across the solar system to the floating junkyards of the Depot, to even make a dent. Even today there are several private companies and governmental agencies still tasked with the monumental effort of cleaning the unwanted space junk "boneyards".

Speaking of boneyards, that was one of the unexpected realities encountered in the effort. The cold, dead, oxygen-free reaches of space meant the bodies of dead crew members that were not incinerated, obliterated, vaporized or flung into outer space were still trapped within their metal coffins.

Recovering the bodies of the fallen from all sides was a grizzly task that scarred some of the workers for life. A galactic memorial, museum and cemetery was established on planet Korkyra and a day of remembrance was enacted into law. The semi-intact hull of the Dreadnaught Nagasaki is enshrined there as a reminder.

A different type of "asteroid" can be found literally littering the Gemini System. This man-made "space junk" can be found in large debris fields left over from the massive battles of the Gemini Wars. Salvaging wreckage can be a risky business as manuevering too close to the jagged chucks of metal can gouge gaping holes in the hull of all but the most heavily armored ships.



Space junk is more tedious to collect valueables from, but there is a wider range of items that can be salvaged from the wreckage. The list below is partial but shows the plethora of items that can be obtained with some patience. Of course, the longer you are out in the open the more risk that pirates will take notice of your activity. Greater risk leads to greater reward though.

Just the other day I took a young lass to that fancy new restaurant on the third moon of planet Corrion. It was a regular Who's Who of the rich elites, but I still managed to get us a table. I know a guy who knows a guy. Anyway, the food was really out of this world, but there was no atmosphere!

Ha, ha, that joke never gets old I tell ya.

Nonetheless, I hope that you enjoyed this brief tour of the asteroids around the Gemini System. This guide just scratches the surface, if you will, of the various asteroids that await you in the wilds of our solar system. Certain asteroids are unique to a given area while others are scattered around and can be mined in multiple areas. If you learn something of value that I failed to mention please be sure to send me a message via the Global Galatic G-Mail system. I'd love to hear from you.

Best of luck friend,

The Barren