Report: Investigation into Badlands Object Jun-34779 IVb - Bala ie' Centaur

[ShadowDragon8685]

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SUBMITTED: Stardate: 96419.44

FILED BY: Bala ie' Centaur

SECURITY: Level 1 - Open

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LOCATION: Badlands Object Jun-34779 IVb
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MISSION: Investigation into reports of anomalous activity reported by Dominion forces.
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OUTCOME: Dominion forces reported anomalous activity in the Badlands and requested Starfleet investigate. An abandoned Maquis base leftover from the Cardassian/Jem'hadar-Maquis conflict was discovered, having been recently scavenged from.
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KEY PERSONNEL:

First Talso'Eklat
Vorta Kalris
Captain Phill'min Ijhlab
Captain Mhai t'Jhaelaa
Captain Jenn Descombes
Captain Bala ie' Centaur

​NARRATIVE: The Dominion, represented by First Talso'Eklat and Vorta Kalris, called an impromptu meeting on Deep Space Nine, disclosing that, per request by the Alliance, the Jem'hadar had been conducting long-range patrols in the Badlands.

First Talso'Eklat reported that his vessel had observed long-range emissions consistent with hand weapon fire, but took no action at that time, completing their patrol and returning to DS9 to inform the Alliance, citing that he had been expressly forbidden from initiating action on his own initiative inside the Federation.

Four starfleet vessels including my own responded, and we discovered an abandoned space habitat anchored onto a small rocky moon orbiting a Saturnine gas giant, orbiting an F-Type main-sequence stellar object, Badlands Object Jun-34779. As the giant is the fourth major object orbiting the planet and the moon in question is the second notable object orbiting that gas giant, this derelict installation is located on Badlands Object Jun-34779 IVb.

The installation on Badlands Object Jun-34779 IVb ws identified by the Dominion forces as once having been a Maquis resource fabrications center, purged by the Dominion during the combined Cardassian-Jem'hadar offensive against the Maquis. The evidence of Polaron weapons fire from five decades ago was still in evidence.

The cause for our immediate concern was weapons fire from more recently, and traces of high-energy discharge indicated phasers set well above a killing setting. Investigating, I discovered, in an elevated area secluded from the main production floor, evidence of where a massive piece of infrastructure had been removed from the decks, severed carefully with phasers tuned for cutting work. From the hookups left raggedly cut in the salvage site, I was able to determine that the removed infrastructure was an industrial replicator. Some life was brought back to some nearby LCARS panels and determined that this was in face the case; all of which is consistent with this reportedly being a Maquis supply base.

Conclusion: A salvage operation took place approximately one Earth week before our arrival. The salvage team were competent technical personnel but not professional salvagers. It is likely that they either knew or reasonably suspected that an industrial replicator had been left in-situ, as it does not appear they lingered very long or spent any time salvaging other materials or equipment. They arrived, salvaged the replicator, and left.



I requested and required a thorough survey of the nearby objects, and expanded that a survey of the solar system. Major details are as follows:

Badlands Object Jun-34779 is an F-Type main-sequence stellar object, a normal yellow-white dwarf of approximately 1.1 Solar masses. Its percieved luminosity from interstellar space in the Badlands is significantly less than it would be elsewhere owing to the Badlands' dense nebular gasses. It provides satisfactory heat and illumination to the bodies orbiting it.

Jun-34779 I is a a Cthonian ball of rock and metal, in a retrograde orbit with an orbital peroid of just 9 days. Analysis indicates that this scorched ball of rock shows all the hallmarks of having been a so-called "Hot Jupiter" gas giant, whose gas vanished, presumably stripped away. This is slightly anomalous, as the star system seems too young for this process to have occurred. Evidence indicates that the Maquis had established a large-scale solar-powered industrial cyclotron for the purpose of fabricating antideuterium for starship fuel. This installation was obliterated by the Jem'hadar. Its magnetic interactions with the primary causes frequent solar flares.

Jun-34779 II appears to be a ball of water over rock, orbiting the primary at approximately 1au, with an orbital peroid of approximately 360 Earth days. This is not a great candidate for habitation; scans indicate no life forms may be detected, with an atmosphere consisting primarily of helium and nitrogen, and the oceans are hypoxic, lacking in diffused oxygen. The gravitational pull here is .9g. It is a viable source of water and derivatives, including deuterium, and surface evidence indicates that at one point the Maquis had an automated station here to refine deuterium for use as starship fuel. The Jem'hadar ignored this installation, and it appears to have fallen victim to weather in the interim.

Jun-34779 III is a relatively ordinary Jovian gas giant. It has a number of moons which are notable for a more comprehensive astrometric report, but nothing important in overview. It has an orbital period of approximately 4,250 Earth days.

Jun-34779 IV is a Saturnine gas giant with a comprehensive and striking ring system, and an orbital period of approximately 11,000 Earth days. It is *very* similar to Saturn in the Sol system.

Jun-34779 IVb is the moon on which the facility established by the Maquis was constructed; an airless ball of various minerals and silicates, it has very little gravitational pull (0.02g; microgravity) and is quite well-sheltered from meteorites by the giant it orbits and the larger moon two orbits out from itself. The body itself is largely unremarkable, save for the installation upon it.

Jun-34779 IVd is a very exciting planet, much like my homeworld, or Titan in the Sol system. Its atmosphere is primarily nitrogen, with methane and ethane in abundance; much like Titan it has a very dense atmosphere and a very low surface gravity, with an active methane cycle. No evidence was detected of life on Jun-34779 IVd, and several probes were dispatched to check.

Jun-34779 V is an ice giant, very similar to Neptune in the Sol system in composition, with an orbital period of approximately 30,900 Earth days.

Jun-34779 Va is a most remarkable find; a ball of ice and mineral slush, but some of that mineral slush is dilithium. This dilithium is in the form of dust, and it would have been noted but brushed off as unimportant fifty years ago, but advances in modern dilithium-dust synthesis into usable crystals makes this a viable, is unspectacular, source of dilithium.

Jun-34779 VI is another Neptunian ice giant, with an orbital peroid of approximately 58,000 Earth days. It notably has no moons, but a stunning ring system.


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RECOMMENDATION: Regarding the salvage: No action should be taken. The salvage operation is entirely legal, as the installation had lied abandoned for fifty years and the original inhabitants were all killed in warfare, and as such cannot contest the claim.



Regarding the installation and solar system, I recommend that the Federation repair and reoccupy the facility, bringing it up to modern standards. The resources of this system, combined with its location in the Badlands, make it quite potentially useful as a repair and resupply depot; everything one would need to build a Starship is (theoretically) present in this system, and a resupply base here would be useful, particularly for long-ranging Badlands patrols and trade missions.
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OOC: