Exosol

Exosol is a desert moon, a bit like Helios Retreat, but where Helios Retreat looks much like an Earth desert, Exosol is absolutely alien. The vast and shifting dunes are made of red sand that tinkles and chimes as the ever-present wind blows it and reshapes the sinuous dunes. The ocean of red sparkling sand is broken here and there by black granite mountains and hills. Some of the mountains are so tall that they’re always visible, but the hills sometimes disappear beneath the waves of shifting sands.

Some Toba live and work in the black granite mountains, where small scale mining operations dig and blast rock, crush it, and sift out deep purple gemstones, which are treasured on Quantum Prime and the various moons for their beauty when set into jewelry. Most Toba in these mining communities return to Quantum Prime once their contracts are up, eager to be back among the hustle and bustle of the capital…but a very small number find the tinkling red sands and the austere black mountains to be calming and choose to build small homes on the black mountains, far up the slopes, where they’ll never be covered by the shifting sands.

The shortest path between two points is a straight line, and if there’s a Cargo Ship sitting in between those two points, then Rocket Dog logic says that racing right through the ship is a winning move! The path takes Rocket Dogs into the shadow of the ship, under the cantilevered bridge, then between the massive landing gear, up a ramp through the open airlock, then thundering down the steel grate floor of the central corridor. Crew members dodge to one side or the other to clear the path, which leads into a massive cargo hold. What cargo is being loaded in this ship? Rare black gemstones? Exotic mineral sands? There’s no time to stop and stare - the path leads through the cargo hold, out a door, into the rear corridor, and down another ramp to the ground. Watch out for the engines as you clear the area - the Cargo Ship might launch at any moment!

While most of Exosol is covered by deep red desert, several black granite mountains stick up above the ocean of sand. The Mountain Top Quarry sits near the top of one of these mountains. Giant yellow earth moving machines pivot their arms to grind and tear at the exposed rock, and then clink forward to bring fresh stone within their reach. The shattered rock is collected from the bases of the black cliff faces and heaped onto conveyor belts that ferry it backwards, to the giant rock crushers which pulverize it and sift the remains, looking for the elusive purple gemstones.

A Rocket Dog passing through the quarry may be able to see a giant Tungsten Torch cargo ship rotate its engine housings to prepare for a soft landing, where it will then either disgorge equipment…or load new treasures, to be transported back to Quantum Prime!

On the desert moon of Exosol there are two types of gemstones. The purple ones are blasted out of solid rock, but the black stones, not native to the Aluza System, are even harder to find. Located deep beneath the oceans of red tinkling sand, the rarest black gemstones are the remnants of a massive meteorite storm that swept through the system eons ago.

Toba mining ships squat on the surface, their cargo ramps open, and equipment spilling out and around. Near the ships the large force field generators, connected to the ships with thick cables, hum and thrum as they do their work: lifting mountains of sand out of the desert, and up in the air.

“Rainbows” of the bright red sand, lifted by the forcefield generators, arc overhead and splash down far from the sand mines, forming new flowing hills…which will soon be whipped by the wind into the dunes that cover most of the moon.

Rocket Dogs who can spare a second to glance at the bottom of the sand mine may be lucky enough to spy a rare black gemstone as it emerges from the overburden - but they don’t have time to stop, the race is on!