Navigator Tull has the final piece of the puzzle. Return to Market Director Kasim with the complete intelligence report.
Dialog
Offer
Federation pilot asking about the extractor project? Yeah, we tried. Didn't have the credits for fancy equipment like the core empires, so we improvised. Salvaged drill assembly, retrofitted power core, hand-calibrated targeting system. Took us three weeks to build, cost a tenth of what the Solarians spent. We got it into position, started extraction, and... targeting drift. The drill couldn't hold sub-millimeter lock on the pocket. Deep core gas shifts position constantly — micrometers per second, but enough to throw off our improvised rig. We'd line up, start the drill, and by the time extraction began, the pocket had moved. Forty-seven attempts. Forty-seven failures. The Rim doesn't have the tech to solve this problem. But I'll tell you something — five empires, five completely different failures. Resonance shattering. Thermal runaway. Sympathetic vibration. Dimensional instability. Targeting drift. Each one tried alone and each one failed for a unique reason. Makes you wonder what would happen if someone combined all five solutions. Head back to Haven and tell Kasim what you found. He'll know what it means.