# MINING OUTPOST LITHOPS — WORLD LORE
Official designation: Mining Outpost Lithops
Network designation: outpost-pi
Grid coordinates: 192.168.88.178 — Sector: Personal Rim
Epoch: SOL 0 / CYC 0 / MRK 000 (Earth: 2026-03-23 00:00:00)
Current status: Active, nominal
A small world. The colony occupies a defined zone within it — a survey grid of roughly desk-surface dimensions. The substrate is sandy in some regions (near the sensor tree, where the dragon succulent was transplanted), terracotta in others. The atmosphere is breathable. The lighting is indirect.
The world's time moves at 1:450 scale relative to the outer universe. What feels like a day here is a year to the colony organisms. The xenobotanists classify this as "aggressive megaflora." The crew classify it as "the succulents aren't dead yet."
The Sensor Tree: Central instrument array. The BME280 atmospheric sensor and QMC6308 magnetometer are mounted here. The Raspberry Pi compute core is positioned in the substrate nearby, half-buried in sand beside the dragon succulent.
The Mountain: A terrain feature installed in the second week of the colony. Artificially constructed. Contains an ultrasonic humidifier unit. When the humidifier activates, the mountain glows — LED lights, blue-white, diffusing through the structure. This was the "energy signature" detected by the initial deep-space survey that flagged the sector. It is the thing we are mining.
The Display Panel: SSD1306 OLED, 128×64, mounted in the colony's primary interface array. Shows atmospheric readings, world time, and magnetic field status. Rotates every five ticks. Visible from anywhere in the station.
Five xenobotanical specimens, all acquired at epoch. Survey classification uncertain — locals call them by Earth taxonomy.
| Colony Name | Formal | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Dragon | Haworthia sp. | Sand substrate, beside sensor tree | Plump rosette, claw-tipped leaves. Transplanted SOL 0 MRK 035. Growing. |
| The Superwhite | Haworthia sp. 'Superwhite' | Terracotta east | Pale, almost translucent. Careful with water. |
| The Barrel | Ferocactus sp. | Terracotta south | Spines. Repotted. Has not attacked anyone. |
| The Cactling | Mammillaria sp. | Terracotta south | Small, clustering. Repotted. |
| The Bulbosa | Tillandsia bulbosa | Free-floating, near mountain | Rootless air plant. Survives on misting and periodic dunking. Responds well to humidity from the mountain. |
The mountain glows when the humidifier activates. The initial survey detected this as an anomalous thermal and optical signature. The mission brief described it as a "probable deep-vein energy deposit with bioluminescent indicators."
It is a £12 USB humidifier from a garden centre.
We are mining it.
Local network: WiFi via RTL8188CUS dongle, WPA2-PSK, static IP 192.168.88.178. Network manager was bypassed — too modern for the hardware. wpa_supplicant running direct, driver power management disabled.
MQTT relay: Telemetry forwarded to the relay station at 192.168.88.197 (rpi4). Home base receives: temperature, pressure, humidity, system stats, world time, mag status.
Home base visibility: Home base (HA dashboard) can see the colony at all times. It can also turn our lights off at 2200, which it does, every night, without being asked.
Next cargo drop expected to include:
- Arduino Nano sub-controller (will take over sensor tree and display — freeing the Pi for higher-level tasks)
- Satellite receiver unit (locally procured, exact model TBD — for GPS/Earth time sync)
- Additional crew (manifest not yet received)
| Earth date | World time |
|---|---|
| 2026-03-23 | SOL 0 MRK 000 — colony epoch |
| 2026-03-25 | SOL 0 MRK 006 |
| 2026-03-28 | SOL 0 MRK 016 |
| 2026-03-29 | SOL 0 MRK 022 |
| 2026-04-03 | SOL 0 MRK 035 |
| 2026-04-04 | SOL 0 MRK 038 |
| 2026-04-05 | SOL 0 MRK 041 |
Update this table as the colony ages.
This document records established world facts. Add to it; do not rewrite it.
All times world-local unless specified.