On November 22, 2676 CE, the planetoid designated Ex-77 was officially founded and put into service. Known colloquially as Gilded Quarry due to its glittering surface, it quickly became a marvel of the Terran golden age and the beating heart of the sector’s economy. Here, non-sentient drones tirelessly stripped the crust of rare osmium and conductive crystals, vital materials for the construction of Tier 6 Spike Drives.
For centuries, Gilded Quarry operated flawlessly, a fully automated excavation world. However, this era of prosperity was brought to an abrupt end in 3200 CE with the catastrophic event known as The Silence. During this period, the planet’s connection to the central Terran oversight networks was severed without warning.
Critically, Gilded Quarry’s automated atmospheric scrubbers, reliant on constant updates from the central grid, shut down. Within weeks, the three million human oversight crew across the Ioles system suffocated as the vital terraforming infrastructure collapsed. Gilded Quarry was transformed from a bustling industrial hub into a silent, glittering tomb, its automated machineries frozen mid-motion.
For a thousand long years, from 3200 CE to approximately 4200 CE, Gilded Quarry remained a mausoleum. The mummified remains of the ancient Terran crew lay beside their defunct machines, preserved by the vacuum and the dry, thin atmosphere. This state of suspended animation continued until its rediscovery.
Roughly 50 years ago, around 4200 CE, the Red Sun Dominion's expansion fleet, under the command of the ruthlessly ambitious Voss family, rediscovered the Ioles system. They found Gilded Quarry’s vast infrastructure largely intact, a testament to its original Terran engineering. Supreme Chancellor Elara Voss quickly decreed the annexation of the entire system, seeing the immense potential in the preserved world.
Though the Dominion lacked the knowledge to reactivate the full pre-Sundering automation, they possessed an abundance of manpower. Gilded Quarry was violently reopened, not with drones, but with the "Harvested"—political dissidents, prisoners of war, and citizens from conquered worlds, all stripped of their rights. These enslaved individuals now toil in the planet's mines.
Today, Gilded Quarry serves as the raw material engine for the Dominion's relentless war machine. It feeds the orbital shipyards of the Shattered Halo in the greater Ioles system, fueling their conquest of the Spiral. The ancient, frozen mining drones still stand like silent, towering statues in the lower levels, starkly contrasting with the flesh and blood slaves who now wield pickaxes and plasma cutters in their shadows.
The planet is a harsh monument to the Dominion's brutal philosophy: "the past is fuel for the future." Currently, Gilded Quarry operates under conditions of Industrial Overdrive and Martial Law, its wealth continually stripped to build the fleets that will expand the Dominion's dominion.
