--- ] Mission Quota Items [ ---

OVERVIEW

The following are items that the company has recently been asking miners to look for whilst down in the caves. Whilst not strictly minerals, or the reason that you go down on your missions, its worth knowing a little more about them and why the company is compensating you for picking them up.Dwarfdom is perpetually seeking salves for its various injuries and maladies. Ever since our forefathers struck the first white-hot ingot from the forge, beards have been singed, limbs lost and bones cracked.Even now whilst we venture amongst the stars, ouchies still need to be patched up. That's where Apoca Blooms come in. They're the closest thing to the Knotthistle plants back home (you know, the ones you all used to say treated nettle stings when you were naive Beardlings?!)Apoca Blooms accelerate tissue regeneration, soothe pain and treat burns, when put into the correct formula. The company thinks: "Why spend heaps of cash transporting medicine all the way out here, when we can just pick it down in the caves?" So here we are.Note that you'll only be getting some of this if you end up in the med bay; it's potent stuff, and we don't want anyone getting addicted to anything else besides red sugar.Remember whenever you pick this stuff, you're helping your fellow Dwarves!The guys in the xenobiology labs have been thinking that the key to understanding the complex lifeforms on Hoxxes is to study their eggs. Management clearly agree, because they often send us down into hives to fish out some pretty large and unnerving samples.If the aliens' zealous defence of these giant, smelly eggs means anything, then they're clearly onto something.Before you ask, I have no idea what the lab boys plan to do with the eggs. Maybe make a giant omelette? Maybe throw them at Mission Control Guy? Who knows. However, I am told that ithas nothing to do with bio-weapons research, and that weshouldn't ask any more questions if we know what's good for us.Say what you want about the smell, and I do, there's plenty of uses for Boolo Caps.Crush them into a paste and leave it to dry and you've got a make-shift adhesive. Compress them so all that nasty juice comes out, and you've got yourself a vaguely-highly flammable mechanical lubrciant. Dice them and fry them with some butter and sprinkle them onto your noodles, and you've got a tasty-treat that's hard to beat!Reports of severe allergic reactions, exploded machinery and even more explosive diarrhea aside, the Boolo Cap is a staple of life on Deep Rock Space Rigs!Old Mother always used to say to me, she said: "Donk, you're a tough nut to crack"... I never understood what she meant. Seemed to me, as a kid, that any nut I tried to crack came apart pretty quickly.But Old Mother was a clever gal. She was probably talking about an Ebonut. As in ahard nut to crack.Ebonuts are a common sight in the caves of Hoxxes, as they don't need sunlight to germinate and are quite resistant to radiation. The glyphids don't seem interested in popping open the casings to grab an easy meal either. Maybe they're allergic? Like Old Mother, come to think about it...The lab boys would like to get their hands on some of the proteins contained in the nuts themselves, so you might be asked to bring some back to base. Apparently the boys are working on some biological... stuff, and they need some local samples.Be warned, you'll have to whack the exterior a couple of times with your pick to get to the goods inside. And take it from me, don't give the nut a lick... they taste somewhere between tar and feet.You have no idea how long it took for me to get this picture.I chased the little bastard around a cave for twenty minutes before he let up. Luckily, I'd had second lunch (the most important lunch) before heading out, so had the extra energy. He stopped for a breather, I snapped the pic, then splattered him with my pick. I shouted "HA!" a little too loud and spooked the team, one of whom accidentally squeezed their trigger, shooting a dreadnought cocoon... It was a whole thing.Check your company Bestiary for the exact details on these little buggers. There's something to do with them eating minerals in there... Sounds important. All I know is that they're quick, sound like a tropical bird from the jungles of the Old World, and stink something fierce.I've mentioned them here because they're becoming a real problem, and the company is putting out bounties on them. Kill your quota for an injection of cash!Organic life is seriously old on Hoxxes. According to the carbon dating coming out of the xeno biology labs, creatures were crawling around the caves here when our ancestors had barely dredged themselves out of the primordial goop.Some of those old specimens are still around, preserved due to atmospheric conditions. You may be asked by the company to collect these as part of a mission quota. Be warned, this is serious business; you're not collecting shells from a beach here!The lab boys would appreciate any and all specimens that you find, so don't be picky. Just put them in your pack and try not to scuff them up too much.This...natural phenomena, which is often the subject of miners joking about it's striking resemblance to a certain...part of the Dwarven anatomy, has been of renewed interest of late.Ancestors know who first discovered this fact, or what the hell they were doing in the first place, but the company now considers the smelly paste that comes from grinding Gunk Seeds as a viable mechanical lubricant.You slap a nice layer of the stuff onto any rusty machinery, especially tungsten based devices (again, they're still working out the science), and it'll run like new.Naturally, the company wants us to get our hands on some, as it saves them importing anything to the space rigs. They can be found in sacs (stopping laughing) on the ceilings of caves, and can be loosened with a blast from most weapons. The seeds themselves are big and bounce (seriously, stop laughing), so you'll need both hands to get them in the M.U.L.E. Okay, you can laugh at that last one.