By early June 2052 the colony on Los Angeles-III reached one million people. The same month, two more colony ships were constructed, taking the number to six, which increased the rate of colonization. In addition, a few manned mines were also transported to the planet to mine Duranium and Sorium, albeit at limited accessibility.
The gravitational survey of Washington was completed in late June, confirming that the only two jump points in the system were those to Sol and Lisbon. The grav survey ships returned to Earth for refuelling then entered the New York system. By July, the geological survey of Boston, including its five hundred and fifty asteroids, was completed but the results were extremely disappointing with no significant mineral deposits located. The four geological survey ships, escorted by Intrepid, moved on to the Chicago system.
The gravitational survey of New York was finished in record time, as the low mass of the primary star reduced the area that needed to be covered. The single new jump point was investigated on August 17th 2052, and led to San Diego, the second quaternary system to be discovered. Both the G5-V primary and an L-class brown dwarf orbiting at 1.8 billion kilometers were planetless, although the former had a few scattered asteroids in close proximity. A pair of K-class stars orbited each other at twenty billion kilometers and the primary at 220 billion kilometers. Each had several planets and significant asteroid belts but were too far away to exploit with contemporary engine technology.
UTS scientists completed their development of increased terraforming efficiency in September and the new software was relayed to the nine terraforming ships working on the atmosphere of San Francisco IV. The performance boost was badly needed because the continuing operation to increase the temperature was progressing very slowly, with the surface temperature at -61.3C and the colony cost at 1.78. Due to the recent discovery of the alien ruins in San Francisco and the potential threat they represented, the Governor General decided that future research efforts should be directed towards the creation of space-based fighter craft. This would provide additional defence and the ability to deliver firepower to alien targets without risking expensive warships.
A substantial supply of Mercassium was found in late September during the geological survey of Chicago. Both Chicago-I and Chicago-IV had large deposits at accessibility 0.9 and each had a variety of other minerals as shown below. In addition, a huge deposit of accessibility 1.0 Duranium was found on Chicago-III, although unfortunately the other minerals on the planet were at low accessibility.
Chicago-A I
Duranium 317,520,000 Acc: 0.1
Neutronium 98,010,000 Acc: 0.8
Corbomite 1,822,500 Acc: 0.5
Tritanium 113,422,500 Acc: 0.1
Boronide 186,322,500 Acc: 0.6
Mercassium 182,250,000 Acc: 0.9
Vendarite 45,562,500 Acc: 0.1
Sorium 170,302,500 Acc: 0.1
Uridium 70,560,000 Acc: 0.1
Corundium 116,640,000 Acc: 0.1
Chicago-A III
Duranium 233,712,200 Acc: 1
Neutronium 12,709,230 Acc: 0.3
Corbomite 23,328,900 Acc: 0.1
Tritanium 8,265,625 Acc: 0.1
Mercassium 16,200,630 Acc: 0.1
Vendarite 78,411,020 Acc: 0.1
Sorium 27,984,100 Acc: 0.1
Uridium 50,836,900 Acc: 0.1
Corundium 119,025 Acc: 0.1
Gallicite 127,012,900 Acc: 0.2
Chicago-A IV
Duranium 14,193,790 Acc: 0.3
Corbomite 63,504 Acc: 1
Boronide 12,194,060 Acc: 0.6
Mercassium 876,096 Acc: 0.9
Uridium 11,451,460 Acc: 0.1
The gravitational survey of San Diego was completed in early November and two new jump points were found, one of which led back to Sol. This jump point was not found during the survey of the Sol system and Terran scientists theorised it must have been in a dormant state until Lexington
