Editing Pallas Deep-Core Survey (section)

=== Deep-Core Phase and Major Discoveries (2097–2098 CE) ===

Full deep-core drilling at Pallas-Alpha commenced in February 2097 CE. By April of that year, the primary borehole had reached 3.1 km depth, where core samples retrieved by Dr. Mäkinen's team confirmed the presence of a dense nickel-iron matrix with trace platinum-group metal inclusions. Mäkinen formally designated the formation the [[Aldric Inclusion Zone]] in her field log, naming it after a notation used in the original 2079 probe dataset by an unnamed automated analysis subroutine.

The deepest confirmed sample was retrieved in January 2098 CE by secondary geologist [[Geologist Teodor Cruceru]], who led the drilling team that punched through a void layer at 3.9 km to reach a continuous nickel-iron stratum at 4.2 km depth. The sample — a 1.4-metre core of high-grade ferronickel — was described in Cruceru's field report as ''the most commercially significant single core extracted from a belt body to that date.'' The finding was transmitted to the [[Asteroid Arbitration Tribunal]] registry as required under interim belt prospecting conventions, establishing the consortium's discovery claim.

<blockquote>The depth and continuity of the Aldric Inclusion Zone exceeded pre-mission projections by a factor of roughly three. Some analysts at the time suggested the original spectroscopic models had been deliberately conservative to avoid attracting competing interests to the site before the survey was funded — a claim the consortium principals denied and which the Asteroid Arbitration Tribunal declined to investigate formally.</blockquote>

Lian Holt's medical records from this period documented seventeen cases of connective-tissue micro-strain attributable to repeated low-gravity surface EVA and manual equipment handling, leading her to implement mandatory tethered-rest periods and revised load-bearing protocols. Her compiled health guidelines, submitted to the [[Ganymede Magnetosphere Lab]]'s human factors division in mid-2098 CE, were later incorporated into standard belt-mission crew protocols.