EARLIEST IMAGE OF ROID RATS

From the DF archives we have located the only surviving image from the ill-fated Persimmon-78x expedition which was the first to report occurrences of Viridian in the honeycomb asteroids of that system's many solar rings.

Senior Geologist Leverick Hatt is seen extracting fragments of the newly-found mineral. He is assissted by Aphrodite Meander his doctorate student at that time. The two could be said to be the original 'Roid rats'.

Shortly afterwards Trogs emerged from the asteroid surface and siezed Hatt, who was never seen again. Meander escaped back to their ship but suffered a smashed shoulder from rocks accurately flung by the aliens. The ship, DF-Geoprobe 44, was badly damaged by a hail of thrown fragments but managed to escape and engage its main drive.

It would be 5 years before the true value of Viridian was established and was leaked. Then the first Roid Rats began the mining rush to the Persimmon -78X system.