Tharspin

Tharspin, or ‘Antarctican Steel,’ is an alloy that consists mainly of an iron oxide called tharspaxi that is found nowhere else on the planet except Ramaxia*. The carbon content of Tharspaxi, which ranges between 0.3% and 3.1% by weight depending on the grade, is a crucial factor in determining the properties of Tharspin. It is the sole alloying material for Tharspin, influencing its strength, ductility, and other mechanical properties.

• In 2091, geologists warned that continental Ramaxia’s supply of tharspaxi would run out by century’s end. Femati star charts found in the Femaki’xirpaxul indicate that Tharspaxi was native to the vast volcanic plateaus of Tharso, a planet known as Mars. The plateau dubbed ‘Tharsis’ by helovx astronomers is how tharspaxi earned its name. In the 20th century, helovx discovered trace amounts of it in the bedrock of ‘Antarctica,’ within remnants of Martian meteorite debris.

The discovery of Tharspaxi was a pivotal moment in femarctic history. The first traces came from the Vosk Mountains. Bizaki leaders Pekada, Ilogwo, Uymdak, Dizukel, Yawramx, Dubgax, and Haluxikon divided all 64,000 of their caste-sisters into groups to find more. After discovering a large cache in the Ramax’takal Mountains, Bizak subject Wygzitat parsed smelting methods found in one of the Femaki’xirpaxul’s databases and created tharspin.

The oxygen converter process is similar to the method developed by the helovx to produce steel. Carbon-rich molten tharsp (produced from smelting tharspaxi with a high-carbon fuel) has oxygen forced through it to lower the carbon content of the alloy, creating a malleable low-carbon tharspin.

Under the leadership of Wygzitat and Haluxikon, two Tharspaxi mills appeared by the month of Yuli in 2030. Power to run the mills came from generators located in the Femaki’xirpaxul, then subsequently from power generated by the first hydroelectric plant at Yulixica Falls in 2032.

Refining tharspaxi to create tharspin enabled the femmar to utilize the Femaki’xirpaxul’s transphasic printers. These advanced printers, which were capable of printing objects at the atomic level, were instrumental in creating tools and assembly parts for manufacturing and expansion. They allowed for precise and efficient production, contributing to the rapid development of Tharspin-based structures.

When subjects Dizukel and Pekada created the first independent transphasic printers, large-scale tharspin molding and manufacturing began, expediting the laying of a thirty-mile-long magnetic track within a hollowed-out and drained tunnel that would become the Ramaxian Artery.

• Helovx-nations are unaware of large-scale Ramaxian mining throughout the Tharsis Rise in the western hemisphere of Mars. Towing ships bring harvested tharspaxi to the covert Kulixa Station in continental Australia, where the raw payload gets transported to Antarctica City for delivery to mills in North Pikalit.