Test Drill 01022, Somewhere off the coast of Falkasia
It was incredibly cold, made worse by the horrendous, subarctic conditions of the Falkasian sea. The sky above was a dreary grey, covered thickly with a blanket of clouds. Throughout the waters stood gigantic monoliths and hulking white behemoths, sitting quietly as the enraged ocean pounded away at their rusty support structures and exposed ciy surfaces. From a distance, a passing boat would have never guessed that the stations were occupied, but that assumtion couldn't have been more wrong. This was the largest venture Morozov Energy had ever made, a risky move to search for oil in the Falkasian Gulf. Many attempts had been tried in the past, but had only left the parent companies broke and empty-handed.
Aboard one of a hundred drills, stood two crewmen. They were covered in thick, wet jackets that stretched well past their waists, and had on multiple shirts and undergarments underneath. However, no matter how much or what they put on, the cold was still penetrating and near-unbearable. As the stood there, rubbing their arms and breathing into the gloves, the whispered to each other.
"So, how long you think we'll be out here," one said, sending a mist of frozen breath towards the other.
"No idea. I've been out here for three months, and haven;t even heard a word about going home."
"Damn.... well, maybe if we spill something from the galley on ourselves, they'll send us home."
"Not likely. They'd just lock you up in the Medbay until you're all healed. Then they'll kick you out and put you back to work."
"Damn......"
"Yea, damn...."
Their conversation ended with what sounded like a bubble popping, then another and another. The two men looked in the direction of the platform's drill, an archaic device which used nothing more than a Diamond-Tungsten drillbit and hydralic power. The ocean directly below it was covered in wash, white as snow. Very faintly however, the two men could see a small black dot that seemed to grow the longer they looked at it. Having been stuck on a cramped, frozen hulk in the middle fo the ocean for months on end, it took the men a moment to register what was happening. Once they heard more bubbles however, it became apparent. The two men jumped, screamed, cheered; loud enough to wake the whole platform. From the lower decks poured out a dozen other crewmen, armed with frying pans, crowbars, and bottles of beer to fend off the Russians they though were raiding. In the end, no one really knew what the more comical sight was, a bunch of half-naked men armed with kitchen utensils and drinks on the barren platform, or two crewmen on top of one another, rolling around the deck in blissful exhultation. What was known in the end however, was that they had struck oil and defied the odds to get there.
News Article, Ekaterine Times (Dated February 7th)
Morozov Energy and two oil exploration subsidiaries announced yesterday the discovery of a giant oil reserve off the coast of Falkasia that could boost the nation's supplies by as much as 30% percent. Known as the Kamisokov Field, the reserve – some 270 miles northeast of Port Kamov – is estimated to hold as much as 15 billion barrels of oil. Morozov discovered the field by drilling the deepest to date in the area (roughly 12 miles from the coast) down 28,175 feet in waters nearly 7,000 feet deep, some seven miles below the surface of the Earth. Up until now, the biggest source of oil in Falkasia was a tiny field located just outside the nation's capitol of Ekaterine. It was discovered in the early 1920's, supposedly after a farmer named Dimitri reported an unknown substance seeping through the ground while plowing his land for planting.
