Galraite

Galraite, named after the Nevrin researcher Dr. Josie Galray, is an element with the atomic number 175. The element is unusually stable for its place on the periodic table, and its primordial isotope, Gr-306, possesses a half-life of approximately 20,000 years and is a moderate alpha and beta emitter. The mechanism by which existing deposits found in nature and not yet decayed to imperceptible levels is contradictory, since it appears to have been present since the planet's formation. Its true properties are neither known nor understood.

Use

Galraite is extremely critical in the construction of bridge generators and wormhole relays, as well as Metatron linked-portal technology, by lowering the manifold vacuum level of its surroundings when hit with a high-energy laser. This makes it a consumable substance essential for all applications in dimensional physics.

Different, currently unknown isotopes of galraite appear to form Precursor artefacts. These are much more highly radioactive, and it is theorised that they enable interaction with the Substrate in some way, however, this modality is not yet fully known.

Regulation

Galraite is a highly restricted material under the Dimensional Security Accords. While its use in bridge laboratories is public, its substratic properties remain highly classified by Raven. It is estimated that 99.8% of all material in circulation pre-2000 on Earth has now been confiscated by Raven; the remainder is in the possession of Metatron, Dreams Intelligence, and the Aegis Institute.

Production

Production of galraite has been successfully attempted at high-energy particle accelerators, however none have created the stable isotope Gr-306, only much shorter-lived isotopes such as Gr-283, which almost immediately undergo spontaneous fission. Further attempts at this resulted in the destruction of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in 2091, prompting all public research to be stopped. However, all major players, including Metatron, Dreams Intelligence, the Aegis Institute, and Raven's Black Research laboratories continue to attempt synthesis of the Gr-306 isotope. It is highly debated in the public scientific community whether production of synthetic Gr-306 is even physically possible.

History

Discovery

In the 1940s, the British research organisation known as Nevrin began investigating minute physical anomalies that they managed to triangulate to a section of land roughly beneath Montreal. The company began construction in secret on an underground facility known as the Venetian City in order to support the deep level excavation necessary to locate the source.

In 1960, the first samples of galraite were uncovered by Josie Galray's dig team. The samples found beneath the city were crystalline allotropes - that exhibited a remarkable purple glow and emitted moderate levels of ionising radiation. Later, the mining operation was expanded in order to speed up the frequency of excavations, and the material began to be processed at the Dalston Laboratory and later shipped in secret to Nevrin's Girvan Offshore Science Facility (GOSF) located beneath Ailsa Craig.

Girvan Experiments

After being processed by Nevrin at the Dalston Laboratory and shipping to the GOSF, the galraite crystals were refined into a fine powder and compacted into perfect marble-sized spheres, known as pellets, to act as the cores for the Avernus Cavity Reactor (ACR). They were then subjected to an extremely high amount of microwave radiation, which had the effect of melting the material together into a singular amorphous sphere.

The cores would be used in the reactor as consumables, akin to fuel pellets, one at a time, where they were suspended in a magnetic containment field in a tube, cooled to cryogenic temperatures, and hit with very high-energy particle beams to create a tear in reality to the entropic plane. This link became less efficient as the cores degraded. The spent cores turned completely black and passively emitted a high amount of entropic radiation, which would slowly decrease in intensity with time. Thousands of these cores were manufactured and used at the GOSF, some of which were shipped back to the Dalston Laboratory for further analysis.

Butterfly Experiment

After Metatron acquired supplies of galraite from the Venetian City in the mid-2020s, they began investigating ways to harness its substratic properties, in what became known as the Butterfly Project; an experiment that tried, and succeeded, to predict the future, with catastrophic consequences.

Raw Gr-306 was ground up and melted down to form an alloy of unknown composition and used to press a tape that was used as feedstock for the Butterfly Machine. The material would actually be consumed by the machine in the course of its operation, and for this reason little of this alloy remains in existence, with its original recipe lost to time.