Taros Campaign - First Investigations: Planetary Governor, Lord Aulis, accepted that, with the Munitorum’s aid, current productivity levels could be increased and that the new targets required to keep Stygies VIII operating at its increased capacity were achievable. He promised to do all in his power to meet the targets, and in all respects was a loyal and convivial host to the Imperium’s officials. To begin with, he aroused no suspicion within the delegation.It was not until Auditor-Prime Dree started to visit the outlying mining sites that he started to wonder about certain aspects of the mining operation on Taros. Firstly, there were many abandoned mining sites scarring the deserts, evidence of much activity. Each time he was told that the lode or ore seam had been mined out, and the operation had moved on. To the mine owners, this was evidence of industrious hard work, but to an Auditor it was physical evidence that the planet’s estimated reserves were being eaten into, or were not as large as had originally been claimed in the M38 audit. Dree’s tour continued, and each mining operation seemed to be working hard, finding new lodes and blasting them out in huge strip mining operations. The ore was being separated and shipped in large quantities to the spaceport at Tarokeen. The stockpiles at Tarokeen were now large, awaiting the arrival of empty transports to carry it away to refineries. On the surface all was well, but Auditor Dree started to look deeper.Each mine was requested to hand over productivity statements, going back for ten or twenty years. Several mine owners could not comply as their records were incomplete, but most responded, and from them Dree began to get an overall picture of how ore had recently been exported off Taros. Next he looked into survey and geological reports about new lodes and the sizes of these finds. From this information he gained a good idea of how much mineral wealth remained. These figures did not tally with how much the ancient audit report claimed. At the current rates of extraction, using figures collected from refineries and Stygies VIII, there should have been more left than current estimates stated. There was a disparity between the figures of the different sources, which concerned Dree. Had Taros been over-mining, in which case where were the stockpiles? Those in storage in Tarokeen did not cover the disparity. Or had Stygies VII got it wrong, in which case the forecast figures might also be mistaken, and the far-reaching effects of this could result in a future lack of supplies. For now the Auditor kept his suspicions to himself.It took Dree several weeks to gather all the information he needed from Taros. By the end of his investigation he had a good idea of what had been happening there. The mines had been over-producing. For years they had been stripping out ore at a greater rate than was required or needed. All this ore had been shipped to Tarokeen, and although quotas for refineries and Stygies VIII itself had been met, the rest of the valuable ores had vanished. Because there was no letup in supply the mistake had never been noticed. The book-keeping trail ended there. Where had the missing ore gone? Before leaving Taros, Dree decided to confront the Planetary Governor about the disparity and seek an explanation, although it was likely the Governor himself had no idea about the problem.Governor Aulis did indeed claim ignorance. As far as he was concerned quotas had been met and shipments had been made on time. He didn’t concern himself with the day-to-day running of mines, that was the job of the owners. Governor Aulis’ advice was to ‘ask them!’. So Dree did just that, requesting that the largest mine owners each attend a hearing to explain the figures. They had no explanation. They just dug and blasted, and dug some more. They found lodes and stripped them out as fast as they could with the workforce available to them. Ignorance was their defence. Getting nowhere and suspecting a conspiracy of silence, Dree decided more drastic action was needed.