Deep Resonance

A Deep Resonance does not work a field. It selects one node — the densest the survey can find — and tunes its lasers to the frequency at which that single body wants to come apart. The ore separates along its own internal fractures, faster than any cutting beam should manage, and the hold takes only the richest fraction before the pilot lights the burners. Lingering is the danger, so the hull is built never to linger: thin, quick, and already turning toward the jump before the extraction finishes. By the time the system's sensors resolve what disturbed the asteroid, the disturbance has a different system to be in. The Collective regards a full cargo hold as evidence of a pilot who stayed too long.