Farting around on LTT 2963 A 4 a
17 May 2024Darius BlackWolfe
16 MAY 3310 - LOG ENTRY #1This will be the first log entry since I bought this damned thing. It's an antique, but the price was hard to beat, though it took rummaging through a lot of wreckage to find the firmware upgrade so I could actually connect it to my ship's comms; Probably should have just bought a newer one, but hell, I never did like to waste.
Well, except for wasting time anyway, which is what brings us to today's log entry.
It didn't start out as a waste of time, but hell if I don't love chasing squirrels, as my old squad leader used to say. I popped into Bernoulli Vision in Caeritis yesterday, looking to trade in some of my surplus materials for stuff I needed, but realized that they only traded in encoded materials, whereas most of my surplus was manufactured. (Y'ever wonder why the weirdly artificial divisions? Why won't they take raw materials for manufactured, or vice versa? It's probably a back-room deal they have to keep us 'Commanders' running around the galaxy) Luckily, they were feeling generous enough to point me toward the nearest manufactured materials trader, in LTT 2963.
What a boring-ass name for a star system. Definitely a step down from Caeritis. I mean, I know those astronomers on Earth were cataloguing millions, billions of stars, but it feels like they could have tried harder. The dozens called "HIP" followed by some numbers tells me that they got bored of naming stars pretty early on in their careers. You'd think with billions of people on the planet they could have farmed out the work; maybe even letting people pay a small fee to name stars after their loved ones, or something. I'd much rather be scooping 'Karen Smoots' for hydrogen than HIP 23-something, that's for sure. Wait, didn't I know a Karen Smoots back in school? Eh, who knows, I've digressed enough.
So anyway, LTT 2963. I pop into the system, scoop the star very briefly, and then swing around toward Leestma City and kick on the SCO for a bit of a boost. Man that thing is wild; even as an early adopter, I'm still not used to handling that bucking bronco of alien tech, but it sure does speed up the trip. Anyway, I coast in and decide to take a quick detour to map out the pretty gas giant on the way, then swoop the rest of the way in to Leestma. I request docking clearance, hit the deck just light enough to avoid scuffing the paint, and make a call to the material trader. I cut down on my surplus and then decide I'm gonna go chase Signal Sources to get some more, now that I've got a little more room.
First one I see is Weapons Fire in low, LOW orbit over a terrestrial ice ball, and I figure I can use a little practice on the guns. I usually avoid fights, but every now and again it's good to get the blood pumping. I drop in and see one transport getting dogged by a Wanted poster in an Eagle, and I open fire. The sniveling coward throws a threat at me over the radio, then immediately cuts and runs, leaving me alone in low orbit (the transport took advantage of my arrival to leave quickly) with nothing to shoot.
But hey, fresh planet! I map it, and discover it's got two types of geo and two types of bio. Bio's always worth some creds, and I kinda dig chasing geo in my SRV, so I drop down to the surface, and quickly spot some strange looking fumaroles that turn out to have a type of bio on them called, oddly enough fumarola. I check the book, and they've got a really small clonal colony range, so it feels like moments before I have all three... Leaving me to find bacteria.
Bacteria is the red-headed step-child of the Exobio world, and for good reason. Even when you're standing right next to it, it's hard to see because it never rises more than a few decimeters off the surface, and often blends right in. It's usually best to fly Nap of Earth (which is weird if you think about it, since I've never even been to Earth) at low speeds, or get a drone and have it fly above your ship or SRV for a better view, but even then this particular bit of bacteria was a pain in the ass. I found the first bit pretty quick, but the patches were pretty small, and barely stood out from the ice. After finding the second, I eventually decided to get in the SRV and go driving around.
Now I recently got one of them Scorpions, because all the scuttle-butt said they were hot shit; I guess they probably are if you're into surface combat, but honestly my old scarab was good enough for what little bit of scuffling I got up to, and the lack of a wavescanner and the smaller cargo makes them less ideal for surface exploration.
But man, I won't lie; they sure are fun to drive. They're tougher than the scarab, and a bit wider base, meaning they're a bit more stable on the ground. Even though I couldn't scan down geo, the geysers and fumaroles tended to be clustered up, and you could see a geyser from a decent distance off. So I found more than a little bit of geo while bouncing around that bumpy little iceball, including a few hunks of germanium; I'd used up most of my meager supply paying off that Farseer to upgrade my surface scanner. Finally decided it was about time to get back in the air and find the last colony of bacterium, and wouldn't you know it, I parked my SRV right next to a patch. I guess it's true what they say: you always find the things you're looking for once you stop looking.
So of course I drove around a bit longer; just one more crystal cluster, I kept saying to myself, until finally I hit a boulder because I started to drift off, and I knew it was time to get back up in the black and find a place to rest these weary bones. Ended up back here at Leestma City in this surprisingly comfortable lounge chair. There are two other pilots, decent looking sorts, trying to nap to either side of me. I considered making conversation, but if there's one thing I learned in the service, it's that you cadge sleep when you can, and you respect the right to nap.
Ah well; Not enough room in my cabin for two anyway.
All of that is a long-winded way of saying that I never did get around to chasing USS's, or get into a scrap, all because I love to chase squirrels. Honestly, this is the best life has to offer, and I'm probably gonna kick any sense of progress down the starlanes a little further.