The Siren Call of the Black
28 Jun 2019Gehanii
The Itch caught up to me again. The need to find out what's out there. The hope of finding something new and spectacular. But also the peace and quiet of solitude in the serene depths of the Black.I'd heard some other pilots talking up the new Krait Phantom while I lurked at some bar or other, nursing some sort of "beer". I had been scouting out systems for prospecting around the new ferry terminus in Guardian space but hadn't had a lot of luck and frankly was a bit bored with the process. One of the pilots said something to the effect that their Phantom was "so much better than that AspX they'd been using". That made me a bit irritated -- I have an obsessive love for my AspX -- but a bit curious too. The Far Wandered has served me faithfully through innumerable adventures. The most memorable was scraping samples off of a Thargoid Medusa and unrigging silent running a bit too soon (I had heard what I presumed was the Interceptor jumping, but turned out they make their wake first then enter). The Medusa immediately went hostile, whipped around and proceeded to pulverize us. The Far Wandered is no combat ship: she's rigged for exploration, pure & simple. Frantic dodging and feverish prayers as the FSD sloooowly spooled up... When it finally did engage, my poor ship was at 1% hull and pretty much every system was ruined. I don't even know how we managed to get to a facility for repairs, but we did.
So, back to the Phantom. I finished my "beer" (bleer?) and proceeded apace to my berth. A quick minute later -- boosting through the mail-slot mainly because I can -- and I was enroute to Jameson Memorial for a new ship and kit. Most of the kit I wound up buying off the shelf but I did have a couple old parts from The Welkin Wyrm's first combat trials that I was able to belt to the Phantom. Her name -- The True Vagabond -- was an homage to an old friend, long since lost to me. We spent the next several hours cruising the Bubble, visiting engineers to tinker with her kit. Once that was done, we went pirate stalking. In general flight, she handles well, a bit faster and a bit more maneuverable than the AspX it is true. I'm no combat ace, so my measure of combat success is more of a survival test than anything else. But she held true and we were able to fry some low-lifes with fair ease.
As I idled in Zende's interplanetary vacuum, I pondered the two ships. The Vagabond certainly was proving to be an admirable purchase. But she didn't have that undefinable hold on my soul that the Wandered did. As I compared their pros & cons, focusing especially on their disparate jump-ranges (Vagabond: ~40ly, Wandered: ~62ly), the thought of diving back into the Black began to surface... Would the Vagabond suffice for another long-distance jaunt into the Black? 40ly isn't an unappreciable jump-range, after all. With some different tinkering, she might be able to get close to 50ly. But... but... The Wandered. She was my heart & soul and I realized that I just couldn't leave her behind. Maybe if I didn't have the story of my great-grandfather's attempt to reach Maia back in the early 3200s in his banged up Asp, I wouldn't be so smitten with the ships. But, there it was. The Black calling and the Far Wandered & I had no choice but to answer.
TrA X-1 sounds like a good starting point...