The Diary of a Space Scoundrel: Decision Time and the Grind
08 Sep 2018Seth Bradwell
14:00 hrs: Johnson Orbital, NamteI woke up with a certainty about what I was going to do. I was going to try and make what little contribution I could to helping the Gnosis. I am not the most humanitarian minded of people thanks to past traumas, but it reminds me too much of what happened on my home world all those years ago. So I spent the morning trying to work out what would be the best build for a newbie at xeno-hunting. I knew that my current loadout would be like bringing a butter knife to a gunfight, and the Ahriman is far too sluggish when it comes to manoeuvring, even with its Grade 5 Dirty Drive tuned thrusters, so I need a much more agile ship, particularly since AX multi-cannons do not come in gimballed variants. So, with that in mind, and looking up whatever knowledge I could muster from holo-vids and archives, I have decided to go for a Diamondback Explorer, and I will name her the Ellen Ripley, after the legendary fictitious alien killer from the 20th century, and this is what she is going to be made of. The need for rare materials means I am probably going to be spending several hours looking for High Grade Emissions signal sources, and I may try and hoard as many rare materials as possible, just in case I survive long enough to upgrade the Ahriman's internals.
18:15: Williamson Beacon, Aspelintup
I have parked up at this remote mining outpost to refuel, after finally getting enough Improvised Components for the necessary shield upgrades. It seemed every HGE signal source was Imperial Shielding, which I skipped for an hour before I realised that they could be traded for Improvised Components if necessary - I could have kicked myself. In the end I managed to get lucky with the Improvised Components, and now have a full store of Imperial Shielding to trade with. Now the hunt is on for Core Dynamics Composites, frustratingly rare and also expensive to trade for, even if I traded all of my Imperial Shielding it would still not cover half of what I need. What's more, this is probably the key to my survival, as they are the ingredient enhancing hull strength, and the word in the black is that hull strength counts for more than shielding does when it comes to fighting Thargoids. Incidentally, it turned out that my efforts in Namte paid off, the election is finished with and the United Namte Progressive Party is victorious, and Bakas Gold Council are on the verge of expansion barring the outbreak of conflict. I have more pressing issues on my mind though.
21:30: Hammond Ring, LTT 3607
I can really understand why looking for materials drives Commanders around the bend. Two hours of looking for HGEs, and in the main all I am getting are Degraded with the occasional Encoded Emissions. Still well short of the Core Dynamics Composites, and getting a bit disenhartened with the whole venture. On the up side, several escape pod occupants will be in relative safety tonight. Going to rethink my tactics, check the latest hot tips, and get back out into the black, hoping my luck will change before too long.
23:40: Irvin Hub, Y Velorum
Spent the past two hours in a RES making the materials come to me through bounty hunting. Still only managed to get 6 extra CD Composites, but this was a more interesting way to go about finding them, not to mention profitable (3.8 million credits made through bounties). Unfortunately only Anacondas seem to yield CD Composites, and only on certain occasions, so will see if there are any good systems to go looking for signal sources in. Regretted not bringing my collector limpet controller with me though, a lot of minor materials that could have been useful in a trade went to waste.
01:15: Stevin Dock, Liu Links
Finally got fed up with the grind and decided to see what I could trade for to complete the list of materials required. Found a decent materials trader that was able to give me what I needed for what I didn't really need (maxing out that Imperial Shielding payed dividends in the end). I just now have to find one willing to trade data and then all I have to do is get access to the necessary engineers (yet more sodding grind, one of them requires that I go mining too!) Getting ready to take on Thargoids is harder than I thought, and the Ellen Ripley still remains just a concept in my imagination, for now...