Exploration/passenger mission to the Devil's Dancefloor
07 Jun 2018Thunktone
3 June 3304 08:35 Had a clear schedule for a week so I've signed up for another research mission. Must be crazy. I upgraded my diamondback since last time though so it shouldn't take as long. I would like to achieve Elite explorer status and be in Shinrata Dezhra in time for the release of the challenger. Those thargoids are getting deeper and deeper into human space. Makes me wonder what I'm doing taking people on sight-seeing tours.
I will be taking three scientists to a system named in the brochures as "The Devil's Dancefloor". I must admit I'm quite excited to see this myself. With four Neutron stars orbiting a black hole it should be incredible. And the scan data will be worth a bit too, even though I'm not the first.
09:09 I Just scanned some tiny metallic planet in Pru Euq UO-Z D 13-77. It's the first object of this voyage that should wind up with my name on it. More money to be made from the already-scanned water world nearby though.
10:43 Bleia Eohn QT-O D7-11: first completely unexplored system of the journey. I've scanned the solid planets of the main star. They include a 1.75G high-metal terraforming candidate. UC will pay quite well for that one.
10:46 The next system is also unexplored. The real work starts here.
10:50 Or not. Someone called Dexx has beaten me to Bleia Eohn YF-L d9-49.
timestamp missing Over 3000 Ly from Lave now. That's about a fifth of the outbound journey. I found another unexplored system and a few unexplored planets of interest. But most astronomical objects I'm seeing have already been scanned.
timestamp missing 3,497 Ly from Lave and I found a crashed SRV with a bunch of cargo canisters. What are the odds? My ship isn't equipped with cargo bays right now so maybe someone else can find them someday. A data probe on the same planet. What is going on here? Did someone try to set up a Polonium mine? There must be closer places!
timestamp missing 4714 Ly from Lave and I found another destroyed SRV, cargo intact, just like the first one. Am I going crazy here? Is someone messing with me?
timestamp missing 4832 Ly from Lave and Brieus beat me to this system. He/she explored it pretty thoroughly too. First time in about 1000 Ly I've seen tagged bodies in my maps.
15:05 Just landed on Thaileia MN-S C20-14 1 A. It's a pretty unremarkable little rock but it orbits my latest terraforming candidate, a high-metal world. I set down on the peak of a splash crater "plip" (there must be more scientific names for these things). It's only .22G so I'm going to leave my passengers up here and go SRV skiing down into the crater. I didn't have an SRV last time I was this far from the bubble. It makes the journey so much more enjoyable.
timestamp missing 5143 Ly from Lave and yet another SRV crash. Looks just like the first two. Definetely going mad.
timestamp missing Yep. Mad enough to lose my scarab. That was just too big a plip.
18:16 5787 Ly from Lave and the first Neutron boost of the journey. Seems a long way without seeing one. It's been tagged of course (by Puca). I can't remember how far out I was last time before I started finding unknown Neutron Stars but it was long after tagged main sequence stars became rare.
18:24 Jumped directly to another Neutron star. Pyramio IT-O D7-39, first discovered by Resentina.
19:10 Set my ship down on a newly discovered planet for some shut-eye. I'm 6,492 Ly from Lave. Way ahead of schedule but there's no way I can keep that pace up. It was a dumb mistake that cost me my SRV and another like that could easily cost me my ship. They're giving me a few weeks for this one anyway. And they said they're not too fussed about delays, so slowing down a bit shouldn't be a problem.
4 June 3304 6:19 Feeling a lot better this morning. Definitely need to slow the pace down if I'm going to keep my sanity. Planning a little detour for the next day or two to a dark nebula close to the fastest route.
7:25 Set down on Lysoorb ST-Z d13-208 2, first discovered by Xapuga. The closer I get to this nebula the more seems to have been explored. I'm more than 7000 Ly from the bubble and more than 3000 Ly from the nearest known station so I don't know why so many explorers have been here. I guess a large expedition fleet must have passed through the area. I'm only a few jumps from the nebula now and more than half way through the outward journey. I might fly into the nebula this evening or I might wait until tomorrow.
16:02 Well, I got bored. What is with these researchers? They just lock themselves in the passenger cabin for days, even weeks. I don't think I have a bounty on my head right now and there aren't even any windows back there!
I realised I must be on the route to Sagittarius A*. That's why everything has been explored. Maybe I'll make the trip myself. Maybe not, it's more than 8000 Ly further.
18:36 Prieluia PN-B D 13-110. First untagged system of the day I think. But maybe people just couldn't be bothered because there is so little here. I'll scan a couple of nearby gas giants though in case of metal rings.
18:42 Looks like I'm getting off the beaten track again. Prieluia TT-Z D13-229 is also completely untagged.
19:04 Found a black class III gas giant with metallic rings. Are these common? Have I discovered them before? I don't know what made me fly in so close to the rings but it was a beautiful sight with stars on both sides shining their light on the reflective rocks. It is 9,490 Ly to Lave and I'm under 100 jumps from my destination. Or I was! Seems like a dozen jumps get added any time I recalculate my route.
5 June 3304 113 Jumps to go. We spent the night drifting through deep space. Easier than landing certainly but it feels riskier somehow. I barely slept.
08:15 Blaa Hypai BM-C D111 A 1: an odd little moon covered in green stains. I'd figured they must be copper oxide but there's no sign of copper or oxygen. I guess it must be some kind of sulphur compound. Bet those researchers can tell with their instruments but they still aren't talking to me. I really wish I still had my SRV.
10:38 Man I'm bored. I was going to spend the best part of today writing other things and maybe travel more tomorrow, but here I am exploring again. I'm finding a lot of water worlds for some reason. Fingers crossed I'll get an outdoor world soon.
12:26 Greae Hypai UA-M D8-293 A. A brown and yellow rock, sulphurous ores.
17:03 Floawns KS-S D4-29. My first newly discovered Neutron star of the journey. 33 jumps left to the Devil's Dancefloor.
17:43 A couple more new Neutron stars and a few more waterworlds. Also the first waterworld of the trip I just couldn't be bothered to scan. 23 jumps to go.
17:46 22 jumps to go and the first FSD malfunction of the trip. Always seems to happen around 78%, but it'll still be pretty usable for ages.
18:00 Greae Phio PI-S D4-267 3. I couldn't resist this one, but perhaps I should have. I nearly smashed my ship by coming in too fast on the edge of a crater. Shields just held out. Worth it for a landable planet with metallic rings though. But once again I can't help wondering if I've passed dozens of similar worlds without really noticing.
19:04 Eeshorks RS-T D3-1092 A 7. Just two more jumps to the Devil's Dancefloor and I have found my first earthlike of the trip. There's a pair of co-orbiting water worlds in the same system. I wish Lakon would get on and provide atmospheric flight capability for this thing. Got plenty of creds left after the last research trip, I'll be rolling in it after this one.
19:25 I'm there! It's incredible, one of the Neutron stars in is a two hour orbit with the black hole while two more orbit each other just 250 Ls away. My passengers just offered a bonus for not getting scanned which was immediately blown by one of the many Belugas passing through. Some tourist's curiosity probably just cost me over 10 million credits!
Spotted a strange streak of heavy systems on the galaxy map. It's roughly en route so I'm going to check out some more black holes on the way back to the bubble. Don't suppose I'm the first to notice this though.
6 June 3304 09:21 Paused to enjoy the view over Floawns FH-L D8-85 4, my second new earthlike of the trip. This one is coorbiting with a water world suitable for terraforming. It might be more suitable for tourism though. Both worlds are teeming with life.
17:46 Found a non-neutron star system that has been explored and tagged. First one since the outbound journey. Only some of the neutron stars I've been finding have been tagged so I assume there is still plenty of exploration to do.
7 June 3304 08:47 Nyeakio AC-B D1-128, 6,769 Ly from Lave. First time since the outbound journey that I've detected a USS. Some less fortunate explorer's data cache. I have no cargo hold so I'll have to leave it.
14:03 V947 Scorpii. As I suspected, I am not the first to notice this group of heavy systems with all the black holes. Looks like CMDR MOSSELKNOTS was the first.
14:33 I am thoroughly bored of black holes. Not going to bother scanning any more, just going to head back to Mammon. It's only a few thousand light years, 55 jumps. Might even get there today. Then I'm off to Shinrarta Dezhra to buy a combat ship. I won't be selling my little Diamondback though.
17:41 Back in Mammon. The researchers doubled my money for a 30 million credit payout. Add that on to the 97 million I got from exploration data and it's been a profitable few days. The last research trip I went on, without drive upgrades, made more like 250 million. But that took a full four weeks.