New Beluga's first Odyssey
07 Oct 2018Thunktone
3304 September 27, ThursdayAasgaa
If I'm going to join the Distant Worlds 2 expedition I shall be looking to invest in a large exploration vessel. An Anaconda would be sensible, but I've been thinking about the Type-10. It should have the same good view from the cockpit as the Type-9 and it can fit a larger frame shift drive for a few more lightyears jump range. It has a couple of military slots but I'm thinking that the Type-9's nine optionals plus shield are swapped for the Type-10's nine optionals plus two hull reinforcements. Whichever I choose, I shall need megacredits, and the best way I know to get megs is to go out exploring.
Getting away from the most travelled routes is key, which I think has been an advantage of taking passengers with me. Although I could cynically ask them where they want to go, then go without them. But I've been thinking of taking either my Orca or an even larger passenger ship so that I can plot courses between different tourist beacons. Many pilots have flown to Jacques, but how many have flown there from the Devil's Dancefloor?
So I took the plunge and bought myself a Beluga. A huge investment, but if everything goes to plan it will more than pay for itself within a month. I've been bold with the outfitting though, no shields. I'm relying on repair limpets to fix up the hull if I take any knocks. It certainly won't stand up to any combat, I haven't even bothered to fit weapons. Initially I planned to take fighters with me to ease the boredom of a long flight. But there are just too many things I want to fit into those class 6 slots so I've left them behind.
I have three groups of "famous explorers" (tourists) on board all wanting to visit distant sites. I'll be going back to the Devil's Dancefloor first. I was going to avoid places I'd already been, but it's just close enough to plot a direct route and the money is good. Then it'll be off to "on top of the galaxy" where I hear the views are spectacular. Then to the Evil Eye, a black hole somewhere near Colonia. I'll find somewhere to pick up supplies near there before the final leg, back to the bubble.
The missions are worth a hundred megs between them, two hundred if they pay double like the others and maybe even more if I'm careful not to get scanned. The exploration data might be worth a lot more, I'm not sure how much the lack of a surface scanner will reduce my earnings there.
I need to adjust my passenger cabins for the future, a class 5 luxury cabin is just too small. I'll take a class 6 one and three business class for my next trip. I did take a transport mission with it, but that's just a prank. A few members of a commie faction will be stuck thousands of light years from their destination hoping that a cruiser with room to spare might pass by. I feel mean now, but I've gone too far to turn back.
14:18 - Blu Thua MM-W D1-13
They've bailed already, just 1666 Ly from where I picked them up in Aasgaa. Some people have no sense of adventure!
I'm heading out to the second and third stars of this system. They, and the ringed gas giants around them, are yet to be scanned, so these will be my first tags of the journey.
14:32
And in the very next system I find my first new main-star of the journey. That was quick.
14:43 - Aucoks QU-V D3-2
I wasn't the first to this ringed waterworld, CMDR Falafels was. I'm glad I cruised out to it though, beautiful.
14:56
16:51
I've decided to take in some nebulae en-route. Cat's Paw will be the first. I'm getting the intense impression of flying into the milky way once more, though of course I've never left it.
19:01 - Cat's Paw nebula
The cat's paw is gorgeous. Perhaps more from the outside than once you get inside. Next nebula is the catchily named NGC 6357, a couple of thousand lightyears away. That's not far from Prua Hypai SK-V D3-112, where I discovered a co-orbiting pair of earthlike worlds, so I'll probably pay those a visit too.
I wish I had a detailed surface scanner with me. There are just so many constraints on the Beluga. I might have to drop to three passenger cabins, use the fourth slot for a way-too-big cargo bay, and free up one of the class three slots for the surface scanner. If I forswore neutron boosts I could probably do without the AFMU, since I'm out for a maximum of a month in this ship. I could do with finding a nice asteroid base near Sagittarius A*, or on the other side of it from Colonia. I think Distant Worlds 2 want to build one.
20:22 - Lysoorb TC-V D2-94
I've settled for the night on Lysoorb TC-V D2-94 A 2, a pretty, ringed metal-rich body. I'm about half way between Cat's Paw and NGC 6357, that's 6,854 Ly from Aasgaa. I have another 10,571 Ly to go to the Devil's Dancefloor. I don't think I stand a chance of being back for Fighter Club next Wednesday, but maybe I can complete the missions in two weeks. The deadlines are four weeks away, so plenty of time.
Ditching the fourth passenger cabin to squeeze in a surface scanner is looking like a very good idea. Losing the AFMU less so, I've made some silly mistakes already that have done a little damage to my modules. I know I can go without though, I've done it in my Diamondback back before I engineered it. It's a shame not to use neutron boosts though.
Oh, brainwave: if I don't take an SRV then I don't need to land, and if I don't need to land I bet I could do without the limpets. Then I can ditch the cargo rack and free up three modules. A fifth passenger cabin, a detailed surface scanner, and what? Tiny bit of extra fuel? back up AFMU? small cargo bay? docking computer? I always smash my SRV on the outward leg anyway, so what is there to lose?
3304 September 28, Friday
08:14 - NGC 6357 nebula
NGC 6357 is pretty enough even if the colours are somewhat muted. It has been well explored and I'm not seeing anything unusual. Next waypoint is my twin earthlikes.
12:46
Found myself an earthlike and a waterworld just three jumps from my twin earthlikes. Makes me wonder if there is something about this region of space.
13:05 - Prua Hypai SK-V D3-112
Ah, Prua Hypai SK-V D3-112 6 and 7, my twins. I hope to get down on their surface one day and see what kind of life exists there. The rate at which mankind is expanding, maybe I'll be able to retire here someday.
I feel I should know what this brown misty layer on my GalMap means, but I don't. Nonetheless I'm going to try to stay inside it for a while as it may be connected to these earthlikes I've found. Then it'll be down to a small nebula called Blaa Hypai AA-A H55.
But I'm going to stay here for a while and enjoy the view.
16:01
This is why I need the AFMU, I was only distracted for a moment.
17:35 - Prua Hypai CI-H D11-32
Another earthlike.
17:44 - Prua Hypai KH-L C24-37
And another, someone should set up a terraforming station in Prua Hypai. This could be a real bread-basket sector.
17:51
A gorgeous ringed waterworld, but I failed to note the system.
18:12 - Flyua Phio DR-T D4-86
A new Neutron Star, that's a bonus. I think I got much further before discovering one on my last long voyage.
3304 Spetember 30, Sunday
09:45
Here you can see two large nebulae that I could have visited, Blaa Hypai AA-A H68 on the left and Clookuia AA-A H35 on the right. Blaa Hypai AA-A H55 is closer than either, but isn't easy to distinguish yet.
10:07 - Prua Phio WV-C D13-1
Check out the rings on this brown dwarf. I bet they'd have been worth a bit if I had a surface scanner.
10:26
Five jumps from the nebula and I have seen a couple of planets that another CMDR, Mlat Hromovlad, has scanned. First sign of intelligent life outside my ship in a while. They left me the star though.
10:29
I think it's the nebula on the left I'm headed for. But wow, does that other Blaa Hypai AA-A look good. It's further than it looks though, much larger than H55.
10:32
Three jumps from the nebula and CMDR Vincense has scanned this star. I shall scan an HMC planet to mark my passage. I suspect the nebula might be well travelled.
10:39 - outside Blaa Hypai AA-A H55
One more jump to enter the nebula, and it is beautiful. What would I name it if I had the authority? The apple nebula I think.
10:48 - Blaa Hypai AA-A H55
This shot is from inside the nebula. It may be the most beautiful I've ever visited, and that's saying something.
Next stop is Floawns FH-L D8-85 where another of my earthlike discoveries co-orbits with a terraformable water world.
12:19
I'm stuck on a route already travelled by CMDR Rob7977. That or he's thoroughly explored a huge region of space.
12:36
That was a temporary problem, I'm back in uncharted space.
12:50 - Blaa Hypai FH-L D8-7
There are three waterworlds here, but CMDR Wintrel found them first.
12:57
This shot of the galaxy map gives a nice overview of the voyage. The bookmarks are mostly systems I've visited, though I have marked a handful of tourist beacons that sound interesting. You can clearly see that I've covered most of the distance to the Devil's Dancefloor already, and about half the distance to On Top of the Galaxy. I'd estimate now that the voyage might take three weeks altogether.
You can also see a friend marker 40 kLy further out. That's CMDR Frank, who I've flown with many times now, on his way back from Beagle Point.
13:27 - Blaa Hypai DS-A D14-82
Nice quaternary here.
13:59
Another ringed waterworld. You can just make out a ringed gas giant behind it.
14:21 - Greae Hypai SZ-F D11-185
CMDR Diddledum has tagged the main star and the nearest planet is a mediocre gas giant 30 kLy away. This will be the first system I've left no mark on for ages.
15:27 - Floawns FH-L D8-85
This is another of my previous discoveries, an earthlike with co-orbiting waterworld terraforming candidate. It's about as far from Colonia as it is from the Bubble so I suspect it will remain virgin for decades, even a century or two.
It's 40 jumps to the Dancefloor so I'll probably go direct from here despite a couple of tempting nebulae.
17:12
18:37 - Eeshorks BA-A g2179
I'm back at the Devil's Dancefloor, still an impressive system.
Next I'm going to the Eor Auscs AA-A H18 nebula. It's absolutely stuffed with neutron stars so I might stop and scan a few for the credits.
20:15 - Eor Auscs AA-A H18
I'm inside the nebula but to be honest it's a bit underwhelming. I didn't even notice I was getting close and the colours in here are a bit drab. I'm going direct to the next mission objective now rather than seeking extra neutron stars. Most of the last ten jumps have been neutrons anyway so I expect I'll find a few more.
3304 October 01, Monday
19:14 - Egnaiw Ty-S E3-2518
Today's flight has been almost entirely neutron stars, usually with a neat 188 Ly between each. But here I have found a binary pair of neutron stars. Something I haven't seen outside the Devil's Dancefloor. Mind you, these are far more distant from each other at about 48 kLs. You can see a yellow star with a haze around it in the picture, that's the second star.
19:36
A water moon in a neutron star system. Shame it wasn't close enough to discern both in one photo.
19:40
Paused to refill my tank. Not such a long task since I brought a 6A fuel scoop. I've thought of downgrading to a 3A to squeeze in a fighter bay, but then It'd take over twelve minutes to fill up. Too long.
I suppose the problem with all these neutron stars is that it's hard to appreciate the time they're saving when the most comprehensible way to measure a journey is in the number of jumps. I suppose it would feel a lot more useful if I was going beyond the core of the galaxy and on to Beagle Point or somesuch.
3304 October 02, Tuesday
18:30 - Theema LI-A D14-1115
A nice close trinary system with a very energetic neutron star.
19:39 - "On top of the Galaxy"
I only dropped in briefly on the tourist beacon at "On Top of the Galaxy" due to the secretive nature of my passengers. You get a much better view further from the star anyway. It would be possible to jump much farther "up", but whether you could go far enough to significantly improve the view I'm not sure.
That's two of three objectives complete, now on to "The Evil Eye" 144 jumps away. There's not a lot intervening as far as I can tell from GalMap except for a smattering of nebulae towards the far end of the route. I think I'll just go as directly as I can.
I'm not sure if I should drop in on the Colonia region. I have plenty of materials to restock my heatsinks, limpets and AFMU. It'll be a more valuable stop, perhaps, on trips without limpets. Although even then I should be able to cope without docking mid-trip.
Three weeks and a day remain before the deadlines. It must be possible to complete this in a fortnight but it would involve another long session like last Sunday. I don't know if I have that in me.
3304 October 03, Wednesday
12:40 - Zundae UV-T D4-1209
Neutron stars seem to light waterworlds like this quite differently to main-sequence stars. The bright spot at noon looks quite unpleasant but the waters look quite inviting in the morning and afternoon. If I had a DSS I'd be able to check the temperature.
19:13
19:18
Fighter club are fighting Thargons in the Pleiades. I've been flying fighter support for them in between attempts to rally the wing. This should be so much easier. The AX Taipans are little more than a distraction to interceptors and thargons, though they were doing well enough against scouts earlier. I did definetely destroy one thargon but my scanners could only target the swarm, not the individual craft.
Meanwhile in my Beluga I'm only about 658 Ly from Colonia. I'm going straight past though to reach my last objective. Then I don't see any particular reason to dock anywhere before returning to the old worlds. Except that my ship looks a mess in all these photos.
20:14 - "The Evil Eye"
I couldn't recreate the view the system is aimed for with either of the nearby nebulae but this is still a nice lens to view the galaxy through. As with all black holes a photo doesn't really do it justice.
I've selected a neutron star in the Blaa Hypa AA-A H59 nebula as my next destination, about 8 kLy away. It's about 23 kLy back to Aasgaa so I'll maybe pick one other waypoint to break up the journey.
3304 October 04, Thursday
07:53 - Mylaifaa ZZ-F D11-220
I nearly missed this ringed ammonia world as I've mainly been on the lookout for waterworlds and earthlikes.
14:59 - Eol Flyou UQ-C D13-397
A new earthlike. Like the Prou Hypai ones I found on the way out, this is in the "crook" between two galactic arms. I wonder if that's a significant pattern.
17:21 - Boesky FF-Y d1-374
Just discovered this huge ammonia world, more than six Earth masses. It's rings are nearly 40 Mm wide too. They look like water ice, but I'm not equipped to confirm their content.
19:11
The boost from this neutron star will carry me into the nebula beyond. But I'll head out from the star for a better view of the nebula first.
19:17
Not a very pretty nebula, but it's another one with lots of neutron stars. The one I picked randomly has already been scanned though, so maybe they all have.
The "Cat's Eye" is about halfway home from here so I think I'll take a look. It's a system with three black holes and a tourist beacon.
3304 October 05, Friday
18:17
I know there are plenty of planets like this in the bubble, I just liked the photo.
18:46 - Skaudai Ma-D D13-54
I found something strange here, the main neutron star hasn't been tagged but the red dwarf B star has CMDR Julian Roper's name on it. More credits for me I guess.
3304 October 06, Saturday
20:26 - "The Cat's Eye"
I hate to say it, but I'm underwhelmed again. There are three black holes at the "Cat's Eye" and a tourist beacon detailing a case of space madness. The first black hole you "see" is the largest of the three but with no nearby bodies or nebulae to view through it you are left with the milky way. Worth it if you've never seen a black hole perhaps, but Maia B is closer.
The other black holes may yet provide a more exciting view. They orbit quite closely, whizzing around each other in about eight hours. Currently they are spaced out perpendicular to the milky way meaning that I have to keep a fair distance to see any combined effect. I'm going to stop for the night here though, so hopefully they'll be better aligned when I return to my cockpit.
At least I'm sleeping well. The luxury cabin that was vacated so early on the voyage is absurdly big for one man but it's certainly comfortable. And it doesn't stink half as much as my cockpit. I've been trying to hack the robotic servants to clean my quarters and cockpit but the software is proprietary and I can't figure out how to flash a custom OS onto them. Zachariah Nemo would know, but I don't fancy my chances of convincing him to help.
3304 October 07, Sunday
07:55 - "The Cat's Eye"
The view is slightly improved this morning, but still not spectacular. I could wait for the perfect alignment but I think I'll just move on.
08:35 - Blae Drye HQ-H B 12-0
I'm about 5 kLy from the old worlds and I found an unidentified signal source, the first I've seen since way before the Dancefloor.
08:58
This brown planet is in fact a waterworld. I think the drab colour has more to do with the light from the parent red dwarf than any muddiness of the seas.
09:27 - Drojeae OS-S D4-16
About 3.7 kLy from the old worlds. Barnard's Loop is coming into view now. Perhaps I'd have seen it before if I had been flying farther from the main stars.
12:00
Bokitoke, back in the bubble. I'm just passing through, three more jumps to Aasgaa. Then I just have to - very carefully - land. There are three ships on my scanner and I feel a little crowded.
12:10
Back at Watts Enterprise in Aasgaa. Had a weird glitch in my landing gear where it wouldn't engage with the landing pad, don't know what that was about. I had to pull it in and extend it again. Good job I synthesised extra heatsinks on the way in - don't take chances with that kind of profit.
It's been a long voyage, my hull integrity rating is just 6% and the paintwork is just as much of a mess. I don't think I'd want to do a voyage like that every month but now and then it's nice to take a change of pace. I could have taken more than twice as much time over it, and perhaps I should have. I could also have taken more time finding the right passengers. It's surely possible to get a bunch going to beacons near Colonia. I could also station this ship in Colonia - once it's fully engineered - and bring "famous explorers" (tourists) back to the bubble. But that's not so profitable unless I relocate there.
A better idea might be to fly from one of the capital systems. I could tour the stations a bit looking for the right passenger contracts. It's not like the factions I support are getting much influence from these missions anyway.
13:22 - Reorte
I spread the influence from my exploration data around a few ARC systems. In Ing Ring I switched to my Gutamaya Eagle which I very nearly pasted across the station wall. It's a ridiculously fast ship and I just wasn't ready for the speed after a fortnight in a Beluga.
Not only did the "famous explorers" (tourists) not pay double, I don't think they even coughed up the promised bonuses for not getting scanned. And one party had to be carried out of their cabin by security they were so high. Famous explorers indeed, the bed linen is gone and there are scorch marks on the maid-bots. I don't even want to know what kind of trip they were on.
So how did I do? 110 megs and twelve biotech conductors for the three passenger missions, 72 megs for the exploration data. But that's a pathetic amount of profit from such a long voyage. I definetely should have taken a detailed surface scanner. If I'd realised I was making so little I'd have turned back and fitted one.
But lesson learned, I shan't leave the bubble without one again. Basically I've broken even on the cost of the ship so it's a trade of two weeks for the ship and the sights I've seen. Worth it I reckon.
If anyone is interested, this is the build I took and this is what I plan to take next time.
I've heard rumours that a new combined body and surface scanner will be released soon. If so I'll probably squeeze in a repair limpet controller. Then I could also swap the class 4 cabin for an SRV hangar. They weigh the same so it's a question of whether the little bit of fun is worth 20-30 megs. These voyages aren't so long that I need to gather resources. An Anaconda would be better really, but I like to travel in style.