A fortnight of exploration provides half a billion credits
19 Jan 2019Thunktone
3304-12-20 19:08Well all the wars in the old worlds have become too much for me. The rules of engagement have changed and my Viper just isn't cutting through military fleets like it used to. Loading my plasma accelerators from the fuel tanks nearly doubles their ammo capacity, but I still run out after wrecking two or three ships. I can still help with my cytoscramblers, knocking the shields off enemy ships so that ARRC's professional fleet can finish them. But it just isn't fun any more.
So here I am outside the bubble again. I have a new Asp Explorer since my old Diamondback has been repurposed for war against the thargoids. I thought I'd take it as far as Mammon before heading away from civilisation entirely, see how I like it. The view is certainly better than the Diamondback. But it seems a bit of a compromise to me. It doesn't jump quite so far as the Diamondback and it can't carry as much as the larger ships. I'm still thinking of taking a Type-10 on Distant Worlds 2. Almost the same view with far more equipment.
The view I'm looking at now is spectacular. I'm in IC 1287 Sector QD-S B4-0, just a jump away from Mammon. And out of my canopy I can see sharp metallic crystals and clusters of mineral spheres surrounded by clouds of black dust. Alright so the latter look like steaming goat tods but the crystals are beautiful. According to this new-fangled composition scanner, both are made by microbes of some sort. There was an even more startling life-form elsewhere in these same rings. What they call an Mollusc or a Space Jellyfish. Bizarre things. I should have brought a laser to test their reactions.
3304-12-20 19:25
I've docked at Mammon, where I'll get some sleep before deciding whether to continue in this ship. I forget how many times I've been here, five? Six? It was a startling and beautiful sight the first time I saw the docking beacons glowing from a rock in these beautiful rings. But I guess asteroid bases all start to look the same. People talk a lot about how mind-bogglingly big space is and the incomprehensibly large distances we routinely travel. But the scale of what the human mind can come to consider dull is staggering too. Until you accept it and become blasé about it.
3304-12-23 09:27
I just mapped a system I discovered some time ago, that's largely what this trip is about. Prua Hypai SK-V D3-112 contains a pair of co-orbiting earthlike worlds. Two of the seven high metal content worlds are terraformable too. This isn't even that far from the bubble really, I might even be able to retire here someday. I'd certainly like to get down there and check out the wildlife.
3304-12-23 19:34
I've docked at the Eagle Sector Secure Facility, by choice, to sell my cartographic data. 72 megacredits so far and I haven't even reached the Norma Expanse yet. This could be a lucrative trip, more than paying for a Type-10 expedition ship. If only it could provide the rare materials to engineer it properly.
3305-01-01 09:54
Happy new year. I guess I've been a bit lax taking notes over the holiday season but I've put in a bit of flight time here and there between telepresence visits to my family back in Forward Horizons. I'm on my way back to the bubble now having mapped a few more of my old discoveries and I've found a few planets and moons with bark mounds in the Blaa Hypai AA-A H68 Nebula. They're common to many nebulae apparently, having seeded the galaxy before mankind had even evolved. I've seen the ones near Mike Turner Base, but these are the first I've discovered myself. I never would have had the patience to keep looking for them without the new FSS and the improved surface scanner.
And a few more pictures from my travels (I didn't note the locations):
3305-01-01 09:58
This is what brought me to the Blaa Hypai AA-A H68 Nebula, reports of ancient Guardian ruins. I've been to their sites out near the Pencil Nebula, in fact I keep a planetary vehicle hangar at New Growth so that I can make the journey faster. But I didn't realise they had outposts as distant as this. I wonder how many more ruins we'll find with the new FSS.
3305-01-01 19:31
I came out to map old discoveries but it's nice to find something new. Skauduae AK-Y D1-51 6 is a previously unknown earthlike. I really should have taken more notes over Christmas, I think this is one of three I found on this trip but maybe it was just two. In fact I think I found three that were new to me, but one had been discovered before the DSS upgrade and I was first to map it.
3305-01-03 17:25
I'm back in the old worlds, home. And half a billion credits richer. I bought a Type-10 and kitted it out for a scientific expedition. Despite the huge cost of the 8A fuel scoop I had enough left over to buy a Mamba to have another go at mercenary work. I already test drove one of the later prototypes and found it quite effective when equipped with turrets. All the weapons have a good range of fire overhead so I can just focus on flying around behind the enemy at a range of about a kilometre. I put four pulse laser turrets on, two large and two small, and a huge multicannon to chew through heavy armour. I'm probably going to switch to beam turrets as the power plant is plenty big enough and heat isn't such a problem with turrets. And when I get around to doing some serious engineering on it I think I'll swap one of the small lasers for a feedback cascade railgun to help deal with shield cells faster.
The official launch of distant worlds two is just ten days away and I want to get my Type-10 decently engineered by then. I doubt I'll find enough lightweight alloys to perfect it but I should be able to get it deep-space-worthy. A 45 Ly jump range will do me and the huge FSD drive will allow quite a lot of scientific equipment, and toys, without pushing me below that.