Distant Worlds 2, week 4 - Conflux Delta Site to Llyn Tegid Nebula
05 Feb 2019Thunktone
Out of character: Although I'm removing the draft status in 2020, this log entry is from February 2019, before the current COVID 19 pandemic and the talk of viruses and quarantine is a coincidence. I had a totally different viral chest infection at the time and shortly after writing this I cut out a lot of computer gaming to focus on my recovery.
3305-02-05 09:32,
Sacaqawea Space Port, Skaudai AA-A H71 Nebula,
63% paint,
75 MCr UC claim,
Recovering.
I set out on the 3rd, still feeling rough from the Colonia Flu I caught last week. With just a little help from my co-pilot Camilla I've visited Rusty Net Nebula, Skaude (Collection of Wonders), and the Skaudai Guardian Ruins and nearby Brain Trees. I also followed some leads from Cannon to space molluscs and collared pods in the nebula here, but I only found metallic crystal caltrops, goat tods, and some mineral lattice spheres. The lattice spheres were worth seeing, sort of bucky-ball clusters formed by a microbe colony. I got a nice haul of niobium from the brain trees for standard jumponium, but the ringed neutron star at the collection of wonders was the highlight.
P01 anomalies at WP3
Ammonia magma geysers on Flyiedgiae ED-I c26-137 A 2 a
Collection of Wonders, Skaude AA-A h294
Skaudai Guardian Ruins and Brain Trees, Skaudai AM-B d14-138
Skaudai AA-A H71 Nebula
I'm starting to feel a little better now so I'll probably push on to the waypoint today. I'm going to give the Spear Thistle and Octopus nebulae a miss though and go via Causality of Lotus instead.
3305-02-06 12:04,
Waypoint 4, Clooku EW-Y C3-197,
Enjoying myself.
Yesterday was a profitable day with a bunch of uncharted neutron stars and water worlds and a couple of ammonia worlds. Of course someone else could have passed the same way so I don't know if I'll be credited with the discoveries. I was told that Causality of Lotus was a glowing pink gas giant. It's actually chocolate brown like many others but it orbits quite close to a neutron star and looks pink in the blue-white light.
The waypoint is great, with the nearby planetary nebula providing a deep blue and purple backdrop for the yellow of the stars and the water geysers. But the best thing is that those water geysers jet out from a submoon of just 0.03 g. My record so far is a 22 km SRV jump but I think this world is even smaller than the one someone jumped into orbit from last week.
3305-02-08 19:37,
Gagarin Gate, Gru Hypue KS-T d3-31,
56% paint,
79 MCr UC claim,
Calm.
I wrecked three of my four SRVs doing geyser jumps from the waypoint system. Didn't take a scratch on that personal record jump but things didn't always go that smoothly. I smashed up a few fighters too. So I've gone on ahead of the fleet to Gagarin Gate. I'd never been here before but I noted the location some time ago after talking to another explorer in the Orange Sidewinder.
I'm a little surprised how much exploration data I got on that trip. It was only about thirty jumps. I guess there were quite a few water worlds and a water giant. Decent number of terraformable high-metal-contents too.
I don't know if I'll go back to the waypoint before Sunday, I might head over to Gandharvi. I'm sure the fleet will pass that way and I'm not too fussed about the synchronised swimming event. Not wise to take part in a shieldless ship I think.
3305-02-09 21:11,
Caravanserai, Gandharvi,
52% paint,
12 MCr UC claim,
Tired and irritable.
I trekked over here because it's one of the larger settlements outside the Bubble and the Colonia region, with a lot of passing trade going between the two. I saw a James-class hauler on my scanners on my way in. But the cargo hatches of the "Mercantile Pact" won't let me off my ship! They say they're taking no chances with this new virus and my ship's computer has snitched on me even though it thinks I'm 100% better. I have to wait on board until one of their doctors can spare the time to come and run some tests on me. They let Camilla out and my telepresence chair is downloading updates, so I don't even have any company.
I've ordered my Viper over from Omega. If that arrives before a doctor does then I'm switching ships and going bounty hunting. Just let them try and stop me.