The Quest for 1,000,000ly - Log #9
21 Dec 2020Stellas Incola
Beagle Point! Almost three months after setting off and heading in the opposite direction first, I've finally made it. The circumnavigation so far has been long (~225kly), but has passed with only a few minor bumps and scrapes and the loss of one SRV (and an SLF...), which was thankfully replaced at the Deus Vult! fleet carrier en route. All detailed in my previous logs.My last rendezvous with a carrier prior to reaching Beagle Point was at Mandy's Rest on the outer edge of the Sagittarius-Carina Arm, located in orbit around a beautiful Earth-like World. After paying my respects, turning in my data and running one or two minor repairs to the Anaconda, I left and shortly afterwards found a system with around 48 planetary bodies, one of which had biological signals that had been very rare in the last 100kly or so. I landed and deployed the SRV, to find crystalline structures among the fumaroles that yielded copious quantities of yttrium. Just as I was topping up, I got a little over-zealous with the throttle and wedged the new SRV's front axle between two crystalline spires. I tried for around 10 minutes to free myself and began to get annoyed that I'd managed to get stuck again, thinking this SRV was going to have a very short life, when Randomius smiled on me and it started to shift slightly with a little boosting to help it on it's way. I was thankfully free again and managed to drive back to the ship intact this time.
The CMDR that pledged to join me at Beagle Point has made very slow progress over the last few weeks and is still a long way off (about 30kly), but that's ok, I can take a well earned break or explore this area a little more and wait for him to arrive before we jump up to Semotus Beacon together and then head home anticlockwise along the 'western' edge of the galaxy.
I must admit, since passing the galaxy's centre meridian, the last few weeks have been the hardest part of the journey so far. There have been few distractions making the voyage feel even longer and difficult to maintain momentum (although a little canyon running did see me pancake an SLF at one point). Chatting to my fellow Fuel Rats in the comms channels has helped, but since a large influx of new CMDRs to the black began around four or five weeks ago, they've been incredibly busy and there's understandably not been much free time for chinwagging with this very distant CMDR.
Only 35,500ly to go to reach my personal target of 1,000,000ly total distance travelled. As anticipated previously, this will likely happen around the 10 or 11 o'clock position on the galactic disc. That bottle of Lavian Brandy I've been keeping will be getting some dents put in it on that day.
Christmas 3306 at Beagle Point it is then. I wonder what 3307 will bring? Wherever you are in the galaxy CMDRs, I wish you a peaceful end to the year and best wishes for the coming one. o7
Time and date of journey start: 13:10 UTC, September 27th 3306.
Total hyperspace distance travelled at journey start: ~749,000ly
Total hyperspace distance travelled to date: 964,489ly