Tour Del Sol - Day 1
21 Jan 2016Tuts
*** Sol System, Mercury, StarDate 1.19.3302 ***In a sentence: Toured the sunlit surface of Mercury; it was toasty, mostly.
My jump into Sol system was kindof a letdown. I expected to see lots of CMDRs as I know it to be a popular tourist destination, but all was quiet. I didn't waste any time hanging out by the Sun - you've seen one Type G, you've seen them all - but I did scoop up a bit of solar plasma, just for luck.
My first stop was Daedalus, the nearest station to the jump-in point, tucked into Mercury's shadow. Again, not much excitement here, and I was surprised that they are not well stocked with ship components. I did purchase an SRV bay because I planned to drive around on Mercury next. I also bought a cheap FSD Interdictor on a whim. I've never used one before, but the slot was empty, so maybe I'll try it out at some point.
Mercury looks about like I'd expected; crater-pocked and airless, pretty drab from orbit:
I did spot an unusual canyon-like feature running through some large craters, and decided to land and have a look around up close before continuing on to Erlich City:
The canyon floor is wide, smooth and utterly flat. I can only speculate that some powerful solar event in the recent past* caused metal to run like a river across the planet's surface. Whatever! I drop down into the SRV, pop in some classical music, and with a "whoop!", I gun the engine and slam the accelerator petal to the floor. Next thing you know I'm zipping around full speed, fishtailing and doing donuts - on frackin' Mercury!
I do a little prospecting, but I don't find anything special - though I DO find some mercury in an outcrop. My meta moment of the day.
I'm about to call it a day & head back when I pick up an unusual scan signature, somewhere nearby and upslope. I cautiously trundle up the escarpment to check it out:
It's a debris field of some kind... I can't even tell if it used to be a ship, or just a jettisoned / poorly secured cargo container, because none of the metal fragments are larger than a square meter. Seven cargo canisters survived the event, however, and they were filled with... GOLD!? Whoa, instant payday! I called my ship's autopilot and ordered it to land close by, while I scooped up the first two canisters. I then (oh so carefully!) used the cargo scoop on the ship to pick up the remaining salvage. I marveled that this was the first vacation I've ever been on that ended up MAKING me credits!
Time to cash out. Next stop is Erlich City, just over the horizon. In honor of my find, I've decided on a name for my new Viper Mk. 4 - the Lucky Strike.
*in geological terms.