Beauty in the Black
15 Sep 2016Tokugawa Daisuke
I took a long look at the Vindicator today and it wasn't good. The beat-up old Dropship just couldn't hack it any longer. I took her back to Ashby City, stripped her down, and sold her off. It's amazing Core Dynamics still gets away with selling those old blastboats with how fragile they are. I hope a refit's in the works, but I'm not holding my breath. After I took a stroll down to the shipyard, I ended up the owner of a shiny new Faulcon DeLacy Python. Had a paint job in the datavault for it, so it's a little custom. Fitted the new girl for armed hauling. I heard good things about a system far out in the black called Sothis, so I loaded up a couple hundred tons of water purifiers and headed rimwards.
Humankind has trivialized spaceflight. It never really hit me until I left the bubble how vast and empty and beautiful our galaxy is. This must be what early-1900s man saw through his telescopes and radar dishes that made him say "we must go there one day." If they could see us now, they'd be struck down with awe, I think.
I finally made it to Sothis about three hours after setting out. The A-rated fuel scoop was the best credits I ever put into this beauty. Scooping off the suns let me pull all this cargo out here without breaking my back. A few pirates decided to play Smokey and the Bandit, but they couldn't hack it in a fight against this new girl of mine.
Once I reached Sothis and docked at the currently-under-construction Newholm Station, I offloaded my cargo and took a sigh of relief.
Made it.
I snagged a bottle of some Lavian gutrot and decided to toast the first successful trip from the bubble to the rim. In the process, I christened my new Python. The "Galatea" was an ancient warship fallen in the line of duty, guarding Sol from some legendary alien race determined to scourge the galaxy of life. I figured I could use the luck with the rumors running rampant in the core lately.
Thargoids. The spacer's campfire story. Thousands of lightyears apart, itinerant pilots gather in canteens and outposts, telling stories about the buddy that heard from their buddy that there was a scary-sounding transmission in Wong Guin or Aornum or something out further. Hopefully, they're just stories.
I'm turning in. Long jump back into the bubble tomorrow.
-Tokugawa