Closing the gap
16 May 2020Ren Solsen
When The Bridger set to The Gap Expedition its objective was to explore the Hawkins settlements, cross the gap longitudinaly and head back to the bubble through known waypoints along the Outer Orion Spur. However, having a detachment to long term planning and a pilot that doesn't provide sane contradictory meant the voyage was unknowingly in its infancy as we reached the further point of Hawkins Gap.By then we were far out, so why not to try and see if we could find some of those famously beautiful Peduncle Trees. They are native from Dryman's Point, just a short detour from where we were. Dryman's was one of the most fulfilling parts of the expedition. We have found countless trees of all its varieties, many on first discovered sites. One site, in particular, Graei Phio AI-I d10-2 offered an Earth-like moon and two varieties of trees.
Once again we were hit by the "since we are here" virus and decided to plot to the far east Magellan's Star, but that was destined to be a bit more complicated. To get there we needed to find a jumponium route from earlier explorers. Le passage de Tenebris brought us across the arms from Sagittarius-Carina to Perseus Arm at Lyra's Song. From there we headed out to Tenebrae and joined the Route to Magellan outwards to the last star of the east.
After seeing the whole galaxy from the east, we thought that since we are out we may see it also from the south. The northern mark I have checked previously on DW2, so I guess collecting cardinals is a thing now.
We followed the outer rim of the Perseus Arm from Tenebrea, through Lyra's, Achille's Altar and Sanguineous Rim, to the Skull and Bones Nebula. That leg through the outer rim of the galactic arm was virtually unexplored virgin ground. We found all sorts of systems and mapped thousands of bodies.
To jump arms again and reach the two last regions on the tip of the Outer Arm, we needed a new route. This time we crossed the Monoceros Passage from Sanguineous Rim, just by Skull and Bones to the Kepler's Crest. There we needed to make a decision. Do we go straight to Amundsen, the south star or do we head towards the arm's tip and visit Xibalba? You get where this is going.
Visiting Xibalba, meant that we have visited each region of the galactic fourth quadrant. We made a detour and we headed there. Entered the region for a couple of hundred light-years and headed back to try The Route to Amundsen. Amundsen is an extraordinary system with the fantastic and rare Gyre Trees. With some clever engineering from Danna's, we managed to call in a multi-crew party with fellow CMDRs Boni and Gen. Zoff. It was a fitting time to plot back to the Bubble.
To head back we could join the prime meridian and follow a route straight towards the Bubble, but, you know... since we were here, we plotted the longest straight line a Solsen ever did, straight from the base of the Route to Amundsen towards the infamous Zurara. A line that crossed the Outer Arm Vacuous straight into the heart of the Formidine Rift. That was to be the last mostly unexplored leg of the trip. Around the Zurara, shipping lanes were all discovered and mapped and we started heading home.
There needed to be some more stops. For once we were now in reach of the Formidine settlements. The last of the Dynasty settlements for us to visit and after that, the first station since we left the Bubble. We stopped at the Base Camp asteroid base for repair and restock. We even fixed the paint job that was destroyed after months on the black. One night after a hard working day Danna came to me with some bad news. She didn't want to go back to "civilized" space. I have picked her up in a rock and I should leave hear in another even more remote. She loved the discoveries and the star-by-star plotting, but from here to the Bubble it would be only tourism. We drank, we cried it out, we went to create some commotion at the leisure decks... she stayed at the Base Camp.
She was right. Base Camp meant the end of the expedition, and now the only thing left was to head back home. I headed back in a blast, pushing the poor Bridger to its limits. At the symbolic last jump from Lave to Reorte I had my friends again, not in telepresence at this time, but in their glorious ships.