End of the Road in Amundsen's Star
01 Nov 2019Pisodeuorrior
That’s it, I’ve arrived. Amundsen’s Star, more precisely Lyed YJ-I d9-0. This is the most Southerly system of the galaxy, nothing past this point but black.Coming to this far star is a trip I would definitely recommend to new explorers.
While reaching the other three landmarks was at times challenging, getting here wasn’t difficult at all, especially compared to the 3000-light-years-long-FSD-boosted nightmare that was crossing the fringe of the Void to Erikson’s Star.
I believe it took only two regular boosts to reach Amundesn’s Star, so just a walk in the park when you compare the two.
I also have to add that despite it being much, much closer to Sol than, say, Beagle Point, this area gives me the impression of being a lot less travelled.
You go to the opposite side of the Galaxy, or even to Erikson Star or Magellan's Star, and you start seeing other commanders' tags 5k light years before you arrive.
Here I was the first to discover a system just four jumps to the very end of the galaxy.
On top of it being the southern border of the galaxy, this system is actually interesting. There are two Water Worlds, and a small rock I just landed on to take the scenery in.
It feels weird here. The disk of the galaxy appears as distant as it does from Semotus Beacon, on the opposite side.
Yet, the Bubble is not that far away (at least from the point of view of a seasoned explorer), and because of that this star doesn’t feel as remote as it actually is.
I guess that after almost one million light years travelled, anything from your same quarter of galaxy feels within reach.
Anyway, this was the last landmark of my journey. I’ve now visited all the four cardinal points of the Milky Way, for a total of 328000 light years travelled since undocking from Explorer's Anchorage.
Now I’ll attempt crossing the Outer Arm Vacuus, and after that I’ll consider what to do next. Once in the Perseus Arm I’ll have to decide whether to set course for home, or press on counter-spinward, fly back to Hawking’s Gap and close the loop I started five months ago.
That last option is tempting, I have to say. I am indeed a bit travel-weary, but it would be a shame doing a silly 290 degrees journey around the galaxy when I could do a 360 with just a couple more weeks in the Black.
On the other hand, I haven’t docked in almost half a year, I have a damaged power plant, a 54% hull and all that.
Oh well, I don’t have to decide now. I’m turning North, finally, across the Vacuus and towards Sol, at least for a while.