Second Time in Xibalba
06 Jul 2020Pisodeuorrior
For the second time around, I’ve arrived in Xibalba.I had things to do this time, so I didn’t explore as thoroughly as I’m used to.
My first stop was a rendez-vous with the DSSA Aristarchos. I had been in touch with Commander Holint for a while, who kindly made available some of the Tritium he had left from his own deployment.
That saved me a few days of shooting at rocks, so thanks again Commander.
He also pointed me out to an actually pretty great double hotspot nearby to mine the rest of the fuel I needed to get back home. I have to confess that I fucking hate mining, but I’ve made my peace with the idea, or I would never have started this expedition.
Nevertheless, I mined only the very bare minimum required to get to the Bubble, which still took about a week. According to my math that should be enough to get home with just a little bit to spare.
If my math turns out wrong, and if in that case I don’t find an Icy ring along the way, I’m afraid it will be a very awkward call to the Fuel Rats.
Anyway, when refuelling was out of the way I started to look around, and I decided that this time I had to reach Hypau Aec IO-Z d13-0, better known as Arm’s End, the very last star of the Outer Arm.
I was a bit travel weary when I visited Xibalba the first time. It was at the end of my 850000 light years trip, so I preferred to turn back instead of inching my way to the End through this starless maze.
So, to avoid wasting precious Tritium I left the Wandering Star parked near the DSSA Aristarchos and went on with my Asp.
As expected, the navigation to Arm’s End is not easy nor cheap. Even with my 67.5 light years range I had to start performing FSD Injections from as far as 3500 light years from destination, for a total of about 35 boosts.
The stars are on average 110 light years apart in this part of Xibalba, and finding a way does take some effort.
Nonetheless, I made it without incidents. I even found a handful of undiscovered Ammonia Worlds and even a pretty Water World, which were quite a find considering that due to the scarcity of systems, pretty much all stars in the region have already been tagged by some pilot or another.
At Arm’s End there’s another permanent carrier outpost, the Explorers’ Bar & Grill, which to be honest is a pretty damn good thing after the ordeal one has to go through to get here.
A beacon of civilization in one of the most remote corners of the Galaxy.
Plus, due to my carelessness I had already chipped a 4% hull off my ship, and repairing was a welcome service to find on board.
So, it’s now time turn around, mostly because there really isn’t nowhere else to go.
I’ll soon fly back to the Wandering Star, cross Kepler’s Crest again, then the Sanguineous Rim and back to the Bubble to refuel for the second part for the trip, for which I’ll hopefully be joined by three other explorers.