In Aquila's Halo
24 Aug 2022Pisodeuorrior
After the short time spent in the Outer Arm I was ready to cross the thin veil of stars into Aquila's Halo.The passage is in fact one of the hardest in the Galaxy, maybe second only to the Abyss, to the point that its official name is Mare Desperationis.
Like in the Abyss, navigation is troublesome at best, nightmarish if you're flying a ship with less than optimal range.
The on-board route planner won't work, every star has to be selected manually, and dead ends are frequent.
On top of that, I actually decided to cross quite a significant distance from the most popular crossing, where stars are, although sparse, still close enough to maintain your sanity.
Crossing so close to Aquila's Halo meant that I had to use a non negligible amount of Jump Boosts, but other than that everything went smoothly enough.
My first stop in Aquila's Halo was the DSSA Chrysaetos Refuge.
I had spoken with CMDR Bow Lof Petunias a few weeks prior, who sadly didn't have any tritium on board to sell.
He, however, was kind enough to point me out to two hot spots nearby, which is where I spent the following four weeks. Mining.
I hate mining so much, but still.
After what seemed like four years I was finally ready to properly explore the region.
Aquila's Halo is the region of space with the fewest stars, and I was prepared to see it as an adventure.
From that point on, to the end of the Arm and well into The Void, I had to use almost a hundred Jump Boosts.
Good thing I stocked up before I left.
Anyway. As it's common in the outer reaches of the galaxy, interesting finds are difficult to find, at lest of the kind I'm after.
I did find a nice water world though.
Also, at one point the Wandering Star stopped by this nice binary A-class stars system, which is not rare or particularly remarkable, but for some reason I like binary stars a lot.
While nosing around on planets' surfaces I did discover many species I had never encountered before, which brought me half way to the rank of Exobiology Elite.
Unlike other arms of the Galaxy, Aquila's halo doesn't have a "last star". It rather folds back into the Errant Marches, so I just got to what looks like the very last system before it merges down, and turned back North.
While the road ahead is still very long, that felt like a turning point. Navigation is still troublesome, and it will be for about 10000 light years, but I can say I'm in a new phase of the journey.