Formidine Rift population census extravaganza
12 Jul 2020Junagu
We're four weeks into our journey and have hit a sticking point. Tritium mining is sticky. It's got us stuck in the Formidine Rift. No fear, though; the CMDRs onboard are keeping busy and are well versed in the required tasks. I think they're also having a good look about, within about 500Lyrs radius I'd say. I've never been to the Outer Arm before. I'm surprised by the abundance of systems with life-signs.There are two other fleet carriers nearby and I've made contact with the captains of both.
Sir Peter Blake KBG-3XZ, captained by a CMDR who calls himself Windows_95 for some bizarre reason, is in a permanent anchoring around an ELW in Groeb LX-L d7-26.
Their market is buying LTDs at 1 million per ton, so the little accumulation we've had whilst out mining I've sold on and put it back into Blodeuwedds Branch. Longevity of the mission is going up - making money. I'm holding at 2.5Billion Cr and channeling everything I earn into the FC. Along with 2 CMDRs contributing in exploration data and the odd few tons of LTD/VO, not to mention Tritium contributions (most significant) the balance sheet reads positive.
The Hapax KLJ-4VN, captained by CMDR IndigoAlphaNovember, we'd seen near the Zurara and the captain put up a flag for Tritium. We did a bit of mining for them and have struck up a rapport. They are likely to join us on our next leg, which I'm glad about. Though it puts a bit of extra strain on refueling I think it will help to draw in other travelers if we have a convoy and a clear route. The Hapax has the same livery as Bloddeuwedds Branch - I'm taking that as a sign.
The various stationary carriers out on the fringes could really do with a tanker supply chain - if, when, we make it back to the home systems it's something I will seriously consider doing. We've spent about a week here; much longer than anticipated. But, the next leg is going to be a prolonged stretch. I really thought we'd done all the mining we needed to at the last stop, but whilst we're at a triple Tritium hotspot the feeling amongst the crew is to take advantage of it. If anyone out there likes mining - there's tons of work at these remote fleet carriers. Weeks of gathering 1000s of tons of Tritium and then a big payoff when a couple of carriers come through and want to buy 17,000t of Tritium rather than mining it.
Meanwhile, we've been doing shifts in the HS and co-operating a bit with the other miscreants hanging out this far. It's an interesting time of experimenting with different mining techniques and loadouts. Whilst we're in a triple HS we're getting a better guage of the speeds of the different mining methods. I definitely prefer subsurface.
I've been out exploring too and found some good UC scores and spent a bit of time gathering some more materials, mainly Germanium and Niobium.
I'm finding my ship choice at the moment favours these.
Type-10 - Tritium laser mining.
AspX - Subsurface/multirole Tritium mining.
Krait MkII - Exploration.
Adder - Exploration, planet hopping and material gathering.
Blodeuwedds Branch in Groeb BB-W c15-3:
Our next waypoint is DSSA #77 Skarapa Z32-H3Z (Ska'ava Iski'iva) in Oob Aeb XI-X c28-0. Word has it that they are buying Tritium and LTDs. It will be interesting to see who is hanging around there.