Success! And not.
15 Jul 2015Latimer
Okay, quite a bit has happened. I did, in fact, have by first successful Fuelrat mission. A Ratsignal went up in Synuefe XV-G A106-0 from Cherry Riot in a Diamondback Explorer. Amazingly, the map found it on try two, so I flew in my Cobra GTFOD refueller to the destination. After many false starts trying to get instanced together, managed to wing up with the client, was terrified when the first limpet failed, but after that got him 7 tons of fuel, and then helped him navigate to nearest star. He jumped safe and sound after that. SUCCESS! My first Rat-rescue. Many thanks to all for the great advice in chat.
Based on the experience, I modified the GTFOD to the GTFOD.Heavy. Knocked the fuel down from 32t to 24t, and increased the limpets from 8 to 16. No unscoop super range any more, but the GTFOD is more for Known Space rescues anyway...
Which was good, as a Ratsignal was received by a client 2600 light years away, at OOCHOSS MM-U A57-0. Amazingly, the Nav computer found it. Instead of going with the Cobra, I booked to Lembava and quickly modified my Diamondback Explorer into a Rat, with 16 limpets, typed the destination into the Nav, lined up with something 1000 ly out, and started jumping out there at 32 ly a jump like mad.
Except...
As it turned out, I had typed OOCHOST MM-U A57-0. And guess what? That system ALSO exists, and ALSO was found by the Nav computer without an issue. And is 1600 light years away from the RIGHT place.
Cursing astronomers worldwide for their lousy naming conventions, I changed course. Thankfully, I was backup Rat, the client was rescued long before I'd get there, but I still got about 1800 light years away from civilized space. I parked out in space for the evening, content that at least I was honking at systems along the way.