Day #3 - That Fucking Satellite
27 May 2021Comrey
CMDR Gene ComreyMay 27th, 3307, 03:08
Deep space, Traikea YP-M d8-5, 6366.69 Ly from Sol
I was originally planning to update the previous entry, but a lot of things happened and, well... I guess I was so preoccupied that I forgot the time. Suppose this entry will be extra long instead.
I'll start off with what transpired over in Phylur BV-H c25-1. Waking up, I decided to head over to AB 7 B, a little rock world with a gravity of 0.05G. Figured I'd jump around a bit, take in the sights. Imagine my surprise when, after mapping the place, the first thing I notice is a man-made signal on the surface. 3500 Ly from Sol. I went down to investigate, and upon closer inspection it appeared to be a crash site. I couldn't land close enough, but I found a spot nearby and took the SRV out for a spin. It was a satellite. All the way out here, middle of fucking nowhere.
Found two access panels, one exposed and another welded shut. The former had some data stored on it, the latter I couldn't open, lacked the tools. At first all I saw was old boring crap, such as satellite manuals and all, but then I laid eyes on some classified documents regarding covert operatives. Well, I took that baby over to the ship computer, but of course the data was incomplete, corrupted. I needed the rest of it, and the rest of it was likely behind that other access panel.
Strapping on the scavenger tools I went about looking for the satellite again, but the signal was gone. It fucking died on me! Now, I don't know whether or not the data transfer sucked out all the remaining power, or if I triggered some failsafe or something, but I couldn't find that damn satellite again. Tried radio, radar... I even did a couple fly-bys to see if I could spot it from above, but nothing. Can't believe it, that data could have been worth millions! Hell, for all I know it could have been priceless blackmail material on Hudson himself. Fuck, I'm still upset.
In the end, I wasted so much time looking for that satellite that I had to go without really taking in any sights at all. I decided to divert to a couple neutron stars to supercharge my FSD and catch up with some long-range jumps. Worked like a charm, three jumps at about 300 Ly each and I was right back on track. Admittedly, the last one almost fried my circuits. I got to be more careful around those neutron things. Light circuitry damage is one thing, but miscalculating their gravity pull could drop me out of supercruise and right into a stellar energy storm, tearing me apart. Wouldn't be pretty.
Exploration-wise I actually had some pretty solid finds. Four water worlds in total, two of them in the Smoojoo sector. Both on the small end, one barely a quarter Earth-mass, but their maps should fetch a good price all the same. It was a system in the Traikea sector, however, that really impressed me. Two water worlds right next to each other, the first one fairly large, while the other almost identical to Earth, save for an abundance of water. It had about the same mass, same gravity and even same atmospheric pressure. Brilliant terraforming candidate, if it wasn't for the distance from the Bubble. Additionally, the system also contained huge crystals, just floating freely in space. They were easily the size of my ship. I ran them through the ship composition scanner, revealing them to be metallic, likely created by a huge amount of primordial microorganisms. Found four different types, all in all.
Think I'll end it here. Going to see if I can optimise my route to Colonia, then head to sleep.
That fucking satellite, though...
Comrey out.