Beyond
10 Jan 2020Mavrecon
Having made my mind up to go into the black even further once reaching Colonia, I checked to see if there were any must see stops on my route. I'm glad I did. I was a few scant jumps from Skaude AA-A h294, also known as The Collection of Wonders. The name does its best to capture what makes this system so special. They really are wonders to behold. So many unique and visually stunning celestial bodies. I took more photos than I'm willing to admit. I had so much fun cruising through the red rings in my guardian fighter, zipping between rocks while outrunning my ship. I'm proud to say that the extra weight bringing a fighter bay along the journey was completely worth it. From time to time it's a great way to shake off the interstellar crust that builds up in your joystick from jumping from star to star. I took a ton of pictures of my travels, making sure to capture as much of this beautiful system as I could. After a good day of playing around the different stars I found a nice planet to park on and make camp. Tomorrow I was going back into the black.
Colonia was just as beautiful as I thought it would be. The star density is just magnificent, and something you have to experience first hand to truly appreciate. I contemplated gaining access to a few of the engineers there, but decided not to and made my next big waypoint selection. I decided on a random nebula deep in the Orio-Persean Conflux Region. I settled on the Devil's Mask Nebula. I wanted to go out past the galaxy center and hunt for undiscovered black holes and Wolf–Rayet stars. The plan was to continue out that direction via neutron plotting, but then spend a few weeks exploring around the nebula to see just what I could find. I think that I was enjoying myself and discovery at this point, but I have to say that it really truly sunk it's teeth into me once I started finding such beautiful and unique systems. I put my name on over 20 previously undiscovered black holes and hundreds of systems. If I could ever call a place home, I'd put my outpost here.
After well over a month of hoping and discovering, I made a quick neutron flight to the galaxy center. The number of stars here is mind boggling. My nav computer regularly froze or lagged behind while trying to plot something as simple as 5 jumps. My timing was perfect, as the recently constructed Explorers Anchorage was completed and I was able to do some hull repair work while visiting Sag A. While in the station, news from the bubble was refreshing and needed after so long away from civilization. You forget how good pleasant company can feel. One of the scientists I met over a lunch mentioned the return of the Thargoids in bubble, and how far they were encroaching on humanity. I'd heard enough, my vacation was over and I decided then and their to plot neutrons back to the bubble as quickly as I could to get involved.
As far away as it all was, I was surprised to be back in the bubble less than 2 days later. It's amazing how much ground you can cover with some determination.