Galactic Pathways 4: 3KPC Far Arm (Still)
10 Mar 2017Tarm Wallunga
The latest and greatest from Tarm the Wanderer and his trusty Asp Explorer, Wayfarer!-------------------------------------------------------------------------
6th March, 3303
Current Region: 3KPC Far Arm
En route to BP-8, about 690 light years distant. Going to put some time to scanning moons of gas giants during this leg of the trip. Some information has come new to me regarding some of the things I'm actively looking for - arsenic, in particular. We will see if this info is of use or not.
In the meanwhile, still nothing from home or from Father. Curious. Nothing from WallCorp at all, which is... unexpected.
It didn't take long to find a suitable site, and as luck would have it, my landing approach put me relatively close to the rim of a double crater. Immediately, I resolved to check it out - ultimately this was a boon of a choice. Plentyt of minerals but nothing out of the ordinary, just a good buynch to zoom an scoop. Even got some cadmium and ruthenium - first timers, those - as well as my arsenic. Had some fun in the buggy, too: low gravity moon and a couple well placed bumps taken at a moderately fast pace - landed on my nose, continued to roll and wound up upright on the wheels! Thanks to some judicious use of the outboard jumpers, that is. Fun times, either way. And, scored a couple nice pictures when Wayfarer was recalled to land pick me back up. All in all, a good day of work.
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8th March, 3303
Current Region: 3KPC Far Arm
En route to BP-9, about 280 light years distant. The goal on this leg is to cover as much distance as possible in order to make the almost 300 light years I didnt' quite make yesterday. I spent a lot of time staring at system maps and checking out some worlds and moons - more than what I normally allow for on a single 1KLY segment of the trip thus far.
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9th March, 3303
Current Region: 3KPC Far Arm
En route to BP-10, a few hundred light years distant.
Found a planet close in to the local sun that registered, barely, mind you, for having polonium, which is the last thing I need to make the highest grade jumponium in preparation for crossing around the Abyss sector of the galaxy. Decided to take a chance and see if I could find any, since the mineral registered rather low - at less than 1 percent - and land on the planet. While scouting around I found what looked like an SRV that must have crashed and burned, spewing several canisters of cargo that I, of course, handily scooped up for myself. Including a ton of platinum, score one for me. Curious, however, that there was someone carrying this much cargo at something damn close to 10,000 light years from Colonia - and on the wrong side of the system, too, to be headed anywhere important. Won't ever find out what happened, because I'm not so forensically inclined, and I decided shortly after recovering everything I could from that SRV it might be best to get out of the area, and pronto.
During this leg of the trip I have officially crossed the roughly halfway point, in terms of distances, between Sol and the Bubble and Beagle Point. Technically I have a few thousand, at least, more light years to cover, but my screens say I have traversed more than 30,000 light years from home. Not a massive milestone, especially compared to those that discovered and later renamed that far off system Beagle Point, but certainly a step in the right direction. A shame it'll likely take me many more weeks to get there, not to mention a whole slew more on the return trip, but at least I'm occupying my mind.
Just wish I had brought more beer..