Colonia Bridge, part 10 (it's full of stars!)
25 Apr 2022Sarashina
26-4-3308Out of CB-15 Sevastopol and another bunch of Encoded Emissions - basically, ships being blown apart in this system left, right and centre. Useful for mats, but does suggest they weren't wrong when they said this was a low-security system.
459 ly to the next stop - 10 jumps, unusually long. At least in the short term, still heading for that spectacular patch of bright stars. It's not clear where they are on the galaxy map - in the Omega sector there are a number of stars with names starting 2Mass so maybe it's those - they're so outstanding they must represent something in the actual (RL) galaxy which, of course, is already named.
Bleia Dryiae XS-L b55-18 - couple of gg and a ww. Not pausing now to scan the little jobs.
Bleia Dryiae YY-J b56-19 - half a dozen hmcw and half a dozen gg, one with wbl
Bleia Dryiae WY-J b56-6 - couple of gg, 3 hmcw and a ww
Bleia Dryiae LU-E c28-31 - 7 hmcw, 1 gg. A couple of asteroid belts but couldn't find them - but the other stars were a loooong way out.
Bleia Dryiae VP-O a115-0 - the first non-scoopable. Small boring planets. The array of stars starting to fall like rain.
Bleia Dryiae ZF-G b58-7 (fuel) - scooping along the way, so still 2/3 of a tank, but better refuel when I can. 5 gg, 1 w/wbl, the rest dross. The star array now a star field.
Bleia Dryiae SZ-H b57-4 - my god, it's full of stars! May have to land to see what the sky looks like from planetside. The Omega nebula is now noticeable but still entirely overshadowed. Landed on a small planet a way out and chased the star field with night vision on. Found quite a few metallic meteorites by accident, which helped the mat score.
Omega Sector SD-S b4-0 - 4 gg, 1 w/ wbl. Good shot of the up-coming nebula - the next jump we'll be in it.
Omega Sector JN-I a10-0 (within the nebula!) - this always feels exciting, but is always disappointing - various shades of murk. At least it's pretty red/magenta murk here.
Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15 - and out the other side. 4 gg, 1/wbl, 1ww, 1 hmcw. Compromised nav beacon, always a sign of shenanigans. Still some nebula visible here, the star field is more compact and seems to be seen through it - so it looks like it was on the bubble side of the nebula. The carrier here is named CB-16 Colonia Bridge, which seems somewhat lacking in imagination. Congrats to them on winning the book though, they must all have been in it for this one.
Whoever placed the CB-16 Colonia Bridge had a finely honed sense of theatre - the carrier is situated in a gap between two planetary rings, and the planet has a backdrop of the star field. Fortunately they give you longer to dock or I'd have been so distracted I'd have missed my slot, especially as I kept getting distracted by the rings and couldn't find the pad. 2.875MCr on cartographics this time, 942k from last stop BD EE-E, 654k on BD YY-J, 516k on BD LU-E, 261k on BD WY-J, and 235k on BD XS-L (from 3 planets!). 97MCr in the bank so far.
Only the one hop this time, but that was mainly because I spent so long on the ice planet jumping (and failing to jump!) the rocks.
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