Colonia Bridge 24 (PTN Profit's Prophet to Song of Deimos)
01 Jun 2024Sarashina
Despite the hazards of a mining encampment, there's quite a calm vibe here, both in SC and on station. Decided to have a pootle about and see what I could see, and promptly forgot the station is parked in the middle of planetary rings. Hull integrity compromised. Not sure I'm up to hazres anyway with my 3 little beam lasers but thought I'd have a look at some signal sources. Two interdictions later and I'm starting to worry about my vibe-meter. Some mats found and some legacy firmware, but the hull damage made a trip back to base seem sensible before jumping out of the system. MoG's controls seem to have developed a glitch too; nothing that the station techs could track down. It'll have to wait for a refit in Colonia.Next stop, CB-30 Ironstar Varangia in Skaude ZK-X e1-203, 10 jumps. I bounced off the rings again, and trying to get out, was masslocked, apparently by a following Python. No comms or attempt to attack, but it inhibited the jump into SC significantly. Poor MoG needs better kit.
1, Skaude OI-A d1-140 single star. Route mapper glitched out and wouldn't pick up the next system, although it was still plotted.
2, Skaude TG-U b7-1, 3 gas giants, one w/ abl. Icy bodies, one scanned with footfall. Nothing interesting chemically.
3, Skaude TJ-Y d1-61, blue-white star (class A) in a binary with a smaller class K star (another for the Codex). Am I really finding such unusual things? Or just unusual for me? I've had to travel a long way to find them. Do they not exist in the bubble or is there only a bonus for confirmation of rares?
4, Skaude DU-O b10-6, class M with 7 icy bodies, which I felt compelled to scan. Why am I like this? In the same vein, still hearing cuckoos. Not sure it isn't something in MoG's fuselage. Maybe MoG's just living up to its name, wanting to retire to a woodland somewhere.
5, Skaude IL-L b12-7, binary system with little icy jobs, all scanned and a couple of footfalls.
6, Skaude SV-R C6-7 and another for the Codex - a hmcw with atmosphere, literally! And it's terraformable (planet 2). Has been mapped; sadly not landable. Scanned it just because. An odd thing with yellow soil and white clouds that looked more like geysers than cloud systems. You have to wonder who'd want to live there.
7, Skaude VB-Q c7-1, binary system
8, Skaude WP-C b17-5 some interesting things. A double binary system, with the anchor pair being a class M with a very close (60Ls) class L dwarf, of an absolutely amazing colour. Between the two, a gas giant, and a water world with attendant hmwc. The second pair of stars a class L and class T, again sharing some planets. Took some photos but even the camera's looking foggy. Interesting rather than exciting.
9, Skaude DC-Z b18-7 another binary, both with planets, mainly icy. B2 looked interesting on the scanner but was 32k Ls out, so no. Controls are getting pretty glitchy now.
10 Skaude ZK-X e1-203 and an absolutely brilliant white star, class B. Couple of gas giants, one a class IV which I don't often see. One of the moons (6C) has 2.7% arsenic, which is quite respectable. 3.7kLs out. Lots of "the workers are revolting" on the comms, and high-threat pirate activity near the station, but managed to pick up some mats on the way in without being hassled. (They're all more interested in hitting each other.) Unfortunately the system was in lockdown, so the carto data will have to wait. I suppose if you name yourself after Vikings, people are just going to have a pop. It's expected.
I don't know if it was the brightness of the star, but the station looked amazing.
Next stop: CB-31 Leaping Frog Skaudai GM-S b35-5, 9 jumps. I just want to get to Colonia now. This has been going on too long.
1, Skaude NU-T B21-4 - in witchspace for a long time - it does happen sometimes, but I'm starting to doubt MoG's internals. Worrying. Binary system, massive M and tiny L. No planets.
2, Skaude JV-I c11-8 Witchspace like a turquoise nebula. Unusual. Trinary system with planets round the third sun, 219k Ls out, already mapped.
3, Skaude EJ-M B25-0 A number of interesting things - started scanning and Codex again, a Class II gas giant planet (4) - list of mats but presumably that's for the rings. I'm looking at these and thinking - even if it's the first time I've seen them, have I really not seen one of these before? Perhaps some setting got re-set at one of the pit stops. 5 other gas giants, two with wbl. One of the rocky bodies, 2C, is in the Codex - non-terraformable rocky ice planet ("world") with no atmosphere. It must be the "non-terraformable" which sets it apart. Everything scanned but nothing apparently mapped. Silicate vapour geysers on 2C, allegedly, but despite mapping, I couldn't see them.
4, Skaude QH-F C13-15 Binary with a bunch of bodies; second system out at 290kLs. Everything discovered but nothing mapped, no footfalls - but nothing exciting either. A few gas giants around the primary.
5, Skaude TC-F B29-6 Small boring planets. Landables, but nothing to land for.
6, Skaude AP-B B31-4 single star; Codex didn't squawk so I jumped on.
7, Skaude JW-X B32-2 small binary with ice worlds.
8, SKAUDAI DG-U B34-3 new sector! I always feel like it deserves a fanfare, despite being entirely arbitrary. Looks like it was honked but never mapped. (I wonder if those commanders are still around at all?) Nothing special to look at.
9, Skaudai BM-S B35-5 and back to civilisation, so I dropped a heat sink before scanning. 3 gas giants, one with ammonia based life. Planet 4 has rings and less than 1kLs out so I went to have a look. It did, indeed, have rings, and I was charmed.
Off to CB-31, Leaping Frog. The red nebulae are now looking like meat scraps. Still 200Ls out of the station and I hear the ranting. People yelling for freedom. There's... literally an entire galaxy out there. No-one's stopping them leaving. It's not like they grew up on the station either, the whole of Colonia Bridge is relatively new. But it meant another station on lockdown, so I decided to press on, drunk with the possibity of more Codex discoveries. No, really.
Next stop, CB-32 Song of Deimos in Skaudai AO-V b47-0. (Worrying. Who names these?) Looking at the map, I'm a little over half-way there, and Colonia does seem to be in a patch of small, dense nebulae. About as far again to Sag A* but I'm assuming I can go there more directly. Strangely, only 6 jumps to the next one. Leaping Frog is situated in the rings of a gas giant, which makes coming in slow and a bit challenging, but looks impressive.
1, Skaudai LC-K D9-76, a beautiful silver-white star. They always surprise me, and never cease to delight. (Perhaps because the ship's extra safety systems for particularly hot stars mean I've never run into one.) Trinary system with a red and a brown giant, all sharing planets in common. ABC3 and it's the Codex again - water giant, and ABC 2 is another. ABC 1 is orbited by several gas giants, a couple with ammonia based life. All the stars also have their own planets, many hmcw or metal-rich. Mostly mapped, with footfall. A very interesting system, and word has obviously got round about it.
2, Skaudai UK-L B39-3 quaternary system.
3, Skaudai FD-G B42-3 Binary with class M and class T dwarf, both with planets. Honked but nothing mapped, not even the hmcw at 6Ls out. Supposedly it has 3 geologic markers, but nothing showed on the planet, even as I came into land. I shut down systems and pulled out the big guns - time to play with some of those firmware patches I keep picking up from other ships. Not always advisable, but something screwy is going on, and I'm not sure I'm going to get to Colonia at this rate.
It paid off, although I still didn't see what I was expecting. Searching over the surface, I followed the colour map - did it mean something now? - and set down amidst a volcanic area - those peaks are up to a klick high. In the shadow of one of those mounds, I found one of the geological features, along with some mats. And first footfall. (My first! I always thought it was SRV, but no. Actual feet.) Piceous cobbles in the shadow of a peak 500m high. I made the mistake of going and having a look in it - to find it was actually active down there. Getting out was not fun.
4, Skaudai HJ-E B43-0 Not the system I'd originally had mapped, but the plot was lost when I updated the firmware. 5 gas giants, a couple with abl. I'm now seeing biologicals on the scanner - I didn't even know the scanners in this ship could do that. I wonder if that explains some of the otherwise strange choices I've seen for footfalls in this area. CO2 atmophere. Went down to the planet, focusing on a darker area on the scanner. Amazing. A pale azure sky, silvery mountains in the distance, and I found patches of two different... plants? The aloe-type appeared to be flowering. Pollen? There didn't appear to be any insects or similar. Wind-blown? There was definitely some kind of light breeze. Extraordinary. I don't think I've ever been on an atmospheric planet before. The suit appeared to cope quite well. Feel like I want to come back here one day and explore more...
The Milky Way now looks like it has chunks out of it; particularly dramatic in the FSS.
5, Skaudai II-N C22-23 Binary K & M, M has 4 hmcw - 3kLs out with no footfall! So off we go. Came to B3 first. Nothing on the scan, strangely - does this mean nothing biologic or geographic? Went down anyway, just because it was there. Nothing there, but got first footfall. Trinary system with a water world, a couple of hmcw and some icy bodies all orbiting the furthest star. And the Song of Deimos is 72kLs out (are you kidding me?) Those hmcw must be rich. Not clear if the Deimos in question is the Martian moon or the deity. The name hints at someone with a taste for the recherche, anyway.
I thought I might see some other fleet carriers along the way... do they have shipyards for visitors? Still another 20 stations to go till journey's end. The Lakon display is now showing an "exobiology" ranking, which is new. I wonder if I hacked into something restricted - will have to make some careful queries before I upload any data in station.
...except no caution was required because it was another station in lockdown. Here, everyone's content but it appears to be an outbreak. I'll stay in my ship then. To say it's a bit of a backwater here is an understatement - there are only two bounties, both cmdrs with 300 credits on their heads. Look, just pay the parking fines, ok?
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