[ OOCish ] Leaving the bubble for the first time
03 Jul 2016Mike Syron
Alright, I admit it: I am an idiot. But a lucky one.
Today I decided to fly to Maia in the Pleiades Nebula. From Jaradharre, where I was ... uhm, delivering some stuff to some Eleu guys before. They seemed nice and paid good. But the route to their station was a pain in the ass to be honest, almost so much like the one to that damn Hutton Orbital outpost in Alpha Centauri.
Yeah, they got me with that one too. Really. I was bloody clueless back then ... I still hear them laughing. And all I got was this fucking mug, heh.
However. After I checked my emails I got reminded that there were still some engineers out their waiting for me, I kept their invites in my inbox. A lad named Farseer got my attention, she knows stuff about shields, thrusters and FSDs. Thrusters, I say. I can't have enough of them, never. Powerful thrusters in particular, because slowness kills you and poor agility kills even kittens. And what does this has to do with Maia 420 lightyears away? Well, this lad likes Meta-Alloys, this creepy alien stuff everyone is talking about but I never was able to find myself till this day. And the only location where they actually sell these alloys is at Darnielle's Progress in the Maia system. So off I went ...
Besides, I never flew over 400 lightyears at once till this day. I'm a lazy asshole and tend to stick around where I feel good and where I feel home. - And on top of this I thought Maia is still in the bubble, so no need for a fuel scoop, right? You can stop by some outpost / station to refuel anytime. Err, wrong. I didn't really checked the galaxy map, did not zoom out or something. I just selected the destination, let the computer do the rest and hit the "ENGAGE" button. Well, I said that I'm an idiot, but a lucky one. I just installed a fuel scoop into my brand-new ASP right before and why? Because I'm a lazy asshole and thought, fuck those stations, I'll just rush to Maia and get fuel for free! Hah! That literally saved my ass. No, Fuel Rats, you'll never see me being ashamed of myself! - Not yet though.
The computer told me that it were about 21 hops to Maia. Yeah, my ASP is heavy, with shields, guns and stuff, and it had only a 5B FSD installed by then, so max 20 LY per hop. I know, I hear you snickering, you explorers. 400 LY! Laughable! 21 hops?! Err, what's that? My grandma had visited Sagittarius A already in her lousy Sidey!
Yeah, yeah. But that's just me, okay? Hillbilly Mike from Orishpucho near Rhea. I like beer, the Speed Ball Super Bowl and some more beer, if you don't mind. 400 LY sounds like the distance to the ass of the universe for me. But I did it not only because of that alien shit I needed but also to see the Pleiades Nebula. I never saw a nebula from this close till today myself. About time to just do it, right? What's an ASP-E good for if not for just this. ( I start to love this ship. Lakon, eh? Good guys, even though my heart belonged to DeLacy for a long time. )
Okay, let's get started. I rushed indeed - but only the first ten hops. Then I realized it. It was good to have a fuel scoop because there were no fucking stations whatsoever and luckily I got me a B3 one. Don't think of what would had happened if I had chosen the cheapest one, I would still hang around some star refueling I guess. And cursing. A lot. But instead something else happened - I got bored and decided to explore a bit more. I have a real weak spot for this, I must admit. But it's so time consuming ... sigh. I just wanted to reach Maia. On the other hand I like landing on remote planets and moons ...
Full 6 hours later I reached Maia finally. But till then I visited several moons, scanned every system, checked every planet by myself visually. And I found a little lost rock that just touched my heart somehow, just one hop before Maia. I wasted a lot of time on its surface, I landed on three locations and was really eager to find some hidden secret or at least something I've never seen before. I was full on exploration mode. - Alas, it was just "some rock" but nevertheless ... after hours of exploration, system after system, I felt a special kind of loneliness on this moon and humans are a strange species. When there's absolutely nothing than rock, dust and space around you, you start to give things names. I called this rock "poor dog". His size and his scarred surface with all these impact craters, while being close the the star, reminded me of some dog on Beregevoi Colonoy (Orishpucho). He got beaten quite often, he never had much luck and was looking for a warm place and a tiny little bit of food all the time. When I was a kid back then he had been my best friend for a while. Dogs can be so grateful if you show them some love and this one did. "Poor dog's" scars were canyons of unknown beauty and mystery for me. While this rock was very small from an astronomical point of view, it made me feel downright tiny nonetheless. Given that it was closely orbiting another rock the view was sometimes breath-taking. Here, take a look ...
I didn't take much pictures, I was so consumed by this little rock that I made them just when I was about to leave.
Good bye "poor dog". I'll never forget you and I might visit you again in some time. I've seen a few moons before you but I don't know, you're special. At least for me.
Again, about being an idiot - when I arrived at Maia I scanned this system too but was to tired to scan it entirely. So ... yep, I missed the chance to check that black hole. It seems I'm an colossal ignoramus too, I just did not made my homework and therefore I'm a lousy explorer. Besides the nice nebula I haven't seen so much in Maia, I just got the Meta-Alloys and head back to the bubble, straight to Farseer. This time I really rushed but - I have been out there now, just a little bit, yes. But I have been out there. And some day I'll go further, that's for sure.
Thanks, ED.