Exploration - 3.2 - Week 49 3307
12 Dec 2021Sumurai8
[05 12 3307 | Inferred location: Soad NZ-E c28-0]
Not much to say about today's run. Not many interesting things on the way. I am stopping today on a HMC with some biological signals, just to stop somewhere and shut my eyes.
During this long voyages I have plenty of time to think. Maybe too much time to think.
It's rare, you know, to be so financially independent to go wherever you want, whenever you want. Us independent pilots always have the choice to jump into a conflict, or to let it run its course, to run a profitable trading route, to rid the galaxy of hundreds of pirates, to supply a local refinery with plenty of minerals, or to run from it all and travel into the deep black void.
Unlike the people we independent pilots face day to day, we have gotten the training and done the outfitting to survive whatever we decide to do. I sometimes wonder if the people I face have even heard which side of the gun should face the enemy, or what pulling on a flight stick does. Or if they were so desperate for cash, that they would fight in a conflict knowing full well that their lack of training would almost certainly get them killed, just to feed their family.
Here in the black I cannot hurt anyone. Not directly anyway. Maybe I'll piss off a Thargoid and start the final incursion. More likely I will find some profitable planet humanity will want to expand to, and instead end up causing millions of deaths while humanity fights over it. Because that's the one thing humanity has been universally good at. To destroy that what it has created in an attempt to assert power over others. To dominate, at all costs.
[06 12 3307 | Location: Eok Eaec OT-K c11-0]
Most systems are explored here. Time to just jump jump jump. Nothing new to find here anymore.
[06 12 3307 | Location: Eok Eaec VF-L d9-2]
Waypoint reached. Now to see if it can plot a route further. It appears we have a low density star cluster ahead. I have to keep an eye on fuel reserves.
[08 12 3307 | Inferred location: Slyaiks XX-D c1-0]
Hey, it looks like this is the second system in a row that was not previously discovered. Might I have finally escaped pre-explored space?
[08 12 3307 | Location: Slyaiks GK-A c3-0]
Nevermind. I spoke too soon
[08 12 3307 | Location: Tradgue BA-P b39-0]
Elysian Shore reached. As expected still explored, but I should soon-ish get into unexplored space again when I get further towards the core.
[08 12 3307 | Inferred location: Phroi Hypa HR-C d15]
Landed on a planet with 6 biological signals. It has been a long track through explored space and not that much excitement. There's little reason for me to scan those systems. The data is already out there. Unfortunately that makes it a rather boring set of long jumps. Like a truck driver on a long, boring road. Trying to stay awake, and not crash into a
It's nice to have something to explore and catalogue again here. While cataloguing the local fauna I took a picture. At least it makes for an interesting backdrop when resting for the day.
BETWEEN TUBES AND TUSSOCK on Inara Gallery
[09 12 3307 | Inferred location: Phroi Hypa FH-U e3-5]
Waypoint reached. For my next stint I plotted a route further up this arm of the galaxy. Then I scanned thousands of stars around that route looking for something interesting and unexplored, but I haven't found anything yet. I'll just take off and get going and re-adjust if I feel like it. The plan is to eventually get to Colonia, but I'll likely intentionally overshoot and and curve back towards it whenever I feel like returning to civilisation.
[09 12 3307 | Inferred location: Phroi Hypa RA-L d9-1]
Ugh. Did I fly too close to one of the bubble's long range data beacons and did the life form analyser update it's firmware automatically? I tried scanning some bacteria on this planet, as one does when cataloguing life, but it keeps giving me this error:
ERR 227 NO GENETIC MATERIAL | EMPTY TRAY |
The bacteria are there though, and every other indicator suggests they are alive and thriving. They should have genetic material, but apparently the scanner just doesn't want to pick it up. No matter what I try. Let's hope it is a fluke. These things are impossible to repair out in the field, and they don't allow you to bring like a hundred of them on a voyage. Something about reselling them or something.
The lifeform analyser not working as intended killed the mood, so I decided to walk around a bit and enjoy the scenery instead.
CACTI OVERLOOKING RUGGED HILLS on Inara Gallery
[11 12 3307 | Inferred location: Cyoilz TF-C d14-11]
Alright, I am on my way again. Didn't manage to fix the issues with the scanner in the end, so I guess I will have to live with it for now. I did hit the jackpot in this system. The scanners just identified an earth-like world and 3 HMC's. Together they are good for almost 12m credits.
I also noticed an odd grouping of stars just above the band of core stars. I am intrigued what is so bright that I can see it from all the way over here, and more importantly why there are so many of them grouped together. It's so noticeable that it must have been discovered before by other commanders. I am not that far from the bubble, and people have been exploring this area of space for years. Not to mention the heart and soul nebulas I would otherwise have flown below, where tourists frequently go to.
 View from Cyoilz TF-C d14-11 |
 View from Qiedea KM-Y c3-7 |
 View from Qiedea VL-Y b20-0 |
 View from ~100 ly away |
[12 12 3307 | Inferred location: Qiedea IC-S d5-35]
I examined the data I gathered while orbiting around this star, and sent it to some friends in the bubble via some of the high-speed data beacons out here. What I am looking at could be Altera's Eye. A friend believes it to be the stars around HD 15558. I have plotted my course there.
[12 12 3307 | Inferred location: IC 1848 Sector IB-X d1-55]
This impromptu route has been really great for me. There are terraformable HMC's, water worlds and earth-like worlds everywhere. This system even had a water world with rings.
WATER WORLD WITH RINGS on Inara Gallery
[12 12 3307 | Location: HD 15558]
Mystery solved. It was indeed the star cluster around HD 15558. HD 15558 has one hell of a bright star, blotting out everything around it when you look at it. It has been explored, obviously, but I am glad I visited it anyway.
Some places in the galaxy are just special. Different from everything else you have visited before. And there is joy in finding places of beauty no-one else has seen before, but visiting these kind of places where maybe a hundred people came before me is still nice. Billions of people look up at the sky and wonder what that constellation in the sky really is, and I get to fly my own exploration ship to see them up close.
I have plotted a route further up the arm, as originally planned. I am finally back into a region of space where I can find systems that do not consist of icy bodies around dying stars, which is nice. Let's hope for some luck, and a firmware update on the lifeform analyser before I get too far from the deep-space data beacons.
ULTRA BRIGHT O-CLASS STAR on Imgur
