The First Voyage - Out Of The Bubble
21 Jan 2021Valow
The First VoyageI haven't been a pilot that long but almost as soon as I traded in my sidewinder I dreamed of exploring beyond the bubble and getting my name on some undiscovered systems and bodies.
After mastering abrasion mining, local exploration, trading and bounty hunting I had decided it was time to start meeting some of these Engineers that other CMDRs tell me about. Too many times I have felt the glare of disappointment when they realize my ship is standard. "But these Engineers are masters of their crafts" they would tell me. I did yearn for more power, more jump range, stripped and lightened parts but I only had a few clues of where to find some of these Engineers and Felicity Farseer was the contact I had. And while she had worked wonders on my FSD I knew there was others and I needed their expertise. Especially if I am to ever make it to Beagles Point with my sanity intact.
After learning of Professor Palin and their requirement to have ventured over 5000LY from the starter system I decided it was the time to do it. Time to make that first voyage where I knew I wouldn't be docking for some days. Maybe not even encountering another human!
I made contact with my friend and trusted ally CMDR DJAcid and told him my plans. He was also interested in meeting Professor Palin and was ready for a another adventure. Acid was already a much more experienced pilot, ELITE rank within exploration and many more hours under his belt... devilishly handsome too. How did one CMDR just have it all?
Anyway, I loaded up my ASP Explorer with all the essentials. SNEAK energy, Haribo, Fuel... the AS-P Ainsley Harriot was ready. With HCS Crewmate Kate on-board and ready to log each of our systems with at least a honk as we delved into uncolonized territory we threw a metaphorical dart at the Cartographic map and that was our destination. Gludgae ZL-L c21-12
We thought on the way out it would be a good idea to hit some of the already discovered points of interest. Consulting with Spansh we plotted a route to our random destination. I noticed something interesting with the route though. The last hop... or hops so it came to be.
Outotz NT-M b48-0 Planet A4 was our second to last plotted destination. A water world. But the next destination? Gludgae ZL-L c21-6 the closest we could plot to Gludgae ZL-L c21-12. This already had me hopeful that no one had confirmed the existence of Gludgae ZL-L c21-12 or ever plotted it. But the main thing was between Outotz B48 and Gludgae C21-6 was 95 jumps.
I stuffed the printout into my pocket and we set off into space. We had 36 other systems to see on the way out anyway and by that time Acid will already be excited to be on the voyage surely he wouldn't be mad about 95 jumps?
So we finally reach Outotz NT-M b48-0 and I watch as the DSS probes launch from Acid's ship. "Surface Scan Complete". "Where next?" asked Acid. I grabbed the printout from my pocket and went quiet. "I don't think you are going to like this one mate".... "It's umm.. 95 jumps".
"WHAT THE FLUFF" exclaimed Acid.
"But think there is nothing charted by Spansh, this was all they had!" I said. "Think of how many undiscovered systems we may now find!"
Acid went quiet but he didn't have that ELITE explorer rank for nothing. I knew the thought of selling that data and being congratulated on his discovery was enough. And so we set off jumping one system at a time and boy did the discoveries start to come thick and fast. One of the first completly unmapped systems we came across was Outotch OH-D B 12-0. After mapping it out we decided to do a DSS of the closest planet and its moons.
The scan of one moon in particular 1 C gave off 26 geographic points of interest. I couldn't resist, I knew we had at least another 80 jumps to go but I wanted to see at least one of these points. So set the targets to one of the points and entered Orbital Cruise. It was only a short time before I was in full glide and getting ready to set down on this dark brown rocky surface but it was my dark brown rocky surface. No one had ever been here.
I lowered the SRV and gingerly set off across the surface. I had come across a crystalized mineral site. Using the turret on the SRV I blew apart some of the crystal structures and scooped up the contents. We spent a good 15-20 mins just looking at what we had discovered and letting the idea set in that not a single person had ever seen this place. And then that stupid side of me kicked in.
"ACID! I'm going to be the first human to do an SRV Backflip on our newly discovered planet!" Before he could even reply the SRV Throttle was at full and I was hurtling across the surface with my finger poised on the thruster button. And then came the glorious sound of the thrusters at max capacity and the SRV was elegantly flipping through the air. Cutting them off mid flip and holding the control stick back as hard as I could the stars and the ground spinning past my vision. I released the stick and allowed the SRV to settle in the air before the wheels touched down onto the surface and the sound of the engine going back to full speed overpowered everything.
At least I had landed it!
Cockpit View Of SRV Backflip
It was clearly time to get back into the ship and keep jumping. After all, blowing your SRV up on a planet no one has ever heard of could be a slight issue for assistance.
We eventually did make it to Gludgae ZL-L c21-12. And about 200 discovered planets later no less.
But then that was it... we had made it. It felt somewhat underwhelming. I wasn't ready to go home, but Acid was tired and needed to take a break. He suggested sleeping it off and charting a route home in the morning but I was keen to go further. So while he slept I took another look at the galaxy map...
Rosette Nebula. I've never seen a Nebula. So I did a quick bit of research and found rumors of a base in an asteroid within the Nebula. Surely that cannot be true I thought but I mapped in the co-ordinates and set off. It was only 25 jumps away.
Sure enough as the jump completed and the bright white star of Rosette Sector CQ-Y d59
Needless to say while Acid slept in his ship that night I ended up getting a bed in New Beginnings. I mean sure it wasn't your usual 5* heart of the bubble station but for what they were working with 5000LY from SOL what more could I want. It was just nice to be out of the cockpit!
I let Acid know where I was and offered him the choice of meeting me here or meeting me back at the bubble.
"Do they have Double Cheeseburgers at New Beginning?" he asked, knowing that sort of thing was not going to be the easiest thing to get hold of in a remote asteroid station. "That's what I thought" he said smugly.
"I'm heading back to the bubble I'll see you there, and if you don't turn up quick enough... ill eat your burger too!"
Needless to say my return voyage was much harder than expected. I had come across a mass amount of stars but every one I targeted the ship was showing 'Permit Required: Unknown Permit'. At this point Acid was already over half way back to the bubble and was too focused on cheeseburgers. I was running out of options. Everyone knows about Neutron jumping. Every Pilots bar in every station always has the same conversation going on somewhere. The 'Jump flex'. And there was one CMDR I knew if I hailed on the radio would always be keen to teach me what I needed to know. CMDR Belial. You could never go to a bar with Belial without him dropping into any conversation about his 320LY 'Jumpconda'. He was a Neutron Junkie. The sort of CMDR that looks at a 24,000LY journey and thinks "That's a fun afternoon".
Of course he jumped straight to it, helping me plot a course to the nearest known Neutron star. I began frantically jumping, barely scanning systems at this point. I just wanted to get home. The fear of being surrounded by locked systems was setting in and it felt like I may never find a way home.
Finally the jump to the Neutron star and all of a sudden I was terrified. I had seen video footage of people entering these systems and even some of the so called "tutorials" on how to charge your FSD to way beyond its operating limits but all of a sudden being face to face with this white and blue collapsing star, the two jet cones waving as energy dispersed from the star was beautiful and horrifying at the same time.
Belial gave me a quick run down on how he charges and of course I instantly failed. Falling straight through the jet cone and just floating in space the other side of it.
"Ok Valow, don't be an idiot you got this" I though to myself. Three attempts later I heard those words "Frame Shift Drive Operating Beyond Safety Limits". "PUNCH IT CHEWIE" Exclaimed HCS Crewmate Kate. But I had no where plotted, no where to go. The neutron star was my best idea to get past these locked systems but where could I target?
Targeting anything I knew of back towards the bubble was still failing to plot a route and I was beginning to panic even more. Not only was I not really wanting to chance all my discovered data on messing up a Neutron jump but it also was looking like this whole idea was a waste of time.
Even Belial had gone quiet on comms. He was frantically searching records and star maps trying to find anything to get me home. Then all of a sudden... "HIP 30061" he exclaimed over the radio. A system he knew was in that direction and has a confirmed route back to the bubble, he used to visit it a lot.
I punched in the system and sure enough there was a route. Finally! I set the FSD to charge, changed my course and took a look at the destination lock. 172LY "What the fluff!" Having never jumped more than 44LY the prospect was blowing my mind but when I came shooting out the other end... well needless to say I think I made a mess in my flight suit... but for that moment I all of a sudden understood why every bar had that conversation going on and why CMDR's like Belial were always pushing their ships to the limit and launching as far as they could. Because that was AMAZING.
I quickly contacted Spansh and demanded to know every Neutron they were aware of between me and the bubble. 6 results came back and I started mapping them in one at a time, sometimes even jumping Neutron to Neutron. The rush was brilliant and my fear of loosing my data was practically overwritten by the rush of the 100+ LY jumps.
Finally I arrived at Jackson's Lighthouse. I knew this was it, I was staring at the edge of the bubble. I entered Acid's last known location of PROCYON and plotted a route. 1 Jump. "Nice" I thought to myself.
Charging the FSD one last time I charged the FSD and shot through the bubble straight to PROCYON's star. And there it was Cormack Hub. Acid's wing indicator was showing and the roar of other ships engines were surrounding me. I was back in the bubble, back in civilization and I had all my data ready to sell.
I docked and was welcomed by Acid and his friend CMDR Babble. The cheeseburgers were already gone but who needs cheeseburgers when you have 97,000,000 credits in data to hand in!
I was glad to be home, we sold the data. Congratulated each other on getting our names on so many new systems and bodies. A Sirius Corp representative came seemingly from nowhere and shook the hands of both Acid and I. "We are so grateful for you bringing this data to us Commanders" they said. "Please consider the Sirius Corp a new ally and take this permit to our systems. You will always be welcome with us".
Result! We had achieved another objective we had set out for. The 5000LY journey was one objective but we also were after Sirius Permits and there isn't a faction in space that doesn't love to get their hands on fresh data.
After all the excitement died down we headed back to the landing pads and said our goodbyes. HIKENK, Giles Orbital was my destination... or as I like to call it. Home.