Time to breathe
28 Jan 2022Shadowstormr
Hello fellow Commanders o7 It's been a little while since I plunged into the depths of space and decided to call the black my home, but this is the first time many of you will hear of me. Glad to be part of the galaxy-crawlers.On 4th December of 3307, I was an extremely nervous cadet fresh off flight school, eager to get that Pilot's Federation license. I didn't have any direct goal in mind except for being spaceworthy. Once I made it out of Pilot's Fed space, I found myself quite lost in all the buzz. Despite having thrown off my training jets, I still felt like a complete beginner at the helm of my Diamondback Scout. There's just so much to do and thus so many people to potentially piss off. Worse than people are faceless factions, groups, superpowers. You don't know what will make you their target, so you have to be cautious about your next move. So I decided to do what I felt most at ease with and started doing astronomical and surface scans and kept my eyes peeled and ears perked for every bit of information, be it rumors or galnews.
In time I realized the thargoids are slowly blocking us off, and the only way out was towards Colonia. Local powers can't get their head straight on how to deal with thargoids despite having thousands of us pilots ready and willing to serve the cause, whatever it may be, but alas, no matter what my fellow pilots did, no matter if they moved mountains and killed mythical beasts by the hundreds, there seemed to no headway made. Only hurt people ferried elsewhere or destroyed homes rebuilt. I have seen this before, and don't care to see it again - Powers unable to unify to fight a common cause and allowing the powerless to suffer in their stead. My father and his father before him saw wars waged on their homeland for decades while "allies" only offered pithy condemnations of our aggressors. My homeland is still in strife and no matter how many are martyred, there is no end to it. The powers don't care for the fate of a small nation beyond who gets to carve up which parts of it for themselves. My people are an abstract statistic that is slowly dwindling down.
In my mind, it was clear : If there is any hope for humanity, it rests in a place beyond the bubble of these powers, in Colonia. A new beginning, forged by veterans of thousand wars who know in their hearts that humanity needs a new home, far from the wrongs of our past and fervent in preventing the nightmare that has engulfed the bubble, both human and not.
I arrived at Colonia on January 12th 3308. A eight hundred and twenty three jumps trek on my trusty Diamondback Explorer, Shunno Shikari, at 81% hull strength. Only capable of 32.92ly jumps at a time, stripped of any weaponry, fitted for cursory surface scans and 2 SRVs in hanger, a scorpion and a scarab for more extensive surface exploration. We have made so many discoveries together.
Upon arriving in Colonia I had no time to take stock. Brewer Corporation had the right thing in mind and committed to extend working on the Colonia Bridge Project and had asked pilots to deliver materials to Alcor and Colonia systems. I joined the local commanders in the effort and successfully filled the quota to be eligible for their payment in double engineered FSDs. They took their time delivering but all I really cared about is how much of the project could be completed. Commanders both in the bubble and in colonia region succeeded in delivering a total of 3,317,732 tonnes of materials required. While 6 starports don't sound like much, we put a dent in the uninhabited space between the twenty-two thousand lightyears of space between Sol and Colonia. This is how dreams are made real. I fervently hope we have enough time.
Since then I tasked myself with learning the local topography. There's a lot of history in a span of 4 years since Jacques became functional and not all of it good, as is typical and expected. The powers, have no power here. No real power like they do in the bubble anyway. Local factions are largely interested in being good neighbors, respect and protect each other's space and tend to leave each other alone. There is some suspicion towards newcomers, which is very understandable. There's not much here but whatever is, should be guarded from infringement by the powers or their subsidiaries. So, that also means there's a lot of action around, more action than I'd prefer.
If we were to call the colonia region a village - which in a galactic scale, it is - then I've been adopted by some friendly resident old timers. Very eager to show me the ropes and helped me get a place here. I'm have nothing but good things to say about them and my time with them. I have told them about my interest in becoming a permanent fixture in Colonia and how I feel about *all this*, and I've been met with positivity. I'm sure I'll have to prove my worth though before I too can become a resident. I'm still wet behind my ears and I know it. But today is a time to breathe. Going to play this centuries old game called No Man's Sky that's been in my family for generations. A vision of a much more pleasant galaxy with nothing but wonders to be discovered. Especially in space, you need a breath of fresh air every now and then.
Good day and good fortune to all of you, Commanders. Have a good one.