Nebula Grand Tour 1: California Nebula
07 Feb 2022Solari Parravicini
The trip from Sol to HIP 18077 goes quicker than I expected. During the roughly 30 jumps the nebula became bigger and took on a complex shape. It looked like someone was holding up a thick flowing cloth from the middle, or the robe of a red wraith. I stopped frequently to marvel at its changes.HIP 18077 had a planetary base where I docked to refuel. The little planet was close to a gigantic purple planet surrounded by a system of huge white rings. From the planet's surface the ringed planet and nebula together covered half the night sky. If life had ever flowered on this planet what incredible religions and beliefs these bodies would have inspired.
Inside the nebula the sky was red tinged and filled with nonhuman signals. I headed to a threat level 2 and found a mysterious Thargoid probe. When I collected it it began to corrode my cargo space and was labelled as illicit with a price of around 300k credits. Before jumping away I ditched the probe: it seemed like it would be followed by trouble.
Next I approached a threat level five and dropped out into a cloud of screaming Thargoid scouts whipping around the detritus of some previous fool. They killed me in seconds. For the first time I saw the unique lethality of Thargoid fighting and technology. I will definitely be treading more carefully from now on out. A few CMDRs I spoke with told me that the threat levels can be predictable and tend to signal a specific presence; now I know to avoid level 5, especially in my little Asp!
After being rescued and claiming my insurance on a nearby station I went planet-side. For the first time I saw Thargoid signals on a planet and headed to down to survey what I assumed were the Thargoid barnacles I had heard about. I'm not sure if the gravity was different but I did crash pretty hard into the ground while trying to land and had to claim my insurance yet again. Approaching more carefully I found a barnacle on the dark side of the planet and drove my SRV around to explore it. It did not seem to be ripe or ready for harvesting but it was very interesting and I noticed the same horseshoe shape I had seen on the Medusa before.
After a little surface mining I jumped from system to system within the nebula and enjoyed the deep red twisting pillars of nebular color. Having lost my ship twice to tomfoolery I didn't engage with anymore nonhuman signals. The beauty of the nebula was exciting enough for the rest of the night.
Next stop: the system T Tauri and the Taurus Dark Region!