A New Horizon
13 Jun 2016ParkTyGreen
About one week ago, I had quite the experience.I had just gotten my SRV, (Surface Recon. Vehicle) fully outfitted with a dual-plasma turret, and a hangar in my ship, the Blue Horizons, for which to deploy it. It was very nerve-racking seeing the workers cut off panels of metal with plasma-ionised torches to make space for the hangar. I knew they wouldn't saw into anything important, but the thought was still there, I kept imagining myself and a half of the starport going up in blue flames. It took about three hours of waiting in the local Lounge, and pacing the room about a hundred times. Once they were done, I ended up having to sacrifice the extra fuel storage tanks on my ship for the hangar, but it was worth it... And the wait. Immediately after leaving the starport and no fire zone, I set a course for 19 Phi-2 Ceti AB 2, a planet that my PAS (Planetary Approach Suite) could handle.
Four minutes of Supercruise, one loop of shame, and I was there. I came towards the planet after my loop going 10c too quickly, (I was in a hurry to land) and used the planet's gravity to slow me down. Soon after nearly passing out from the deceleration, I entered the blue 'PAS' ring around the planet. The ship shook a bit when entering, and switching from Supercruise to PAS, but it went smoothly and soon I was under 145 kilometres. Though I didn't realise my approach was too steep, and I nearly tore a hole in the ship dropping out of supercruise. Despite that, I soon was doing my approach properly, and entered glide shortly after going under 26.7 kilometres. I started descending towards the surface, but used to being in a weightless environment for well over a year, I didn't account for Gravity. But before going into an irreversible dive, I saw the descent graph on the right side of the HUD, glowing red at the bottom. I pulled up, and just before hitting the surface with deadly force, the vector began rising, and I barely skimmed the surface. After slowing down, I lowered the ship, and for a few minutes flew around to find a suitable landing spot. After the icon turned blue, I descended and touched down. For the first time in over one year, I was on the surface of a planet, looking over the vast horizon. For a minute I just sat in awe, looking at the massive star looming over the planet like a guardian. After getting up, I went through the ship and eventually came upon the hangar door. I entered the SRV, and deployed. Once on the ground, I went away from the ship, and dismissed it. It lifted off the ground, and went upward. As I drove the SRV near a giant cliff face, I turned it around, and looked up through the canopy, just as the ship went FSD, over a Blue Horizon.