The Pleiades
19 Jun 2022Claude Lecardunoie
12th of june 3308. I just exited supercruise in HIP 17692 and the most beautiful spatioport I saw so far appeared to me: I was about to land in Blackmount Orbital.
Blackmount Orbital asteroid spatioport
I had arrived in the Pleiades area the day before, following intel I got in 10 Tauri: planetary coordinates on Pleiades Sector JC-V d2-62.
From 10 Tauri, I first flew "The Monitor", my heavy fighter to Gernsback City in LHS 1604, to buy an Asp Explorer, because I needed a better jump range to fly the 300ly to the Pleiades.
I registered the ship as the "Steve Zissou Explorer", after the name of the main character of an antique movie my grand-parents used to watch. In spite of its name, I hadn't really fitted it as a full exploration vessel. I didn't know what to expect for this mission in the Pleiades. I started as I always do by the powerplant, a 5C was the best trade off between power and mass available in Gernsback City. Then the best FSD reactor: I was lucky on this, they had a 5A available, a fuel sccop and a heatsink. Now, this is where the "Steve Zissou" diverge from a pure Exploration ship as I equiped it with pulse lasers, multi-cannons, and above all a 5A shield generator along with an A class shield booster and cell bank: not the kind of lightweight modules you'd expect on an exploration oriented ship, but I wanted to be ready for anything.
The Steve Zissou Explorer
From there, I started the long journey to the Pleiades. It took the "Steve Zissou Explorer" a dozen of jumps. Not bad compared to my other ships!! Still, that was a really long trip, but fortunately, the cabin for the crew in an Asp Explorer is little more comfortable than those in my previous ships. It has a real onboard entertainment system. Beside that, I also listened to GalNet News radio: Sirius Corporation and the Alliance were negotiating their conjoint defense pact. It seemed complicated to settle, as division raised in the Alliance regarding this treaty.
I also tried my fuel scoop, although not necessary as there were many spatioports, but you'd better practise it when there is no consequence before going further in empty galactic regions.
The journey was also long enough to give me time to think about my assignment in the Pleiades: finding planetary coordinates. And then I realised that I forgot to take a VRS bay. What an idiot!! I quicky opened my galaxy map in search for a station in the Pleiades to have my VRS bay transfered: Kipling Orbital, Pleiades Sector KC-V c2-11, a system populated enough to have expedition services.
Once docked in Kipling Orbital, I walked through the concourses to find the desks of expedition companies. Only the two main firms had a subsidiary there, not surprising as this station is quite new. So I had the choice between IPS (Imperial Postal Services) or FedExpS (Federal Expedition Services). Of course, as a cadet in the Auxiliary Federal Navy, I asked FedExpS to have my VRS bay conveyed. That would take about 1 and half day.
I decided not to stay idle during this time and took off for HIP 17692, just to explore the Pleiades. And here I was in Blackmount Orbital. I took my time to land there, in admiration for the work that had been done to excavate this asteroid in order to build a spatioport inside. By visting the station, you could tell that it was a new one: very few public transportation, the corridors were still looking very new. Back then, only a few people settled there, therefore most of the installations there, residential districts, commercial areas and industrial sectors were somewhat empty and had this colonial look. I mean, nothing fancy, only very functional installations.
I had something in mind going there: I wanted to pick a bounty hunting job there, in order to try my Asp Explorer in combat. There were not many, and I didn't want to run after a deserter, I used to do that, and didn't like it. There was one pirate wanted by a local faction in a nearby system. It was easy, I didn't even had to look for him: as soon as jumped out in HR 1183, this guy interdicted me. He quickly realized that the Steve Zissou had some gun power: I destroyed his powerplant and his ship exploded the second after.
I flew back to Blackmount Orbital to claim my bounty. I took my time to land there again: I'll never get tired of flying around the giant rock. Quickly after I docked, I received the FedExpS notification confirming the delivery of my Scarabée and my VRS bay in Kipling Orbital. It was time to investigate on this coordinates...
Flying around Blackmount Orbital
The Pleiades definetely have an aura of mystery.
The Pleiades