Col 285 Sector SC-O b21-10 C1
03 Apr 2023Claude Lecardunoie
April 3rd 3309. Current location Col 285 Sector SC-O b21-10 C1.It was my first stop on an exploration mission comissioned by Farseer Inc. one week ago.
Prior to this, I had taken 4 sabbatical months. Yep, even in these dark times, there are other priorities than wandering through the galaxy. But credits where running low, so I first decided to go back to trading and jumped into the Jacques Coeur Merchantman, my T-9. First bad news, the Silver Train, the commercial route between LHS 142 and LFT 133 was no longer the golden goose it used to be. That's the reason why I moved my commercial activities in Meyrink Orbital, LHS 3666.
The second bad surprise was that after 4 months away from the helm of my T-9, I was not able anymore to take it out of a spatioport, and crashed it twice before remembering that you need to slightly roll counter clock wise this "gros bahut" that a Lakon T-9 is, to avoid getting "grilled" in the exit "toaster grid" of a station! Actually spatioport authorities are not helping in that matter: I mean couldn't they just send some kind of limpets to push a ship out, even if they charge the service and ground the ship for a couple of days, instead of sending you detention centers like the Pillar of Fortitude.
Then I flew to Deciat in order to get faster FSD load modules as I figured it could help escaping Thargoids interdictions or just pirates ones. And that was a third disappoitment:
- "Claude, you're always welcome at my research center" said Felicity Farseer herself, "But my improvments, my technologies and my engineers support come at a price. We've been helping you for almost nothing so far, and I believe it is time for you to do something for us."
- "Well, that seems right. What can I do to help?"
- "We would be interested in exploration data around Aborovi. The Steve Zissou Explorer, your Asp XP is a very decent exploration ship and you are an experienced pilot. How about one or two months exploration there? We'll buy you whatever data you'll bring back, and according to tacit exploration rules, you'll keep any raw material and anything you'll scavenge on the way. In exchange, we'll provide food and improve the life support installations of your ship: cabin, basic medical facility etc."
And here I was, in Col 285 Sector SC-O b21-10. I first scanned the system, I was not the first there, no surprise. The scan revealed some metallic rich planets and gas giant attached to the local C star. The rest were less interesting icy rocks.
I first flew over one of the metallic planet. It had a beautiful thin atmosphere and landing there was tempting, but my ship is not equiped for that, I would need this expensive so-called "Odyssey kit", in order to drain the heat generated by entering this kind of atmosphere, even this thin.
Flying over Col 285 Sector SC-O b21-10 C3, unfortunetaly, landing there is impossible for me
My second choice the planet C1. I landed there and started to collect raw material: common ones like iron but also rarer like cadmium.
Surface exploration on Col 285 Sector SC-O b21-10 C1
And this was when I picked up an emergency beacon signal. I arrived there way too late I guess: I only found a wreck, of what looked like an Asp Scout. All I could do was uploading the ship database, pick up an empty escape pod and also a food canister.
Emergency beacon
Ship wreck
Well, what to think about this crash site? On the bright side, the food canister was surprisingly filled with luxury products: a stock of Jaroua Rice, Wheemete Wheat Cakes, Albino Quechua Mammoth Meat, a nice improvment compared to the stock of synthetic meat I loaded at Farseer Inc. and also 50 litres of Chateau De Aegaeon, which will be perfect with the mammoth meat.
But on the other hand, the wreck of the Asp Scout, this empty pod, which should have been occupied by a fellow pilot was a sad reminder of the dangers of such exploration trips.