The Reason For My Return To The Bubble (Part 2 - New Adventure Awaits)
06 Oct 2016IsraelZulu
An alarm woke me up again. This time, the right one.I'd already been back to Jaques' Station to turn in the data from that black hole field. Business at the local UC office had settled down since the big event, so they were able to have my payment within minutes that day - a cool four million credits!
From there, I patched up the few dings on the Asp's hull, grabbed a quick bite and drink, and launched out for another run. The new target was in the same area as the black holes I'd just come from, but a little further "below" the central galactic plane. There was a massive load of neutron stars and white dwarfs there, just waiting for someone to scan them.
Now, I was rolling out of bed on a planet nearly a kylie from Colonia. Well on my way to those neutrons, but not quite there yet.
After I'd gotten through my breakfast rations and a quick cup of Joe, I secured the ship for zero-grav and took off to finish up my scans of the local system. Sure, it was just a waypoint in the journey to the neutron fields. But if I was going out to gather exploration data anyway, there was no point in wasting this opportunity. And the scenery was nice, besides.
My Detailed Surface Scanner was busy, ticking away at a nearby gas giant, when I noticed fresh mail in my inbox. It was another message from S. O'Brien, responding to our earlier conversation about the Colonia Citizen's Network.
Oh man, someone reads my logs! Gonna have to keep some kind of standard now. Glad to hear my stories and pictures helped get you out to Colonia though, this area has been giving some of the best looking locations I've seen so far.
The main bulletin boards at Jaques' Station and Colonia Hub have more info on the CCN. The postings there will include information on connecting with the CCN's primary messaging network also.
If you're planning on hitting Sag A* we're planning a trip out to some of the POI on the way next month in the style of the Distant Worlds Expedition. We're calling ours the Colonia Core Circuit Expedition. Feel free to join in with us then if you'd like.
I'm thinking of doing an Anaconda myself, when the new FSDs come out with that neutron scooping feature I've heard about. That way I can use the Neutron Highway (huge field of neutron stars south of the galactic plane) to try and make it back to the Bubble without going crazy again. Mostly, I want it for that possible 50 LY jump range so I can hit some of those really out there stars on the outer rim, but doing passenger runs and using fighters would be awesome too.
Anyhow, check in on CCN's messaging system if you wanna check out the events we're doing. Go ahead and jump in wherever you think you'll fit!
-S.
So, the Colonia Citizens Network had their own comms system and some events planned? Sounded like they really had a lot more going on around this little colony than I'd realized. My interest duly piqued, I went to check out the board posting S. had mentioned through the link on Jaques' network.
Indeed, this group looked like they were serious about their mission here. Their initiative and ambition, and the way they seemed to have everything so well organized, was truly impressive.
The CCN is not a group or faction. It is not affiliated with any political entity or existing power-bloc.
That's nice to know.
The squabbling between the various politicians, monarchs, and other heads of governments back in the bubble was really starting to get tiresome. One of the attractive parts about the Colonia Nebula was its lacking of such power-play antics. It's comforting to see the local community seems to agree with this, and is establishing themselves firmly as independents.
A new life awaits you in the off world colony - a chance to begin again in a golden land of adventure and opportunity.
Normally, I'd dismiss this as typical colonist propaganda - the sort of talk meant to inspire people to leave their existing homes and help develop the frontier. But I'd already been in Colonia long enough to recognize that it wasn't really just a sales pitch. There were some nuggets of truth in there.
Sure, "golden land of ... opportunity" might be stretching it just a little. While being closer to the galactic core did mean there were more resources in easy reach, the extreme distance between here and the core of civilization - and the fact that hardly any of civilization had come out here just yet - meant that new jobs and clients were hard to come by. Unless you were feeding Universal Cartographics' endless appetite, or prepared to start your own mining or shipping business from scratch, you were pretty well out of luck.
But the bits about a "new life", "a chance to begin again", and "adventure" - those were pretty well-founded, in my experience. They're exactly what I'd come out here for, and precisely what I'd discovered.
The CCN's list of projects was next to catch my attention. This was where I expected to find things I'd be most interested in, and I was not disappointed. The list was extensive, and seemed to have something to do for nearly every type of pilot.
Soon, I found the section about the Exploration Wing. S. had mentioned this in an earlier message, so I was eager to read more.
I read again, "...the Outer Core, the Festival Grounds, Fallows..." - I didn't know any of these places had names before. While I've learned to slow down a bit out in the black, I hadn't quite carried that lesson back to dock with me yet. I'd been so focused on collecting and delivering my own scan data, and running things practically by myself, that I hadn't really bothered to check any of the established charts or learn the local nomenclature.
As I thought more about this, I realized joining up with them would probably help optimize my exploration data gathering efforts. Surely, they'll be most interested in sending folks to areas that haven't been charted yet - and they'd know which those were. Getting that knowledge from them would make it easier for me to find more of those undiscovered systems that UC pays high bonuses for. And if the data is useful to the CCN too, that's just a win-win.
The Exploration Wing was also the host group for that expedition S. had suggested.
Here the colonists' ambition shows even more. First expedition to not touch the bubble. First expedition to join another major expedition in deep space. I'm sure they'll encounter a few other incidental "firsts" along the way, too.
And the route is going to be thirty-three kylies long? It's only eleven kylies from Colonia to the core. Adding fifty percent distance to the round trip, they must be taking a scenic route indeed!
Researching further, I found that the Colonia Core Circuit Expedition (C3E) is planning on hitting nine spectacular nebulae in the core region. Along with these, the twin black holes known as the Great Annihilators were on the agenda, as was Sagittarius A* itself of course.
Perhaps the most unique point of interest on the expedition's agenda, however, is Altum Sagittarii - referred to, in the waypoint notes, as "the roof of the galaxy". This system would be about two whole kylies directly "above" the center of the galaxy, offering a view of the Milky Way that you can't get in many other places.
Even better, they were offering to guide especially ambitious explorers further "up", to a system colloquially known as "Altum Sagittarii Prime" - another 870 Ly further from Sagittarius A*!
These were some sights I absolutely had to see. And the opportunity to network with other explorers seemed like it would be very beneficial as well.
So, where do I sign up?
I read further down, to the "Important Links and Information" and "Frequently Asked Questions" sections, where something caught my attention.
- What sort of ship should I bring?
- The expedition is primarily a core expedition, which means that jump range doesn't matter so much. The one exception is Altum Sagittarii, which requires a ship with at least a 33 ly jump range. FSD boosts can be substituted, but a great deal will be required. Ships with lower jump ranges can skip this waypoint.
Oh, crap. That could be an issue...