Disaster on Day Four
17 May 2023Taneth
I'm speechless. I'm embarrassed. You'd think I wasn't a seasoned explorer, and maybe I'm not after all. Last time I was out in the black I went to SagA and back in a barely engineered Asp Explorer with hardly any jump range and no AFMU, limpets, or synthesis materials. I made it back fine, though a little banged up. This time I thought I'd play it safe. This time I thought I'd be prepped for the real long haul.But I forgot that I'm an idiot.
My SRV's automated cam suite caught this moments before it happened. You can probably guess what happened next:
I don't remember much after I noticed the vent flaring up and magma spewing out of it. I have no idea what happened but I guess I managed to crawl back to my ship and engage the autopilot to get me into orbit. My SRV wasn't so lucky. She's gone.
The suit kept me alive long enough to get my bearings, boot up the galaxy map, and try to locate a deep space outpost or something to limp back to. It could've been worse... I could've been further. Thankfully only being about 5,000LY from Sol means I wasn't too terribly far from salvation.
But I had to make a U-turn to do it... so I did. I don't even remember how many jumps I had to make... it had to be over forty, though. I was fading in and out of consciousness the whole time. But finally, I made it to the Gorgon Research Facility and spent the next twelve hours in their medbay.
I'm fine. They've installed a new SRV in the bay. Ship's fine. Brandy and mugs still in the hold. All that exo data I'd collected is gone. Suit's memory chips fried right out.
My pride... yeah, that's destroyed.
Not giving up though. I marked the system as "Unfinished Business" on my galmap. When I heal up, I'm heading back and resuming my expedition.
Lesson learned. The hard way... of course. Is there any other way out in the black?