DISTANT WORLDS 2 - DAY 24 - MEET THE NEIGHBOURS
05 Feb 2019Zak Starfall
Galactic stardate 05FEB3305A relatively short trip today, out to Skaudai AM-B d14-138 to see some Guardian ruins.
I'd been out here before during the Small Worlds Expedition of 3303, but this was new territory for Cathy, so we decided it was worth another visit.
We dropped into the target system and did our routine system scan and check of the FSS radar... and noticed some unusual signals near the lower end of the spectrum!
A more detailed scan by Cathy revealed three Stellar Phenomena, I didn't remember these being here last time I was here.
Okay, two phenomena were over 250,000ls away, so, alien houses first!
The Guardian sites were all on the nightside of planet AB 7 A, so we circled the planet and dropped through orbital cruise into normal space above the planet's surface. We fired up the nightvision system, and got a wonderfully highlighted plan view of the site.
In fact two sites were close to each other here and with nightvision it was easy to see both and their details. What a fantastic addition to a ship's mandatory equipment.
We landed nearby, and Cathy had a scout around the site in one of the SRVs, commenting on the 'alien-ness' of the site (hardly unexpected!).
Cathy had just re-boarded the ship and we lifted off and were ready to leave when we saw another commander in a Phantom approaching to land. As it was dark, we were running without lights and he may not have spotted us, we decided to have a bit of fun. We stayed above him and watched him land and deploy his SRV, then we gently floated down, and turned on our headlights when 500m above him. A startled SRV at an alien site is quite amusing!
After a while of playing we switched off our headlights, 'disappeared' and headed off to check out the system's phenomena.
The nearest phenomena was a brilliant blue Caeruleum Lagrange Cloud containing Prasinum and Rubeum crystal structures. We searched the area with Star Reaper and the fighter, but saw no indication of any other lifeforms.
Heading out of the cloud we jumped to SC and settled down for the long 250,000ls cruise to the other two phenomena.
These two phenomena were both located in the rings of neighbouring gas giants and contained Flavum crystals as well as Prasinum and Rubeum variants.
An interesting difference to previous ring phenomena that we noticed was that the crystals here were located amongst the asteroids. in previous locations the crystals had cleared/repelled the 'roids around them to create a 'crystal only' zone. Was this a new pattern, a difference as we were now in a new galactic sector, or just a random anomaly? Damn, more questions!
The last phenomena location was filled with dust and matter, and closer inspection showed several 'roids showing splinters and cracks or broken completely, suggesting that someone had been out here mining recently - that's a real dedicated miner! Anyway, I thank him as it provided a very nicely lit backdrop for the crystals to be viewed against.
Having completed the necessary investigations and surveys of this system we headed to Sacaqawea Space port 75lys away to replenish supplied and download exploration data before heading for more nebulae tomorrow. Only one first discovery registered to us this time, so we must have been beaten by faster explorers than us, as we definitely mapped more untagged systems than that. It's not like I need the credits or rank these days, but the tags would have been nice. Oh, well, there's plenty more galaxy left to go round!
It seems that DW2 is following the well-trodden path of intermediary planet ports, at least to Sag A*.
I guess it's understandable considering the number of less-experienced explorers on this trip, but I've been along this path before, on my first trip to Sag A* in 'Falling Into Infinity', my trusty Asp Explorer, and on my two journeys to Colonia, so I was hoping to tread new ground this time. Checking Galmap, I see we're actually passing fairly close to many of my first discovered ELWs!
Not to worry, after Sag A* it will all be new ground for me.
Tomorrow, a new nebula to gaze upon.
Four days to WP4 departure day, so we may even have time for a diversion or two along the way.
Let's see where the galactic wind blows us.
o7