Waking up in 3306
30 Sep 2020Tannhäuser
A year later, and autumn on my homeworld brought me back to space, and the Witch Head Nebula. Deplorable Manners was ready for a fresh batte with the Xenos. After smashing several hundred scouts I decided it was finally time to take on the big boys, so refitted Deplorable Manners for the Cyclops, with triple Gardian Gauss and a flak. Headed down to Evangelis and went at it. And hit the rebuy screen. However, I learned quickly and soon was able to take out Cyclops consistently. At this time, there was a thargoid incursion into the WHN and I joined that battle, racking up some much need cash. 
After week of that it was time to go and cash in bits of dead alien for the coveted Thargoid Bobblehead. Proud of this moment.
Finally! Triple Elite. Six years. So OK, two of them were essentially playing dead for tax reasons, but even so. Very happy to finally make it to an 'adult' in this environment. A lot of Thargoids died in the making of this.
My usual state after a Cyclops encounter
I always wanted to try out one of the Guardian fighters, so chased down module and ship blueprint fragments for our scientists, and purchased a Trident:
In practice however, it does not make a lot of difference with the Cyclops. Next stop Basilisk - but after many hours searching I simply could not find one to fight. Every time I dropped into the expected USS, I was meet with 5 or more scouts. It seems that Basilisks require a differnt approach, and I may have to get some MCs to deal with the scouts or actually have another Commander along with me.
Eventually though, my list of discovered Earth Like Worlds was calling. These I'd discovered before the invention of mapping probes. I felt it was time to head out and map these ELWs, and loop back to the bubble taking a scenic route via the Formidine Rift.