Entry 69 - 08.14.3303
14 Aug 2017MBaldelli
Current System: Wredguia AM-P c5-8Today started like any other. A modest breakfast, coffee that I'm still swigging from as I sit here, writing this entry and watching as my ship is aimed from planet to planet and moon to moon. I occasionally correlate the information and results provided by both the system survey and planetary scans between what I should and shouldn't surface mine (though as I said yesterday unless it has serious veins of rarer materials, it won't be happening), and never once missing the opportunity to zip past worlds as familair to as alien as the world I grew up on, visited or stopped near during the earlier days when I was serving as a midshipman earning my wings to fly my own ship.
I know this is a routinely quiet morning. While I haven't actually checked out the headlines on GalNet (which I'm sure will work my angst up), I feel the need to skip being "up to date" with civilization before heading back to it. I mean seriously, will there be any crisis going on between this power or that, this faction here or there; that I will need to be in the know about as I'm about a week out from it?
The answer is no, of course not.
So, enjoy the coffee and the wonders outside of your cockpit window, Baldelli. It's not often you get this opportunity.
I have to say that this leg has been filled with a lot of HMCs (both terraformable and eligible for surface mining) as well an inordinate amount of Water Worlds and Gas Giants currently supporting both Ammonia-based as well as Water-based microbial life. I have also seen not one -- but two -- Ammonia Worlds. Strange worlds there were. Both of them strangely quiet and disquieting.
I know, I should have taken pictures of them when I was checking them out from orbit. The camera suite was fixed the last time I was in the Bubble, but the truth of the matter is I never did get into the habit of snapping pictures. Since I was young and seeing the movie Blade Runner I have always related to what Roy Batty said when looking at the man that created his eyes, "Chew, if you could see what I have seen with your eyes." Since then, I love seeing and remembering without the need for pictures or snapshots.
I'm going to have to remember to take more pictures instead...
And in light of what I said about landing for surface mining for the next couple of days, it would appear that I'm doing just that at Wredguia ES-N c6-6 8 d. Seems that this moon orbiting a Gas Giant with Ammonia-based life in its atmosphere has larger than normal deposits of both Arsenic and Ruthenium; a rare-earth I haven't collected yet. Down I went to see if I couldn't collect some before going further on this leg. I found myself a sweet spot between two massive gash-looking valleys on that moon.
The landing was definitely trickier than normal as the area -- while looking good from altitude wasn't the closer I got to it. Hopefully when I recall the ship, it shouldn't be too much trouble.
Now that I'm back from the surface, this was an unsettling trip for the likes of me. While I didn't have all that much luck with finding Arsenic, I was more than lucky when it came to finding Ruthenium. The unsettling part of this journey was when the radar informed me that there was high metals on the planet. Thinking I was coming across yet another downed probe as I was getting closer, I was surprised to see it was a downed ship: a Cobra.
Looking for the Data Link and not finding any, I found among the canisters of personal weapons were two occupied life pods. I tried contacting each of them and fortunately both were in stasis.
Getting back to the ship, I contacted Federation Authorities informing them of the location of the downed ship and the and they'll be sending a ship as soon as they can.
I thought about a little of the ship type and the remaining cargo and they were clearly gun runners.
Poor Bastards. I'd hate to be in their position when the authorities retrieve and revive them with the cargo still on the ground.