Brainfart Disease
13 Aug 2020Squareyez
I have been out exploring the galaxy since around the beginning of Feb this year. I went from the bubble to Sag A via a couple of nebulas along the way, from Sag A to Colonia, on to Beagle Point. I then turned around and started heading back toward Sag A, when i got about half way, i decided to go back to Colonia. But along the way, wanted to find me some White Dwarf stars of various classes.I been hearing stories about these white dwarf stars the last week or two from other pilots that have seen the very destruction of their own ships, weather from accidental pilot error or FSD dropping them in too close to the exclusion zone. The last person that told me, i said something like,"i will take this as a warning", but continued on my journey exploring all systems i jumped into, including those white behemoths.
So on Saturday morning, i intended to sit down and see how close to Colonia i could get, but also continue honking, scanning,etc.
I turn lights on, i load up all my holographic displays,etc. Jump in my seat, start the engines and prepare ship for a jump. I had a look at the galaxy map, and remembered i had bookmarked a star that i wanted to go to because i hadnt yet found one of those stars going by EDSM.
So i plot the course, take a last look at this white dwarf star outside my cockpit window and hit the FSD button and jump to the next system, which was where this bookmark was.
I come out of FSD, and see this white glaring light outside my cockpit window and was amazed how much brighter this white dwarf star is in comparison to its sisters.
I grabbed a few photos of it coz it was pretty kool to see. Then went back to the galaxy map to plot my next star to go see. Found it, plotted it, but needed to supercharge the FSD to get there.
This is where things go dicey for me. I had a feeling of " i shouldnt be flying today" coz my mind wasnt in the right place and still felt half asleep. But i chose to ignore it, thinking i was just being paranoid or whatever. So, im going to say, if you are having a moment where you think you are being paranoid about flying, then it maybe wise to be safer than sorry as the saying goes and try to refrain from flying.
I dont even know what the hell i was thinking when i look back on this day coz i KNOW better than to do what i did.
Anyway, back to this long, kinda boring, but yet sad, hilarious, drawn out story...Yes i am drawing it out just to keep the suspense goin....
Can you feel the suspense yet?
Must be annoying when you're told "back to the story", but yet the story teller starts wafflin on....
OK OK OK, i get it, the story....geess man, learn some patience
AANNYYWAY, so i slowly apply throttle to very very slowly start my approach to the exclusion zone, but also trying to sort of run along side the cone so i can get a feel for where the zone starts and ends, going by the temp percentage on my dash. Im doin all the right things so far by not getting too close and not allowing ship to start cooking.
The temp percentage starts to drop as i get near the end of the zone, so i make a hard turn to head toward the tail end of the cone.
I approach the tail of the cone, and skim it, but was basically thrown back out , so had to do a U-turn to charge some more.
So i turn around, i get back to it and finish supercharging....
I go to engage the FSD, and swing the ship back around while doing so, to find i have lost pretty much all control of my ship.....
I start to panic not realizing what i had done wrong. That took a few moments, remember, i was having a sleepy brain syndrome day...
In an attempt to calm my nerves of what i had just done, i had my COVAS load up some soothing mystical music so i could grab a breath, calm my nerves, and try to think logically for a moment....It normally helps me, but in this case, i think i knew deep down, what was going to happen, so it wasnt really helping me this day....
So, i remember my pilot training, and think ok "repair modules and do it damn quickly, point the ship to the next jump point and pray"
A few moments later, i go back to my seat with this knowledge but also accepting the fact that i may just lose this battle,( it is called Elite Dangerous for a reason!), finding myself still inside this behemoths cone thrashing around like a bit of dirty laundry in a washing machine.
I quickly look over at my modules. Ok, FSD needs reparing, so does canopy, so do thrusters, heat sink modules, power distributor. Power plant was still usable but was dropping FAST! Heck, at this point i was looking at them all and asked COVAS, "Which modules DONT need repairing???"
She replied, "Unable to comply, CPU malfunction!"
"Well thats just great!" I think my question was answered....
So i scroll back up, go to repair FSD and thrusters, AFMS are offline. Damn it! I forgot to turn em on, so more damage i am taking on now.
Turn the AFMS on while watching these take FORVERRRRRRRRRRR to activate...Well it seemed like forever for me at the time.
They finally turn on, i hit repair on the FSD and thrusters, but at that point, it was too late.
While trying to repair, i noticed everything in the modules display was turning on and off intermittently......
Yes i know, i still havent told you about what actually happened. Just bare with me a bit longer, i will tell you.
At that point, i sank back into my chair, and accepted the inevitable and felt my heart sink to my feet!
It felt like everything had just slowed down by a thousand times. That it took half an hour for my ship to finally explode. All the alarms, smoke, flames, bits of the ship flying past me, were all moving in a super super slow motion speed now, that i could see everything more clearly.
Then i had a brain storm, ironically. Try a system reboot. I knew this was going to be a long shot, but thought if i could still save myself, my data, and my ship, im going to give it one last attempt.
I go into the ships diagnostics, and hit Reboot/Repair, and watch my ship shut down to utter silence...Well, except for hearing giant sheets of metal being ripped off the hull, the creeks and groans of a dying Anaconda.
The power comes back on after what seemed like 5 or 10 minutes, i quickly go to the modules section, to find, it was of no use.
I was dead in the wate.....vacuum of space.
I thought of radioing out to see if any other CMDR's were nearby, but there was no use in doing that as the ship was too badly damaged, so a rescue attempt would have proven futile.
Yeahhhhh, i coulda just hit self destruct, but if i was gonna lose ALL my data on this massive journey i had undertaken these last few months, i may as well go out watching it happen before my eyes rather than taking the cheap way out. Watching fires happen around me, watching modules completely die in the modules window, watching bits of the ship fly off into the void of space like the canopy, that was just freaking awesome seeing that give out like that and then feeling my body being pulled against my safety harness to stop me from being sucked out into the vacuum of space.
Then the warnings came out from my computer, "Warning! Taking on toxic atmosphere". Then another warning "Warning! Oxygen depletion in less than 1 minute"
Yet another warning, "Warning! Taking hull damage"
So now im thinking, ok, "i wish i could tell her to shut up already. Like yes dear, i know, im going to freaking die, no need to remind me every passing second! But you are too, even if you're just a computer"
Then i realized, wait, she could not comply a few moments ago, but she can STILL tell me about critical warnings?! I had a thought maybe she is suffering from a case of selective speak mode, only wants to remind me, that i am dying a slow explosive death instead of being helpful!
But seriously, now i was thinking i can either die of suffocation, to which it was already getting harder to breath and i could hear myself breathing and suffocating with each breath and second that passed. I could feel my throat swell and my chest heave for every precious breath.
OR, the ship can explode and i die from something hard hitting me and popping my head like popcorn.
OR i die in a massive inferno.
OR i get thrown out into the vaccum of space to face the white dwarf's cone.
It was getting close. Close, i mean by, its going to be a close call between HOW i die. the hull was practically down to 0, my life support was just about out, i wondered which was going to be first during this ordeal!
I could feel it with every second passing.
Then.....the inevitable. She explodes with such force i was sure i could see the star smile at me as if to say "Got ya!" as i saw every part of my ship fly past me in one massive explosion. Like there was some twisted entity in this star sparing my life to watch every portion of my ship to vanish into the blackness before it became my turn.
I had enough time to think, "OK, its not suffocation that kills me" Then, i felt something hard hit me and the realization sets in of my own demise as i exhale my last breath.
My only wish i had at that time, was, i wish i had been recording my "brainfart" moment, i am calling it, of a mistake to share with other CMDRs so they know what to look for with this disease and shot out a beacon at my deaths location so others may find it to learn and take the message VERY seriously, that being, "If you go out exploring, LEAVE WHITE DWARF STARS OUT OF YOUR JOURNEY!"
Now, lets rewind a bit.
Back to where i had done a U-turn and finished super charging my FSD.
I did say i would get back to my brainfart moment...
So, what i didnt mention was, because i wanted to leave it to the end so you, the reader, could feel and maybe even sense, everything i just went through. A WHOLLEEE bag of mixed emotions. But at the end of it, a good laugh
Brainfart....Indeed!
Anyway, i finished super charging, and the moment i realized i had stuffed up, was when i couldnt control the movement of my ship or its speed. I couldnt turn it, roll it, slow down, nothing. This brainfart disease, made me forget momentarily you lose control of your ship while supercharging. But it had also made me forget, which way to point the ship being the MOST critical part to supercharging your FSD.
This brainfart disease, made me point the ship TOWARDS the white dwarf star itself! I'll let you sink that in for a second......
Ready??
Ok, Instead of pointing nose at centre of star, then heading towards the tails of the cone, so middle to outer edge, i went in reverse. I went from tail of cone, to star...Outer edge to middle! So outside to inside.
Like i said, i dont know what i was thinking, but its no thanks to brainfart disease.
Pray you never get it out in the black and something like this happens to you!
I hope this piece of metal with a piece of paper glued to it survives the aftermath of my ship exploding and the white dwarf to warn others. No beacon, because my modules had failed going by my not so helpful computer. Thanks for letting a dying mans last words be lost COVAS!
Travelled about 100,000 LYRS. Scanned hundreds of stars and planets up to the value of around 600 million credits. Close to a hundred hours of gaming time. Gone, in the blink of a couple of minutes.
Being totally serious now though, this has not deterred me.
I have learned from it.
I have grown from it.
I cried from it, well not quite, but wanted to.
I laughed about it.
But i am now, currently heading back to all my visited systems i have been to, to try to recollect all my data i had lost. To replace my name across the skies for other CMDR's to see and to maybe even throw out some hope to those who have been affected by similar or even very different circumstances, that it gives them a morale boost, to not give in, but to endure and to push on and forward.
Will i be out exploring for another few months trying to recollect everything? Quite possibly.
Will i go all the way back to Beagle Point? Definitely!
The bubble, will go on without me. It will still be there when i get back home. But i do miss home!
My respawn point, was Colonia. So im heading toward Sag A right now collecting my data along there. From Sag A on to Beagle Point. From BP back to Sag A then on towards the Bubble.
Fly safe CMDRS o7
CMDR Squareyez