Journey to Colonia Begins
22 Feb 2024Jason B
Greetings Cmdr Plodding Sheep and welcome aboard!It's been a long time since I made this trip. My first attempt, years ago, was in a Cobra Mk 3 with a jump range of about 20 ly. I made it as far as the first way station, Hillary Depot, then turned around and came back, bringing with me a new appreciation for how big the galaxy is. After some time working up to purchasing and engineering an AspX, along with an update that expanded the max plotting distance from 1000 ly to 19000 ly (or whatever it is now), I made my first trip out there. I was surprised to find several outposts in addition to Jacques Station; I hadn't realized that they were there. I came back quite a bit richer from the exploration data, left my name on lots of systems (including a bunch of neutrons), and an easy climb through explorer rank.
My next trip out was a mission to rescue the Dove Enigma megaship. The expedition for Cmdr Dove Enigma's last trip out was nearly there and someone had UA bombed the megaship. I loaded the AspX with meta alloys, which dropped the jump range to about 32 ly, and proceeded to honk and jump without stopping to look at things. I made the trip in about 8 hours. The Dove Enigma was still operational when I got there. Judging by the different streamers I was watching, I think I was in the first wave of pilots to arrive. I sold half of what I had to the mega ship, then jumped to each of the stations in the area and sold a little to each of them for good measure.
Since then, I've been to the area twice on long range passenger missions. The last time was before the Colonia Bridge project. On my first 2 trips, the route out had only the 6 waystations. These stations are going to be our markers for this trip.
First stop: Bleae Thua XC-M b8-1.
This system is not far from waystation 1. It's totally unremarkable. However, it was the first completely undiscovered system that I found on my first trip out in the Cobra. When mapping and footfalls were added, I came back out to get those in the system as well. I think, from EDSM, that I may be the only cmdr that has ever entered this system.
Waystation 1, Hillary Depot, is in Blu Thua AI-A c14-10. From there, we'll probably move Starhome up and out a jump or 2 to find a route less traveled. I may also take a side trip to a station nearby to pick up more tritium. Looks like acquiring tritium on the way may be more challenging than I anticipated. Good thing I like mining!
Since we're in the area, check out Pru Euq RH-P b47-2. It has 3 water worlds. Also hit Bleae Thua TA-A b1-1. It has 2 water worlds and most of the system is undiscovered, so you can tag it.