I'm Back In The Bubble Again
19 Mar 2018Scubadog
Over a month ago I launched out in my Anaconda to make my way back to the Core Systems. Well, I finally made it. After cashing in my cartographic data, I immediately set to buying an Alliance Chieftain. Her name is The Ceti Rena.
This brings my fleet size to 9, although I'm seriously thinking of selling one of my other ships. After I've had a chance to spend more time with her, I'll likely have figured out which ship's capability she duplicates. At first, I thought of The Ceti Raposa, but the strength of the Vulture is that it is so small and agile. The Chieftain is a medium ship and, while it handles extremely well, I feel the Vulture still had a leg up on it. My AspX is one likely candidate for resale at this point. In comparison, The Ceti Vixen is mushy to drive and if you're trying to set down on a high-grav planet, you absolutely have to pay attention to your speed. Never, ever land the AspX on a high-g planet without shields, in my opinion. The AspX and Chieftain are both medium ships, but the Chieftain has one more internal optional slot. A downer for the Chieftain, though, is that some of those slots are limited to military options, so the effective available slots could actually be less. The Chieftain can easily out-gun the AspX--which makes sense, since it was intended to be a combat ship. Another option for the chopping block is my Keelback, The Ceti Lisica. It's also a medium ship, and happens to be the only one that can carry both an SRV and a fighter. Of course, not more else than that, with only 6 optional slots. My Anaconda carries a fighter (it needs it) and SRV, and is much more suited for that kind of a role. And the Keelback is another one that's a brick to fly. Well, to be truthy, the Anaconda is just a flying skyscraper, so engineered thrusters is a must if you plan on getting into a furball...even with a fighter. The more I ponder this, the more I think I'll give up the Lisica.
So, I had my first-ever encounter with the Thargoids. And, no, I won't be doing that again if I can avoid it. I thought I was avoiding already, by not going into Pleiades, but I was jumping through the Haydes sector, looking for materials for engineering--and that area of space is adjacent. While scanning unidentified signal sources in hopes of finding the right salvage materials, I came across a non-human source. I should probably have minded my own business and skipped on by. Well, curiosity got the better of me and I dropped on the location to find four Thargoid Scouts putting the finishing touches on a hapless Cobra. Momentarily hypnotized by how incredibly fast they were and how quickly they dispatched the Cobra, I didn't realize they were turning their sights on my Anaconda. I was already down to 50% shields--engineered to level 3, no less--before I could get the hell out of Dodge.
Now I'm focusing on doing missions and building rep to earn more credits. I'm down to 36mil and I'm gonna need quite a bit more if I'm ever to acquire the modules and engineering I want, both for my Anaconda and Chieftain, but also to transport home for some of my other ships. There ain't no engineers in Colonia yet, maybe ever, so I need to optimize my time here in the Core. I'm ready to leave this space yesterday. Like I said, I miss my sky.