And, As Construction Winds Down On Explorer's Anchorage...
16 Mar 2019Scubadog
Most of the structure is complete on Explorer's Anchorage. I can still see a couple of sections being closed up on the ring of the station. Most of the station services appear to be up and running, but there's still no shipyard. Okay, yeah, I get it, this is a scientific survey station. You can't tell me, though, that the bean counters couldn't factor in the value of having a shipyard at galactic center! Even if all you carried were about five ships--Sidewinder, Adder, Hauler, Cobra Mk III and maybe a Dolphin--you'd doin' commanders a small kindness. And for those who might make it a regular thing, you'd have a place to transfer ship you had properly engineered to store there. Oh, well. We'll see what happens.
While everyone waits for the DW2 leadership to announce the next waypoint, I decided to scope a few more Encoded Signal Sources and buff my hold with more rarish materials, and then followed that up with a mapping jaunt straight down from galactic center. As you can see, you get some pretty amazing vistas. That view, paired with the tranquil background noises of my ship with most systems turned off, is nearly hypnotic.
Now, it just so happens that there were also some pretty shiny canyons nearby and, naturally, I brought along a fighter for just such an event. It also happened to be the inaugural mission for my new crew member--you'll remember that Francisca unceremoniously departed--that I had recruited earlier that day. Malina came across as very enthusiastic to be changing from mining to exploring for a bit. Her resume' indicated she was competent in most aspects of the job. The only recruit who showed up as expert clearly had a shady background. So, off we went. And off I went in my fighter to do some canyon carving. After about 20 minutes of that I spun the fighter around to let the Azeria catch up and let me dock. I couldn't see the ship. Sensors indicated she was down there in the canyon. Damnit, Malina, what the gorram were you doing with my ship? All you had to do was cruise above me, above the terrain. Just before the Azeria came around the bend I heard over comms, "Shields are gone...that's not good". What the actual....? A quick targeting of my ship revealed the shields were trying to spin back up (thanks to bi-weaves) and the hull was down to 59%! Strained, I calmly request to dock. Once the fighter was stowed, I high-tailed it to the bridge. I generated some limpets and set them to task repairing the hull.
When we get back to Anchorage I'm going to have a serious chat with Malina.