Colonia mission summary on departure
03 Dec 2016James Hussar
Well, it's been a long time coming, but it is time to rejoin the greater civilization. I've been out in Colonia space for a few months now, and I've been able to see first-hand the remarkable growth of this area in the time I've been here. When I arrived it was only Jacques Station. There were certainly already people here, some traders, a few Hail Mary prospectors and a handful of miscreants. Now, it's a bustling community; relatively speaking of course. There's Colonia Hub, a planetary port in the Colonia system itself, and Colonia Dream, a coriolis station just under 9 ly away. There are several platforms all within immediate jump range. The local space is booming, and there's even a war on in one of the systems with a platform and an ELW.
The ship-building infrastructure is still very weak here. I would have expected Asps to be available by now, but they're not. Eagles, Sideys, Adders, Vipers and T-6s for now. Seems Colonia is looking to establish more of an economy first, before favoring further exploration - though that can't be too far away. Outfitting is also poor, for nearly all purposes, because all resources are going into base development.
Commodity trading is abysmal out here. Checking just now, the most profitable good is Power Generators hauling between Jacques and Colonia Hub - about 2kls travel for 68cpt. Hardly worth the fuel, if you ask me, but that's what the local economy is - survival at wholesale prices. Nobody is trying to get rich out here. Not yet. The few factions are all investing in infrastructure, not trying to profit from trade, so everything is being sold at cost of production. Like the exploration, this too is bound to change in time.
Bounty hunting is decent - the local factions pay well to keep the sky clear of opportunists, and there are plenty of these as anywhere, but you've got to bring your own, equipped, combat ship. Outfitting services have just the most basic of weapons, just as they have the most basic of all equipment.
The one economy that is exceptionally worthwhile, and is very well supported both by the outfitters and the commodity traders, is mining. Every ring out here is Pristine and there is one of every kind. Colonia itself has icy, metallic, metal-rich and rocky rings right in the system and nearly every system within even the most pathetic jump offers riches. The fruits of mining sell for a tidy profit and the demand is insatiable. Appropriately enough, Outfitting for top notch refineries, limpet controllers and mining lasers is top notch. The only criticism I have is there isn't enough dock workers to install the gear once you buy it.
The mining is so good that I've been paid in Platinum for the sourcing of Osmium and Praseodymium, and sourcing missions can pay over a million credits for a dozen tons of either of these. Again, the place is booming and building materials are quite literally worth more than the gold you have to lase through to get to them.
The people out here are a joy, if a bit rough. The sense of community is unlike anything I've seen in the bubble short of among my own wingmates. I still prefer my wing - we're brothers - and I ran into a couple out here which anchored me and made the galaxy feel less overwhelming - but meeting other people here has been special. Here, we're all mutually inter-dependent neighbors homesteading together. Everyone's friendly, everyone is courteous and gracious, because so far from home we have to be nice. It's not a choice, it's a biological imperative. You can't afford to be rude to anyone without a very justifiable reason because they might be the only one within signal range if you hit that rock or run out of fuel.
And that's not just rhetorical. When I first arrived I met another pilot and we exchanged pleasantries. We ran into each other a few times - because while space is big, this little oasis sees most of the local traffic - and recognized each other as friends. A few weeks ago, I jumped into Colonia to turn in a few salvaged black boxes (there is ALWAYS another black box to go and retrieve around here) and I get a frantic call on comms from him. He was hunting in a nearby RES and lost sight of his fuel gauge. Ran out of gas just after he dispatched a Master FAS and had all of 10 minutes of life support left when we made contact.
Thankfully I was able to get into Jacques Station, refit one of my bays with a fuel limpet controller and reach him in less than 5 minutes. If anything that gives you a sense of how precarious life out here is. Had he boosted once o twice more while sparring that FAS it would have been all over for him - he would have been a sitting duck in his Anaconda if he couldn't move. If he'd been even one system over we would have either missed each other entirely, or I would not have been able to get to him in time with the fuel, and the ability to transfer it.
Rationally, I know he could have reached out to the Fuel Rats for help. There are several in and around the system, Gods bless them. He could have called for help and gone cryo until they could reach him, but he was in a panic, adrenaline still pumping from the firefight, and he wasn't thinking clearly. Had it not been for plain old dumb luck, my friend would be dead.
My friend. Not wingmate, not business associate, not kin - but just someone I met out here, and not even in person, because this far from home, the human instinct for survival demands that we bond because otherwise we are much more likely to die. Back in the bubble we would have passed each other without saying word - we'd have checked out each other as a potential threat and moved on. Back in the bubble we have nothing but reasons to differentiate and oppose each other. Here, we're on the same side by default, unless something, something serious, happens to make that change.
There's a lesson there, I think. At the bottom rung of the hierarchy of needs, we're all in this together. Unless we're competing for the very same breath of air, we know instinctually that we must share and watch each other's backs. In the bubble, it's easy to lose sight of this. When it's a matter of protecting a profitable trade route or an access vector to a decent mining ring - of which there are startlingly few in the bubble - we go at each other teeth and weapons bared. Because there is plenty of "good enough" to go around and the little bit of "better than" makes the difference. Out here, where it's do or die on a daily basis, where they pay for Osmium with Platinum, we are not in competition with each other - we're in competition with the void, with vacuum and with oblivion itself.
That lesson was worth the time I've spent here, it was worth the time to get here, and it was worth the time I now have to spend getting back to the bubble. I'm looking forward to the trip, and I really want to see the intermediate stations that have been established in the time that I've been here. It was a slog to get out here, all 22,000 ly, all by myself. Having a port to visit, and a bit of human company from time to time, every few kaylies will be much like decompression. I suspect that reentering civilized space after the long trek back would be a bit too much to handle without pausing to re-acclimate. A shock to the system.
The ship is prepped. I've sold all the mining gear and replaced my mines and mining lasers with missiles - though on second thought I should equip a small mining laser, just in case. I'm bringing back no cargo, even though Jacques' booze is prized back home (well, maybe I'll pack a little for myself). Sadly due to the weak Outfitting selection I cannot get back my large fuel tanks that brought me here that I sold to make room for the mining gear. The biggest tank available is a Class 3, but I can and have gotten a Class 6 AFMU with a small Class 4 backup just in case. I'm also packing a fuel transfer limpet controller. I think I can spare the slot, just in case I run into someone in trouble on the way.
In what remains of today, I will take the ship out for trials. There are many neutron stars just "south" of here and I haven't spent enough time sightseeing as I could have. I'm a bit worried about the single class 5 fuel tank on the Conda and I want to see how it drains before I commit to it. I think I could forego the several slots to quip a few of those class 3 fuel tanks, but I would much prefer something bigger. Sadly, I can't wish bigger tanks into existence out here.