Southern Expedition, First Leg
02 Aug 2021Kissamies
Two weeks ago I embarked an expedition with my carrier. There are two major waypoints to this trip: The lost Project Dynasty megaship in Formidine Rift and the southernmost tip of the galaxy. I am happy to say that the first target has been reached. I have now seen the Zurara with my own eyes.My path out of the Bubble was very straightforward at first. I only took a slight detour towards the California Nebula to collect the Hesperus logs while I sent the carrier ahead. Overall, I alternated with jumping on board the carrier and sending it ahead and then catching it. I only scouted ahead for the final jump to lesser waypoints to find a good spot for the carrier in the system. So, after the first straight run from the Bubble, I scouted ahead at Heart Nebula, so we could park right next to the Farsight Expedition Base. The planet the asteroid base was orbiting also had a ring containing a Tritium hotspot, so I mined a small amount for some poor carrier in orbit that had gotten itself stranded, and then explored the Heart and Soul Nebulae a bit, but this was cut short because I had an urge to move on.
Next major stop were the Formidine Rift Project Dynasty sites. Those poor souls had no idea they were on a one way trip. It's a bit ghoulish, but I got some nice selfies out of them. Then we stopped at known double tritium hotspot in Hypoe AIM JA-A C3. We probably have enough tritium for the entire trip, but it doesn't hurt to occasionally top up a bit. Mining, as boring as it is, also breaks the monotony of constant exploring as well. The Type-7 I put together especially for tritium mining is a bit frustrating, though. I can handle the slow progress with 3 mining lances and 6 limpets, but the small sub-surface displacement missile runs out of ammo way too fast. I should copy my protégé's mining Type-10 when I get back home.
While the carrier spent time at the icy ring, I also explored some nearby systems with short range explorer Cobra Mk.III. It has easier time finding a landing spot than my Krait Phantom. I found so much biodata that I decided to double back to Farsight so I could sell it to Vista Genomics. Once again in Heart Nebula, I decided to command my carrier to take several jumps ahead while I raced the neutron stars to catch it. This didn't go very well for me because I just had to stop on the way to explore planets. I told them to stop so I could catch up with them. Then I ran into the Poseidal Wall, a subregion of Formidine Rift with exceptionally low star density. It didn't help that I was above the galactic plane, trying to get to the next neutron star. I quickly abandoned that course and just focused on getting through the area. It took a couple of boosted jumps, longest of which was some decimals over 135 light years. I was in no danger, though. I stock plenty of jumponium since my harrowing Abyssal crossing a few years back, and I could always have told my carrier to come pick me up.
With all that behind me, I had reached the Zurara, more unfortunate souls of left to die to ensure the secrecy of Project Dynasty. I left the carrier by an icy ring some 60 light years back while I visited the megaship myself. Also submitted some exploration data to the DSSA carrier holding vigil over that silent derelict. Now I am exploring some nearby systems and stocking up some tritium. We intend to travel to the known double tritium hotspot at the tip of the solid Outer Arm, make a base camp there while I explore the region (Formidine Rift in the official Galaxy Map) for few weeks to a few months. The carrier has big enough crew and plenty of R&R facilities to keep us from getting space crazy. When I'm done, we'll head for Outer Arm Vacuus, or Kepler's Crest, and the most southern point.
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I have also received reports of our faction situation back home. We have gained a new ally, Born Into Darkness, which also supports our faction Aseveljet. Hel had many acceptable expansion targets free within its range, so we decided to push it to expansion. Unfortunately, all of them got taken by other factions while we had the expansion in progress. We ended up scrambling a bit to guide the invasion and it ended up landing in GCRV 1526. Acceptable, but we spotted a really intriguing target and are gearing up for another expansion from Hel. This time it shall be done properly.
Also, according to my protégé, our systems overheating is a major problem. If you come across any Aseveljet bounty vouchers, please don't redeem them in Ainunnicori, LFT 300, Marson, Yimakuapa or Zelada, if you can conveniently do that elsewhere. If you want to take an extra step and help us with them, without going into too much technicalities we'll generally find them always useful in GCRV 1568, Momus Reach and Yaringu.