Day 2: Disaster never strikes Once
Hey,
I m happy to have you all on board. So far I can tell you, day 2 was rough. I m hoping to get enough materials to boost my jumprange far enough to make it through the Abyss. A bit of warning. Today I couldn’t continue, so day 3 stays empty. As we can’t continue till next week, i ll use the weekend to farm materials. And hopefully, i don’t have to call my friends from the fuel rats.
With these words, I present to you, Day 2:
Day 2: Into the Sagittarian Gap
Blu Thua MY-Q B18-5
999 lightyears, 65 jumps, 1 hour, this summarizes Day 2 of the Expedition in Numbers. But the thruth is bigger.
Today I ve set out on our second leg, on my own. The Ark Royal and the Cholduldor(I still can’t pronounce it’s name) will follow later on, while I used our second leg for racing purposes.
During this race I’ve brought the Endurance to its first real test and I m glad to report that it succeeded. All systems are still green and the ship should be able to continue safely.
Right now I m finishing the post flight checks and looking on the next leg of our route. It’s approximately 6.500 lightyears to our first real waypoint: The Cat‘s Paw Nebula.
As this system appears to not be in the Galactic databases I can’t tell how far I am from the nearest humans, but I m definitely in the same sector as Hillary Depot, part of the Colonia Connection Highway. What I know is that we’ve traversed about 2.000 lightyears.
Where I felt adventurous and excited yesterday, I felt dull and tired today.
Update, 11:31 pm local system time
Disaster struck.
While I was eating dinner in my cabin on the Endurance, the ships comm Systems suddenly awoke, beaming with life.
With shock I realized what this signal means. A distress signal from the Cholgundol, Captain Thunder was in Peril, his ship has run out of fuel. Immediately I rushed to the Comms, and contacted the striken vessel, assessing damage. At the same time I coordinated the rescue with the Ark Royal, who luckily was en route at that time as well.
After several minutes, I gladly received the most delightful message of the day: Fuel+
From that point onwards it went spiralling down for us.
At first I decided to scan the only Landable planet in the system I was in, to see if we can mine for materials. It turned out to be very rich in carbon, sulphur and Nickel. Perfect, we needed the nickel to refill on limpets and the carbon to refill on FSD injections for the Endurance.
Both the Ark Royal and the Endurance went down to the planet to Scout with our SRVs, while Captain Thunder stayed in orbit and scanned the entire system, making sure we don’t miss anything interesting.
As I heard, up there in space everything worked out fine, I just wish we would have had the same luck on the surface.
To shortly summarize, one srv badly damaged, after malfunctions of its controls leading to our departure and one destroyed SRV, that fell from the sky to high, due to some Captain parking it on the Sidewinder, as it took off.
With that much damage we decided to head to Hillary Depot for SRV repairs. During the 22 jumps, the Ark Royal and Choldolgur jumping in my wake, nothing bad happened except for a few kisses of the exclusion Zones of certain stars, at least for a while. Cause suddenly the Ark Royal went silent, falling behind, shields dropping. The experimental Guardian Hybris Technology FSD Booster of the Ark Royal has failed and sent ripples and fires through the doomed ship. Captain Fox, alone and without radio contact to us had to try to repair his ship, so he could at least jump to Hillary. Sparks where flying and smoke rose all around him, as one system shut down at a time. Explosions rippled through the ship.
Finally we got, he managed to make shift repair the striken craft, ordering us to jump ahead.
When we arrived in the Blu Thua AI-A c14-10 System happiness washed over us. The Ark Royal has made it and rejoined the Fleet as we beelined to Hillary Depot, hoping to not loose valuable seconds to intersictions, as the systems on the Ark Royal were failing again. Sadly me and the Ark Royal both got interdicted. We both managed to escape, and I managed to land safely on the stations landing Pad.
It’s my sad duty to report, that the Ark Royal, fell from the skies, slamming into the station, just 430 Meters short of the landing pad, sustaining heavy damage. Badly damaged and striken with a Fine for crashlanding we departed Hillary Depot immediately to hide in the rings of a gas giant for the night.
It might have been due to the critical state of the Anacondas systems, or a simple computer error, but upon dropping out of Supercruise, while navlocked to Captain Thunders ship, the Ark Royal met its tragic end at the face of an asteroid, slamming into it at full speed, as it dropped.
What followed, was panic. With the Ark Royal gone, we had lost our most valuable asset.
Gladly we managed to save Captain Fox. After contacting his insurance they assured us to send a replacement ship via the Mammon System, to restock on limpets. The ship, equipped again with the same FSD Booster that caused the disaster the new Ark Royal made it to our system safely.
Sadly, Disaster never strikes once. An accidential boost sent the Endurance launching forward, crashing into another asteroid. The shield less Endurance was lost in the process.
The next I remember was waking up on Hillary Depot, healed. I payed my insurance and gladly, I was provided with a replacement of the Endurance. I’ve decided to not rename as this vessel will carry its legacy to Beagle Point.
It would have been acceptable of our problems stopped here. To ships replaced, one refueled, so close to the Bubble, but no, as they say in german, all good things are three, upon dropping back into the rings of the gas giant, the new Endurance came face to face with a mining vessel, boosting right into me, gladly I survived. The Endurance was down to 32% hull and I had to fly it back to Port for repairs.
Now I m starring at Adder and Anaconda hovering in space before me, just above the rings of the gas giant, which I will call, the graveyard. A fitting name.
Well day 2 was rough, and this marks the last time we will be in reach of a station.
