An Odyssey to Delphi: A Pictorial Journey

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

Its been a fair few weeks since the marvellous action at Shin Dez where I captured this anaconda blasting its way out of Jameson. We've had a titan to destroy and the launch of Powerplay 2.0. I have enjoyed both events enormously despite not having a huge amount of time to actually play.

Raijin came and went. We are well versed now in their destruction and as is most typical late war in anything, I have perfected my Titan Bomber. With the boost to engineering a while back, I finally got around to collecting enough materials to create something specific.

I went with the FDL in the end, purely because I've been lugging one about on my FC for years and not doing anything with it. Originally, this was supposed to be a PvP ship but after a few jousts with other players I decided it just didn't interest me enough to invest time in. So I kitted it out with AX missiles and a cooling beam and tested it out. I didn't lose a ship this time around and pushed nearly 8 million credits an attack run in very busy open servers. The best results I've ever had.

Raijin in its last hours. Its hard to predict what FDev will do with all the work they have put in to the titans. I'm hoping that these, along with active spires, become a permanent fixture somewhere distant from the Bubble so that they can be interacted with into the future. The spire sites are especially well realised alien landscapes that new players hould be able to experience when they are ready.

The pushback field is no match for a determined human attack... but is a beautiful sight...

My new FDL can take a serious amount of punishment upclose to the titan which is something my older Krait struggled with.

AX missiles make short work of those cores... Its odd, we've only been fighting the titans since what? March this year and here we are with only one example left to destroy. It seems that these gigantic motherships have been with us forever.

I also noticed a welcome tweaking of the skybox. It looks lovely on my big fancy screen. Here my Type 8 cruises past it carrying a large amount of rare goods for PP 2.0 trading. I've enjoyed the recent changes and they have certainly brought back the feeling of the Bubble being alive. I opted for Jerome Archer... for no other reason than he held Sol at the start of the update (a system that I enjoy) and that he was one of the new 'faces' of the update.

I also like the weekly 'to do list' that PP 2.0 has. This is much better than the old merits methods. As I'm playing i occasionally come across activities that I didn't expect to pay out in such a big way... scanning megaships anyone? I just wish that combat paid out more merits than they do at the moment.

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

For the second time in my years of playing this game my little world has been upset. I was happy chipping away at the rankings of Jerome Archer thanks to the new Powerplay system. I had chosen Sol as my home system as I've always wanted to base myself there. I was relaxing with some downtime while the assignments ticked over only to discover that the Thargoids are on their way...

I took advantage of the recent sale to upgrade my threads, as you can see in this image, though I didn't bother with prepurchasing the Mandalay as I did with the other early access ships. I plan to get back out exploring one day, but with the Thargoid situation still not resolved it can wait. Anyway, the new Cobra is coming in a couple of weeks so I might pick that up instead. I did buy loads of paintjobs and other bits with all the ARX I've amassed though.

Here's Earth yesterday. Peaceful and serene. The system was only light on fellow CMDRs and I had the place pretty much to myself. Not so this afternoon, with Abraham Station jam packed and the cat full of new players asking the most basic of questions... which is a good thing.

The Falchion was quickly raised and made ready.

And I took her out over earth expecting Thargoid related trouble... but there was nothing. Just the odd distant non-human signal source.

Much the same in the direction of Mars....

Starship One sits in its usual place above Mars. With the Thargoids on the way it makes me wonder what Sol has in store...

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

So the Cocijo is due to arrive in or around the Sol system tomorrow morning. Galnet tells me that the entire Sol system is in panic... so like many others I've been doing passenger rescue runs. After basing myself at Abraham Lincoln for some of the week, I wondered what was going on elsewhere, especially the Odyssey settlements. Selecting on on Ganymede I thought I'd take my liner on a little drop off to make sure the smaller settlements were being evacuated too.​

Imagine my surprise at arriving at Grebby Prospects to find the locals seemingly blissfully unaware of the imminent arrival of Cocijo... guards patrolled as always and the mission boards still offered tourist cash to see the galaxy. Perhaps they are just putting a real brave face on and refusing to bow down to the caustic threat of the Thargoids?

Perhaps they don't read Galnet?

"You do realise that a swarm of lethal aliens in on the way shortly, don't you?"

"Move along Commander!"

With no missions on the offing, I headed back to Daedalus and ran a few more passenger runs.

My Orca boosts over 580 so can easily outrun anything thrown at it (at the moment at least) by our friends the Thargoids. Popping a few heatsinks also seems to keep those awful missiles at bay.

Loaded up with group missions, I head out of the mail slot and off to Cornwallis. Isn't it strange that there are billions of people in Sol but only one rescue ship to process them? Perhaps this will change after Thursday's tick...

Roaring past Mercury... I've always loved Sol as a system and only recently moved here to support Jerome Archer. In fact the only reason I chose him for PP was the fact that he was the controlling power here. I hope we can repel the aliens and that this system isn't changed permanently for the worst.

Ah, the Cornwallis. Again, think of the scale of the crisis at hand and there is only one landing pad for larger vessels?? Still, this old boat and I have a fair bit of history in past events in Elite Dangerous.

Heading back to Sol... I've moved my FC and all of my ships off to the Cornsar system (or whatever its called) about 100 light years away from Sol. I hope its room enough for the attack tomorrow. I plan to be in the Falchion, my AX fighter, in system ready for whatever the Thargoids will bring tomorrow.

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

Cocijo has arrived and Sol is desolate. I spent an hour there this morning and saw only one other CMDR docked at Columbus, presumably re-arming or evacuating civilians. The wreckage of invasion is all around, as we have seen many times before. Still it is eerie and shocking to see caustic clouds over Earth... a final battle in Sol has long been the dream of many an Elite player and it seems that those times have arrived. This is the view from Abraham Lincoln a few moments ago...

The Moon patrolled by Thargoid interceptors. I was able to observe, by and large, and was left alone by the enemy save a few glancing shots here and there. I left the system with 88% hull though I encountered no more powerful craft than a cyclops or scout. Perhaps the heavy hitters are in other systems?

The remains of the Rescueship Foerster in high orbit above Ganymede. Jupiter is obscured by the wreckage and the caustic cloud.

Ganymede is also visible through the debris field. I wondered how the confused inhabitants of this planet might be feeling now...

Grebby was deserted, though whether the population had fled or been capture by the Thargoids was a mystery. There was no signs of conflict here just a deactivated base.

Of course, I didn't remain undisturbed for long....

The interceptor didn't come any further than the outskirts of the settlement but i didn't wait long enough to determine if that would change. I dashed back to the Falchion and Low Waked out of there...

So I beat a hasty retreat back to my FC. My next step is to work out where to best engage my efforts in this conflict.

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

On the way to the Delphi, my fleet carrier, I was attacked by waves of scouts above Ganymede during the Battle of Sol.

Jupiter hung high in the void as I chased the swarms down...

Making them pop against the black...

I spent a few days trying out some more PP 2.0 content and set about engineering a large ship for the purpose. I've had a Cutter sitting in storage for a while now not really doing anything meaningful so I have begun the task of building it up for PvE PP 2.0 stuff. In carrying out my tasks I found time to muck about on Mitterand Hollow.

I've also got out the Christmas jumper though lots of them don't seem to work properly....

Next step, LHS 380 and some Thargoid action. The Battle of Sol continues and as part of that wider conflicted I help defend Mastrocchio Enterprise above LHS 380 B4.​

Fellow CMDRs queue for repairs...

I've added shards to my Krait and I've been taking on more interceptors one on one. The shards sure are fun and can pound a cyclops to death once the final few hearts remain. I'm toying putting out a ship with more of these in the future, though I'm beginning to doubt there will be enough war to put these wishes into practice.

Thargoids circle the station in the final hours of the conflict in this system...

Above LHS 380 B4 a final interceptor explodes before I retire from the battle to sleep.

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

It has been a week of heavy fighting. The War for Sol has raged and I found myself at the Battle of Yamazaki Landing in Wise 0855-0714. I've finally perfected by AX ship the Falchion with two shard cannon. Taking down a cyclops is now an easy feat and I gathered as many missions as I could from the station and hunted them....

Once this battle was won, I moved on the the Battle of Al-Din Prospect in the Alpha Centauri system. There were sadly no missions on the offing here but plenty of Thargoids. The war moved so fast that both these conflicts drew to a close after each gaming session.

Cocijo... the last Titan.... In orbit above Asia. I made a few runs to get the credits required for the final decal and of course the FSDs.

Having built up a fair few ARX and feeling like supporting FDev for keeping the game going. I got the Stellar Cobra MkV. I've never splashed out on anything like this before but fancied a punt as it was Elite's tenth anniversary.

As you'd expect, it is a joy to fly but as always I'm not sure what its role is going to be.... especially as there is still a war to fight.

The Titans remain and awesome sight with glorious audio. Its strange to think this could be the final time we see these sights!

Testament to the scale of the fighting... seven CMDRs attack the exposed core of Cocijo... my highest payout in a single run was nearly 9 million credits. Not bad with just AX missiles and a personal best.

As I said earlier, are these the last glimpses we have of these Titans? I thought I might get some final atmospheric shots while I was bombing it to death.

Power builds as the energy shield charges...

Beautifully grotesque...

Well, my final run (I expect) on Cocijo saw me escape with 1% hull and 1% FSD. I managed to jump to Ross 248 and repaired on a local FC. I doubt the final Titan will see morning

o7

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

The Death of Cocijo....

Indra's Bane is an Imperial Clipper engineered to collect Thargoid materials. I built her before the buff and never quite finished tweaking her modules. Last night, on a whim, I decided to fly her out and have a go at collecting materials from the hull of the Titan. I am glad I did as it was gameplay I've avoided over the last year.

My first attempts to reach the Titan after meltdown commenced were futile.... with constant attacks from enraged interceptors and I lost three ships for little success.

Switching to solo was a different experience. The Titan was calm and allowed me to explore her hull at leisure. I finally saw one of the 'tattoos' that other CMDRs mentioned.

Pretty much.... though the Glaives were terrifying as ever...

Being chased by interceptors I retreated to the asteroid belt.

From the safety of my cockpit I observed the final fleeing Thargoid vessels.

Until the timer ran out and full meltdown commenced!

Pretty in death...

The huge shockwave pushed we well out of orbit of the Titan. I was wonderful to watch the explosion in real time with so many other players even if the chat collapsed.

Planet Earth has a new storm this morning. What will its winds bring us? How will it effect those that dwell on the Cradle's surface?

o7

And BIG THANKS to FDev!

 

[Orlygg Jafnakol]

I've always wanted to do a big expedition out into the black. Elite is the only game out there that I have found that gives you the feeling of distant, dangerous adventure. Obviously, the events of the Thargoid war kept me in or around the Bubble for years. With that conflict over, I am free once again to roam and with the new Mandelay ship now fully engineered for exploration now seemed the perfect time to head out.

Here is the Infinity's Wake on the launch pad in the Betel system. I dumped Jerome as patron due this shambolic loss of Sol and signed on with the head of Sirius - he does after all give you a bonus to exploration data! My plan, to head vaguely in the direction of Sag A* and stop off anywhere that looks interesting. Then I want to head beyond and do Beagle Point. So quite the journey. If possible I'd like to visit some of the higher and lower points in the galaxy too.

The first leg will see me fly towards Thor's Eye.

Found some crystals along the way...

Pretty spikes....

As you would expect, the going is well travelled so I decided to head further down the galactic plane to find systems that are less frequented. In the end I just kept going and became fascinated with the disc of stars above me...

There were plenty of opportunities for landings and exobiology...

The utter blackness of the void between galaxies is terrifying. With little star density I am having to make use of the frameshift overdrive for the first time.

Still, unexplored planets are plentiful and full of life...

The lowest point I could reach was HD 139. Sadly, there were no landable planets in this system.

This planet marked the furthest point I could travel in HD 139. Next, I plan to return further up the plane to where the worlds are more plentiful and make my way across to Thor's Eye.