Going to Colonia

[Alec Turner]

Day 16 - 02.01.3307
VAPING

Having broken back through into the Inner Scutum Centaurus Arm of the galaxy ..

.. I'm now left with just 4 jumps between myself and Colonia!

I'm going to save it for tomorrow tho' I think. I'm clearly quite nervous ... I've started vaping!

 

[Marbat]

LOL, too funny.
You have nothing too worry about unlike myself as pretty much crap my pants wondering if I have enough fuel to get pass string after string of Brown stars. Did cruise through a Nebula that had a neutron star I whizz by so kind of exciting.

 

[Crank Larson]

Be careful when you come into Colonia if you have exploration data. Was doing some mission running around the area on my alt account this evening, and Colonia itself is rife with animosity. Silent running and a couple of heatsinks got my explo AspX out of trouble (after the shields came down in one hit!). Fortunately I sold all my exploration data on arrival anyway, so wouldn't have lost much if I'd not been able to escape.

What time will you likely be arriving tomorrow? I've found a fairly colourful planet close to Jacques if you feel like a flyve.

 

[Marbat]

If you are asking me then probably won't be there for a few days, taking my time more or less.
Been there once before so know it can be risky but this time I am in my fully loaded Python that has decent shields and fire power. It's name Dragons Breath for a reason.

 

[Alec Turner]

Be careful when you come into Colonia if you have exploration data. Was doing some mission running around the area on my alt account this evening, and Colonia itself is rife with animosity. Silent running and a couple of heatsinks got my explo AspX out of trouble (after the shields came down in one hit!). Fortunately I sold all my exploration data on arrival anyway, so wouldn't have lost much if I'd not been able to escape.

What time will you likely be arriving tomorrow? I've found a fairly colourful planet close to Jacques if you feel like a flyve.

Yeah, I did wonder what the griefer quotient was like around Colonia (another reason I didn't jump in during peak hours on a Saturday). I think I'll keep my eta secret actually ... you never know who might be reading this!

 

[Crank Larson]

Yeah, I did wonder what the griefer quotient was like around Colonia (another reason I didn't jump in during peak hours on a Saturday). I think I'll keep my eta secret actually ... you never know who might be reading this!

Fair enough, public declaration of arrival time may not be the best plan.

But if you are hanging around Colonia for a while and we're online at the same time, give me a ping. I don't know the area very well yet (even though there are only a handful of bases), but happy to join in shenanigans.

I was planning on keeping my alt out here, but I've realised that I need to head back to the the bubble to unlock the engineers (it is very irritating that the Colonia engineers require unlocking from the bubble... Unless I am missing something?). I'd also be interested in seeing some of the sights you have bookmarked for the way back, so will be leaving the area at some point.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Yeah, I did wonder what the griefer quotient was like around Colonia (another reason I didn't jump in during peak hours on a Saturday). I think I'll keep my eta secret actually ... you never know who might be reading this!

Low - even Colonia itself has too little traffic to be worthwhile for them most of the time, and the rest is even quieter. Safe as anywhere outside of Colonia itself, I'd say.

Anyway, say hi after you get here

 

[Skürt Avil]

Fantastic thread and an epically told tale.
Thank you CMDR!
o7

 

[Alec Turner]

Fantastic thread and an epically told tale.
Thank you CMDR!
o7

Thanks! I actually plan to keep this going after I've arrived in Colonia (I'll be making a few day trips out to nearby sights, visiting the local engineers and even having a go at the Colonia Trophy Dash Buckyball challenge), plus I plan to log my eventual journey back to Sol as well.

 

[Crank Larson]

Safe as anywhere outside of Colonia itself, I'd say.

That was my experience flying around last night. I think Colonia was the only system in which I found other players - and they apparently just wanted to kill me. Haven't been around long enough to know how common that is, though.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

That was my experience flying around last night. I think Colonia was the only system in which I found other players - and they apparently just wanted to kill me. Haven't been around long enough to know how common that is, though.

If you look at the relative traffic reports - https://cdb.sotl.org.uk/reports/traffic - then Colonia is generally as busy as the next two or three combined. Almost always at least a couple of people hanging around docked at Jaques [1], or running supercruise. My experience is that 99.9% of them don't want to kill me, but that may vary.

[1] Which gives rise to the other major threat to visiting explorers - being clobbered by a Beluga in Jaques' mailslot.

 

[Biff Stryker]

Yea sometimes the Colonia welcoming committee can be quite misunderstood
Welcome to the region! There's a little bit of everything for everybody in our small community.

 

[Marbat]

I wonder if it has change since the first time I was there, had no issues with anybody. Maybe I just got lucky that time, was in my Phantom.

 

[Alec Turner]

Day 17 - 03.01.3307
COLONIA

Pretty soon I'm just one jump from Colonia. I'm carrying an approximate metric shedload of exploration data and I'm understandably nervous about what sort of reception committee I'm going to receieve when I make the final jump. Oh well, only one way to find out ...

So that's it ... I've arrived in Colonia! However those hollow signals on the ship's radar ..

.. make me VERY nervous (especially the triangle) so I rapidly target another system and high wake straight back out again. Consequently the first citizens of the Colonia region that I actually meet up close and personal are these guys who I happen to stumble upon quite by chance.

They occasionally emit small clouds of luminous particles but are otherwise hopeless when it comes to local gossip.

I spend the next 20 mins jumping in and out of Colonia and other neighbouring systems trying to see if I can catch a break and get a clear path to Jaques Station. Colonia is clearly a very busy system tho' so in the end I err on the side of caution and sell all my data to the Colonia Citizen's Network at Bolden's Enterprise in the Tir system.

Lots of first discoveries ..

.. and I think I get around 50 million in total (I didn't actually deep scan that many systems, just a quick honk as I passed through).

Having done that I do then make a run for Jaques and actually manage to get in without any hassle. My word it's a busy station!

I'm assigned landing pad 07 ... nice!

And touchdown ... Colonia, I've arrived!

 

[Crank Larson]

Welcome. If you're at Jacques, go and check out planet 5A. I've been flyving between geological POIs, and there's a nice variety of landscapes.

There's an installation on the planet too (+++ I think), though it was dark when I arrived so didn't land there.

Spoiler: Colonia 5A

 

[Max Bothin]

Welcome to Colonia. Get yourself a beer (old german recipe) at Stoertebeker Dock at Helgoland. Prost!

 

[Biff Stryker]

Glad you are settled in Alec! Thanks for sharing your trip out here, maybe we'll cross paths and enjoy your visit!

 

[Rat Catcher]

Come and say hello to Ratkatcher before you go on your way... Just don't go on your way for a couple of days while I get this account in the flying joytoy into Colonia - will be nice to say hello once I have Kraited up and disposed of the paid killers...

 

[sgurr]

Many Congrats Alec! What a landing pad to get
How did it feel flying into Jaques?

Let me know if you'd like a fighter pilot while you're there.

 

[Alec Turner]

Day 18 - 04.01.3307
FRESH MEAT FOR ETIENNE'S SAUSAGE FACTORY

Now I'm here there are so many things to do I'm not quite sure where to start. I toy with getting some of my other ships transferred out here from the bubble but it's gonna cost something like 120 million for my Python alone so I decide to leave it for now. I can just modify Outworn Dalliances or build new ships if necessary.

I decide to start with the engineers and get one of the the less palatable jobs out of the way first, namely giving Etienne Dorn his 25 occupied escape pods. I mean I guess it is possible that he's providing a wonderful humanitarian aid service and that it's just unfortunate he happens to look like an evil ..

.. but I can't help feeling it's more a case of "out of the fire and into the frying pan" for the folks I hand over. Anyway, I hang around at Jaques bar for a while and start to hear rumours of a stranded cargo megaship in the Luchtaine system which may well have some people that need rescuing. I swap out the Dalliances' fighter bay for some more cargo, add a hatch breaker limpet and head off. Sure enough, there she is ..

I find the escape hatch and get busy with the hatch breaker.

Occupied escape pods start tumbling out into the void ..

.. and into my cargo scoop.

With 25 safely onboard, next stop is Kraken's Retreat in the Los system.

What an extraordinary location, I may have to get the SRV out later on!

I land, grit my teeth and hand over the escape pods.

Eurgh! What have I done? A shiver runs down my spine ... I need a stiff drink now, probably several. Luckily there's a highly renowned cafe here who do a fabulous beer 'n' sausage platter!