The life and tribulations of cmdr Abacha Tunde.

[Abacha Tunde]

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Abacha Tunde and though that might not ring a bell with most of you, I'm named after an ancestor who was the first African in space
Like my ancestor, I plan to push the borders of known space by exploration.
But for now, I'm in my brand new spanking Sidewinder at Chamberlain's Rest at HIP 97950 eager to start my adventures.

I'll be back to report on my progress.

o7 cmdrs

 

[Abacha Tunde]

While still in the gate, disaster struck. Wanting to invest the 250kCr at hand, I soon found out the options for upgrading my feisty Sidewinder were limited in Chamberlain's Rest. Had to ditch the lasers and SRV hanger to extend the jump range and the only option was a 1A fuel scope. At least I would be getting somewhere.
But when paying, the clerk stared at a red flashing screen. Something was wrong and the transaction failed to complete. Minutes later security officers showed up and confiscated most of my money. They didn't explain anything, just shoved a legal looking document in my hands and left me with only 9.000 Cr and some change.

What to do?

 

[Fish172]

PANIC!

 

[Abacha Tunde]

Good advice, and I took it.
Ordered a Lavian brandy at the bar and nursed it until the bartender threw me out. Wandered the corridors and finally fell asleep on a couch somewhere. The next morning I went back and ordered a 1E fuel scoop. It was the only think I could afford but I realised it was going to be a slow and sweaty exploration trip.
As I waited for the install the clerk smiled nervously at me. Finally the fuel scoop was installed, a 1E was obviously not a priority for them.
Sat down in the cockpit, noticed a strip of paper left behind by a hurried mechanic.
Checked the missions. All meh. Great, without bad luck I would have had no luck at all.
Frustrated I asked permission to take off and punched the throttle as I climbed out of the gravity well.

Where to go now?

 

[Fish172]

Sell any bits on the ship that are not needed, shields weapons etc. Buy a couple of tons of useful cargo. Get to a nearby base .Sell. Work from there

 

[Robert Rockbite]

If you want to be an explorer, you might want to do some exploring. Try to make your way to Eta Cassiopeiae and scan every system on the way. Try not to destroy your ship, because the exploration data would be lost. When you arrive in system Eta Cassiopeiae, dock at station Angus Manwaring and sell your exploration data there. They currently pay a lot more than the usual rate - until Thursday. And after Thursday, all stations will pay more for exploration data for a week or two.

 

[Abacha Tunde]

As I went into supercruise, that pesky slip of paper started floating through the cockpit. It was not the stained checklist of an overworked engineer, but a written note. Written ! ! !
Who writes nowadays? Everything is either sent to your computer directly or printed. This was written.
Though the handwriting was very neat, obviously by a female, I struggled to decipher it. Who writes nowadays? I hadn't read any written text for . . . can't remember. Some notes from my mother perhaps.
Anyways, this is what it says: HIP 98442, Col 285 Sector IN-J c9-16, HIP 108457, Pegasi Sector GW-W d1-90, Pegasi Sector RT-Q b5-1 and Samnienas.
Plotted it out on the map and they were definitively not just some random systems, it was a course. And I decided to follow it.

 

[Abacha Tunde]

A couple of jumps later I'm at HIP 98442. Ooh, lot's of lovely planets to scan here. Somebody really is trying to help me out.
So with a bit more confidence I plot the rout to Col 285 Sector IN-J c9-16 and that's where the problems begin. The limited jumprange of my Sidey simply will not got me there. There just aren't enough scoopable stars in between. How about some inhabited systems then? Refuel somewhere perhaps?
I just might be able to get there by plotting to Koren first, refuel at MacKenzie Vision, then towards Turngin, refuel at Jordan plant. Yeah, a bit tight but that should work.
I was looking forward to some decent food at MacKenzie, but no luck. Boy this really is a backward, imagine living here . . .
Refueled and onwards to Turngin, wasn't much bigger but at least they had a workshop here.
Turned in my nav data and was looking forward to a 300k+ payout, but just as my buddy Noelle was going to push the button, I saw the red flashing computer screen reflecting from her face again.



I'm sorry sir, but it appears you have some outstanding loans or fines or something. I'm only able to transfer a reduced amount. But congrats on you making Mostly Aimless sir. She really did her best to hide that smirk.

And with that I didn't even get 20k.
Depressed, I went back to the workshop to look at all the shiny kit I couldn't buy, and select the one piece I could. I should probably focus on jump range.
Passed by an inviting cosy restaurant but had a snack at the vending machine instead. The chef was an exact copy of the online chef in the Sidey, but I pretended it tasted better.

Arriving at the workshop, it turned out I would be able to upgrade the Sidey with a 1C FSD, 1D thrusters, life support and power distributor and that got the jumprange up to over 14 ly.
Started to feel a bit better about myself.
And I did make mostly aimless.

 

[Abacha Tunde]

Same old, same old, I turn in the scan data, most of the pay-out gets withheld.

Passing through the Ts'in Gu system, I docked at Nelson Port. Big station. Surely someone there would be able to find out what was wrong.
Swung by the security office and asked them to check if I had any outstanding fines. They looked a bit surprised but assured me I had none. But Bill Hinton dug a bit deeper, I see most of your earnings are confiscated. I've never seen anything like that before. Clickety click. Nope, never seen anything like that before.
He looked puzzled, then his eyes cleared. I'll ask my brother in law. He's a muppet, but he's a muppet who went to law school. He'll figure it out and I'll contact you.
I thanked him.

Turned in the discovery data, got only a fraction of it, but still enough to D-rate everything and get a 2D scoop. That got the Sidey's jumprange up to nearly 16 ly and the scooping wouldn't be as sweaty.
On top of that I ranked Surveyor and got and invite from Felicity Farseer.

So yes, things are looking up.

 

[Abacha Tunde]

A lot of things happened.

On my way to Maia to get introduced to Felicity Farseer I stopped at Gertrud and noticed all ships and equipment have a nice discount at Li Yong-Ruis systems. So I bought a Hauler. It's not an exciting ship to fly but with D-rated equipment, a 2B FSD and SRV it has a decent jumprange of 21 ly.
Turns out the discount doesn't apply to that Artemis suit I wanted. So as I started to haggle down the price of a showroom model, Aden Tanner's call for assistance came in. Without hesitation I rushed towards the Hauler and headed for Ngaruayanka.
Sadly, the trace turned cold.
But at least I can buy that Artemis suit now. So the black awaits me.

Oh, one more thing, got a call from Bill Hinton. Turns out my financial problems could somehow be related to my forefather Abacha Tunde, the first African in space. He and his brother in law are still investigating the matter. I'm hoping they could get this cleared up so I can finally start to make some real money.