I wasn't planning on doing any rim-running on this exploration trip. So I didn't spend time harvesting lots of jumponium before I left. I also didn't bring along an SRV, nor a mining laser. I had enough polonium for one Grade 3 FSD boost, and enough cadmium for four grade 2s. My ship has a maximum rated jump range of 46.3 LY.
But I had an interesting stop on my itinerary suggested to me by Cmdr Marx, and it proved to be much further out on the galactic fringe than I'd anticipated. But I checked the route options; I could catch a neutron star down there, and use jumponium on the way back. Easy peasy.
Or so I thought. Turns out, I misread the requirements and didn't realise a Grade 2 jump uses 2 units of cadmium, not one (I've never actually used jumponium before). I was down to one of each boost type when I noticed and now I'm stuck in a part of the galaxy where very few stars are within 46 LY of each other. What to do?
Aha. There's a neutron star only two boosted-jumps away. If I can make it there, I can neutron-jump back up to someplace with more stars. The first jump was 73.0 LY, so I needed to use the Level 3 jump for that one. The next jump I'd done the trig and calculated that the distance from there to the neutron star should be 69.4 LY, which ought to have been just at the limit of my ship's Level 2 jump range (69.48 LY). Uncomfortably close, but it should have worked.
Alas, I make the jump and get to the first system, only to find that rounding errors meant my actual range to target is 69.56 LY. A Level 2 supercharge isn't gonna be quite good enough, I need a level 3, and I'm now fresh out of polonium. And there's not a darn thing I can do about it. That neutron star is the closest star to this system, so there are no other stars to jump to. I tried draining the fuel down to near-zero, but no dice. An absolutely-no-fuel-left jump might have helped - I'd have needed to call the Fuel Rats. But the Rats can't easily deliver polonium, and that's the only thing that I can see that would get me out of this mess. Unless someone knows a secret technique for making a ship lighter; I wish the utility slots had a "jettison" button, jettisoning the chaff and point defence turret would do the trick.
NGC 6891 Sector DB-X d1-0 is an interesting enough system to be stuck in. A bunch of airless (landable) rocks and moons, including one outer moon with 0.5% polonium. It's a pity I can't land and claim some. There are plenty of rings too, but polonium is never found in rings so the mining-laser trick won't work either, I understand.
Doomed.
I've read the recent thread where Rock Rats offer to drive around harvesting mats for stranded people in SRV-less-ships to scoop, but I can't ask people to come all the way out here and pootle about on a 0.5% polonium planet, just because I got careless. I won't be losing too much, I don't think. It's only been a week since I last docked, I'll be respawning at the asteroid base in the Crescent Nebula. Three ELWs in the Drojao sector I'll have to rescan. And maybe 50 to 100 million credits worth of unsold exploration data, not quite sure. It sure could have been a lot worse.
But I had an interesting stop on my itinerary suggested to me by Cmdr Marx, and it proved to be much further out on the galactic fringe than I'd anticipated. But I checked the route options; I could catch a neutron star down there, and use jumponium on the way back. Easy peasy.
Or so I thought. Turns out, I misread the requirements and didn't realise a Grade 2 jump uses 2 units of cadmium, not one (I've never actually used jumponium before). I was down to one of each boost type when I noticed and now I'm stuck in a part of the galaxy where very few stars are within 46 LY of each other. What to do?
Aha. There's a neutron star only two boosted-jumps away. If I can make it there, I can neutron-jump back up to someplace with more stars. The first jump was 73.0 LY, so I needed to use the Level 3 jump for that one. The next jump I'd done the trig and calculated that the distance from there to the neutron star should be 69.4 LY, which ought to have been just at the limit of my ship's Level 2 jump range (69.48 LY). Uncomfortably close, but it should have worked.
Alas, I make the jump and get to the first system, only to find that rounding errors meant my actual range to target is 69.56 LY. A Level 2 supercharge isn't gonna be quite good enough, I need a level 3, and I'm now fresh out of polonium. And there's not a darn thing I can do about it. That neutron star is the closest star to this system, so there are no other stars to jump to. I tried draining the fuel down to near-zero, but no dice. An absolutely-no-fuel-left jump might have helped - I'd have needed to call the Fuel Rats. But the Rats can't easily deliver polonium, and that's the only thing that I can see that would get me out of this mess. Unless someone knows a secret technique for making a ship lighter; I wish the utility slots had a "jettison" button, jettisoning the chaff and point defence turret would do the trick.
NGC 6891 Sector DB-X d1-0 is an interesting enough system to be stuck in. A bunch of airless (landable) rocks and moons, including one outer moon with 0.5% polonium. It's a pity I can't land and claim some. There are plenty of rings too, but polonium is never found in rings so the mining-laser trick won't work either, I understand.
Doomed.
I've read the recent thread where Rock Rats offer to drive around harvesting mats for stranded people in SRV-less-ships to scoop, but I can't ask people to come all the way out here and pootle about on a 0.5% polonium planet, just because I got careless. I won't be losing too much, I don't think. It's only been a week since I last docked, I'll be respawning at the asteroid base in the Crescent Nebula. Three ELWs in the Drojao sector I'll have to rescan. And maybe 50 to 100 million credits worth of unsold exploration data, not quite sure. It sure could have been a lot worse.
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