Well, Commanders! I really wasn’t expecting the colonial system grab to be quite so frantic but, here we are. It appears there has been a desperate push by thousands and thousands of you to claim and build in your own systems. We are only just realising the scope of this new era in the Bubble’s history and it looks as if this is an even bigger change to our way of life than when the Titans arrived.
The Pilots Federation told each of us could blaze our own trail when we first signed up to be commanders, yet only now has that claim been fully, and magnificently realised.
The Trailblazer Era has begun!
Leeya Geddy here! That old duffer Homborger gets to take a break for a while. It’s my turn to tell y’all how it is this time. Freya’s little trip out to Altera’s Eye she took to meet the leader of her squadron inspired her to take out her beloved Asp Explorer Sir Fratley for a little trip of her own out beyond the Formidine Rift. This means she’s missed the latest edict from the Pilot’s Federation allowing us to claim uninhabited systems for ourselves. It’s darn spooky out there, and I hope they’re both having a good time together – those two go way way back. While Freya’s away, however, it’s up to me to contribute toward her squadron’s endeavours. Sometimes it’s a conflict zone, or some BGS work. This time it’s something new. The squadron has decided to expand into a neighbouring, uninhabited system and I’ve been roped in to doing Freya’s share of the hauling.
The Yomar Consortium began in Gullvetti, constantly in a power struggle with the other factions to keep that system an anarchy. As they’re a rather small faction it’s been difficult to keep control and, up until now at least, have never been able to push into new systems. As soon as the Pilots Federation gave the go ahead, however, an initial system was selected – Arietis Sector VB-J a10-3 and claimed by one of the members opting for a Coriolis first station and, since then, its been non stop hauling. Of course, when it comes to hauling a lot of commodities, nothing does it quite like the RushFleet’s Imperial Cutter, the Big Money.
Once the call had gone out allowing commanders to claim systems, the answer was overwhelming!
Suddenly there was a massive rush for systems! Individual commanders began pitching about for their favourite systems just outside the fringes of the Bubble while squadrons raced to gobble up useful systems neighbouring their own.
All in all, in the first week alone over 8000 systems had been claimed and added to the Bubble with over 13000 stations, satellites and surface settlements built. Social media was abuzz with commanders proudly showing off what they had already built or panicking about whether they would finish theirs in time and asking for help. All of it was positive! At least, at first.
As far as the Consortium were concerned, four of us were tasked with building the initial coriolis. It seemed daunting at first but our second in command produced a marvellous spreadsheet with a system where each of us could “reserve” a commodity and we would update the relevant amounts once it was all delivered. It was a lot of hard, yet surprisingly compelling work, a lot of too-ing and fro-ing in our Type 9s and Imperial Cutters, jacked up by the prospect of what we were about to give birth to in the galaxy. And by the time the weekend was up, it was almost complete. There was just one commodity that was proving a problem, and that was CMM Composites.
In fact, problems were beginning to spring up all over the Bubble.
Fleet carrier jump times were regularly topping 85-90 minutes, that was if you could find a time slot to jump at all. The Pilots Federation keep close tabs on all carrier jumps in the galaxy as too many all at once risks damaging the integrity of witch space, especially in such a relatively tiny space as the Bubble. This meant that filling one’s carrier to make the mass transportation of goods more efficient was now slowing the whole process down significantly.
We also had the shortage of CMM Composites, only available from refineries which, by their very nature, can only be found on planet surfaces, which was creating a distressingly narrow bottleneck. Build progress all over the Bubble was slowing to a snail’s pace. This was alleviated, somewhat, by refineries putting in extra shifts and overtime, drastically increasing their supply. But soon a more profound and worrying setback began to emerge.
For the Consortium the rarity of CMMCs was a real problem.
I decided to finally properly outfit and engineer (well, I say engineer, more like cannibalise already engineered parts from other ships) my Type 8 (I will begin a brand new series of posts on the new SCO ships and their naming system very soon)
Because we could only find CMMCs in small amounts I thought an SCO compatible ship would be best for getting to those hard to reach surface refineries. She proved a very capable haulage vessel in this regard, though she ran a little hot at times, but progress in obtaining those CMMCs still remained painfully sluggish.
It wasn’t to be for long, however. The supply increased, and by the Wednesday following the initial claim boom, the deliveries were complete.
Some pilots were now bitterly complaining to the Pilots Federation and to Brewer Corporation. Claimants’ names and rights of ownership were disappearing from the systems they had been working so hard to complete. This phenomenon was rare but it was enough to worry the instigators of this new edict. And another, more worrying consequence had arisen. Some commanders had learned to exploit the new permissions and had chained together multiple system claims startlingly quickly.
This prompted the whole system to be halted completely while the Pilots Federation began an intensive investigation into what had gone wrong.
And halted it remains. No new systems can, as yet, be claimed. Although already claimed systems can continue their development.
Yet none of this has dampened Commanders’ enthusiasm for their new rights!
The sheer variety of installations built so far in such a short space of time has been staggering! One of the most popular being the construction sites of surface settlements, many of them sending the racing communities into paroxysms of delight as they make excellent and diverse SRV racetracks. Some commanders are even requesting their sites to never be finished!
It’s such an exciting time. The vast majority of us are happy for the Pilots Federation to iron out the creases in the software for this new legislation so it can be used fairly by everyone. Hopefully it won’t take too long as I’m eager for the RushFleet to find it’s own system or series of systems to indulge Rush fans from all over the Galaxy!
Meanwhile, back at Arietis Sector VB-J a10-3, the constructors of our small squadron admired the results of our week’s hard toil
The Dark City spun gracefully before us, hanging in the anarchic murk of a distant brown dwarf star.
We had worked hard for this, just the four of us. Our own place. Where we could conduct our criminal endeavours in secrecy. More installations are planned, narcotic er, I mean, agricultural settlements, weapons factories, spaceship chop-shops, lots still to be done. And soon, inevitably, new systems to claim.
This trailblazing update has changed our lives as commanders forever!
Elite Dangerous RUSH FLEET 
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