Distractions, distractions, distractions…
I’m hurrying back to Colonia, and although my fleet carrier, the Esmerelda Weatherwax is heading directly there, I’ve switched to my DBX, the Hrairoo, and am investigating any high mass or black hole systems I can find.
Things are hotting up back in the Bubble. Powerplay is about to receive a much needed injection of onionhead, the greed and hunger for power of the twelve leaders are about to engulf inhabited space. Two new SCO specialist ships have been released along with a highly intriguing teased picture of a third. and there’s a very important anniversary around the corner. I’m enjoying my exploration, but I’m constantly aware of the time.
And I need to get back to the Bubble before the anniversary celebrations.
Some amazing systems are appearing thick and fast as I pan the galmap left right and centre of the route toward Colonia. Some already discovered, some not, including a twin black hole just a few hundred light years from my destination.
My first unvisited h-mass system!
Yet more black holes come and go, I try to visit them all and be as quick as possible, but there are rare bio’s and oxygen worlds just begging me to go and investigate!
There are so many unvisited spectacular systems around Colonia it’s almost impossible not to find somewhere stunning and slap your name down after the “DISCOVERED BY” label.
Finally I arrive in Colonia with just over a week to go before the anniversary. I take the ship in my fleet currently most suited to the neutron highway (my Krait Phantom the Waves of Hanajima) and use the Spansh neutron plotter to guide me back to my old home system (Valtys) back in the Bubble where my Cobra MK III (Rabscuttle) is currently gathering a ton of dust. It tells me the journey will take approximately ninety jumps.
I make it in two sessions with just under a week to go.
As I have some time I spend it collecting materials for the eventual mass engineering required back in Colonia and also engineering the Rabscuttle, strengthening her in case she is pulled into conflict with a wan…er ganker (Phew, nearly let loose a Freudian Slip there) and, on the morning of the Ruby anniversary of the release of original Elite, I go and pay my respects to an old, long deceased hero.
The anniversary celebrations that day go well, although I am unable to instance with the mass jump event from Lave Station in time. So I celebrate by letting off some fireworks inside the station instead and promptly get blown to bits by security.
It’s time to jump back into the Waves of Hanajima and head back to Colonia. Ninety-odd mostly neutron assisted jumps later, I’m back at the Esmerelda Weatherwax.
I call Rabscuttle and my Chieftain to Colonia to take the trip with the rest of us. I also purchase a Mandalay and soon I’m busier than ever refitting everything to be even more light weight, strengthening hulls, adding extra fuel tanks and swapping out old FSD’s for SCO’s. It’s an engineering frenzy and, a week or so later everything is ready. With the Weatherwax berthed alarmingly close to the neutron star in the system of Magellan, I find a tritium tanker only a couple of light seconds away. It takes a few sessions to fully fill her holds but eventually I can send her out on our first step toward the far edge of the galaxy.
Yet, back in the Bubble, the attention of my other accounts is grabbed by powerplay 2.0, Buckyball and, ironically, Freya decides she wants to investigate the horror of the Formidine Rift. I come back to the Weatherwax whenever I can, but those sessions are all too brief and few and far between. It isn’t until the following year I finally have enough time to fully dedicate to the great voyages of my main commander.
It had been far too long. The distractions of the Powerplay 2.0 update had me delving back into Freya’s account after a long hiatus. It was so compelling! She then joined a squadron and became intensely involved in the colonisation update, hauling thousands of tons of goods to build the squadron’s first coriolis space station. And all that being punctuated by intense Buckyball races and fraught bombing runs on the final Thargoid Titans, there wasn’t much spare time for my main account to continue Les Voyages at all. Then, in the new year, Freya decided she was going to explore the settlements in the Formidine Rift. That took a couple of months, then came the first Buckyball race of the new season.
Still, I managed to get back to Cmdr. Homborger on occasion during that time, and had explored about a third of the way through Odin’s Hold on the way to Beagle Point.
My new ship, a Mandalay I had named the Starlifter after the incredible Crown Lands epic (you need to see them live to believe how incredibly talented these two are) was proving to be the most graceful, nimble and accomplished exploration vessel I had ever flown.
Once more I sent the Esmerelda Weatherwax on the first jumps toward her first refuelling station just under half way to Beagle Point, whilst I took the Starlifter thousands of lights years left, right up and down of the fleet carrier’s position, only returning whenever the Tritium ran dry and her tank needed refilling from her cargo.
I so wish we could do that remotely.
If you want to discover your very first unvisited black hole system, you need to explore the Odin’s Hold region. Just travel to Colonia along the neutron highway, have a little rest, maybe unlock the engineers there and save some blueprints, then you will be at the threshold of thrilling, intrepid discoveries!
Honestly, Odin’s Hold is packed full of wonders, and, yes, many of them have been discovered, but I made so many first discoveries of heavy mass systems I cannot fit all the amazing pictures in here. And even some of those that had already been discovered provided some stunning screenshots!
Some black hole systems, like before, contained dark worlds orbiting cool and dim y-class brown dwarfs. I think I lost count of all the fumerola extremis, hanging on in the blackness, feeding off the nutrients granted them by gaseous volcanic emissions. Some black hole systems contained L class brown dwarfs which gave off an ethereal, dim reddish light adding a peculiar yet beautiful hue to all the scenery surrounding the Starlifter.
I flew to the very bottom of the galactic core once more and just flew along down there, as low as the Starlifter could manage whilst the Weatherwax jumped her 500ly hops through the middle. Down there you can really play with how the event horizon of a singularity affects whatever light is trying to pass by and you end up with some spectacularly spooky results!
But there was a problem.
The Mandalay is almost too good at this. And from some angles, particularly from below, it looks less like a prestige spaceship and more like conceited toad.
It was time for a change. I was wandering around aimlessly and wasn’t really finding much of anything new. I took a look at my unofficial check list for things I wanted to discover for myself and three things stood out. One item was to discover a planetary nebula, and I still hadn’t first discovered a wolf-rayet star either, but I most wanted to discover space jellyfish. Now there aren’t space jellyfish in Elite. There are various species of spacefaring lifeforms and the first time I saw some in an exploration diary I thought they were polyps. But as is usual for me I’m completely wrong and they are actually all molluscs, “trees”, and anomalies. The molluscs look more like polyps as far as I’m concerned but there you are.
I also really missed exploring in a small ship, but I needed a small ship with a decent SCO performance, and, at the time of writing, there is only one ship that truly fits the bill.
A Cobra Mk V
And seeing as she was bought with arx I could deploy her from my carrier right away!
Introducing the Aching Tiffany. Named after the young witch-in-training from the Tiffany Aching series of six novels by Terry Pratchett.
(There’s a part near the beginning of the first novel where Tiffany rescues her toddler brother, Wentworth from a river monster by smacking it powerfully in the face with a heavy iron skillet. This somewhat explains the registration number.)
Little did I know I was about to fall head over heals in love.
I outfitted her by mainly cannibalising engineered parts from my Cobra Mk III (sorry, Rabscuttle) and was delighted to learn she ended up with a jump range of 60-65 light years! Perfect! I also looked up the Elite Dangerous Astrometrics website (edastro.com) to find out what molluscs and other marvels I might find around the course the Weatherwax had plotted to the next STAR carrier (more about those later)
At this point the Weatherwax was almost at the top end of Odin’s hold, a couple of thousand light years or so from crossing into Ryker’s Hope and then later on through Izanami. Now I haven’t quite grasped how to export and map my route to EdAstro quite yet so I’ve had to roughly draw stuff in. So, looking at the picture above you can see I’ve unchecked the heatmap of the interactive galaxy map in EdAstro and checked the “Galaxy” box. I’ve also checked the “Regions” box and toward the bottom the “Codex Completionist List”. As you can see on my route (within the red outline thingy) there are five relatively nearby (thousands of light years) blue markers. You can hover the pointer over these markers and a box appears telling you what you can find at that system. Two of these markers are anomalies (again, we’ll see those later) and three of them are molluscs!
I chose the closest marker (the lowest one of the five). The box told me they would be Viride Capsule Molluscs at system Dryio Bloo LT-Y d1-1089. (If you click on the marker a more permanent box pops up where you can copy the system name and paste it into the search box in the in game galaxy map.)
What followed from here turned out to be the most incredible passage of exploration I have ever had.
I launched the Aching Tiffany, sent the Esmerelda Weatherwax on her way and plotted a route to the jellyfish. They were already discovered but I might, just might, discover some new ones nearby that no one else had yet visited.
It was a long shot. A really long shot.
It wasn’t long, though, before I forgot about all that. The Cobra Mk V is just about the most fun ship to fly I have ever sat in. She has a really decent jump range. There is room for everything you need inside for extended exploration voyages, she’s really nimble and tough for helicoptering around planet surfaces looking for life, and she’s fast, well over 600m/s with fully engineered thrusters.
And, unlike the Mandalay, she looks terrific sitting amongst the stratum tectonicas.
I was enjoying flying her so much I had almost forgotten what I was flying to see. With exactly one jump to go I dropped in on an undiscovered system and found, to my utter amazement, a pair of Notable Stellar Phenomena (NSP) signals in the Full Spectrum Scanner. I flew to the first and, nope, thought so, no molluscs. Some lovely solid mineral spheres, and crystalline structures in a pretty lagrange cloud, but no “jellyfish” that I could detect. Slightly disappointed (NSPs are always exciting no matter what you find), I moved on to the second.
The second NSP turned out to be a stunning, dense, pink roseum lagrange cloud. I flew around for a while, noticed a group of signals lurking just outside of scanner range and headed for them. In the distance I could see strange shapes, I held my breath as I flew carefully closer and as they became larger I could see tendrils trailing from each of them. I scanned one with the composition scanner.
“Luteolum Capsule Mollusc”
I had discovered my first space jellyfish!
I know it sounds pathetic but I began to well up with tears, I have been yearning to discover these creatures for years and here they were, slowly meandering around in front of my cockpit.
Time became meaningless as I watched them creep up on each other and zap each other with their tendrils. One of them even descended toward my canopy and so I flipped around it.
I cautiously approached towards its capsule like head, trying to get a much closer look, but it spun around angrily, it’s tendrils suddenly alive and crackling with electricity. I backed off immediately. I had heard these things pack one hell of a punch. It broke off its threat and went back to lurking in the lagrange cloud.
Buzzing, I left and jumped to the system I was originally headed. Two NSPs again, the first being a stunning blue lagrange cloud which contained another small group of capsule molluscs.
It was mesmerising just watching them play with each other. They moved so slowly, sometimes zapping each other, and making strange noises in the eerie sapphire mist.
The last NSP was an extremely dense red cloud. Some of the views of the capsule molluscs from within this thick, blood red soup were jaw dropping.
The way the light of the blue star diffused ethereally through the almost impenetrable crimson gas has given me some of the most stunning images I’ve ever seen.
I spent over an hour. gently guiding the Aching Tiffany in and around these beguiling creatures as they drifted through the cloud. It was such a magical mesmerising experience!
There were many non sequence stars around this area, and so I investigated as many of these as I fancied before finally deciding I needed to see something new.
Next target? Well, the nearest of these known locations of NSPs were bulb molluscs a little further on to the north and so I headed for those. I was rather alarmed at how many jumps there would be to get there but, never mind, all the more chance to discover something special and earn more ranking points towards both exploration and exobiology.
It took a few sessions but when I arrived the system turned out to be a neutron star system.
And…not bulb molluscs but….something rather different, what in Braben’s name was going on?
Type E05 Anomalies? Oh, hang on, I travelled to the wrong system, one of the markers much further north, I thought it was a bit too far away!
Still, they were really fun, and strange. Swooshing about like will-o-the-wisps around the ship. Not getting too close but willing to follow for a little while, It was really fun interacting with them. But soon it was time to head back south again and actually search for those bulb molluscs.
It took a long time heading back south. This time, I switched the route planner to allow neutron boosting, especially seeing as there might be a change to discover more of these Anomalies. Unfortunately, there was no accidently stumbling upon an undiscovered system containing any NSPs, just the surprise of dropping right in front of a black hole. It sounds strange but I never expected to find NSPs in a black hole system.
Sure enough, the bulb molluscs were here, lurking around in a barely visible green lagrange cloud. These creatures are even more weird than the capsule molluscs. Strange ambient noises echoed around the dark gaseous firmament as these intriguing life forms hung in the blackness. I approached one a little too closely and an eruption of a nasty looking substance from its pores threatened to engulf the Aching Tiffany, causing me to carefully back away. I didn’t want to take any chances.
There is something fascinatingly Lovecraftian about these beautifully antediluvian creatures and the lack of light only added to their wondrous mystery.
I spent the best part of an hour observing these dark marvels under the glare of my ship’s lights before deciding it was time to head back to the Weatherwax. She had long since run out of fuel and it was high time I returned to fill her tanks once more.
But on the way home there was one more surprise waiting for me.
A stunning ringed nitrogen world in a highly inclined orbit around a ringed gas giant. Couldn’t help but stop here and take a screenshot.
Back at the Weatherwax, time to drop off all the data.
I was very pleasantly taken aback when I discovered I had reached Elite III in Exploration and Elite II in Exobiology! Previous to this particular voyage I had always opted not to bother with mapping planetary bodies.
Since leaving Colonia this time around, however, I had made a pact to myself to scan every high value body in each system. Now that we have SCO there is no longer an excuse for not doing this. My Exploration Rank has been racing ahead ever since!
Now it was time, once again, to jump into my Cutter, the Delanderby to transfer tritium from the cargo holds and into the fuel tank. It’s a little tedious having to do this each time, but not too bad, really. I know I’ve said this before but it would be jolly nice if we could do this activity remotely. Direct from the cargo to the tanks without having to load up the ship in between. It all feels a bit silly. Hopefully this could be changed soon. A lot of fleet carrier owners would rejoice!
Time to send the carrier on again and to head to the fourth target.
Parasol Molluscs this time!
Once more I was presented with the dilemma of which ship to take. Should I swap from the ‘Tiffany or should I choose maybe a ship I hadn’t used for a while? The ever reliable Hauler the Lovely Jubbly maybe or even my blindingly nippy Courier the Silver Machine? There was even the prospect of hopping into my Chieftain the Thayli’s Gambit or perhaps my Clipper the Samus Aran. Such a wonderful problem for an explorer to have!
So, of course, many of you will have already guessed, I called up the Starlifter.
This time I chose to cover the large distance to the fourth marker by plotting from heavy mass system to heavy mass system. Erasing all but the Carbon, Wolf Rayet and Non Sequence Stars from the galaxy filter as I panned the map toward the bookmark I had placed where I would find those parasol molluscs. More black hole and neutron star systems were discovered over the next one thousand light years or so until I found a Wolf Rayet. It’s probably been discovered, I half sighed to myself but I had to check of course. And so I plotted a course to it.
During the final jump my eyes were firmly on the scanner rather than watching the rapidly approaching star through the canopy. I dropped into normal space, the huge violet blue plasma monster appeared before me.
Nothing on the scanner.
I had just discovered my first unvisited Wolf Rayet!
What can I say? I just hung there, in zero throttle supercruise. My eyes wide open, my jaw firmly on the floor. Of all the Wolf Rayets I had visited it was an absolute monster of a star. And orbited by an O-class supergiant too!
Panning the map further forward I found a black hole within a planetary nebula. It was pretty close to the nebula near which the parasol molluscs could be found so surely it had already been discovered? Surely!
This time, I was right. Already discovered! Never mind, not this time! But well worth a visit anyway. It reminded me somewhat of Altera’s Eye a few thousand light years south from the Bubble.
A few more jumps and I dropped in on Vegnue UE-Q e5-33, the home of Luteolum Parasol Molluscs!
I headed for the nearest NSP and dropped in on a stunning yellow-green langrage cloud. I wasn’t long before I was treated to one of the greatest spectacles of exobiology I have ever seen.
These extra thick lagrange clouds create the most breath-taking light conditions. Eerie noises drifted through the pale yellow diffusion. I didn’t get too close this time, I’ve learned my lesson! And then one of them began charging up with arcs of electricity before eliciting a dark green cloud of what appeared to be spores.
It was completely enthralling. I spent the rest of the session just watching these marvellous creatures.
My breath fully taken away, It was time to return to the Weatherwax to refuel and change ship once more. But on the way home, like before, another wonder waylaid my attention. A close orbiting pair of sulphur dioxide worlds, one of which had both volcanic and biological signals.
Above: Tussock Stigmasis, worth 95,054,000 cr first discovered. Finding this from the air is tricky but there was so much of it. As you can see the Starlifter looks vaguely ranine from surface level viewpoints
Above: Recepta Conditivus worth 71,568,500 cr. Never come across this little jewel of a bio before. and finally, yet another Fumerola Extremus (left) worth 81,014,000 cr.
Back at the Weatherwax once more. This time, I was determined to take a ship I had never explored in before to visit the final marker. I settled on my Imperial Clipper, the Samus Aran. Those of you familiar with the amazing Metroid series of games on Nintendo will know exactly why I named her thus!
Great ship though the Clipper is, I almost immediately found myself longing for the SCO capabilities of both the Starlifter and the Tiffany. I was glad the journey to the final marker was a short one. I dropped in to the target system and headed for the nearest NSP.
This time I found a small flock of Type E02 Anomalies. I managed to play around a little with these, Sometimes they would follow the ship if I moved slowly enough or dart away if I came too close.
One even flew straight through the cockpit causing all my instruments to glitch for moment or two.
I highly recommend visiting these delightful, playful entities.
By now the Weatherwax had reached the system Ploi Aowsy ZK-P e5-7749, where the STAR carrier Singularity Ph2 silently waited. It wasn’t too far away and it wasn’t long before I had alighted on her deck and sold the rest of my data there. Giving that carrier’s commander 25% off all my earnings from that little trip was the least I could do for leaving their carrier out in deep space and keeping it topped up with Tritium just so we can buy their fuel for our exploration endeavours. It has to be noted that DSSA carriers carry Tritium supplies too. If you paid any attention to the EdAstro maps I posted earlier, you would have seen you can also check boxes related to both STAR and DSSA carriers.
I hopped back into the Delanderby and transferred 3000 or so tons of tritium to the Weatherwax. Now I shouldn’t have to re-fill her holds until I reach the edge, and could probably travel longer for a while even then.
Next stop for the Weatherwax, then – Beagle Point, and I’ll travel to Ishun’s Point (or Salmome’s Beacon or whatever anyone wants to call it) beyond there while I’m at it. But for now? Rest for a while, I think. Maybe a quick 11,000ly nip back in the Starlifter to see those capsule molluscs again first. I’m already missing them.
We’ll see.
Elite Dangerous RUSH FLEET 