It was still quite dark, and Jīnniúzuò the old ox gazed longingly into the early morning sky, together with his friend Què, the ancient Magpie standing proudly on Jīnniúzuò’s head.

“You’ve been doing this a lot lately.” observed Què, “And always this patch of sky.”

The ox sighed, but said nothing. His bones creaked and his once strong muscles ached. And he longed once more for home. A home he would never see again.

As the last of the stars began to fade, the light of the sun peeking above the mountains to the east began to spread down into the lush, pasture filled valley.

“You had better get back to the herd.” croaked Què, gazing impatiently down the hill, “Or Niulang will worry about you.”

Jīnniúzuò grunted agreement, turned, and slowly ambled back to the bivouac where his master would soon be waking. Hopefully, the herd wouldn’t have to travel too far today.

The title of the latest Buckyball – Questing on Qixi– had us all intrigued! What kind of a race would this be? I waited excitedly until the race start was about to draw near, but no details of the race were revealed at all. Then the announcement came that it was to be delayed for half a week. Plus it let us know as to what sort of race we might expect. It was to be a kind of re-hash of the Seven Sisters Speedrun a race from the edge of the Bubble to the Pleiades, with various shenanigans at some of the Seven Sisters, and then back to the Bubble. It’s a rather fun if long winded race, with the threat of hyperdiction by Thargoids, albeit merely curious ones, ever present.

The delay turned out to be rather fortuitous as it happened because I was just coming to the end of the next leg of the Lovely Jubbly‘s voyage and I now had the whole weekend to write it all up. The race was again delayed until the following Friday but by then we now knew the starting system, premise, the course and the shenanigans we needed to perform. I immediately jumped The Garden to Altair and began plotting possible routes!

Yet my heart sank a little. As I have stated before, my gaming time is very poor and my uninterrupted gaming time poorer still. Thus, I went on a trail run to see the kind of time I would need to set aside and then pray that my privacy would remain intact. There are seven main stars in the Pleiades nebula and we only needed to visit four of them, but had the option of visiting the other three for extra time bonuses. I thought that just an initial trial run with only the required star stops would do for now and chose the small ship in the Rushfleet with the highest jump range in order to get to and from the Pleiades with as few jumps as possible.

My Diamondback Explorer – Xanadu!

Niulang was busy packing his lunch for the day ahead, he planned to move the herd further along the valley until they reached the large wooded area in the distance. It shouldn’t take too long, he thought, and then the herd would have some shelter from the sun that would soon be relentlessly beating down on them throughout the afternoon. Plus, where there were trees there was usually water too. They should be there by midday even if they took things gently. He looked over at the old ox, lying down in the morning sunshine and lazily chewing the cud. He loved that animal, had known it since it was young bull, confused and lowing desperately up at the sky. Niulang had taken the poor thing in, shown it rich pastures, taken it to clean refreshing streams to drink. Now wherever Niulang led the herd the old ox would be at his side, grunting with every footstep.

There was a familiar screech, and Niulang knew that the old magpie who was always following them around time had come for a snippet of breakfast. He smiled at the decrepit, scruffy mass of pied feathers and threw it some bread, which the magpie snapped down gleefully. He smiled as it flew off, apparently satiated. His brother and step sister were cruel and would have thrown stones at magpies, and also used to beat Niulang himself when he was younger. But Niulang was kind, and was wise enough to know that a kindness given now might well pay off later.

It was time to move on. Swinging his sack over his shoulder he strolled up to the old ox and tapped him with his staff on the shoulder. The great beast stood up, and with a grunt and great show of effort, joined the cowherd leading the others towards the woods.

It was the premise that intrigued me, however. The race sponsor was Clarissa, or Agent Chika, and it was rather vague. Something about a cowherd and a weaver girl who can only meet but once a year at a place called “Qixi” (chee-sshee). We had to partake of the tradition of “opening a pathway through the vast stars” to enable them to meet up. The authorities had been given the usual excuse of “exploring infrastructure” (always fools them, every time) to explain away some of the shenanigans and that was it.

Legends fascinate me. Especially oriental ones. I made a mental note to look into it further but for now I just wanted to do a non-shenanigan trial run just to see what were up against and if it was truly as gruelling a run as I remembered. So I chose four of the stars that looked like they would be the easiest to stop at, climbed aboard the Xanadu and off I went.

Despite flying terribly (you all knew this would be the case, admit it), I still managed to complete the bare minimum in under twenty eight minutes! So, not as gruelling as I thought! When it was time to race, I planned to stop at five of the stops and attempt all but one of the shenanigans, just to get a time on the board, and then go for a full seven stop run later if I had the time.

You see, the longest race of the season so far, just had to also fall on the hottest week of the year yet. When the weather is hot, my gaming time goes out the window. You all probably know I can only usually game in the early mornings before my family wakes up, and occasionally late evenings once they’ve all gone to bed. You also all probably know by now that I own a horse, but I also look after some of the other horses at the yard he’s kept at. The stable block he spends the night in is south facing on top of a hill. During a hot, sunny afternoon, the temperatures up there reach ten degrees celsius above the ambient local temperature. Mucking out in heat like that is pure hell, So when it’s hot, I go up there early mornings instead of flying around in the Black. It gives me next to nothing for gaming, but at least it’s lovely and cool in which to shovel away a dozen wheelbarrow loads of horse poo.

We could do the targets in any order, so I decided on a route that worked for me with my limited piloting skills and stuck to it. I didn’t bother with any of the bonuses, I just wanted to get a time on the board.

Niulang was right, there must have been a spring in the woods because out of the trees flowed a babbling stream of crystal clear, cool water. The sun was high overhead and the day was getting hot. The herd would be grateful for the shade and many of them were already drinking deeply. He sat down with his back against a tree – it was probably safe to doze off for a few minutes, but almost as soon as he had closed his eyes, he heard a scream.

He called the old ox and leapt up on his back, directing it to run as fast as it could in the direction of the scream. Belying its old age, the ox thundered off through the trees.

Again, the run was a mess. We had the option to perform a mailslot-flip-and-around-station manoeuvre, which I did to get its time bonus, but caught the rear end of the Xanadu as I flipped around. But I managed every single viable shenanigan, shields off, life support off, cargo hauled, picture of the nebula taken, thargoid interceptor targetted, listening post scanned, pretty cleanly.

Zhinü had forgotten when she had started weaving. It could have been a week ago, months, years even. She wove everything, just using the mist that rose from the spring. She wove all sorts of fabrics from the stuff. Beautiful rugs, tapestries, garments. All draped on low branches on the trees around her little cottage. She didn’t even know why she wove. All she knew was that she must weave. It was nearing that time as well, the time for the demons to come and destroy everything she had worked so hard to make. They would taunt her and beat her and when they had ruined all her work, would fly off, up through the trees and into the heavens, cackling cruelly as they went.

She heard a familiar flutter and barely concealed sniggering. They were here. They dropped from the trees and proceeded to tear up everything she had made. She screamed in horror and ran to protect what she could, but they just beat her mercilessly until she could fight no longer.

And then he came! Riding on the back of a great ox thundering through the woods. The most handsome young man Zhinü had ever laid eyes on. He leapt from the ox wielding a cowherd’s staff smashing one of the demons over its head and knocking the vile thing senseless. The others howled in rage and came at him, yet they were no match for the cowherd. They couldn’t even lay one claw upon him so skilled a fighter was he. And no longer than a minute after he had arrived, all the demons lay lifeless.

As you can see, last on the leaderboard again! Ah well. Hopefully I would have time for a run of a full seven stops later in the week. Only problem was, I would only have one attempt each time, make one mistake and the long journey back to the start would be too close to the end of my session.

The other problem was, just by doing that attempt meant I was a bit later up to the horses than usual and it was already getting too hot and, by the time I was done, it was sweltering! The following day looked like it might be even hotter so I gave up an early morning session entirely just to get the jobs done as early as possible.

The morning after that I made an attempt but forgot to load up with cargo from Altair for the hauling bonus, long way back to the start, not enough time for a second attempt. It was extremely frustrating because, despite it’s length, this race is an absolute corker! I was determined to get at least one full seven stop run in!

Niulang thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. He helped her onto the back of the ox and it carried them both back to the herd. He jumped down, turned and helped her off, they gazed into each others’ eyes and instantly fell for each other.

Towards the end of the week, I actually had a chance! I was going to start at Altair, get all seven stops and all the shenanigans, and make it back to Vega! It didn’t start too well, As soon as I booted up the gaming rig my wireless mouse began acting strange. Its sensitivity appeared to have halved. I wasn’t sure if I’d have time to correct it, though so I just made do. Then a Thargoid interceptor hyperdicted me just before reaching Asterope and once I had rebuffed the shutdown field and flipped over to scan it, it was gone. One bonus down already! Well, at least this time it was me who was chasing them around to be scanned and not the other way around.

The rest of the run did go reasonably smoothly, although it was by no means fast and I was finding gravity breaking tough, especially with the mouse playing up. But I got around and back to Vega in more or less one piece. Just missing the Thargoid scan bonus. I didn’t have time to upload and timestamp the movie, I left that until the next morning. Instead I thought I’d research this Qixi (remember – pronounced “Chee-sshee“) and ended up falling into a very deep rabbit hole!

That night they made love under the stars. And their love making broke the curse that had been laid on them centuries ago. They had both been gods! And had fallen in love before! Yet their love had been forbidden by the Goddess of Heaven. She had cursed each of them, making them human, causing Niulang to be herding cows for eternity and for Zhinü to forever weave. They now recognised each other and shouted and danced for joy because their curse was no more and they were together again!

But their mirth was short lived. For one of the demons had revived and made it back to the Goddess of Heaven. And she came down from the heavens in a terrible rage. The couple cowered before her power and she snatched poor Zhinü away to live in the stars, cursing Niulang to remain forever in the valley with his herd. Niulang screamed in grief and great sorrow, for now he knew he would never see his beloved ever again.

It is all based around the love of a cowherd called Niulang and a weaver girl/fairy named Zhinü and how they can only meet via a bridge across the Milky Way once a year, every year for eternity. And this forms the basis of the oriental equivalent of St. Valentine’s Day. Now the versions of the legend are many, almost as many as there are tellers who relate it. And thereby came the idea of exactly what I could do with this post. As I’m sure you’ve all found out already! I took bits from various versions and have attempted to weave them together with little flourishes of my own devising. I hope I have done the legend justice! I must add that the Greek legend that surrounds the Pleiades themselves, why they are called the Seven Sisters, is just as fascinating, if a little dark (that’s the Greek legends for you) but I’ll leave that for another post, maybe.

I was really enjoying these runs. It was so annoying that I didn’t have time to do more of them. This was a first race for Clarissa. So there were a couple of the shenanigans that didn’t really work out. But I was especially enjoying the challenge of flying with life support off. The Xanadu has a class D which only gives me a little less than seven minutes of air before I blow up. It’s replenished every time I dock at a large starport but not when landing near the garrison, scanning the listening post or landing on the Tsat Tsz Mui. Plus, if I’m hyperdicted it throttles my air time even further. Of course I could have installed a class A life support but that may have added an extra jump or two, especially with cargo, and would have further increased my race time. I was making it to some starports with only seconds worth of air left. It was thrilling!

Niulang was distraught. What was he to do? He didn’t know how he could carry on now that his beloved Zhinü had been torn away for ever. He sank to his knees and sobbed.

“Niulang!”

His sobbing ceased and he looked around. There was no one else there but him, the herd and the old ox. But surely…

“Niulang! My dear friend! Listen to me!”

Niulang stared at the ox, “My friend! You can talk?”

Jīnniúzuò bowed to his master, introduced himself properly and explained that he too once lived amongst the stars and had been cursed by the Goddess of Heaven.

“I am too old now, but if you were to wear my hide you could fly up to heaven and meet with your beloved once more! Take up your knife, my old friend, and sacrifice me! Do it! I have not much life in me anyway. Skin me, take my pelt and use it to fly!”

Niulang shook his head. There was no way he could harm his dear friend, even to see his true love. Exhausted with sorrow, he returned to his bed and fell into a deep stupor.

Come the last morning of the race, I managed to awake early. And it was destined to be a much cooler day! I would have time for one more run! Would it be a successful one? I felt good! I was going to give it my best!

It started very well. Mouse was working fine after I had adjusted the settings and the Xanadu was flying well. I filled up her cargo rack with eight tons of whatever would make a profit at Artemis Lodge where I would need to drop them off to get that time bonus, set a course for Copernicus Laboratory orbiting Asterope, and left the Solo Orbiter station at Altair. During the jump to Asterope I was hyperdicted (it normally happens here, and only here). This time I chased down those cowardly campanulas and damn well targeted one before jumping back out to dock at Copernicus.

Niulang awoke. Something was screeching and flapping at him.

“Come quick! You must come! It’s Jīnniúzuò! Please! Follow me!” it was the old Magpie! And he was beside himself with worry.

The cowherd got up and the old magpie flew off. He followed the bird for most of the following day and eventually came to where the stream had grown into a river that cut sharply into the valley to make a ravine with high cliffs either side. And not to far along the ravine was the dead body of his dearest friend, Jīnniúzuò. He had thrown himself off the cliff.

Niulang howled in despair, for now he had nothing left, but the magpie flapped angrily at him.

“You fool! I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen. His last message to me was to tell you to take his skin! Do not be a fool! Honour your dead friend’s wish, fly to the heavens!”

So Niulang did as he was bade. He skinned the old ox, wrapped himself up in the bloody pelt and flew into the sky. Before long he reached the lowest of the stars and could see the star Vega where his beloved Zhinü longed for him.

But the Goddess of Heaven had other ideas.

The approach and landing near Thunderhead Garrison was fast! Next it was Artemis Lodge at Celaeno for which I nailed the gravity breaking, so far so good! I found the carrier at Sterope II more quickly than I had ever done and then it was on to Maia to perform the mailslot flip and around the back of the station at Obsidian Orbital.

But I was hyperdicted again on my way there and this time, I mistimed the anti-shut down field. I hung there, helpless as I was scanned by an evil echinacea, my air time ticking down as I waited. It took an age for the ordeal to be over before I managed to jump back toward Maia.

The approach to Obsidian was perfect. Spot on gravity breaking! I entered the mailslot, flipped, shot back out and began the manoeuvre with only fifty seconds of air left. Made it to the back end of the station, desperately boosted back through the habitation ring to coast around to the front of the station with five seconds of air.

But it wasn’t quite enough time. Just before I was to enter the mailslot for the second time, I ran out of air and exploded.

Damn those Goids!

The Goddess of Heaven, with the last of her strength, drew a barrier across the sky, a great river of gas and mist that prevented Niulang from reaching the star Vega. Niulang yelled. Even after everything that had happened, would he still not be able to reach his dearest Zhinü?

But while he had been flying the magpie had been busy. He had summoned every magpie in the world to fly up to the stars and they created a bridge over the barrier along which Niulang could fly. The Goddess fell back, her power spent. There was no way she could prevent them coming together now.

Zhinü, rejoicing, raced to her lover’s arms and they embraced. Yet Niulang soon fell away, and began to cry.

“What is the matter, my love, why do tears fall from your eyes?”

“Beacuse my dear friend gave his life for us to be together, I will miss him terribly.”

“Oh my love! You do not need to worry about old Jīnniúzuò, look!”

And she pointed toward the sky. And Niulang saw. And his tears of sorrow became tears of joy, For, in the constellation of Taurus, a new, young star was shining brightly.

I want to thank Clarissa Au for putting on an excellent race! And for introducing us to the wonderful legend of Qixi! I wish the weather hadn’t been so damn hot here in muggy Hertfordshire otherwise I’d have had a lot more fun with it. For now, I’ll post the latest leaderboard as the final one hasn’t been posted on the forum yet. So as yet I don’t know the final results. I will update this post as soon as I do.

UPDATE:

Sigh, ok, my second seven stop run ended up being longer than the five stop as my landing at Thunderhead Garrison was judged against the rules. We were required to land within 500 metres of it whereas I thought we had to land within 500 miles! So the entire run didn’t count.

Still, 11th place….

Untill the next race, Buckyballers! o7

Buckyball races come in all shapes and sizes. Some are themed like The Aquarian Job, some involve terrifying restrictions such as The Last Gasp, others involve carrying dangerous cargo like the Thargoid Structure Scramble. This new race however, is unlike any other race before it. The unlimited category even involved new gaming mechanics that Buckyballers have never had to get to grips with before.

Welcome to the Loose Screws Ring Tossers Rally!

Ok, before I carry on I’ll dispense with the double entendres that will unavoidably arise with the race title. A title with the words “tossers”, “ring” and “screws” will undoubtedly bring sniggers and snorts and all sorts of bawdy statements but, believe me, it’s all been banded around to death in the Buckyball race discord. I’m not going to take them any further here.

Oi! Stop giggling at the back there! Ahem!

Anyway it was really nice to be able to take out the ship I’d prepared months earlier and race her properly! Ladies, Gentlemen, and all those wonderful people around the sides and in between, I present to you my racing adder – the I Think I’m Going Bald!

There she is! Isn’t she beautiful?

The adder, of course, is Cmdr Phoenix DeFire’s favourite ship. He loves them so much he’s renamed this stunning vessel of mine “The Polished Turd”! Charming, yes? And this race involves flying through rings and there’s something to be said about slipping a tur…

I said stop giggling at the back!

Sorry.

She can reach 742 m/s boost speed with minimal modules has a jump range of around 50 light years with the necessary modules and is highly maneuverable. Even so, she may not be the ideal ship for any race but I have a real soft spot for the adder. It reminds me of my T3 VW Caravelle that gave us so many wonderful family holidays while we owned her. We nicknamed her “The Great White Brick” and she was so much fun to drive. Sigh! Good times! But enough about my past, and on to the race!

The race title had us all intrigued. Just what would Cmdr Indigo, the race sponsor, have in store for us with this one? Again, it would prove to be a seemingly simple, yet devilishly complex race to manage with any real speed.

The race started at Bunch City, a coriolis space station in the system Ross 104. We then had to fly between the rings and the body of each of the eight ringed bodies in any order before returning to Bunch City.

That’s it! That’s all we had to do. No landings (apart from start/finish) and no jumping to other systems (although this may have been a strategy in regulation).

This is also the very first Buckyball race to make use of the brand new SCO drive!

So off we all went to practice before the race start and we soon began to learn that the SCO drive is a much more nuanced beast than we ever could have imagined! First, in order to get from one body to another efficiently, precise application of the SCO is required. And the difference between taking too long to reach a destination and overshooting it came down to a couple of seconds.

It also quickly became apparent that the speed needed to pass between the body and its rings would need to be rather velocious! Slightly too slow and the gravity wells of these enormous planets slow you down so much the run isn’t worth continuing. It wasn’t long before I realiised I would probably need to throw my poor adder at these bodies at full supercruise.

Now we come to the bonus given for the race. Our fastest speed through a ring would be awarded time off our total run. From 15 seconds for a measly slow 1C (“C” being the speed of light) to ninety seconds for travelling at an insane 36C! At that speed the only way you’re going to hit the gap is by pure luck.

Such dizzying stunts were well beyond me as I was having trouble with my aim. At first I would hit the first gas giant, Ross 104 ABC 1 every single time. The thing approaches so fast there is barely any time to react. I followed with a tactic of slowing to 3/4 speed after deactivating the overcharge before gunning it to full once the body’s ETA was around six seconds. This proved to be a lot more manageable but was still a lot slower than I was happy with. Less than 1C. Once the race had officially opened I practiced a few more times that evening with a view to attempting a first run the following morning. But now I had another problem – a real life one.

Usually, I only get uninterrupted in game time after everyone in the house has gone to bed or before everyone else has woken up in the morning. I was regularly managing to play for an hour before sleeping and two hours the following morning. Yet recently I’ve been tiring a lot more easily, and sleeping a lot more than I used to. I can think of a lot of reasons for this which I won’t bore anyone with here but that Sunday morning I “overslept” and got out of bed far too late to get in game.

This has been happening an awful lot these past few months. And then in the evening I’m often too tired to do anything but go straight to bed. And that wasn’t the only thing.

I own a horse. He’s a stunning Irish skewbald cob, 14.2 hands high, clever but lacking in confidence when it comes to hacking around the local area since we moved him closer to our home. I’ve been walking him around the village where he’s stabled to acclimatise him to getting out and about. I’ve been neglecting it over the winter because of time constraints and that Sunday morning was the first time I’d taken him out this year.

On the way around the village he spooked at goodness knows what, leapt sideways toward me and stamped down on my ankle. It was rather painful, but seemed ok. I managed to walk him back to the yard, constantly reassuring him, turn him out in his paddock, and then limp carefully home.

I sat down and removed my boots and socks.

Oh my good grief! I wasn’t quite prepared for the onrush of agony which exploded from my foot. All that night I had trouble sleeping so I thought I’d attempt a run.

It was then I discovered I had suddenly completely forgotten how to fly.

Yet another dire initial run. I was confused, I kept selecting the wrong bodies, accidentally quitting to the menu, and either not engaging the SCO for long enough or completely over egging it altogether. I entered it anyway, just in case it would be my only one and tried to play a different game. Clearly Elite was just going to be a mess for me. The pain in my foot was far too distracting. Still no good. I became so completely overwhelmed and confused that it was clear gaming was going to be off the menu for at least a couple of days.

Luckily, the injury seemed to be confined to soft tissue and after a day or two the swelling and pain receded somewhat. It was time to make a few more practice runs and go for another couple of attempts!

First attempt I crashed into the first planet but undeterred I headed back to the start for another attempt. Alec Turner was just logging off at the time and wished me luck. I was hoping that I could do a sub ten minute time. It was all I could hope for.

This time it all went really smoothly, I found if I left the overdrive on for a little too long I could aim well below the body and approach it from underneath and I would slow down in time. I was overjoyed to reach the finish and land within ten minutes! Plus I had a fastest ring pass of 5c which gave yet another thirty seconds off my run.

And so I attempted some more runs. Leaving it a second or so longer in overdrive, approaching the rings faster, trying to be more dynamic with the order in which I flew by each body, yet every time I crashed, This time mostly into the rings themselves.

Frustration replaced motivation. These were new skills I was learning. We all were. Many racers were having a lot of trouble just completing their first run. I decided to go exploring for a while with my original account before trying again.

Yet my fatigue returned. I was hoping to make my last attempts the final Sunday morning of the race, but I overslept, again, and ran out of time.

I was disappointed but I should look on the bright side. Like I’ve stated this is a brand new gaming mechanic for Elite. And this race is completely unlike any other.

Want to see the final Unlimited leaderboard?

Some of those times are insane! And some of those ring speeds are doubly insane! Nearly 70C Raiko? My word, man, are you crazy? And Shaye? In a Beluga?

Beggars belief! Incredible flying!

Just huge congratulations to Cmdr Indingo for giving us a completely original concept. A whole race flown in supercruise. It was such fun, flying through those rings made me clench my butt cheeks every time! They even made a whooshing, rumbly noise as you passed through. I must apologise to you Indigo, for not giving this incredible race the time it deserved. It just was one of those weeks.

Also massive congratulations to Cmdrs Shaye Blackwood, Bruski and Raiko for those aberrant, deranged and deliriously fast runs.

Next race starts June 22nd and is hosted by Caelum Incola.

It will be called Pop Gun. Sounds most intriguing!

Be there!

It’s amazing how fast a concept can flourish. One moment there’s nothing, a cold, empty void, and suddenly, before you can count to ten, there’s a spark, followed by a fierce conflagration of ideas that blossom into exciting reality. Therefore, where there was no hope of it ever happending this year, mostly due to the culmination of the Second Thargoid War, Buckyball has been reinstated for a third season!

I think the spark that ignited the frenzy that spawned the Triple Eight (the title given to the third season of eight races) has to be down to the Elite Dangerous development team and the introduction of the new frame shift drive with the overcharge function. A discussion on the Buckyball discord began shortly thereafter focused on how this new mechanic could be used in races. Before long eight races were put up for “bidding” and, not very much later, eight patrons put themselves forward to host a race. It was that quick.

Buckyball seasons from experimental frameshift drives grow!

I was both excited and apprehensive about this. I was dying to try Buckyball again, and really hoping that there would be another season, but as the months passed this became more and more unlikely. I even had a ship prepared and engineered ready (more about that after the second race) but I felt guilty about dropping out mid way through the second season last year and was worried that all those same emotions and sense of burnout would return with a fury once more.

But as the old adage goes, nothing ventured…

The first race, once again hosted by Sulu promised to be a nice simple introduction back into Buckyball. Although, as you have probably gathered, with the unlimited class restricted to just one ship – the plucky little punches-far-above-its-weight Sidewinder Mk I. Now, the Regulation Cobra is a fun old ship, but as my time in game has been a lot less than it has been in recent years, and owing to my complete lack of skill in piloting My Favorite Headache last season I thought I would stick to unlimited this time. I hoped I would make a lot more progress if I just concentrated on one ship for each race, and one I know I’ll have a lot of fun flying. As I have said, I already have engineered one of the RushFleet’s ships specifically for Buckyball but I had also partly engineered the sidewinder too, and so, a love affair with the Finding My Way began to spout!

All we had to do this time was to run a simple, preset course, starting and finishing at Wright Station in the Okinura system. No need to determine an optimal route this time (or so I thought), each location had to be visited in a certain order. Even simpler! Marvellous, I thought, a few runs in my trusty Sidey and I’ll have this course sussed. There were a few simple shenanigans to perform but they were similar to ones I had done before so they shouldn’t have been much of a problem either.

Oh boy! Was I wrong!

The first couple of problems I thought I had prepared for – this is a trip of a few hundred light years and there’s little point in attempting this unless you have a grade 5 engineered FSD, the one in the Finding My Way already had one by this time and, with the deep charge experimental and a size two guardian frame shift booster, it gave me a jump range of 40 light years. Then there’s the tiny fuel tank. A 2a fuel scoop should deal with this just fine, so long as I select only fuel stars in the auto-router. But I had neglected to take into account just how hot a Sidey can get. And that’s both the size two slots used up, leaving only a size 1 slot for a shield.

To deal with the heat, and to help with being able to jump while fuel scooping (which I thought would give me an advantage) I decided to swap out the slightly overcharged power plant and engineer a nice cool low emission one, and also swapped the deep charge experimental for the thermal spread on the FSD. Yet this gave me very limited power which meant that the shield had to go. I engineered the lightweight hull to take as much punishment as it possibly could but I would still have to be careful and this would come to severely limit my options later on.

The first shenanigan was a Buckyball staple, flying through a tunnel at the scientific installation at LFT 1748, then flipping over and flying straight back through from the other side. It didn’t take long to find the correct tunnel and was easy to find again once I’d studied the place for a while.

It’s a pretty long tunnel, so if your approach isn’t straight enough you can panic a little and this is what happened to me on my first few trial runs but I never really had a problem here. It lulled me into a flase sense of security somewhat because the size of the Sidey’s fuel tank soon presented yet another complication.

The route to the first location was fine but the route to the second, Ruchbah 2 would always plot via the red dwarf binary system at NLTT 2224. Only you don’t drop out of hyperspace at the red dwarf, you drop out at the white dwarf despite these stars being filtered out of the route. The thing with having to go and visit a body or orbiting installation at a system is there is no time to scoop.

And, pretty though they are, once you’ve flown through the tunnel at LFT 1748 then plotted a route to Ruchbah, then jumped away and hit the white dwarf you have no fuel left to go any further, and a 7000ls trip to scoop that fuel. The only way around this is to add another bookmark that bypasses this system and then jump to Ruchbah from there.

Next shenannigan was proving to be tricky. Ruchbah 2 is a large, hot world with over 4g of gravity. Landing there wouldn’t normally be a problem but doing it fast would require practice…and a shield! So I was going to have to approch more slowly. The rings also play havoc with the gravity breaking approach but seeing as my gravity breaking skills are limited to orbiting bodies only at the moment this mattered little to me. What was concerning, however, was making sure to land on the correct side of the planet to avoid the next jump being obsured, which means plotting the route to the third shenanigan had to be done before you begin your approach so you can make sure the next jump is behind you before attempting a landing.

The third shenanigan is the centerpiece to the whole race. We had to land within 400 meters of the abandoned mining settlement of Dav’s Hope, take off and perform a Limbo under the gantry (the regulation cobra is too big for this so comanders had to disembark and jump over it). Easy, really, if you take it nice and slow but Sulu wasn’t going to let it be as straight forward as that!

Oh no!

He gave us a choice, the faster we flew under the gantry the more time would be taken off the total. Just one minute for going over 100 m/s right up to six minutes for travelling at an insane 600 m/s! As you can see on the left, there isn’t a lot of room to spare and there is a speaker post right in the centre of the main thoroughfare that gives you mere milliseconds to pull up afterwards.

Because of my lack of a shield I found that 100 m/s was my only option here. Any faster and I risked leaving the multiple twisted carcasses of all my runs, along with my dreams of becoming a better Buckyball pilot, rotting on the surface of Hyades Sector DR-V C2 – 23 a5.

I was beginning to regret my strategy.

The next stop was more of a respite than a shenanigan, the Christian Terminal outpost at Cail was somewhere where we could refuel and repair, the repairs being much needed but it also changes the strategy. You don’t need to scoop here or have much fuel dropping into the system because you can refuel at the place we have to land. It was the penultimate stop that would cause me the biggest problem.

This was the final shenanigan, flying through the pillars of the Red Tunnel Drilling installation closely orbiting body a3 of the Ququve system.

So, two more problems here. Firstly, the installation comes under attack as soon as you arrive and that makes you a target. Secondly the whereabouts of the “pillars” are not immediatley obvious. So much so that on my first, what I thought was a completed run (after many failed runs due to explosions and poor flying) I discovered, whilst uploading the evidence, that I had flown through the wrong part of the structure. Problem, after problem, after problem. Plus I was still overheating. So, just to be able to initiate a hyperspace jump whilst still fuel scooping and not overheat at all, I added a heatsink launcher.

Complex Buckyball runs from seemingly simple Buckyball runs grow.

My first actual completed run was dire. Landed on the wrong part of Ruchbah 2, a pathetically slow limbo under the gantry at Dav’s Hope, and it took me an age to locate the pillars at Red Tunnel Drilling. And then an extra jump appeared out of nowhere on the way back to the finish. That little heatsink affected the jump range just enough to put the cowpat icing on the mud cake of my run. I was aiming for a finish time under 30 minutes with the bonus time subtracted from that. But, as you can see, my (as far as I’m concerned) sub standard attempt only netted a time of 32:20 with the bonus subratcted. Deeply frustrated, I decided it was time to completely alter my strategy.

Gone was the low temperature powerplant, back in with the overcharge. Gone was the thermal spread on the FSD, back in with the deep charge. And I put a fully engineered biweave shield in a size one slot along with the heatsink that I would now most definately need if I wasn’t to get melted to lump of metal and seared flesh around one of the stars. My jump range was still a tiny bit substandard but I noticed the G5 engineering hadn’t been completed to 100%, so I put that straight and that gave me the range I needed. It was time for a much bolder, Buckyball approach. I was going to get a decent time or fly this ship to pieces trying!

Beefy, sado masochistic sidewinders from cool, delicate sidewinders grow.

I practised flying a lot faster under the gantry at Dav’s Hope and found that this new beast of a ship was a lot tougher than I imagined. It wasn’t long before I was flying under that thing regularly at over 300 m/s! Back to the start and this time, I was flying in anger!

This time I didn’t care if I overheated, didn’t matter, just fly through it, pop a heatsink if need be. I was still a little careful at Ruchbah 2 but managed to approach much faster than before and landed hard enough to warrant a bounce! Managed to pass under the gantry at 406 m/s but this came with a flip and in my confusion I flew the damn ship upside down, scraping along the ground and back into the settlement. It took a while to get re-orientated and then it was off to Cail. Manged to get my ship to rear on the pad at Christian Terminal before docking but it wasn’t too bad, but then it was time for Red Tunnel Drilling again.

Those damn pillars! I swear, they relocate to a different part of the installation every time I visit! They are invisible until you are almost on top of them. It took me what felt like a millenia to find them and, eventually, I did. Now it was just the two jumps to Okinura and the finish.

27:25! Not bad, but I knew I could do so much better!

More practice, more hurtling toward the gantry at Dav’s hope, including a violent connection with the crossbar that wiped out my shields and all but wiped out my hull too! Yet more familiarisation with the layout at Red Tunnel Drilling and it was time for a final attempt. There wasn’t much time left, I would have enough for, at most, another three goes.

The pass through the tunnel couldn’t have gone much better and I broke through to orbital flight over Ruchbah 2 in record time, although I hit the ground so hard and with a bit of forward momentum that I flipped. Took a while to reset and land properly and it was time for Dav’s hope. On the way I overheated drastically on the second scoop -jump as the key I had assigned to the heatsink just wouldn’t work!

I was heating up beyond 200% and the hull was falling apart, yet still I plouged ahead, scooping while the FSD charged until it was time to turn toward the target system and jump. I arrived at Hyades Sector DR-V C2 – 23, the heatsink finally deployed, and I was cool again! Landed fine at the abandoned mining settlement, took off and backed up to just over 300m to make my approach for the Limbo, I accellerated to 500 m/s throwing my little ship toward the gantry and hit the crossbar full on once more. Somehow, it only minimally damaged the shields and I backed up for another go.

This time I made it, pulling up just in time to skip off the ground, causing me to spin wildy around to face the settlement. Then up, up into the sky to make my way to Cain and then on to Ququve.

This time I knew exactly where the pillars were and I happened to jump in right in front of them. I sailed right through, albeit a little more cautiously than I was happy with and then went back to the finish.

So! How well did I do this time?

Thirteenth! And with a bonus adjusted time of 23:24! I was very proud of myself, and was particularly satisfied, rather than frustrated that I could have saved at least a couple more minutes, maybe a bit more from all the mistakes I made in that run.

I am gravity breaking more consistently, flying more dangerously and with far less fear. And that last run was the most fun I have ever had, not just in Buckyball but in the entire game of Elite Dangerous!

Insane, ecstasy fuelled Buckyballers from frustrated, burned out Buckyballers grow!

A massive congratulations to Sulu for hosting a mighty-oak-tree-mendous (sorry) race! And massive congratulations to Alec Turner, Caelum Incola, Shaye Blackwood and Ozric for their incredible times in both classes and another massive congratulations to EVERYONE who took part. You are all, without exception, incredible human beings!

Next race is in late May and is hosted by MrIndigo.

It will be called Ring Tossers.

Be there!

The gas giant just hangs in space, looking for all the world like a giant, chocolate cream marble, surround by a dazzling, wide series of rings of milky white. Slowing supercruise down to a crawl, the Delanderby fires a single, lone probe toward the wafer thin icy hoops. I just sit there and wait. Everything is silent. Everything is still. The scan completes, and a complex pattern of orangey-yellow discs interrupt the brightness, shining like beacons of potential. I casually scroll through the signals now over-populating the navigation panel. Void Opals, Low Temperature Diamonds, Alexandrite – I’m not interersted in such riches. It’s not long before my target shows and there appears to be plenty of it.

Tritium!

And many overlaps too, there even appears to be a triple hotspot! I point the nose of my beautiful Imperial Cutter at the glowing triforce of disks and gently cruise down to the grindstone.

So, I have an apology to make. There will be no more Buckyball blogs this season at least. And the reason for this is threefold. Firstly my love affair with Elite had been rekindled in such a profound way with Double Trouble that the exploration itch needed scratching. I coudn’t ignore it. And it just kept getting itchier and itchier, to the point where it was becoming painful. Secondly, the following Buckyball race, a re-run of Back to Pareco, was a source of great frustration. I could only submit a below par unlimited run. And my regualtion run, after dozens of failed attempts, was even worse. Thirdly, the dreaded RL was rearing its ugly head and making gaming time difficult causing me to have to miss the next Buckball (Braking Badly) altogether. Which was a great shame. As soon as I could I climbed back into the El-ahrairah’s Request (my ASP explorer with a sellar screenshot winner’s paintjob) to continue my journey to Colonia. The frustration of Buckball had gone, and was replaced by wonder, serenity, and a complete escape from reality.

My main goal…no…not goal as such. My main dream in Elite Dangerous has always been to explore the fullness of the Galaxy.

Inspired by the likes of Cmdr Commander Picard and Cmdr William Diffin, I’d always dreamt of, one day, leaving it all behind and travelling to the very furthest reaches of the Milky Way. To lazily saunter around the core. To see the spectacular sights other commanders had seen before me but also to discover my own space jellyfish, my own black holes, my own ringed Earthlike worlds. To find rare and beautiful phenomena and report them back to the community so that everyone else can see them too. My trip to Colonia had so far been full of wonder, ringed water worlds, bark mounds, rare biologicals. Yet I knew there were even greater treasures waiting for me around the galaxy. My plan had been to fly to Colonia via V1357 Cygni and scan as many biologicals as I could. This would hopefully give me a massive payment on arrival – enough to buy my very own Fleet Carrier! And some of the sights and disvoveries I was stumbling across on my way only whetted my appetite further!

The black has been calling to me for years. And this past month the pull has been far too strong to resist. My trip to Colonia had begun many months ago, and by the time the penultimte Buckyball race (Prison Brake II – Brake Harder run by Ashnak) came around I only had about fifty jumps to go.

I took a look at the rules for the race. It looked fun. It looked simple. It looked quick. Right up my alley! But...but…

The El-ahrairah’s request is such a joy to fly. And it’s engine noise sounds like a Rolls Royce Merlin. And it gives such a beautiful view from its cockpit. And such beautiful views were obligingly revealing themselves to me system, after system, after system.

Sorry, Ashnak. The Asp won out.

It was now a race to get to Colonia as fast as I could. I needed to hand in that data! I still investigated any worlds I thought interesting but it was mainly just jump, honk and scan from then on.

Suprisingly it wasn’t until I was only two jumps away from Colonia that the undiscovered systems stopped. I thought it would be much further out. Don’t Colonians explore? Also, it was strange finding another group of human colonies this far from the Bubble. And the whole place feels different. Wilder, rougher, more free.

Travelling here in my Asp Ex had been marvellous, but I wanted my exploring to be more…more intrepid, and I remembered fondly exploring as Leeya Geddy in the Rushfleet’s Working Man. Which meant I would need to get myself a Hauler. And this time it would be yellow! Just like dodgy dealer Del Trotter’s three wheeled Reliant Robin van in the London based sitcom “Only Fools And Horses”. Thanks to a suggestion from Lave Radio, I would be calling it the Lovely Jubbly! How could I call it anything else? I would need to engineer it too, which, even though I had plenty of blueprints pinned from the Bubble, would mean getting an invite from Mel Brandon. I needed those 2a enhanced thrusters! Anyway, as soon as I arrived here I made my first mistake. I handed in all my data at Jaques Station when I should have handed it in at one of the Colonia Coucil stations and received the invite straight away. Still, I managed to earn around 4.5 billion which, added to the 3.5 billion I already had gave me a decent amount to purchase my carrier.

And here she is! Cmdrs I present to you the Esmerelda Weatherwax!

I’ve only outfitted her with the exploring basics for now. Refuel/Repair, Rearm/Restock, Universal Cartographics and a Vista Genomics. I may go on a little shake down excursion in the Hauler to be able to put in a bar as well. “But why explore with a fleet carrier?” I hear you cry. Well, I want total freedom, for some that definately doesn’t mean dragging a fuel hungry beast around with them. But I want to be able to change ships whenever I feel like, no matter where I am out in the Black. I want to able to constantly check in and drop off my data, I want to be able to land on high g worlds without worrying about lost data if I foul up. I want to have a reason to survey rings in stunning systems and then mine those rings for fuel as a break from exploring. I aim to travel light. If all that means I have to mine a couple of thousand tons of tritium every 5000 light years or so, it’s a great trade off as far as I’m concerned.

Now it was just a question of which ships I should import from the Bubble to take with me on my travels.

The El-ahrairah’s Request.

Well, I couldn’t leave my beloved AspX behind now could I? I would miss her beautiful engine noise terribly. Don’t have to import her from the Bubble!

The Red Hare.

First I ordered my Krait Mk II. Engineered purely for combat I needed her to help win wars for Colonia council and hunt notorious pirates for bounty vouchers. Mel Brandon rather likes those. Not much use out in the Black except she has a fighter bay and I do like to have a fighter handy when exploring. I can always lighten her loadout and refit her as more of an explorer, once I’m done fighting.

The Delanderby.

Expensive to import all that way – almost half my remaining budget, but I need a miner to get fuel. And she’s the best and most efficient one I have. I just love the noises she makes – hence the name.

The Hrairoo.

I coudn’t leave her behind. I just couldn’t. I’m not sure I really need a DBX with everything else I’m taking but…no…

I love this ship. Dearly. It’s why I named it so.

The Waves Of Hanajima.

What can I say? She’s a Krait Phantom for Braben’s sake! I took my first major expedition in her. She’s also a ratship and, well, you never know.

The Brenda Zephyr.

How could I leave dear old Brenda Behind? That trip I took half way across the galaxy to meet up with Picard is full of such lovely memories. Huge jump range with an extra fuel tank and all the bells and whistles so I can leave the carrier behind when I want to venture deep into sparse starfields.

The Palamino.

I’ll be visiting a fair few black holes I expect! Plus I might go for quite a few long voyages in her. I’ve fully engineered her now and I’ve managed to squeeze everything I need in there.

I’m really looking forward to spending quality time with her.

And, finally, let me present my now fully engineered Hauler, in whom I’ll be doing the bulk of the exploring. The Lovely Jubbly…

In fact, I also decided to visit the engineers I’m using in character.

Which was interesting.

“Ere ‘y’are! Barnty Varchers. Undred fahsand, just like yer wanted. You wot, mate? Course their legit. Musta popped firty dozen wrong ‘uns, mate – all brown bread. Cross me art deyr da real deal or me uncle’s not Albert. Nah go and work yer magic on me awler, will ya?“

“You wot, mate? Occupied escape pods? Wiv da poor live sods still in em? You’re avin’ a tin barf, aintcha? I bet the last fing dey wanna see when dey wake up is your ugly mug, mate. Nah, yer can keep yer bloody tinkerin skills…”

“Wossat? Grade five life suppote?”

“Har many pods wozzit?“

Sorry, couldn’t resist it.

I feel the only thing left now is to keep mining that Tritium (that and roaming various bodies searching for occupied escape pods for Etienne’s Meat Emporium). Now, I used to stuggle a little bit with mining. It was nice for the first few hundred tons or so but then it tended to drag. This time, however, I’m up to 1500 tons and I can’t wait to get back out there. For some reason, once I start firing off those prospectors all my troubles and worries start to melt away. It’s just me and the ice, with the gas giant silently watching over me way off in the distance. And, believe you me, it’s therapy I’m sorely in need of at the moment. Strangely enough it’s very simillar to a real life occupation of mine, mucking out horse stables, only a lot less brown.

The Delanderby drops out of supercruise and glides gently down towards the quiet, hanging field of emormous ice lumps that stretch as far as the eye can see. Beyond, the gas giant hangs there, still, silent, immovable. A pair of signals appear on the scanner, interrupting the tranquility. I gracefully turn the cutter’s huge bulk around to face them. Two Imperial clippers, very much the worse for wear wearily scan my cargo racks. They are not interested in limpets. They sluggishly turn away, and dissappear back into the icy fog. Satisfied they are gone, I spy a juicy pair of jagged ice balls spinning gently mere yards away from each other. I fire off a couple of prospectors, the sound of their chugging engines fading away as they propell themselves purposefully towards their goals. They hit, one after the other and, to my delight, both asteroids have a high percentage of Tritium.

My hardpoints deployed

My nine limpets out, waiting

Lahv-ely Jubbly!

You’ve all had those dreams haven’t you? You know the ones. The great ones. The ecstatic ones. The ones where you can fly. For me they usually follow a day where I’ve spent a period having about as much fun as it’s possible for a Homborger to handle. I tend to get them when I’ve been particularly successful at something, or when I’ve discovered a new thing that’s more fun than I ever thought possible, like the first time I galloped on my horse. The wind rushing into my face, his mane streaming out behind his neck as his hoofs thunder out the rhythm underneath (depressingly, not something I’ve had an opportunity to do these days).

They’re pretty rare all in all. It’s just…I’ve been having them every night for the latter half of the week.

Since the last Buckyball, wonderful though it was, I stopped playing Elite Dangerous.

Completely.

I had become totaly numb to it’s lure. I tried No Man’s Sky. It was quite fun for a week or so but, well, it’s not the same. It’s a game, not a simulator. The planets of each system all huddle together on one side of the star (which you can’t really get close to) and all those lush worlds and creatures all start looking the same after a while. It’s fun, mysterious, and bright but it didn’t hold my attention much after 50 or so hours.

I tried other games, all sorts of games.

Nothing.

It felt like video gaming was dropping off my fun radar completely. But the next Buckyball was coming up and I felt I was going to be doing it as much out of obligation than leisure. Still, during the previous weekend I became obsessed with checking the BRC (Buckyball Racing Club, c’mon, you should know by now) discord, waiting for Raiko, the race sponsor, to post details of the race.

Sure enough, up they popped. The forum thread was begun and I started to pour over the rules. And there were rules. Lots of rules. And the rules included shenanigans. Lots of shenanigans. It pretty much hurt my brain. But, like most Buckyball courses, I expected it would become a lot less complicated once I’d scouted the route and tried a few of those shenanigans out.

And so I took out My Favorite Headache to have a look around. Starting at Hoshide in the Adivarakhe system, we need to use Jacksons to boost our FSDs to get to the distant main systems in just two jumps. There were only three, each with two places to visit, and an optional shenanigan at every stop. The shenanigans came with bonuses off your total time. Quite generous bonuses, in fact. Generous enough to make each one almost essential. I was intrigued. It looked intense, but promised exceptional fun!

I had multiple shots at the shenanigans and they were nowhere near as tricky as I feared. They mostly involved acrobatics around, or through, various parts of the installations. Apart from one which invloved travelling for 5km by SRV before recalling your ship. I wasn’t too sure about that one. My flyving technique leaves a lot to be desired. It’s fine for 2 -3 km and then it turns back into rollving and uncontolled bounceving. It isn’t long before it gets back to flyving again but in lots of different directions at the same time. But I was willing to at least give it a go.

I had several dry runs in the Cobra. I would explode at least once on every run but eventually I managed to get around unscathed. I wasn’t happy with my handling of the regualtion ship, I hadn’t played for about a month and I struggled with its drifty thrusters. And that wasn’t my only problem.

For the rest of the prep week and the first weekend of the race I would be running on limited sleep. One of our pet rats had to have a tumour removed and Wifeborger and I would share the nightwatch duties. Nothing worse than waking up on the morning after a ratty operation and seeing a gaping maw where there had been a beautifully sewn wound. Been there. Done that. Never again! So she would watch for the first four hours and I would wake up at 3,00 am and take over. I didn’t have a choice this time, Elite would have to wait.

The problem for the following week was, even though I could then sleep through the night, after 5 days of limited sleep I found myself too tired to play late evening and not being able to wake up in time to play in the morning. I was really struggling to find time in game. The prospect of this being the first Buckyball race where I would not be able to register a time loomed before me like a gaping, black hole.

I decided to ditch the regulation class. I was having a lot of fun in the unlimited class during the last race and I remember particularly enjoying scouting out the course in the Rushfleet’s iCourier the Afterimage. So I opted to use that.

I was so glad that I did!

The Afterimage is such a lovely craft to fly. Just performing those loops through the rings at White Grove Homestead in the Beatis system felt effortless and free. Then it was time to tackle Neff Hub.

All you have to do here is just dock and leave. But, of course, there is a shenanigan here and then an advanced shenanigan. For a bonus of two minutes you can just fly around the back of the station before you dock (just like The Empire Hustle) But you can double that to four minutes by entering the docking slot, then exiting it, then you have to loop around the rearmost habitation ring both before and after passing around the back of the station. Then you can dock! So that’s what I chose to do.

I like to use my vertical thrusters when performing loops so I can keep an eye on the obstacle I need to loop around. Especially when that object is spinning and there are struts and solar panels to avoid. And as I pulled up and gazed at the greenery inside the ring while I sailed gracefully around a fire re-ignited within my soul.

This game, this game. It is so beautiful, exhilerating and full of awe. The way we can fly. The way our ships behave. The way each ship has a personality of its very own. The things we can do. And the community that is the web that binds us all together, the things that this community creates for us to do. Every moment of sheer joy that I have had interacting with this remarkable jungle of code, hyperspace jumping for the first time, splitting an asteroid to reveal the core, watching the deep red sunrise in a bright pink sky in a oxygen atmosphere, getting caught by and then totally hypnotised by the way light is bending around a black hole, discovering my very first “first discovered” world. Hyperdiction by Thargoids, harvesting Meta Alloys from barnacles, investigating Guardian Ruins, discovering bark mounds in nebulae, collecting raw materials from volcanic vents, successfully completing an on foot stealth mission, finding a rare and lucrative plant species I had never seen before, going silent running whilst smuggling personal technology into theocratic stations…the list is almost endless. It all passed though my mind as I made that initial loop. It felt like the engine of a Dodge Charger roaring back into life, like the secondary section of a rocket, exploding with the fire of thrust and taking over when the main section had dropped away and all had gone quiet.

All this I had done and loved, and yet there is still so much more I have yet to experience in this marvellous game!

And then as I came back around to the mail slot to finally dock in the station I noticed there was an orca blocking the entrance and in my desperation to get around it I crashed and exploded. I just laughed out loud. It had been a long time since I had been that happy. I just took my rebuy and, continuing from Neff Hub, I carried on around the course.

The rest of the course is also a joy, apart, maybe, from one shenanigan, which is my fault. We’ll get to that later.

So it’s on to the Vodyanes system and the Conjunct Transmittal Satellight. We just have to fly through the long tunnel that runs right through but, for a bonus minute (Bootlegger) we have to flip around and fly back through it. The first few times I did this in the Afterimage I nailed the flight assist off flip and then boosted at over 700m/s back through. It felt so exhilerating! I could almost feel wind rushing through my hair. I was deeply in love with Elite once more! For my final submission run, however, I was a lot more careful.

Next was on to Lewis Gateway to pick up a ton of beer to take back to the start for yet another bonus! Then it was on to the final system, Nauani.

The penultimate challenge here is just to fly through the superstructure of the Intermutual Interchange but, for the added bonus (named “Breaking and Entering”), we also have to fly to one of the side silos. Open the entry door by firing at it or ramming it, fly through the tunnel and open the exit door by firing or ramming before escaping. If you’re too slow, the missiles the installation sends at you will explode your ship. The first time I tried this in the Cobra I rammed and lost almost all my shields and hull. The second time I used frag cannons and got hit by missiles and destroyed, but the Afterimage just sailed through, using missiles to open the doors.

Now it came to the final obstacle. The surface port of Lanchester’s Folly. We only have to dock here and then leave but for a six minute bonus (Total Recal) we need to drive an SRV 5km away before we board the ship and fly home. We were allowed to recall our ships before the 5 km but we still had to travel that didtance before boarding. Now I was struggling with this. My record was 4km before losing control completelty and making it not worth my time. I fully intended to include this shenanigan in my submission but I kept messing this up the most. On the final morning of the race I still hadn’t managed to complete a run and so when I had managed to get around the course unscathed, being extra careful not to take much damage, I saw I had enough hull left for the “Iron Bucky – Driving Commander Daisy” challenge of flying the whole course, without shields, and still having above 90% hull remaining. When I landed at Lanchester’s Folly I had 92%. I wasn’t going to risk sending out the SRV. Maybe, if I got back in one piece, I’d do it on another run. So I launched and set the waypoint back to Hoshide.

Something else had been happening since the re-ignition of my deep love for Elite. I hadn’t really noticed it, but I was beginning to bag almost every single gravity breaking maneuver. Somtimes I would break too soon or approach a bit too cautiously but I never overshot. And even a cautious gravity breaking approach is usually quicker than a standard approach. Sometimes I even almost forgot to drop out of supercruise as the option appeared way sooner than I was expecting.

On the approach to Hoshide I managed to perform a textbook approach. Carefully flew in through the mail slot, and docked. Sold my ton of beer. I could now, finally, submit a time.

Once evening came on the final day, though, I was just too tired to try again. It had been a very busy couple of weeks in RL and I had nothing left. That single effort would just have to do. Maybe I wouldn’t be too far from the bottom of the table.

Fourteenth? Out of twenty five racers? Hey! That’s not too bad at all!

I don’t think I can thank Raiko enough. His forum thread spiel about the Lonnigan Brothers creating the race and enforcing the rules is just glorious. And as for the race itself…

Thank you Raiko! I owe you everything. I will have your babies – if you wish!

As for the next race? Well it’s being run by the incomparable Psykit. So we know what kind of thread design we’re getting at least. But as for the place, exact date (sometime in August) and name of the race we’re all still mostly in the dark. She’s mentioned it might be a re-run of the Pareco ring.

It might be nice to have a straightforward one for a change!

Can’t wait!