Eventful

Commander TheNekkbreaker reporting from Xothuia JC-U d3-3350.

~.*.~ This morning was… eventful. I reached a system that contained a moon relatively high in Niobium. While it was not as much as I would have liked, I have had little success finding it in large quantities up until now. I concluded it would be worth the effort. I noted in passing that the body in question was several earth masses and as a consequence had a surface gravity of about 2.5G. I thought nothing of it. I knew there were bodies far larger than that that could be landed on, so surely this would be quite doable. (In my defense, I have performed many landings before without issue, though none on so massive a body.)

~.*.~ Approach, entry and glide went down without a hitch; I was aiming for a geological feature, some volcanic activity:  geysers or some such. I had finished my glide and was descending to the surface at a good clip when I realized I was probably going a bit fast and it would be a good idea to level the ship and engage my vertical thrusters. I did so, but immediately began to panic as my ship continued to descend like a meteor toward the surface. At the last second I pulled up and throttled up to maximum, slowing me a tiny bit before impact. My shields were obliterated in a nanosecond, and my ship was extremely badly damaged: my hull reduced to 4% integrity in the blink of an eye. I’m lucky to be alive.

~.*.~ I owe a great debt to the commander that advised me to replace my fuel transfer limpet controller with a repair limpet controller. Today I would be lost without it. I felt physically ill for some time after the impact, so great was the shock of realization of what might have been. I gathered the resources I needed from this accursed moon and took my leave. Before departing the system I paused to synthesize a handful of limpets with which I repaired my ship back to full hull integrity. With regard to >1G systems, all I can say is, “Lesson learned.”

~.*.~ Only one or two jumps later I had a second scare: upon jumping into a system based around a neutron star, I discovered that the system was in fact quaternary, and that there was a main sequence star nearly on top of my ship, so close it was to the parent. I recovered from the near impact quickly and without incident, however, and was impressed by the beauty of the pair after my nerves had cooled. The other two stars in the system were of less consequence and not nearly as beautiful.

~.*.~ Here too I performed a landing on a moon, a rusty red bit of rock orbiting a ringed gas giant. Nearby another ringed planet hung low on the horizon, and overhead the four stars provided the surface with more than enough light. I gathered more Niobium here.

~.*.~ There was, however, no Polonium, the one ingredient I am still missing, but require for a premium FSD boost. I cannot hope to achieve Ishum’s Reach without it, and as such I am keeping my eyes peeled for a ready source of it. I have since departed the last body from which I was mining and have managed to make precious little progress since. On the bright side, I’m alive, my ship is in good repair, and I’m wiser today than I was yesterday.