So, Update 3 of my ‘Southern’ Nebula Expedition. After leaving the Heart & Soul Nebula cluster, I went on a small detour below the galactic plane to this open cluster of bright B-type stars, rumored to have a lot of profit potential in them — a bunch of Neutron Stars, black holes, and even a few very young AE/BE Stars.
I’ve also, in a way, gotten over my fear of black holes. Getting past space warping infront of you and going into the exclusion zone, it’s actually quite peaceful. It’s like the eye of a hurricane, where the winds are calm inside of it.
I also saw a binary of rare (to me) O-type stars. And I now agree as to why they are so beautiful. They are the brightest and the hottest (known by NASA) stars in the galaxy. But due to being very bright, they have a lifespan of up to 10 million years (due to burning through their fuel quite quickly). Aka, they’re most common of turning into black holes when they reach the end of their lives.
They’re also scoopable, sharing the same characteristics as A and B-type stars.
After scanning everything I could (they were all tagged, which makes sense), I then headed to the next WP. And after about 50 or so jumps, I decided instead of stopping at another generic Nebula (the same one used for Witch Head and many others), I went on for the Bubble Nebula.
And I have made it as well! And WOW.. being inside this thing is everything I wanted, and more. It makes me feel it was well worth coming all the way out here beyond my comfort zone. You really feel like you’re inside a giant radiation-filled bubble. It is pretty wild.
There is one problem, though. And it’s not a small one — it’s a ‘mountain-sized’ one. Basically after landing on the chosen moon of the former CNE, it really felt like Christmas. The ground was white, and the sky was this lovely blue color. Even the rocks looked frozen (the big ones are still ‘dick rocks’ for causing my SRV to get knocked off-course, and damaging its hull).
I was heading towards the ringed gas giant parent planet, who had this REALLY awesome green hue around it and wanted to get a better picture of it. This was more trouble than it’s worth, as I felt like I was climbing through the Swiss Alps (but in an SRV).
There was also a POI that caught my eye. It wasn’t another crashed NAV beacon (BTW, I’ve encountered 6 in total so far).
I had to cross this, and it had me doing a lot of “GET THE FUCK UP THAT LEDGE!! PRETEND YOU’RE THE FUCKING MAKO FROM MASS EFFECT!!” And after a lot of swearing, I finally wiggled my way up and made it to the POI. It had a few unique items I’ve never seen before, including some standard cargo containers.
Finding an LZ for my ship to land was a bit tricky, due to how remote the area was. Thankfully it was smart enough to land a bit close to me, instead of having to go back down this mountain to get to it.
With the cargo (and the SRV) secured in my ship, I’m now debating if I should just go back to the bubble or continue with the expedition. But really, I can’t make that decision yet. I still have to go another 4kLy to head in the direction towards either thing. That’s gonna be FUN, which is why I’m hesitating from doing so by typing all of this.
And I’m currently heading that way. However, due to a serious snag, I feel I need to end the expedition ‘early’ and just get back to Maia ASAP. My poor ASPX is crippled, its jump range is being reduced due to wear, which is causing the number of jumps to increase to get to the next bookmark (past the point of my Viper Mk3).
That snag was heading to the next WP. I was (and still am) between the Perseus Arm and the Orion Arm. Went through an area of very…very sparse stars. I did my best to navigate the field, until it got to a part that the jump ranges were too extreme to continue.
There was this gap that required me to go 42.05Ly, I didn’t know what to do, except try an FSD boost. I had a 25% and a 50% boost from what minerals I had gathered from the WP planets. I tried the 50%, but that didn’t help once. I discovered that even if I tried to go forward, there wouldn’t be anything to ‘catch me’ to get even further.
My only hope (that I’m still using), is this lower field of denser stars. I thought, hopefully it’ll get me to the Nebula. So I plotted a course to get me close to under the Nebula as I could, and then saw “48 JUMPS TO (system name here)”… 48 jumps. I felt my ASP was crippled, as before it was 38 jumps. Though it has been steadily increasing, making me feel I need to get this ship back to the bubble ASAP.
And that’s what I’m currently doing. Fuck the rest of the expedition until I either get a faster ship, or repair the one I have. Getting back and repairing is now top priority.
.
.
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….Or did I? Actually, no. For what I failed to understand, it wasn’t damage done to my FSD — it was fuel. A full tank of fuel adds mass, which decreases the jump range. I’ve never had that issue happen before, as I’ve been lucky. But out there, I wasn’t.
So this is a thing I’m forced to learn — the balancing of fuel VS jump range.
I want to rage at someone over this, but I cannot as this is a realistic thing.
But I managed to get to WPB 6 (the NGC 7822 Nebula, that I unofficially name the ‘Dog Nebula’ (as I saw what looked like a dog’s head).
The striking point of this nebula, isn’t the nebula itself. But its very large (but compact) array of very bright O-type stars that can be seen for over 3 million Ly away. Some of these contain a single black hole, or a black hole binary (even one with three). And a friend of mine says that a distant system from the nebula (close to 1kLy), which has a whopping FIVE black holes in it, has a rare black hole with no exclusion zone. In other words, it is possible to go INSIDE the fucking thing. If that’s not the stuff of nightmares, I don’t know what is.
Anyway, it looks like I’m going to be continuing my expedition (with this acquired, but also annoying) logic. Plus, I’m now closer to the bubble. Only 2kLy away compared to 7kLy. So really, what I did was probably the biggest hurdle of the entire expedition. And I feel good for crossing it and still having everything I had back then.
I’m probably NEVER going to go on this expedition again, though. 😛 Not until I get a faster ship that can easily go to the Bubble Nebula and back (as easy as it is to go to Maia and back).
Speaking of Maia, it’s possible I’m not going back there for awhile. Mainly due to the discovery of the Barnacles, the Empire and the Federation are fighting over control of the entire nebula, causing Maia to have a ‘Retreat’ state.
I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll never be able to go to my home away from the bubble again. At least, not without being forced to join one of the factions.
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Just a little update of this update. Landed on the dark moon of this system that the CNE picked as their waypoint. I’ll be doing my normal scouting runs here, seeing what minerals the moon has (and look for any POIs).
After that, I’ll be heading to the Cave Nebula, which is well within plot distance from me. Then onward to the Pelican & North America Nebula cluster. By then I might be within plot distance of the bubble.