Voyage of the Ardent Citadel Resumes (Weeks 10-13)
After several weeks of layover for repairs, refueling and resupply, the Ardent Citadel and her collection of adventuring explorers has resumed its journey into the Galaxy. After discussing our options our commanders opted to go “to the middle of nowhere,” so a random destination was selected the carrier began jumping.
Almost immediately we came upon something remarkable. Entering Leamue JY-I d9-1997, we encountered a field of white dwarves and neutron stars, jumping to two neutron stars consecutively by chance. The view above was the starting result of the carrier jump to a mere 3,000 km away from -1997’s remarkably bright stellar remnant. Pilots approaching the carrier had to take extra care not to find them selves pulled out of frameshift by the tiny, spinning core.
Since then we’ve moved deeper into the core, passing through Odin’s Vault into the Elysium Straights. The Straights have been unusual in that we’ve encountered a wide, almost random collection of stars but few planets. This makes some sense given the stellar density—it’s not unusual to find a half-dozen stars or more less than three ly away from any given system. In the chaos of the region, planets are not welcome.
Still, life (and planets) find a way, and we’ll scoping out these discovers and registering them back on the carrier.
Our weekly jumps have resumed at a slightly earlier time (6:30 PM on Thursdays) and with less fanfare (we’re not streaming them, but any who wish to participate are invite to join the Zen Bassmasters Discord voice chat for peanut gallery navigation).
As a backdrop to all this, the drama back in the bubble is about to reach a climax. Clearly not being there is the safer option but considering what might happen I almost wish we could have been there to try and STOP it along with hundreds of other like-minded commanders.
I have no love for Thargoids but I have no hatred of them either. I simply consider their motivations. One does not poke a stick in a hornet’s nest and not expect a response.
In any case, we soon see what becomes of this slow moving and all-too man-made disaster.
