26.10.3306.1
I made another trip out to Deciat to see Felicity. What a wonderful woman. She really inspires me to go find the furthest reaches of space, and then go farther. She told me about this old abandoned mining settlement in a system whose name sounds like a serial number from hell, where I could go get used to driving the SRV on Catfish’s Diamondback Explorer.
I get to this place, and it seriously looks like an old western movie fucked a dumpster. It’s called Dav’s Hope, and I’m guessing by the number of ships that hovered over the site, that it’s no big secret location. I can see tracks in the dirt that seem like this place has been used as a race track as many times as earth has orbited the sun, and all the debris laying around the place is a pretty clear indicator that to lose a race here is a common occurrence.
Needless to say, I didn’t leave any scraps wasted. These old dusty parts might be exactly what a crafty engineer like Felicity needs to build something really special for me. I talked to her about some of those upgrades for the Adderconda, and what she said sort of surprised me. She said she knows Catfish loved that old thing, and that she does too, and I should also, because it’s an awesome old bobber, and what’s not to love? But… I should love it for what it is, not what it was, or could be. It’s so old, and honestly, only good for nostalgia.
She keeps telling me that if I really want to go exploring, and i like Catfish’s DBX, that I should get my hand on an Asp Explorer. She tells me she can get almost as much out of the Asp, but that it’s a better size for true exploration, fitting a larger cargo rack, and fuel scoop. “It’s all about going farther, faster, and collecting. Unless you’re anaconda rich, it’s the ship to have.”
I managed to get a good deal on an old recovery AspX named F.M. Victoria, and took it back to Felicity, and she seemed downright giddy to work on it. I’ve been out collecting material scraps and raw materials so she’d have everything she needed to get it whipped into shape for exploring. I’m getting well over 50 lightyears per jump in it! One thing she’s taught me is that you don’t need to cram all the biggest, most expensive stuff you can buy. It’s all about balancing your needs, and knowing what you’re going to do with the ship.
Obviously with something like the Osprey, I need all the power I can get and then some. It has massive lasers and decent shields, and boosters, and it needs proper thrusters to keep it locked on a target. It also doesn’t really need a fuel scoop, because in most cases, it would actually be faster to fly to wherever I need it in my Asp, and then have the Osprey shipped to that location. Felicity has taught me that building a ship is an art form.