Into the Aftermath: Part III
I felt low as I watched the gull-winged S Class take off, I felt very vulnerable as I took another sip of the vile Vy’Keen drink. I lazily checked the Mainframe and other travellers were gathering pace with their discoveries. I sighed hard as I felt even further behind. Then a message popped through on screen. It seemed I was being tasked with exploring a system in my vicinity, I was not confident in my ships capabilities and was about decline when I saw that it was a Gek System. I had heard that Rocket upgrades could be purchased in Gek systems, I finished my drink and headed to the Indigo Rain and punched in the coordinates. The familiar view of warpspace appeared before me and before long I was in the new system. Upon arrival I headed quickly for the Station and straight for the Blueprint trader. Sadly he had no Rocket upgrades. I headed back to the hangar area and a sleek fighter was landing on one of the pads. It was tan in colour and had a long nose, closer inspection revealed she was an A Class with 38 Slots. The configuration of the slots was good too. I felt suddenly alive again as I hopped into the Indigo Rain and took off, I summoned my freighter and saw my old fighter, gathering dust in the hangar. I jumped in and took the fighter into the station. I saw the Gek pilot waiting for me as I landed and for around 40,000 plus trade in, the new fighter was mine. I spent a little time retro-fitting it with shield and weapon upgrades, flitting between Sirasil Outpost on Freyo and the Intrepid. Once I was happy, I took it for a test flight in the new Gek system I was in, I named it ETARC Torallion Prime. There are four planets, one habitable, CSFD Kwindowa, the rest were toxic or inhospitable but all had a certain beauty and swooping through the canyons and scanning the wildlife brought a much needed smile to my face. I decided I would name my new fighter, The Hornet.
I uploaded my findings of the system to the Mainframe and turned my attention to Artemis once more. Upon intercepting the transmission he bade me find a Transmission Tower which I located on a distant moon. Seeing Artemis, a sense of familiarity washed over me. He wore a pack on his back similar to mine, and a carried a mutli-tool. I felt compelled to help him and quickly set up the triangulation beacons so we could perhaps meet, then I lost the signal and contact with Artemis was broken. I headed back to Sirasil Outpost and the HUD showed an extra marking, it was a comm-pod! Another traveller had made contact! The marker was 12hrs walk away so I fired up the Hornet and quickly made the journey and was amazed to see a Portal before me. I was beginning to doubt Freyo even had one. The comm-pod was from another traveller who had translated my galactic coordinate address into portal glyphs, the 12hr walk in freezing conditions prevented them making it to my base however. Suddenly the urge to move base again grew stronger. I resolved to venture closer to the core and again, with one eye on my Rocket upgrades, warped again to a Gek system.
I arrived in the new system and once again, the Blueprint vendor failed to offer what I needed, I was about to warp off again when a planet caught my eye. Again, the planets in this system seemed inhospitable bar one. Maybe that is par for the course now? I Pulse-drived to the planet, scanned for a Trading Post and adjusted course. Breaking the cloud of the planet I could see it was mostly water with archipelagos and islands and flying low I began to appreciate the beauty this planet offered. The Trading Post appeared over a tree covered hill and I landed on one of the pads. The weather was pleasant and this world had ticked another box, there was an occasional toxic storm but otherwise no problems. At the Trading post there was a traveller so asking where he came from he directed me to an atlas shaped grave. Was the traveller really there at the trading post at all? I interacted with the grave and was presented with a glyph, maybe this would help with those mysterious portals? Placing a Signal Booster I scanned for a monolith and after presenting this with a Gek Relic, I was given the location of this planet’s portal. Another Signal Booster later and I discovered a habitable base only 37mins walk away!
I arrived at the base and immediately fell for the coastal location. I decided I would claim this base and set up shop here. Beacons placed I headed back to Sirasil Outpost and began deconstructing the valuable parts. As the base shrank I was suddenly reluctant to leave, this frozen world held its own beauty that I came to appreciate. I packed up the last of the glass structure leaving most of the iron cuboids in place and walked over to a hillock. I left a message pod for any future visitors, inputting my new coordinate details and then turned my back on Freyo for the last time.
Arriving back on Tianolyra I claimed my new home, Garilan Outpost. Sirasil Outpost was a showcase, built for visitors and to look good. I knew I needed to return to earning money, so this new base had to be functional. I created a modest base with only one landing pad, shunning the extravagance of the three of Sirasil Outpost. Overall it was far smaller and less grand, but the new base didn’t need to be grand when the views were so breathtaking.
I sat on the rooftop watching the sunset and felt happier, thoughts of Freyo were long gone. As I relaxed in the fading light my thoughts turned to my freighter farm, what was I going to do with all that crop? Looking through my available blueprints I discovered that Liquid Explosive uses the ingredients that I happen to already have a lot of. My seventy Fungal Mold would need to be increased to 72, and my Echinocacti would need increasing to 48, this should then be optimised to produce 24 Liquid Explosives every two hours. Suddenly thoughts of the gull winged S Class Hauler and the Destroyer Class, Deep Space Freighter, The Crimson Star filled my head again.
All of this, I mused over my drink. All of this; Garilan Outpost, this beautiful planet, the Liquid Explosive enterprise, all because I was searching for a Rocket Blueprint… Which I never found.
