08 Sep 3302
Like plenty of other skippers out there, I've racked up a bit of a debt. Rebuys, refits, air filters, all that stuff. I've agreed to pay down some of that debt by performing a long-haul survey in the outer rim of the galaxy. The plan is to strike out in a straight line from my home base in Nehet for the near edge of the disc, and, when the stars run out, hang a turn to starboard and survey until the contract runs out.
So, goodbye clipper and FDL. I need a cheap, competent, deep-space runner. I fitted a Diamondback Explorer for the trip. The DBX isn't Lakon's sexiest ship, and I'd rather be in an ASP, but budget is budget. Still, with her (now) oversized power core, and its corresponding heat management, I should be able to go nose to nose with pretty much any star without having to worry about overheating.
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| Lakon is not known for their sexy ships. |
The kit is pretty standard explorer fare. Discovery scanner and surface scanner, of course. I chose the stripped down ship-to-ship sensors and thrusters. This bird will never be a fighter. Regardless, I did grab a couple pulse lasers. I feel a bit naked without them. I also opted for the most lightweight emergency life support system I could put in. An extra 7 minutes of air isn't going to do me a lick of good when I'm 3000 lightyears from a starbase. Round out the deep-space kit with the biggest fuel scoop I could manage, an extra 8T fuel tank for those long stretches, and some shields.
Yes, I fitted some class 3D shields. After some months in the black, with nothing around for a hundred light seconds, threading even a Diamondback through a stardock mailslot is a crazy precise maneuver. I'd hate to reset the balance on my contract because I bounced my poor ship off the toast rack on the way back in.
In the next entry, I'll lay out the first bits of the plan.
CMDR Aubrey Herreshoff,
Signing off.
== EOT ==
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