Asteroids!

Later, much later. It turns out that I did have a bottle single malt in store but I was strangly drawn to the Orrerian Vicious Brew, which my comrades I can assure you lives up to it's name. I may have had good intentions when I seated myself to write about my encounter in the rings but I just ended up playing Asteroids. Again.

Hidden in the depths of every starship computer console, because systems developers are all big kids at heart, is a 20th century game called Asteroids. A game which is almost as old as the computer itself which pits a pilot against increasingly fast asteroids. For every commander you can find who has never played asteroids, even a modern equivalent, I am certain I can find you 10 who have!

In the game the pilot uses a laser to destroy the asteroids before they hit the ship, however on my recent asteroid encounter I am certain that had I deployed my pulse lasers they would have been no such use!

You see, as part of my journey something I really want to see is an earth like world with a complex ring system. Thus far such a discovery has eluded me, but I did get a close second recently with a Water world with breathable atmosphere and rings. It would have been a travesty to simply pass by without dropping in to take a close look at the rings. There is a shot of the rings in my last post.

Well here we are up close

From afar the rings look solid, but they are in fact made of of a lot, and I do mean a lot, of asteroids. I cruised across the top of this ring system at just 30km/s taking in it's beauty and in no time at all I had reached the inner edge. This is where the brave explorer started whispering in the ear of the sensible explorer. The end result had me piloting my Clipper along the inside edge of the rings until she was close enough to initiate an automatic drop from supercruise.

Then, I ventured into the asteroid field.

Now those asteroids look pretty well spaced, and indeed the are. But the little buggers are always moving. It was at this point that I overcame my awe and exhilaration at being here, and realised I should probably power my shields. While I may have a class 6 shield fitted, it will still only protect me against minor scrapes from small rocks, and some of these are bigger than an outpost!

So what do you do in an asteroid field that could be the end of your ship? That's right, take photos. I have been a firm believer since the camera drones came online, that photos including my ship should be dynamic. I try to convey the awe and adventure in my shots, and one thing I think really helps this is to have power to the main engines.

Did I ever mention that I have to choose between controlling the camera drones and controlling my ship? I cannot do both at the same time. So at this point, I am in an asteroid field, some 17000ly from populates space. My engines are at 70 percent power and I am not in control of my ship.

I think the risk was worth it, I hope you do, here is one of the resulting photos.

This little endeavour deserved a blog entry of it's own. Later I will be back on the level with the next stage of my journey.

Rikk, signing out.