Having a great time space trucking with the Vesuvius, but decided it was time to try something new so headed into the starport and did a refit to set her up as a basic miner. Installed prospector and collector limpet controllers, and a Class 3A refinery (8 Bins). For my first attempt I thought I'd try mining away from any RES sights in the hope that there would be fewer pirates. Checked the databases and found a nearby by system (LFT65) that had four ringed planets with pristine rings.

Dropped into the system only to find that the main feature of LFT 65 is a beautiful Neutron Star. Being careful to not take any damage from the jetstream, I headed off to the first plane in the system. Dropped in on the outer ring, but soon discovered that it was just an ice ring. I decided to try out the equipment anyway and soon got the hang of the mining mechanics. Ominously though, within a few minutes of arriving I was being scanned by three ships. I was in the middle of nowhere so this didn't look like a good sign. I quickly jumped into supercruise, headed closer to the planet and dropped into the inner ring which was a high metallic. No sooner had I opened the cargo scoop and sent out the first prospector limpet, then I was under fire!! It appears the three pirates had followed me to the next ring and decided that a lone T7 look like a nice easy target. They immediately demanded that I drop my cargo or face the consequences.

I decided to try and make a run for it. I put full power to shield and engine, and boasted straight up from the asteroid belt. All three came after me hard, and I was getting hit from all sides. The shield dropped completely and I started taking hull damaged but I eventually managed to break mass lock and engage supercruise. With the hull down to 67%, I nursed the Vesuvius back to the nearest starport and while repairs where being made, I made my way to the nearest StarBar to settle my nerves. Lessons learned - stick to the High RES for mining in an unarmed T7, and consider installing some counter measures. A little chaff would have gone a long way today.

I had just dropped into Lalande 4141 on the way to getting the Vesuvius (Type-7) refitted to do a bit of mining, when I noticed a Samson Class Bulk Carrier pop up on the radar. Having never seen a Bulk Carrier I thought I'd swing by and have look. Dropping out of super cruise I was dismayed to see that the carrier seemed to be in some distress. It appeared to be disabled and was surrounded by an ominous mustard coloured cloud. I moved in closer and saw that the illuminated side of the ship was smeared by some sort of yellow substance. Keeping my distance, I made my way around to the front ship. As I turned towards the bridge it became obvious that the carrier had recently been attacked. One part of the bridge had been blown away and the ship was venting into space. The dark side of the ship showed signs of a sustained attack, but I doubt the culprit was of human origin. Looks to me like the Thargoids are getting closer to the Bubble.

Dropped into the Swaza system in the Rubicon (with my substitute pilot NecroTecho) to deliver some commodities to one of the outpost, and decided to do a little exploring. Saw several planets that were unexplored so we decided to scan them to collect some exploration data. The second planet was a nice looking rocky ice world, so we thought we’d drop down for a planetary landing and pick up some mats.

We had collected a nice little hoard of mats when we discovered a wrecked ship with multiple escaped pods scattered around. We recalled the ship and transferred all the escape pods to the Rubicon. Heading out again we discovered another signal which indicated a second shipwreck. We approached the area and were suddenly attacked by sentry skimmers. We backed off and took stock of the situation. Eventually we decided to remove the skimmers and collect the additional cargo, which turned out to be another escape pod.

Having filled up we decided to head back to Onnes Settlemnet, an orbital outpost about 1500ls away from the planet. On the way to Onnes we were attacked by pirates. NecroTecho managed to evade the attack but the Rubicon was severely damaged (hull damaged down to 31%). Our thrusters were knocked out, and we had no lateral control of the ship. We ran the ship through a reboot/repair sequence which fortunately managed to reset the thrusters and allowed us to make our way to Onnes Settlement.

Exciting times in Swaza!!