First stop Hillary Depot in the Blu Thua AI-A c14-10 star system. 113 jumps from start and 2,105LY from Sol.

I noticed right away that each jump takes about half a tank of fuel. I immediately changed my star filter to include only KGBFOAM starts. I had no desire to find Neutron stars to take advantage of the 300% jump range it provides. I had no way to repair my ship after a jump as it was too small to fit AFMU’s, plus it is not really allowed in the challenge. Since I can’t fuel up at these stars hitting 2 in a row would leave me stranded. I also did the first leg watching every single star type I was jumping to and maxing out my fuel tank for every jump. It took me about 2.5 hours of real time to arrive in Hillary Depot. I started out with 39,163 credits and after selling cartographic data I was at 83,541 credits. I received a promotion to “Mostly Aimless” and an invite for Elvira Martuuk, the FSD engineer. Sadly we won’t be talking to her anytime soon.

This is where I created my 2nd account "CMDR BrauHaus".

My goal was to complete the Outlander Challenge: https://eliteccn.com/projects/outlander-challenge/

As stated in the challenge, create a new account (or wipe existing account), gather enough credits to fit a good fuel scoop and frameshift drive and head to Colonia to start over again. Here is my interpretation. A good fuel scoop and FSD is A-Rated. It cost just under 500,000 credits for those two items. It says nothing about removing stuff and putting them into storage. So… I stripped the shields and SRV bay and put them into storage and sold the weapons (for zero since they are loaned). I also D-Rated the remaining internals as the cost was about 1-2k per item vs. 250k per item. In return, I decided not to “Honk” any systems unless I needed to in order to identify the planet I would be landing on. I felt this would give me an unfair start in Colonia as I would probably acquire millions of credits. Once my ship was outfitted I would collect enough credits for a single rebuy and sell my Cartographic data at every stop to fund additional rebuys if needed. The goal was to maximize the jump range to reduce the amount of time (and money gained) to get to Colonia. My Sidewinder has a jump range of just over 22.1LY.

During this time the Dove Enigma Expedition opened up so I followed that path instead of going straight to Jacques Station.

It took me 1,333 jumps and just shy of 27 hours to land at Dove Enigma.

Then it happened, the Thargoids attacked the station as I was leaving!!! Did they plant a tracker on my ship? Am I responsible for the horrible loss of life? Were other stations hit? Is this a coordinated attack? I lost everything, I didn’t have insurance and I wasn’t even flying. I have to escape the bubble. I have to protect my family.

New plan, take what is left of my money and book a flight to Eranin with my family and see if they will lend me a Sidewinder. This year’s present will be a new home and a new life as far away from the Thargoid’s as I can get. Colonia…

Follow along with me on my adventures starting fresh and pioneering a new life in Colonia. Helping survivors and like-minded people build a new life as far away from the bubble as possible with no access to engineers, faction ships or premium equipment and modules.

In search of money I picked up some jobs in Rhea moving passengers with my Python. Now this was the gravy train. It put Quince to shame. It wasn’t as rewarding as helping fellow slaves but I was so glad that I didn’t have to deal with Thargoids. I’m a merchant/explorer not a combat pilot. I also made enough money to purchase an Anaconda and outfit that for passenger missions extending the gravy train that much further.

I amassed enough money to purchase an Imperial Cutter but I was greedy. I outfitted it and engineered key components but quickly ran out of money. “Never fly without insurance”, I always say. So I grounded my brand new ship until I could afford insurance. I decided to sell one of my ships but I really needed them all. The Asp for my eventual trip to Colonia, the Clipper for mining, the Python for general missions the Anaconda for passenger missions and my new Cutter for cargo runs. I couldn’t decide. I couldn’t sleep at night, I needed a break. I finally decided that I would sell the Asp after storing all the upgraded modules. By selling just the bare frame and saving all the good stuff it would be cheap to rebuild. I would then use that money for insurance on my Clipper using it as a miner for remaining money as it would be 100% profit. Titan’s Daughter seemed a nice place to mine with a refinery nearby, plus my mining ship was already docked there. I had my remaining ships delivered to Titan’s Daughter as they were close by and booked a flight to the same station not wanting to fly without insurance and risk losing my Python or Cutter. Eventually I would be able to fly my Cutter with insurance and buy back my Asp at a later date. I had a plan so I decided to take a break and extend my Christmas vacation and spend more time with my family. I booked a flight on a Dolphin to visit my family at the outpost they were living at. I didn’t want to risk flying without insurance and didn’t have a buyer yet for my Asp shell. That could wait till after Christmas. Family is more important to me.

My next step was to purchase a Python. Boy was I ever wrong, THIS is the greatest ship in the Galaxy. It can do everything! I was participating in community goals, running delivery and boom missions for the Empire at all the outpost and having all sorts of fun. I met 18 engineers and was able to reconfigure my ship for anything that they threw at me. I did converted my Imperial Clipper into a mining machine to unlock some engineers but it was worth it. The only problem was that all this work didn’t pay. I eventually convinced Professor Palin to sell me some corrosive resistant cargo ranks to transport all these alien artifacts he kept requesting. Now I can start making money again. Then it happened… A Thargoid ship pulled my out of hyperspace. It was then that I understood why I was being paid so well for the collection of these artifacts. It wasn’t worth it and the Thargoid threat was real. I informed my wife that I wasn’t having any of it and quit my job with the Professor.

So I joined the Imperial Navy and did scouting missions in the Quince system. Talk about the money flowing! It was amazing and the Imperial Navy was so impressed with my work that I eventually purchased an Imperial Clipper. Yeah, the jump range was shorter and it had a small tank but talk about FAST! Holy crap, this thing is lightning quick and had double the cargo of my Asp. What an amazing ship. It was then that the Quince money train dried up so I decided to do something good for the Imperial Navy and changed to transporting Imperial Slaves. Everyone deserves a chance to work their way to freedom. I would move slaves around Imperial space giving them opportunities for work and made a pretty decent wage while doing so. My biggest problem was that I could only land in large starport’s and while my Asp could land at outpost the cargo space was really limited.

So like most pilots I started out with a loaned Sidewinder. It was a great ship but like everyone else I wanted more, plus I wanted my own ship, not someone else’s. My first upgrade was to an Adder and then I worked my way up into a Cobra III. I hit the big time! I used to run rare goods were I quickly amassed enough wealth to purchase an Asp Explorer but it came at a cost. I sold all my other ships to cover the cost of upgrades and insurance. “Never fly without insurance”, I always say! It wasn’t much of a big deal as my Asp could jump so much further and carried much more cargo I really didn’t have much need for the older ships. I loved the Asp Explorer and at the time I thought it was the best ship in the galaxy.

It was then that the exploration bug hit me. I traveled all over the bubble finding interesting stars and planets. I even found a few first finds inside the bubble! After that I soon met Felicity Farseer. She requested a bunch of minerals and strange objects and was deeply interested in my exploration data. In return she re-engineered my jump drive to make 40ly jumps. I was so impressed that I outfitted my ship exclusively for exploration and had her engineer another drive so I could hit 50ly jumps. I was happy for a while but back then exploration data didn’t really pay the bills and I had a family to feed.

I started out as a heavy equipment operator deep into Empire space. Eventually I ran into a string of bad luck and the mining business ran dry. Without a paycheck I was unable to support my family. I did what any good wellbeing Imperial citizen would do. I sold myself into slavery rather than bury myself in debt that I couldn’t pay. I was lucky, I found a good master and he was impressed with my skills as a machinery operator and asked if I could pilot a ship. I said yes (but really I didn’t have much experience) and I was upgraded to his personal driver. This work was much better that working in the mines. One day while transporting him is his Imperial Scout we got jumped by a pirate in a Vulture, a heavy combat fighter. We didn’t stand a chance but I didn’t want to die so I deployed the guns and attacked him. I must have caught him off guard because I drew first blood and didn’t let off. I quickly chewed through his shield and started tearing up his hull. The pirate actually turned tail and ran all without leaving a scratch on our hull. My master almost wet himself sitting in the back seat. When I dropped him off at his destination he was so grateful for me “saving his life” that he tore up my slave contract, loaned me a sidewinder and gave me 1,000 credits in cash. I was now a pilot with my own ship!