I’m going to prefix this story with a bit of info on what it’s all about. Over at r/eliteone, there was a vote recently to pick a ‘home’ star system, the votes were cast and the decision was made that Leesti, and the George Lucas Station would be the home for people to meet. As I started a little way off of this system I thought it might be interesting to document my journey ‘home’.

It will be written through the eyes of my in game Pilot as if it were real, but I will obviously be playing the game and creating the story as I play. However, some parts of the story will be embellished a little bit, just for a little extra immersion. 

Along the way, I hope to be getting involved in all kinds of activities from simply trading and shipping all the way to bounty hunting and possibly pirating.

It will mainly be written with images to accompany the text, but I will include videos where I can and where I feel they’re relevant i.e. if I have a good dog-fight. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Here is part 1. 

My name is Will Hudson, I have a home, the problem is, is it’s over 130 light years away.

Ok, it’s not my home anymore, but it used to be, back when I was a kid. It’s where my family were from and I want to return  there. To Leesti. I’ve just bought a beaten up sidewinder from some old ex military guy, its rough around the edges but it flies well enough. I’m no skilled pilot, but I know how to fly well enough.

I just quit my job in docking maintenance, I’d been doing it for almost 10 years, it paid ok – my account says a little over 100,000 credits, it’s enough to keep me going here at Dirac in LFT 1448, but it’s a dull life – it’s not the one I dreamed of – exploring the stars. I’m hoping to make enough money from shipping contracts to get me back home to Leesti – eventually.

My first contract takes me to Kadenyuk Orbital, a simple drop off of some supplies. It goes without a hitch. But I need some more work for the day, so I sift through the bulletin board whilst docked at Kadenyuk Orbital to see what’s available. One catches my eye. It’s a shipping contract, but not for your ordinary cargo. Just over 55,000 credits for delivery of a few weapons? That’s more than used to make in a week. It’s clearly an illegal contract, but how’d they advertise it here?

Deliver to Fairbairn Station in LHS 3447, sure it has its risks, but the pay seems worth it. Plus the security around these parts is pretty lax, I hardly ever hear of people getting scanned and caught. Who gives a damn if it’s illegal, it’s only a few  weapons, I’ll probably only get fined if I get caught. Plus I need the extra credits to get out of here, and this is the quickest way right now.

I take the contract. I have less than 4 hours to make the delivery and waste no time in getting going. After a quick refuel I leave – hopefully for good.

I lock the destination on my computer and head out of the station. It’s not a long journey, and I’m not expecting any trouble from it, so I can relax a little bit.

I soon jump out of Hyperspace and arrive in LHS 3447, Fairbairn Station isn’t far away and I start to make my approach. As I get closer my heart rate starts to increase a little, “what if they scan me and find I’ve got illegal goods? What if the punishment is worse than a fine?” I push the thought away, carry on regardless and request permission to dock at the station Docking Request Granted, now all I need to do is sail on through and sell these goods.

Just as I’m about to dock on my landing pad I get an alert Ship Scan Detected “Crap”. I quickly scramble to land and deliver before anyone can do anything. I nose dive to the pad, taking a bump or two on the way down, but nothing serious. “Who the hell scanned me?” Nothing had come of it, so I’m guessing it wasn’t security, but damn it scared the crap out of me. I get landed and make the call to say that I’ve arrived and I’m ready to hand over the goods. As soon as it’s done I check my balance. 174,591 CR – “55 big ones, damn they wired that quickly.” Feeling pretty smug about my little haul I kick back and have a couple of beers in a mini celebration of sorts.

After a short break I go back to the Bulletin boards to see if there were any more well paying jobs. There was a simple delivery to Dalton Gateway – just under 25,000 CR that should do for the day. Dalton is within the same star system so I get there quickly and sell my goods. It leaves me with a few hours left of the ‘day’.

I decided to head out and explore the system a little bit, I’ve never been here before. After leaving the station and being free of Mass Lock I engage the supercruise and start exploring – when you’re cooped up in a station for so long getting to see the stars is an incredible sight.

There are a number of weak signal sources passing me by, they could be anything from lost cargo to traps set up by pirates. I select one and decide to investigate. As I reach a safe distance I jump out of supercruise and notice that there are canisters floating freely, they contain tobacco. I decide to pick up a couple – I can sell them for a few CR. I quickly head back and sell my goods. I’ve time for one m more quick trip and head out again.

This time when I drop out of supercruise  I stumble upon something a little unexpected. It was a funeral procession. For who? I don’t know. But there were six ships all in wings paying tribute to whoever’s funeral it was. The local comms had messages appearing with tributes from the pilots. I watched for while in silence thinking about the life that had been lost. I toasted the fallen and jumped back out of the vicinity.

I was tired now, I’d only slept for a couple of hours in the last 30-40, I needed to get some sleep. The problem with living in space is there is no real day or night, so it can be very easy to lose track of time. You have to set yourself some rules around how many hours you want to be awake and how many to sleep. I needed a bed too, damn if I’m sleeping in this chair.

Once docked again in Dalton, I got up stretched my legs and started to look for somewhere to crash for a good long sleep.

I found a small motel for the night and got straight in to bed. I had my portable computer with me and decided to check out the star map to see how long it would take me to get to Leesti.

As it stood the shortest route was 214 light years away, which included 24 jumps the longest one being almost 11ly. My sidewinder could only manage 7ly at the moment. There was no way I was getting to Leesti like this. I either need to upgrade my ship or buy a new one. The idea of using my current ship to get me that far didn’t fill me with confidence, it was old and had probably seen way too many star systems. I wanted something a little newer, faster, flashier it you will. Time to get saving I guess.

I awake after a good 10 hours of sleep and head down to the cafe to get in a big breakfast before heading out. Who knows where today will take me.

Part 2