The Stellar Bounce manoeuver

 I flew back to New Eden to learn from Sarachem, but I became a student of professor Moriarty.

Ships don't collide and crash, they bounce off each other. It is a consequence of our warp drive bubble. The bounce is ruled by the laws of physics, and vessels experience a larger change when they collide with larger ships. The bounce effect is even stronger with celestial objects, in particular stars.

My tiny exploration frigate, when bouncing off the New Eden star, was thrown out a distance of 470000 km instantly. However, a regular warp to the star leaves one much too far away from the star's core to perform this manoeuver. This can be helped by dropping mobile depots close to the star's core, best within the range where ships experience the bounce. Warping to them will bring you right inside the bounce radius and fling your ship away.

Professor Moriarty positioned many such depots inside the New Eden star (however, they will decay in a month or two). They can be easily found using combat probes. Warping to these will bounce a ship immediately outwards - my magnate crossed a distance of 332000 km in a fraction of a second, in the direction radially outwards from the sun. Some depots are just outside the bounce radius, as you have to build your way inside. Warping to those, I found myself navigating inside the star's plasma. The screen apart from the windows went blank from radiation. I guess this would be an ideal hideout.

Mass times intertia of ship determines the strength of the effect and the distance crossed. My propulsion mod increased the bounce effect. A freighter or a dreadnought can cross vast distances like this.

I can see how this could have military applications. The larger the star, the stronger the effect. Shellashock Askiras, a specialist in stellar bouncing and peaceful scholar who was present to assist professor Moriarty, told me of tests with dreadnaughts performed in M-YCD4 that have allowed to bounce these ships over 11 AU in an instant. Some military strategists now siege capital fleets inside suns, apparently. And a fortizar was also built inside the sun's photosphere.

 

Alas, New Eden star by our experiments is not massive enough to warp closer to Eve Gate than twice the distance the Goners reached, and professor Moriarty has already reached much farther than that.

Dear reader, please do not reveal the knowledge that I divulged here, for much more is to be learned from professor Moriarty, and he might shun me for sharing this with others.

Renewed doubt

Goner Sarachem was in the New Eden system today, and I set out to locate him with so-called combat probes. I warped to the location shown to me by Lunarisse Aspenstar, hoping that this would bring me closer to him. I thought it would already indicate a direction in which to look, extrapolating the location in a line away from the star. As I arrived, I almost immediately received the following message on local:

"This is a distress call to anyone listening in the vicinity! We are a Guristas research and trading facility that's under heavy attack! Please come to our aid before lives are lost!"

Almost instantly after that message, I received again a message, directly on-screen this time:

"Stay out, capsuleers! This is a private matter and your interference is not welcome. If you engage our forces, interfere with our task, or do anything else except leave immediately, we will have no choice but to attack you."

Though I did not engage, I was scrambled and subsequently attacked, and my humble frigate was destroyed. I barely managed to warp my capsule back to Farthest Shore. I weep and pray for the lost lives of the crew.

I met shortly after with professor Moriarty. We had a wonderful discussion on quantum physics and on the ways to warp without having to set an end point to the warp. I always thought I could only warp to a destination that is in the overview, but apparently, warp velocity can be reached by other means, and in the direction of one's own choice without any anchoring point at the end. I will exercise his technique when I get a new ship.

However, there was a more worrisome discussion point. Professor Moriarty told me that I was most likely lured into a so-called “combat site”. Whomever warped me there fully intended me to die. But, the thing is, I warped to the exact location shown to me by Lunarisse Aspenstar on our previous meeting in New Eden.

 

I came to trust Aspenstar quite completely. Who would not, after all the help and kindness she showed me? The docking rights at Farthest Shore? And the other archeologists she buried, were they not heretics? Was she not righteous to take law in her own hands? 

 

But then, why would she bring me to the stage of my own death? As she showed me the place, she fatefully mentioned "This is the place where we bury capsuleers." I made nothing of it at the time. 

 

I was wrong.

Eve Gate

I flew out in a shuttle to New Eden, my heart racing as I had to make a long trek trough lawless regions of space.

The shuttle was small and fast to achieve warp, so I could hope to avoid pirates at the gates. Yet, it was far from careless travel. I followed the advice given to me not too long ago by a Minmatar trader who scoured the lowsec and nullsec regions for relics and remnants of data sites. He told me never to jump directly from one gate to the other, in systems with only two gates (so called "pipe" systems). Rather, make a detour via a celestial body, so when you next jump to your destination gate, you arrive from an unexpected direction. The man was clearly drunk when he told me this. On top of that, he was Minmatar. When drunk, the Minmatar will make outrageous claims with the greatest of certainty and then punch you in the face if you show even the slightest sign of doubt. Anyway, this time I did see some tactical merit in this idea and I even could leave without a bruised face.

Whether it was just a quiet day or whether the tactic helped, I do not know, but I reached New Eden safely. Ah, one is immediately greeted by the most wondrous sight the galaxy offers: Eve Gate! Its dancing whisps of plasma are mesmerizing like the flames in the hearth. The vastness of the phenomenon humbles the onlooker, and testifies to the presence of God in our universe.

 

Luck was indeed with me, as Goner Sarachem was still in the system. However, he did not grant me an audience, nor reply to my calls in local. He must be medating... I sent him a missive, not wanting to disturb him while he prays, and hope he will answer me.

I met a most remarkable scientist, professor Moriarty. He is investigating the system, but he did not tell much about that, as his "investigation is sensitive". However, as often the case with scientists, their pride in their achievements overcomes their discretion. He showed off some of his very fast craft - he must be an expert in speeding up vessels. His punisher, the "Paragate" reaches 13000 m/s, and he proudly whooshed it past the Farthest Shore station. He has developed another craft, a modified F-1A Pacifier, the "Blink", that can cross a good fraction of a light year in less than a second. Indeed, he warped out of d-scan range almost immediately. 

Lunarisse Aspenstar also happend to be at the Farthest Shore station, for upwell core maintenance. She must have jump cloned there. She confirmed that my eyes were not deceiving me when witnessing Moriarty's record-breaking spacecrafts. And she kindly showed me a location in deep space, a good way along the path that the Goners have followed.

 

Now I must be patient and gain the Goner's trust.