o7 Commanders!

Settlement raiding is simplier than it looks like, just remember to turn off the alarms, don't get shot if someone will notice you and enjoy the loot!

Tips are explained in the post, there's really nothing more to add to it.

o7 Commanders!

This video shows some of the more amazing to observe nebulae: Barnard's Loop, Running Man, Orion and Witch Head, as well as the little colony in system PMD2009 48, surrounded by the Running Man and Orion.

A small asteroid base in the middle of the Orion nebula, I didn't expect it to look that good.

First Investigation of Thargoid Maelstrom - CMDR XCezor Log

After failure of the Proteus Wave, new objects made their way into the Core Systems. What were they? With a new potential threat in our sight, the investigation began.
It's an almost full historical story, little colorized with fan-fiction narration from my perspective of first time travel into Titan Maelstrom.

It all began on February 9, 3309, a couple months after the Stargoids reached their targets, our home. After a break from my service, I once again launched my Krait Mk.2 into the endless sky and opened the latest Galnet News searching for any updates regarding the Maelstroms. With minimal information, I decided to check for myself if there was any way to snoop on what lies inside these objects.

I can't really tell which Maelstrom I visited back then. With the help of my only two pictures and system maps, I can say it was probably the Indra Maelstrom, because the gas giant with white rings looks very similar to the planet next to Indra, and it's relatively close to my faction's territory.

Without further delay, I installed Guardian weaponry on my ship for defense and reached my target, avoiding any Thargoid patrols in the system. Only me, a huge caustic cloud, and countless new Thargoid floating mines.

Before I had even managed to deploy my hardpoints, I received a warning message that my Guardian modules had been destroyed. I was too far to turn back, so I simply continued my investigation. Keeping my ship at a dangerously high temperature, I was able to slow down the caustic corrosion, giving myself a couple more minutes before I needed to withdraw.

As I got closer to the Thargoid mines, one of them, unnoticed, managed to sneak up from the side of my ship and detonated, heavily damaging my internal modules and hull structure. As if that weren’t my only problem, something from the center of the Maelstrom launched a huge, blue signal, similar to an Interceptor's pulse wave, but on a much larger scale. It didn’t shut down my ship, but it pushed me back so far that I found myself outside the caustic cloud.

So I've learned a bit of information about new threat. The object inside of the Maelstrom was still a mystery to me, but I knew that those "mines" were built from a new resources. The Maelstrom didn't want me to visit it, but I was just getting a warm up.

I returned to my Fleet Carrier and took out an anti-xeno ship with improved armor, sensors, and human anti-xeno weapons. After departing from the landing pad, I went out on a little hunt. After a few Thargoid interdictions, barely scratched, I returned to the Maelstrom. Less than a minute later, I came across a minefield filled with Thargoid mines. I started shooting them down and used limpets to collect materials from them.

After some time, I noticed that the object in the center was once again preparing its pulse wave, but I was too far away to get hit by it. That meant someone had to be nearby. And I wasn’t wrong. when the pulse wave launched, I could only see a ship being pushed out of the Maelstrom at enormous speed. I don't know if the pilot noticed me, but at least he was alive.

I continued scavenging, and after my ship's hull got low enough to begin evacuation, I left the Maelstrom and stored the resources on my Fleet Carrier. Nobody knew if they would be useful, but just to save time in the future, I decided to keep them in a safe place.

Later on, we have discovered that inside these Maelstroms lies a Thargoid Titan, probably an active version of the Thargoid Structure Sites found on many planets earlier. The truly terrifying part comes when we think about this: we found dozens of Structure Sites, yet our home was invaded by only 8 Titans. We don't know where they were hiding this whole time, but something tells me we’ll hear about them again in the future...

After the 2nd Thargoid War ended, I was waiting with hope for a Trailblazers update. And now, I look towards Vanguards, an upcoming expansion of multi-player based activities. What will it bring? I don't know, but I really hope it will bring squadrons and player factions to a whole new level!

o7 Commanders!
Marsha Hicks is one of the engineers from the Colonia region who decided to leave the Core Systems after the death of her daughter at the hands of the Thargoids… and to escape her criminal past. She has been in countless prisons, and her files are probably bigger than my list of crimes against the Federation. 😅

She's not a very social person, and from what I've heard, she prefers to work in silence. But things change, and even she has to recruit some helpers to continue her work as an engineer.

If you are an introvert who enjoys programming and modifying limpets, then maybe it's the perfect job for you!

One of the better pictures I've made during and after this war:

But here are some additional photos also :D

o7 Commanders!
Trailblazers hit us with a lot of new content, but also a decent amount of bugs, like these 2 colonisation beacons where there should be only 1 😅

But also a new huge Colonisation Ship, which is approximately 2-3 times larger than the Fleet Carrier, with twice as much landing pads on both sides!

With a new megaship, I've also decided to make something new, the Constructor, a new Imperial Cutter in my fleet that is a cargo ship, which I was using to build, together with friends, my first starport (with default name atm, I have limited ARX and I need to be very careful with giving it a name 😅).