Leaving Waypoint 2

Imperial Cutter "Temeraire"
Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15 7b "Roald Landing"
5,513 light years from Sol.

It was time to move on again.

The launches from Waypoint 2 promised to be a little less frenetic than the original mad rush of the inaugural FTL leap from Pallaeni. I found myself down on the surface on Roald Landing as the next waypoint was announced and Commanders started to plan their routes out.

I had logged in with my Fleet Mechanic role and was about to launch to orbit when I heard the news that a small group of Hull Seals had decided to do their own FTL jump-out a half hour before zero hour, and it was to be from the surface of Roald Landing.

I lifted off and made the short trip round to the launch site with members of the group vectoring me in. As the bubble of folded space-time collapsed I carefully followed the glide path down to the group.

On the surface at Roald Landing.

I didn’t have long. I manoeuvred to just outside of mass-lock range of the surface, and following suit with the other Commanders I flipped the Temeraire onto her tail and pointed the nose skyward toward the far distant destination.

Balancing Act.

As the clock ticked down, one by one the Seals prepped their ships, manoevered into position and spooled up their drives.

For several long minutes the ships seemed to hang weightless over the surface, seemingly with no effort at all. Only the whine of multiple FTL drives spooling up, the thruster activity and the glowing orange-white coolant systems betrayed the illusion.

At last 19:30 arrives. The Hull Seals unleash their drives, and one-by-one the ships leap into FTL and the cockpit displays fill with the familiar Witchspace blur.

The jump was totally uneventful – there was none of the FTL nav computer problems at all.


I decided to circle back to the waypoint and be there ready for any calls, so I reengaged my FSD and jumped back to space above the waypoint.

A few minutes after taking up station at the Waypoint, I heard Cmdr Rebecca Lancing asking to form a group for the 20:00 jump. I quickly fall out of FSD and go to investigate

The group is forming in space over the waypoint, so I ask for a vector into the group and i’m finally there and ready to go.

Some of the group for the second FTL jump.

On the stroke of 20:00 we again launch ourselves across the black and all arrive safely at the far side with no incidents reported.

It was a real pleasure to be able to do FTL jumps with others again. For now though, onward to waypoint 3!