Postcards from the Pleaides (Elite Dangerous Diaries 2)

I've managed to get myself out to Maia and am currently on my way back to the 'Bubble', having currently reached Pleiades Sector JC-V d2-62, home of a small military space station that you can go to in order to get repaired.

Doing the 'Maia' run in a Viper Mark IV (I was one of the people who won one in the community goal thing in March last year) is hard, but doable. You have to jump through a lot of unpopulated systems and engage in fuel scooping; trying to get enough fuel without overheating; a task made more complex when you run the risk of an emergency drop out of Frame Shift if you get too close.

Towards the end of the run out, I was actually starting to have Drive malfunctions, but I managed to make it.

Landed on an alien world, with a beautiful nebula behind me

Admiring a coronal ejection after a Frame Shift Drive drop-out

On my arrival in Maia, I wasn't able to sell my exploration data at Obsidian Orbital due to barnacle interference leading to their Universal Cartographics office being closed, but later made my way to a surface world, gaining over 70,000 for it. Less than I hoped, but I used the cash to buy myself a
missile launcher.

Before heading back, I chose to take a quick tour of the Pleiades, visiting all the Seven Sisters and their 'parents' Atlas and Pleione. This included a trip to the Maia black hole and a landing on Merope 5C, where the first 'barnacles' were spotted.

Approaching the Maia black hole

The Maia black hole itself

The Merope 5 gas giant with its huge rings

Merope 5C, the Planet of the Barnacles. No Barnacles this time though; many have mined out

An ice valley on another remote world that I stopped off at

My journey back to the Bubble will be via the stations dotted off the 'main route' from Sol; these allow for full refuels and repairs.

Approaching PRE Logistics Support Epsilion; you can see my fuel is rather low