Sol 41
25810 Ti
Two days of walking and I've found myself in a weird bit of terrain. There are a bunch of spires that just straight up from the ground, and I'm surrounded on almost all sides by steep cliffs. The air here is also choked with dust, which is a lot finer here and easier to keep suspended in the air.
Getting out here was easy enough when considering that the materials I need for a living compartment are all around. At their base, a living compartment is just a box with air in it, so if I set one down every 12 hours or I can duck inside to swap out the carbon filters on my exosuit, and then start walking more from there. It also occurred to me that I've been here for more than 40 sols now but there doesn't seem to be any change in when the sun rises or sets, so I have to assume that Steve has little or no axial tilt.
So I've made my way here, and now I'm not sure what to do next. There isn't much else here that I haven't seen before on this planet, not even any unique kinds of resources that I haven't seen anywhere else.
I am thinking, though, that based on the map in my head I'm due east of the basin that I had landed in. Maybe if I carry on west, I can find that one canyon that I had seen when I first landed, and after that just carry on back into the basin. If nothing else I can stay following the trail of drills I've left for myself and just take the long way back to Beta Base.
Sol 42
27993 Ti
Slight change of plans. While I was scouting around a little, I found that there was something else that had landed here. It's not a wreck, but it's two gigantic shipping containers, much much bigger than the blue ones I've seen scattered around. They must have been jettisoned by some freighter coming by, or maybe some wreck that's here on the planet. Hell, they might have fallen out the back of the Cirella-IV. Either way, more potential for going dumpster-diving, but more than I can justify walking back and forth from Beta Base for the time being.
Either way I keep feeling like there's something else going on at this point. No planet has this much untapped salvage. If anyone knew anything about this planet it would be infested with scrappers and I wouldn't be here alone, let alone have as much useful shit to drag out of the wrecks that I've found.
Hmm...useful salvage, or company. Considering the personality of most scrappers I've known...I think I'll go with the useful salvage.
I also found some ruined solar panels. I was actually able to deconstruct one with my multitool but I couldn't find the blueprint to reconstruct it again, so apparently I'll just have to wait. It's useful resources either way, so I'll carry it back with me. Tomorrow is heading out for that canyon.
Sol 43
29003 Ti
I fucked up again. I found the canyon, and managed to get most of the way through it, but when I set up a living compartment to hunker down in for the night I overloaded the power grid again. I've been setting up drills and living compartments this whole time but I haven't been building power generation equipment to compensate for it. Of course, I can still breathe in here, but I still had to spend hours of my time working to put up more wind turbines. That's the nice thing about this canyon that I'm in right now, it acts like a nozzle to focus wind flow down, so the turbines are extra strong here.
Everything I do here is a competition between power generation and power consumption. Nothing I do will work if I can't have enough power to run it, and unless I find a way to really start ramping up power production then a lot of the higher-tier things I might gain access to in the future are going to remain outside of my grasp.
Sol 45
31539 Ti
Here I am back in the landing pod. Yeah, still here. It was a little dusty since I haven't used it in a while, but once I opened it up it powered back on and the life support systems started. It'll save me having to build another living compartment, so I'll stay here for tonight.
To recap the last two or so days of walking, I made my way out from the rock spires and found my way through the canyon. I ended up being right, and the canyon opened up onto the landing basin. Getting through the canyon was a nightmare because of how soft the sand is, but once I got back out into the basin the soil became more compacted and easier to walk over. I can see up the slope to where Beta Base is, so I won't need to make a breadcrumb trail for myself once morning comes again.
I hate to say it, but being back in this pod is almost making me nostalgic. I really shouldn't be wasting resources or materials, but I spent most of my time unwinding here trying to think of how I might manage to haul this thing up the slope to Beta Base. If nothing else it would be a way to occupy my time, but right now I don't think I can waste the calories trying to do it. This landing pod weighs somewhere in the vicinity of 1400 metric tons, so I can't hope to move it on my own. I don't have any rovers that could do it, and I don't have any cranes or winches. In the grand scheme of things it's a waste of time and effort to try and rescue it, so I'll probably just have to wait to watch it drown when the water starts collecting around here.
