With the Anaconda-class Cosmos all prepped and ready to see the galaxy, the time had finally come for the official shakedown cruise. Would it perform as expected, and had Commander Altsain given the outfitting firm at Jameson Memorial the right specs?

For the shakedown cruise, the commander had temporarily replaced the 32 ton cargo bay with a passenger cabin, and accepted a charter from an explorer, Valentine Wilkins, to visit the famous Ammonia Rings of AUCOKS OH-D B-18-3, about 1,800 light years towards the galactic core. The journey did not end well, it has to be said, but important lessons were learned…

The Cosmos is a bit ungainly when compared to the Asp Explorer. Manoeuvring around stars is a slight chore (though the commander only nearly barrelled into them twice during the trip…), and swinging round to scan a close-orbiting planet while refuelling takes a loooonnnng time.

The commander’s original plan of fitting a refinery and actually mining might be more trouble than it is worth in the Cosmos. Not definitively struck off the wish list though.

Visibility from the cockpit is really not brilliant, making it difficult to spot the next target for exploration while scanning another.

Just about everything else is better in the Cosmos than the Asp Explorer-class Longreach.

Adding nearly 15 light years to the jump range over the Asp (coming in at just under 60 light years) makes a huge difference when it comes to travelling. Even while performing full level 3 scans on everything of interest (high metal content worlds and up), the commander could easily average 1,000+ light years per hour. If she wanted to blast through many worlds quickly, 5,000 light years per hour should be possible.

The commander needs to take a greater amount of care when landing on worlds of 1.4g. And she must certainly not boost towards the surface in an effort to ‘get there quicker’.

Using the onboard fighter to quickly scour the surface of a new world is a lot of fun, and recommended for every deep space explorer.

This is not a combat vessel. The commander tried to perform preliminary exploration tests in a system within the Bubble, and had to hightail it out pretty quickly when a pirate came sniffing around. Fairly embarrassing in one of the Big Three.

The biggest issue by far though… the Cosmos is just so much better and so much more capable than the Longreach. Commander Altsain had not intended to replace the Longreach with the Cosmos, but the question remains… will the Asp ever get used again now that the Exploraconda is around?