Currently, the community of Elite: Dangerous is discussing a crazy rescue operation by the Fuel Rats just before Christmas, which went beyond the boundaries of the universe.
In Elite Dangerous, there is a group of players who call themselves “Fuel Rats”. They have taken on the task of fulfilling the role of an intergalactic automobile club. Whenever a pilot gets stranded somewhere in the galaxy without fuel, they can hire the “Fuel Rats” and they do their best to rescue him.
A pilot, Cmdr. Perersa, has now pushed the limits of the Fuel Rats’ willingness to help.
Bring this coffee cup to the edge of the universe and throw it out
Persera is a kind of passionate explorer who encounters difficulties during her discoveries. She came up with the idea of taking a tremendously long trip after she accepted a mission at Hutton Orbital Station to bring a coffee cup beyond the edge of the universe. These “Hutton coffee cups” are only available at the station and they become more valuable the further they are sold from the station.
In the shop, Persera found an advertisement with the mission to take a Hutton coffee cup as far beyond Beagle Point as possible and then throw it out of the spaceship. Beagle Point is somewhat of a “last outpost of the galaxy” and extremely far away.
The journey there alone is an adventure in itself, which Persera excitingly recounted in the forum and drew a lot of attention.
48 hours blind into nothing
When Persera finally reached Beagle Point, the idea arose to break the absolute record and fly beyond the boundaries of the galaxy. Out there, hyperspace jumps can no longer be used.
For that, Persera calculated how far she could go from the last outpost and still be able to return. Then she turned off all the modules on her Anaconda-class ship and essentially flew manually for 48 hours in one direction. 48 hours in real-time.
However, the calculations were faulty and ultimately, Persera was stranded in nothingness, with no way to turn back. As the US site Polygon reports, the only option left was to activate self-destruction – but that would have nullified the distance record and the progress.
Military maneuver from the Falklands War served as a model
In a call for help in the forum, Persera reached out to the Fuel Rats. In her now widely noticed thread in the forum, this was discussed.
They then discussed the options. The strategy was likely: several pilots had to set off simultaneously; then individual pilots would have to transfer their fuel to a selected pilot and return with the rest, so that one pilot would have enough fuel to reach Persera and bring her home.
The action was modeled after a military maneuver from the Falklands War in 1982 – Operation Blackbuck. Back then, the British Air Force made extreme efforts to bomb a target nearly 7000 kilometers away from an island. The attack aircraft had to cover over 13,000 kilometers and be refueled in flight.
The Fuel Rats made it clear: This is not without its risks. Some of us, or even all, could also end up stranded without fuel. And most importantly, it would be a long and arduous task.
But… they went through with it anyway. A live stream broadcasted the 48-hour rescue attempt. And indeed, on December 23, the Fuel Rats managed to reach Persera and transfer enough fuel for her to refuel her ship and then complete the mission for the Hutton Station before she could fly back home after a long journey.
Roleplay even when it really hurts
Mein MMO says: The interesting aspect is certainly the roleplay aspect here and how seriously the people take it. It’s one thing to roleplay when it works effortlessly. And another to spend so many hours and so much energy helping a stranger’s crazy expedition plans remain without negative consequences. Respect!
In the forum thread on the topic, one can also see how much joy and excitement the players have regarding this aspect of Elite: Dangerous and that an interesting community has come together where people respect the effort made to help one of them out of trouble.
Otherwise, in Elite: Dangerous, you mainly fight aliens:
Alien War? Thargoids attack space stations in Elite Dangerous!
