This beacon marks the location where one of the most heroic moments in Buckyball Racing began. At 2:35 am on the 7th of May 3303 Commander Tannik Seldon had an unfortunate mistake that would lead to the pilot going down in legend.
Tannik Seldon had signed up for a race known to many as the Buckyball. These races held all over the galaxy are known for their punishing routes and the questionable sanity of the racers. This particular event known as “The Aquarian Job” tasked pilots with racing between three locations using an unmodified Adder, and an SRV to complete the course.
It was here at Cooper Arena, looking for an edge on his competitors that the commander made what he initially thought was a superb tactical move. Remembering that ships completing the race with 1% hull received a time bonus, Seldon proceeded to lower his vessels hull to the required amount. However on this would prove his undoing. Having completed his scan at the nearby settlement Seldon called his ship in for a landing and watched in stunned silence as his ship exploded as it touched down. No amount of duct tape was going to solve this problem.
Many pilots would have given up at this point, called for assistance or looked for the self destruct button. But not Tannik Seldon.
Technically he was still in the race. With a quick check of the race rules and remembering that there was port on the other side of the planet. What followed goes down as the greatest moment to date in Buckyballing history. It was game on.
With just one week before the end of the race, Seldon accepted the challenge and set off on a mammoth 3000km journey, which he describes as “slightly inconvenient by the face that (station) was on the exact opposite side of the planet”.
Seldon showed supreme levels of determination, concentration and near god like driving skills as he drove the colossal distance to what he hoped was his way off the planet. His route crossing mountains, canyons and huge craters all while averaging speeds upward of 80m/s with the knowledge that one unfortunate bounce or spin could spell disaster.
So it was until 2:50PM on the 12th of May 3303 when Seldon announced to the many people following his progress two words, “Mission Accomplished”. He had made it. Seldon did not wait to bask in his achievement instead immediately buying a new regulation Adder and completing the race, making him the first Buckyballer to lose his ship halfway through a race and still finish successfully.