An audacious Elite Dangerous pilot has finally been rescued after he spent the last three months stranded in the dark void of space. Commander Deluvian attempted an expedition to break records and reach the furthest point from the galaxy’s sun but became stranded when his ship ran out of fuel. Now, a crew of Fuel Rats has staged a daring rescue by making the same dangerous trek out there themselves to refuel Deluvian’s ship.
According to Rock Paper Shotgun, Commander Deluvian’s story has become something of a famous tale among players of the intense space sim Elite Dangerous. Deluvian had strayed 141 light-years away from the area of the galaxy to which players usually stick to in an attempt to become the first player who had dared to travel so far out. The flight was handled by a sort of manual flight, given that Deluvian had no target to jump to, but this meant that he would have to be careful with fuel consumption. On day 42 of his journey into the great beyond his fuel tanks ran dry after a miscalculation and Deluvian became marooned, seemingly forever stuck drifting through cold space.
Enter the Fuel Rats, a group of pilots who travel the galaxy in search of players who require emergency refueling. When the Fuel Rats got word of Deluvian’s situation they began to formulate a plan to rescue the pilot. The 600-hour rescue mission culminated this week as the Rats finally reached their target, resupplying the ship with fuel enough to jump back home, followed by his rescuers. Unfortunately, despite all of the drama, Deluvian did not break the record for furthest distance from Sol but his attempt wasn’t entirely in vain as he did break his own personal record.
The exhaustive recuse mission has been chronicled by Captain HighwayWarrior, one of the heroic Fuel Rats. His blog contains a detailed breakdown of the plan and its execution while he also streamed the eventual rescue on his Twitch channel. You can see the exact moment of the rescue right here.
