So much has happened, so much I've seen, that I've not had the time to write any logs. After a fairly uneventful trip to our second way-point, in the Bubble Sector, I met up with a few other Commanders on LX-T b3-1; otherwise known as the home of the "Dark Fortress":

Whilst there, we competed in a rather silly SRV race & then took a couple of leisurely laps around the canyons of the Dark Fortress itself:

After we were done with the meet-up, I decided to take a small detour, across the Orio-Persean Gap, & back into the Inner Orion Spur to visit Cygnus X-1:

Known, from history, as humanity's first discovery of a black hole, it had been something I had wanted to see ever since deciding to leave the bubble & explore the galaxy. Whilst I was nothing particularly astounding, I am glad to have made the effort.

From there, I turned back towards the Elysian Shore & towards our third way-point of the expedition. Whilst scouting the Galactic Map for anything of interest, I found a few systems that might be worth a look. En route, I ran into a couple of stars that were reasonably close together; squeezing through between them, required the use of a heat-sink, but it was a fun, if hot, experience:

Not too many systems after, I found a rocky ice world that was home to water gas vents, which I'd not seen before. Upon landing, I realised that the moon orbited a class I gas giant in close proximity to another, more icy, moon:

Finally, after nearly 20 hours of back to back jumps, with only a few stops for fuelling & exploration, I came upon a large, ringed HMCW which had some silicate vapour geological features. Though it's gravity rating was a touch over 2, I managed to land with no problems & decided to take a few hours of rest, under the sunlit rings of the planet:

With so much left to explore & so many more legs of this expedition left to go, I can't say for sure when I'll next be able to update this log, but until then, fly safe into the black & may all who do, return to tell their tales.

For too long had I waited to head out into the darkness, once more. For too long had I spent countless hours impatiently fine-tuning my Imperial Courier, the Cerenerian Seeker, for the expedition I had signed up to six months prior. With only a short trip out to Colonia, for the fourth Christmas Carriers Convoy, in December, I had spent nearly the past half a year in anticipation of this moment. My largest trip out into the relatively unknown vastness of our galaxy, far away to Oevasy SG-Y d0 (also known as Semotus Beacon or Ishum's Reach), currently the most distant system from Sol, which I had been waiting for since I first sat in the cockpit of a ship; fernweh, some call it, or even sehnsucht - the desire of something unknown.

Our launch system was Sol, so I felt obliged to carry out a whistle-stop tour of the beleaguered home-system of humanities ancestors. This little island, which was allegedly once a seat of great power, caught my eye as I orbited Earth:

I also felt obliged to pass humankind's first landing on another body, so buzzed the Moon too:

That evening & the one after were filled with greetings & revelry, as I met up with other Commanders who were also coming along on this expedition. Our patient leaders, Commanders Grant, Coded_S & FantasticSpork did a valiant job of wrangling the varied ships & pilots who arrived & organised some entertainment in the form of meet-ups, racing & high-jinx, which was enjoyed by all in attendance.

Once the greetings, formalities & joviality was out of the way, those who were left on the secondary meet-up, ventured towards the edge of the "bubble" in a loose formation, restricted only by the short jump range of my Courier. After a few jumps, & nearing the edge of "civilised" space, we started splitting up; some to grab some rest, others to start their own, awe-filled exploration at the start of this epic journey. Before the last few stragglers went their separate ways, we rendezvoused at a small nebula, by the name of LBN 623, which displayed itself in a vibrant, purple cone shape, in spite of it's size:

As communications with the few remaining commanders fizzled out, I made my way up high, as is my tendency to do, in search of two things; an undiscovered system & a planet to set down for a rest. Not that either was of great importance, this early on in the expedition, but it just seemed like it would round out the weekend's activities nicely. My perseverance was rewarded, when I arrived in my target system of Plaa Eurk BP-A e0, having picked the white-blue light of the B Class star from a sea of coloured gems in the galaxy map. Not only was it undiscovered, but it contained a land-able high metal content world, suffered by rocky magma volcanism, giving rise to a variety of useful materials. Upon approach, it was not only found to be riddled with craters, some of vast diameters, but coloured in contrasting salmon pink & powder blue rock & dust, making for a nice view:

Having visited a small number of the geological & biological sites spread over its surface, I discovered sulphur dioxide spewing fumaroles & blatteum bioluminescent anemone, basking in the bright light of the local star. With these noted down in my codex & my eyelids beginning to feel the weight of the past few days events, I powered down my systems, after landing in a base of a large crater, shadows already creeping across the floor. After a quick scout in the SRV, to ensure there was nothing nearby I had missed during flight, I took one more photo & returned to the Seeker to rest.