March 16, 3307, HIP 17044 station Dionysus, aboard Viam Sub Rosa (Cobra III)

I earned my Pilot's Federation permit on March 5, 3307. On March 9th, I left the Federation territory. I may have overstayed my welcome by a bit in the Fed space and I am glad that I did. In my first hour outside of the controlled territory, while happily exploring planets in my Sidewinder in my first star system, I dropped out of super cruise to investigate a distress signal. It was a trap, as I suspected might be possible. Nearly instantly I found myself adrift in the vacuum of space among the wreckage of Originale Itinere. She had taken one or maybe two railgun hits, rupturing her hull in the blink of an eye. I awoke in a strange station with my Federation permit revoked and with a desire for a more durable ship.

To my delight, I had enough credits to purchase a Cobra III. I christened her Viam Sub Rosa and set off with a new sense of caution determined to make a mark on the galaxy other than a debris field. I started by searching for profitable trade routes and missions in the Inner Orion Spur. Since my first dusting outside of Federation space, I've made four more trips to the insurance offices. Three of these were sponsored by Pirate Cmdr. Mike Kadlak in the Ay Indi system. This caused me to rethink my next steps.

In the week before I left the Sol system for pilot's training, I met a Keeper of the Old Ways. When I told her that I wanted to travel among the stars, she taught me about the constellations and the ancient beliefs in astrology. She told me that I was born under the sign of Virgo. Funny, after just a week of flying among the stars, I can see how narrow a view is required to think of the stars as part of a constellation. Even still, I drew on this new found knowledge for my next adventure. I decided to start for Spica, the brightest (from Earth's point of view) star in Virgo. I started picking up passengers, missions, and trade routes along the way to Spica.

Before I could leave The Bubble, I got an invitation from legendary explorer and engineer, Felicity Farseer. I made it a new objective to visit her workshop. I had heard that she values meta-alloys and exploration data. I had heard that meta-alloys could be purchased at Darniell's Progress in the Maia system. I am heading there and collecting and holding exploration data along the way. Last night, I almost ran my fuel tanks dry. I expected to be able to readily find a station for refueling in the Pleiades Sector systems and found myself alone in deep space instead. Fortunately, I was able to find fuel at Dionysus megaship station in the HIP 17044 system with less than 5% fuel reserves. I overnighted in this station and I am now ready to set off again for Maia. I had a 1B Fuel Scoop and had switched it out for a DSS. I am going to reconsider picking up a Fuel Scoop. I will also be more cautious with fuel levels.

Speaking of caution, I am a bit worried about traveling from Maia to Ms. (Dr?) Farseer's workshop in Deciat. While I will be continuing to work on earning credits for my next ship purchase, likely an Asp Explorer, I definitely want to hang onto my collected exploration data. I have over 2 million credits worth of data right now and I'm sure to pick up much more on my way to Deciat.

Time to undock and go find some meta-alloy.

--CDR A. T. Mahan