So in my last logbook entry, I made a rather significant mistake. I had thought the DSSA Hope Dempsey was a welcoming respite along the standard path to Erikson's star. I was wrong. Boy was I wrong. In fact, it wasn't on the path at all! Not to mention the rather creepy vibes I started to get from those aboard the ship. I swear, I've never seen a more peculiar form of deep space sickness...

Anyways, I didn't stick around long. I did a lot of researching and working through the nav computers. Fortunately, I discovered that I could reach Erikson's Star without making a long detour to get on the the Void passage. In fact, I discovered a path that, utilizing about 17 FSD boosted jumps, could traverse the Void to reach Erikson's Star from the Hope Dempsey's location in only 42 jumps. For any future travelers, here is a link to my nav route:

DSSA Hope Dempsey to Erikson's Star (≥65Ly Range Minimum)

Before I traveled it however, I made sure to stock up on my booster materials. Fortunately, the system where Hope Dempsey resides, is fertile in booster materials, aka a "green system." I've been in better systems but for all intents and purposes, it certainly was suitable. So I spent some time trucking around a nearby moon, collecting all the resources I could find. Did pretty well I would say and had some rather "exciting" moments to go along with!

Once I felt I had enough to go there and back, with plenty to spare, I refueled one last time aboard the Hope Dempsey and set off. Honestly, the trip there went quite smoothly. There were a few hiccups, where I learned I didn't have to use my booster and instead use a standard jump route or I used a higher grade booster than needed, but all in all, we've arrived at Erikson's Star just fine. And it really is quite an amazing view. Will be interesting to compare photos with whatever I capture once I reach Beagle Pointe 2. But for now...time to head on back and continue my journey "north".

So as I’ve been traveling, I’ve been keeping an eye on the public maps for possible notable locations to visit on this journey. One such location I’d been aware of but hesitant to bother with visiting is Erickson’s Star. Considered the most “western” star known, its definitely something I wouldn’t mind checking off on the notable places visited list. However, problem is that it’s quite a bit out of the way, even with my current route, and would add some significant time to my journey. Then again, would it really?

I’ve already been out here for over a year. I’ve traveled through hundreds, if not a thousand star systems already. By the end of this journey, I’ll have traveled through thousands more. So in the grand scheme, is it really that much more travel time? It’s not like I’m on any sort of schedule either. Also, while it’s not a super popular destination to visit, it certainly is a notable one. So... maybe it is worth the detour?

Here’s where problem number two comes in. I’ve already passed the most direct route to the system. I don’t just mean by a small margin either. I mean I’d gone well beyond the known route to it. So now, I would not only be going out of my way but I’d basically have to backtrack a fair distance OR attempt to take a more direct route, a feat that would mean going more deeply into The Void region. As intimidating as that may sound to me, let’s be realistic. If I can do it, it would certainly be the better option. It would also award me the opportunity to travel through more undiscovered systems than traveling through already cataloged systems...

So let’s just cut to the chase. I did it. I re-plotted my course on the nag computer, turned the ship about and headed off deeper into the black. The journey thus far has actually been pretty uneventful. I did travel through a lot more star systems that I wasn’t able to scoop fuel from, but never any real concerns. I’ve also already arrived at my plotted waypoint. Not just some random waypoint either but rather something that’s being marked as another first for me. Today, I’ve landed on my very first independently owned carrier, the DSSA Hope Dempsey. Pretty cool to see it, and honestly, given it’s the first time I’ve been in the presence of other people in over a year, it was almost emotionally overwhelming.

The carrier here however marks a point along the commonly traveled route to Erikson's Star. So from here on, it'll most likely be already explored systems. No complaint there really. Just means the journey will be fairly quick. I'll be sure to stop and make a posting of it when I get there.

So I'm probably about half way now across the Void. Thus far, the journey has been... Well... Shall we just say "fun"?

For the first time since I got my pilot license, I had my first real scare. Short story goes, I'd dropped into a system with a neutron star. My nav computer had calculated for me to use the cone boost to jump to the next system and then a regular jump from there. No big deal. Far from being my first time doing so and I've gotten rather good at riding the cones to boost the FSD. So I did and after one last check of the system, I made the jump. What I did not, nor have I honestly ever done, was check the destination system for any issues. I arrived in the system safe and sound, did my FSS scan of the system and surface scanned all planets of value. Again, standard practice for me. I then set the beacon for the next jump, did my quick systems check and hit the switch to spool up the FSD....and it failed. Wait...what?! Amara tells me that nope, it was too far to jump!

So quickly I opened the nav map and checked for any closer stars. Nothing! And based on the nav computer, I should be able to make the jump. It was next in line for the automatically plotted route! So I checked the distance per my navigation screen and compared it to my ship statistics screen. My ship's range was 0.2 Lightyears shy of being able to make the jump with my FSD booster! That's when panic set in. What was I going to do?! I was carrying roughly a billion credits worth of cartographic data, was about 45k LY from the bubble, and I was stuck!

It took me about 10 minutes of flailing around before I finally figured out the problem. My nav computer was calculating my jump range based on having an empty cargo hold. But my hold was NOT empty. I was carrying a full load of 8 repair limpets. That's 8 TONS of limpets. After I jettisoned 3 of the poor bastards, my ship was finally able to make the jump and I was able to carry on my way!

Don't worry. I gave them a nice eulogy.

In other news...

I gave the SRV a new paint job. I gave up on the idea of painting Amara again. To the untrained, they would think given space is seemingly mostly empty, paint would last forever. Not at all true. Paint actually wears pretty fast from a few different factors unseen. So we'll just have fun seeing how much I have left by the end of this journey.

I also took a short break on the moon of an ELW. I didn't compare notes exactly for distances, sizes, etc of the planets but the view was rather similar to our Earth. So sitting on the moon, in my freshly painted SRV... well. It did feel rather nostalgic.

Beyond that, it's just hours upon hours of flying.

That was all yesterday. Today, I'm sitting in orbit around one of the largest planets I could land on, if I so chose, that I think I've ever encountered. I know it's not the largest ever discovered, something like 25.5km radius, but with a radius of 21.5km, that's pretty freaking huge for me! Craziest bit is that it travels on an elliptical 25 day orbit that takes it SUPER close to it's parent star. I think it'd be interesting to revisit this place when it is close. Right now, it's near it's furthest point of orbit and frankly, I don't feel like hanging around for that long to see it. Maybe one day I could return if I remember it.....and am willing to make the very long trek...

Oh, and no. I'm not willing to attempt to land on it given it's 2.5g gravity. I'd just rather not tempt fate with that. For now, I continue onwards. Not too much further really before I'm across this void...

So I figured I'd go ahead and write this quick passage. I've been in the black for over a year now, hopping from system to system, logging and recording data as I go. My systems, based on the average value from when I left the bubble, are calculating that I probably have over a billion in cartographic data. Definitely not something I want to lose which makes this next leg of my journey just seem all that more frightening. That "leg" is known as The Void.

So I'm not gonna lie. I'm quite nervous about this. Up until now, I've yet to encounter any real issues with my jump range and more importantly, finding stars to scoop fuel from. Heck, my navigational computer has been set to only jump to O/A/F/G/K, Carbon, Wolf-Rayet, white dwarf and non-sequence stars, aka neutrons and black holes. Given the rarity of all but the A/F/G/K stars, means I very rarely cross paths with any star that I can't scoop fuel from. Crossing the void, that has to change.

In order for my navigational computer to even calculate the crossing, I have to check off every single star type. So that means definitely having to pay attention to fuel now. Aka, the danger of not paying close enough attention and getting myself stuck definitely goes up. That's not even considering the fact there's going to be a few times where I'm really gonna be pushing Amara's jump range.

So... That all being said, I guess it's Scutum-Centaurus Arm or bust!

I know! I know Verity! Just do as I say and set the bi-shaft to 3, the terracore to 1 then reroute them to the navigation mainframe! Trust me! It'll work!

Oye vay... Okay. So we're recording? Oh! Well alrighty then...

So! I realize it's been over a month since my last log entry. One of those things I just kept meaning to do but never got around to. Tad bit surprising since we're out in the black and well... yeah... Definitely lots to do out here right?

But yes, to update, we are in fact out "in the black" as they say, exploring the very fringe edges of the galaxy. I met up with the Pegasus Run 3305 expedition group at Enif and took part in the ceremonial mass jump about 2 weeks ago. Was really quite entertaining as I had never actually flew in a wing with even one other commander prior to that. Well... other than my instructors of course back at the academy. The video taken by the expedition's organize was pretty fantastic too. Verity, add a link to the video.

[Verity entry] https://youtu.be/TZPweiPKkM8

From there I decided to towards the upper levels of the galaxy plane before setting course for the waypoint 2. This means majority of my journey was through unexplored systems. Found lots of cool systems with some pretty interesting views along the way. So far though, perhaps a bit surprisingly, I've only found a couple ELWs. One of them I actually found AFTER hitting WP2, even further out on the fringe of the galaxy. Was really a great system with multiple terraformables besides the ELW.

But speaking of WP2, I got there within a week. Expedition had it scheduled for a meetup two weeks after kickoff. So that's why I went further out on the fringe, to kill some time. Unfortunately, as I should've figured I'd do, I went so far out that I wasn't able to make it back for the meetup. So instead, I changed course and am now, currently, enroute towards WP3. Again, will be arriving there well ahead of schedule. I mean, this isn't a race and we are supposed to be taking our time, exploring the edge of the galaxy and all, but I guess I just tend to log more active time in the pilot seat than others do mucking about inside their crew spaces. So I'm starting to think I may just continue on ahead. Even if I finish this expedition a month or more in advance compared to the others, it really won't matter. As said, it's all about the journey and the exploration than it is about the pace. Either way, I'll decide when I reach WP3.

Till then, this is Amarok. Signing off.

Off!

Verity! I said................................................

So okay. This has certainly been an entertaining couple of days. After returning and getting that nice payout for all my exploration data, decided I REALLY wanted to get me one of those really sweet looking Empire ships. BUT to do so, I had to work on my rank standings with the Empire. I swear, to a decent pilot, they give these ranks out like candy. I guess perhaps they're really strapped for pilots that can actually fly. I mean, if their pilots are equal to the riff raff I've been turning to space dust the past couple days, I'm not surprised.

So yeah, found a sweet location in Mainani, the only station in system, that gave out data courier missions and mercenary work by the freighter load. Best part, all I had to do was jump to the very next system, Ngalinn, only about 3 Ly away, and turn in to the only station in that system. In turn, I'd pick up a freighter load of missions from the station in Ngalinn that needed to be ferried to.... can you guess it? Yep! Right back to the station in Mainani! It did get a bit tedious but who can complain about doing simple back and fourth transporting of data?! After an ungodly amount of jumping back and forth, I eventually was able to achieve the rank of Duke within the Empire. Damn awesome if you ask me! And THAT then gave me the privilege of purchasing the Imperial Cutter, which of course I immediately ran off to purchase. Also bought the Imperial Clipper, Mamba, Fer-de-Lance and the Beluga Liner. Only a couple more ships, besides the Federation ships, and I'll have every ship available to me in my shipyard.

Only problem now... I bought the ships on what seems to be the far side of the bubble from my home station and spent pretty much all my money doing so, that I can't afford to upgrade the FSD and other internals. That means, at only 10 Ly jump range with the stock FSD, the trip home is going to be 45 jumps! Whoops! So I guess it's just going to have to sit in it's original hanger until I can make some more money via mining or do some exploration before the upcoming expedition. Mining is faster so I guess it's back to blasting rocks.... yay....

Okay! I'm recording now! Just give me a minute and I'll get that part ordered alright?! Sheesh!

Alright... So... Yeah. I'm back. In the bubble. At a station. Dealing with...well...people. I'm starting to realize why a lot of commanders enjoy it being out in the depths of space...

What?! Yeah I'm talking about you! So what of it?! Just get back to work!

ANYWays.... As I was saying...

I actually enjoyed the long road back. Got to see and discover a lot of cool and beautiful planets along the way. Came across a couple more ELWs as well as a lot of terraformable planets. By the time I got back, I had accumulated nearly 200 million credits worth of scans. Sold it off to the Alioth folks so they'd give me a permit to their damn system. Why? I dunno. Just seemed like the most logical thing to do and besides the credits, the most valuable sale. It also bumped my explorer rank with the Pilot's Federation up to Pioneer and actually, a majority of the way towards getting elite status. Again, definitely was worth taking the long road back!

So anyways, since I've been back, I only had a couple more things I wanted to get engineered on the Song of Amara, my Krait Phantom class ship, before the upcoming expedition. Had to run out and gather some materials from a Thargoid wreck but otherwise didn't really take long. So now, final touches are being wrapped up by this moron technician they assigned me and I'll be completely ready with my completely engineered ship. Here I come baby!

So anyways... That's really all I got to say. Now I just gotta find something to do for the next.... 2 weeks... before the expedition is scheduled to depart. Maybe I'll make a short journey to see some nebula so I can claim that explorer elite status. We'll see.

Alright. So a lot has sort of happened since I made my last recording a couple days ago. I did as I said and made a beeline for Sagittarius A*. Made it there in rather quick time I must say. Gotta love those Neutron stars...

Honestly, Sag A was...well... a bit underwhelming. Seriously. There was so much gunk in the skies, or at least that's what it felt like to me, that the wormhole itself looked as though it was simply covered and surrounded in brown dirty space. I've seen crazy pictures of wormholes and this one just... Well it just wasn't really much to look at. Nothing more than a wonky, circular warping of the space back drop. I don't know. Perhaps I really need to do some re-calibration of my ship's window light metering. Maybe the warping of light confused it and it simply cancelled out all light coming from the black hole area.

So either way, I ended up not really staying very long. Dropped into the beacon to say high to some of the other tourists, scanned out the system, plotted my route back to the bubble and then...poof. High waked it out of there.

On my return trip to the bubble, I decided I had plenty of time and chose to take the long route home. I'm still traveling by way of my Neutron star plot, but have so far done standard warps from one star to the next. This has netted me a LOT of unexplored systems. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of high value stuff...until just now.

I've just warped into a small gold mine. Scanners have determined I have one earth like world, one terraformable water world, and two terraformable high metal content planets. So by my calculations, I should've just netted a cool 10mil from this system alone. Definitely a great find for a new explorer like myself. Not only because of it's value but because it's my first ELW and terraformable WW discovery. Yay for me baby!

So anyways, that's really all I had to say. Just couldn't contain my excitement at my discovery. Not really gonna hang long though. Snapped a few photos, logged my findings and now charging the FSD for my next jump.

Always forwards!

Check. Check.

Okay... So uhh... yesterday, almost more on a spur of the moment decision, I took off from my home base in the Shinrarta Dezhra system and made the long journey to Colonia. I know...I know. Not exactly like flying to the other side of the bubble but I was looking over my list of modifications I intend to have done on my exploration ship, Song of Amara, and realized I really only had a couple more things to complete before it was fully engineered. One was to meet up with the well-known Colonia engineer, Etienne Dorn, and the other to make contact with a Professor Palin, another high level engineer back in the bubble. Problem with Palin is that he wanted me to prove my worth by traveling 5000 Ly from my original home! I guess it's to show I'm not just some puddle jumper. So while 5000 Ly is certainly not the distance to get to Colonia, it's a pretty sizable chunk that just seemed pointless to make in some other random direction when I'd eventually have to go to Colonia anyways. So, I packed my suitcase, plotted my route using a popular neutron star router available on the net, and set off!

I'm actually surprised. I mostly took a direct flight here, but on my journey, I actually came across a few unexplored systems. I had assumed, wrongly it seems, that all the systems between the bubble and Colonia would have been explored already. Instead, I was able to map out and scan something like 5 systems on my journey. Not really that much but given I pretty much went from Neutron star to Neutron star, that's actually quite a few. Don't get me wrong, they were all systems I had to deviate to for scoopable fuel, but still. It was definitely quite a satisfying discovery and made the journey a little less tedious.

I was also surprised by how long it took. Not because it took a long time, but because it took so little time. I made it here, even with my discovery deviations, in only about 5 hours total. I did take a break about half way along the journey to catch some z's but either way, I was expecting it to take far longer than 5 hours.

So now I'm left with a small decision. Part of me wants to set course for Sag A, because based on my plotter, I'm really not that far. The other part of me wants to start the journey back to the bubble to finally finish engineering this ship. I have about 3 weeks left before I set off on the Pegasus Run 3305, an expedition around the outer edges of the galaxy that I'd signed up for and I wouldn't mind getting all my things in order back in the bubble before I leave. However, given how fast I made the 22k Ly journey to Colonia, I don't think it'd be too bad to head to Sag A and then home....so....screw it!

Sagittarius A! Here I come!

Check one, two, three. Check. Check. COVAS, this thing is recording right?

It is? Oh! Well okie dokie then!

Sooo.... It has been about a month now since I became a licensed member of the Pilot's Federation. A long month of figuring out how to actually pilot these massive chunks of space metal and then figuring out where to go and what to do to work towards actually building a capable ship for venturing out in the black.

The Black. That's the term I've heard for years now. The empty swathes of space far beyond the hustle and bustle of interstellar travel within the Bubble. And the Bubble. A place filled with winners and losers, empires rising and falling, corporations and individuals chomping at the roids, hoping to make at least a smudge more profit than their competitors. It just seems so....suffocating. In the black, credits don't matter. The latest stock prices on alexandrite or void opals or whatever other mineral or material... doesn't matter. Pirates, raiders, smugglers, gankers... doesn't matter. Out there, very little matters. Nothing but the will to survive and the drive to explore. And while it's seen as little more than a vast expanse of empty space, it's certainly not silent. For I can hear it. Every day, that voice growing stronger in my head. It calls for me. It begs to envelop me in it's dark embrace and I seek to feel the comfort of that embrace.

However, one does not just simply jump into the black without first making some preparations. At least, no one does that hopes to survive and perhaps one day return with their tales and archives of wonder. Their are ship parts to be gathered. Engineers to be sought out for their services and in turn requiring payments of their own. Materials to then be gathered in order to modify my ship's systems to their specifications. Heck, I even flew a short ways into the black in order to seek out an ancient construct of alien origins, known as The Guardians, just to gather a bunch of rare scrap for some technology broker to build me an FSD booster. Yet slowly but surely it's all coming together.

Not much longer though before I'll have to make my first real trip outside of the Bubble. I've learned of a couple engineers, engineers of the highest level, who it's rumored can almost make magic happen with some of my ship's software and components stationed out in the famous Colonia system. I'm not looking forward to that trip only because it's headed in pretty much the opposite direction I want to be headed. But I will do what I must to make my chariot, a Faulcon DeLacy Krait Phantom, through the black as powerful and as comfortable as I can.

Until then though....my eyes will continue to be drifting outwards.

End recording.