Personal log of Soyaro Nightmare, 1st of may, year 3305. Yesterday was a bad day. Skyler, my favourite space trucker, informed me about a problem with the route. She wasn't able to calculate a route to the 5th checkpoint. At first she thought about canceling and returning to the bubble but after a little talk she decided to just skip two checkpoints and wait for me at the next station. While we where talking I received the daily update from control. Two pilots missing, possibly dead. That's what I was worried about on day one: In danger, far out, no way any help will arrive in time. I mean, I didn't do the fuelrat drill for fun, but I didn't even receive a distress signal... Three pilots already arrived at the final checkpoint. I thought this is an exploration. They must have thought of it as a race. Well, less pilots who can steal the glory of delivering unique map data. I continued my journey. After a few jumps I decided to change my route. Neutron highway they say. Should be a nice way to get over those almost 2k Ly to the next checkpoint. And because nobody was going this changed route I found multiple completely unknown systems, maybe a dozen, at least 50 planets and moons in total. After leaving checkpoint 4 and scanning systems for hours I made it to checkpoint 5. Since Skyler went out of comm range I didn't hear anything from the other pilots. Since this is one of the signals sources I guess I'll see a few around. And while I'm recording this I receive another update. Three pilots triggered their self destruction, no reason known. So there are 5 gone forever. And again no distress signal received...

Personal log of Soyaro Nightmare, 27th of april, year 3305. I'm not sure why I signed up for this. Sure, leaving the bubble, visit planets nobody has seen before, traveling with (hopefully) nice people, it sounded interesting. A chance to become popular, to be remembered for being the first who was wherever. But being at the start, getting in position and preparing according to coordinators orders kinda scared me. The expedition is planned to go over 6 weeks. Probably another 4 weeks to reach civilization again. Nobody helping if something terrible happens. And, let's be honest: This is space, something just has to go wrong. I just received our comm frequency for the journey. Some didn't confirm. They scare me even more. Multiple weeks without communication, just the void and their own thoughts. I wouldn't survive that I guess. Maybe I wouldn't die but it would erase my current self from existence. Oh, new orders. We're going to perform a boost-launch to a predefined system. Sad, I already calculated another route. New destination locked, engines up. Counter-thrust to stay in position. We have to perform a beautiful show for our camera drones. While charging my fsd I'm worried about my heatsinks. My Beluga is going to grind through the few I've got aboard if I'm just going to wait for the go. Maybe I should disable systems I don't need right now to reduce my heat generation...