Trying to get to way point 3 but needed fuel injection and the number of jumps were shorter to waypoint 2 and I turned in the data for first discoveries and codex data. Made 31 million after the 25% cut by the carriers. Interesting B type stars and nice views of the nebula and planter backgrounds. Undocked from the carrier in case it leaves and will explore the nebula tomorrow.

Eta Carinae biological sites. Collected some more raws and added more digital images, have around 180 now. Should give me some extra credits. Investigated the dark side of the planet and admired the anemones (pumpkins), flew over a geological site with the fumaroles and some views of the Nebula. It was a good morning. Doing some maintenance on the ship for 8 hrs and then off to plotting the route to the next waypoint. Maintenance done nothing major! Off to the next waypoint. Found a small landable metal rich body with a 414km radius. What views on CPD-57 3520! A class M star with a ring, unbelievable! System was fully mapped but a lot of views with the blue main star.

Tired. Made tea and finished up the full mapping of a systems with several HMCs. Hopefully I get first discovery (FD). Arrived at x-Carinae, it is a large star, took a while to fly around it! Codex has update, and flew over to the only planet in system to take a look. It was a gas giant with rings and one hotspot. Got some nice views that the tourists can use as the digital greetings. The old earth terminology was “postcards”. But long since then the post offices have ceased to exists. Little things you pick up while reading out in the black. Found several unmapped systems and finally made Eta Carinae. Blue star which lends itself of more digital images and mapping and was surprised with a bio signal. Space pumpkins! Never seen them before! Weird colors inside and a faint eire sound, several growths that give raw mats. So far saw four different growths. I’ll spend the night on the surface.

Woke up in darkness. Climbed into the cockpit seat with the faint glow of the panels, the three unfaltering cockpit lights in the ASP and red magma fumaroles spouting in the background. Kind of look like campfires before a battle as the Earth history books say. Would not like to live on this planet. 1.74g, 647kelvin surface temp. Maybe a tourist, refinery and extraction station would be viable for the corporations that can handle the investment. Will check the ringed worlds and see if there are hotspots but the system is mapped already. It may be only a matter of time until the bubble extends to this point with the pirates and combat zones fighting for stuff. Ahh! I guess that is why I’m out here to earn some credits and enjoy the beauty and vastness of the galaxy. The digital panoramas will fetch more credits at the tourist beacons. I have a contact that creates what the earthers call wallpapers, which is weird since paper is not used anymore. Received a warning in the SRV that fuel reserves were critical. The planet heat must have messed up something since the gauge reads 100%. No matter, have enough raw mats for synthesis if I run out. Been out and about for a year never seen the SRV act up like this. SRV back to normal 4 % fuel left. 162.5k in codex entries. Another biological signal but too far away from main star and they may be bark mounds again. More bark mounds an several mapped systems. Flew away from the nebula and finally found some unmapped systems with water worlds and one ELW. Found a Metal body with a ring and in another system an HMC with also a ring. Not highly valuable but unusual! Almost to x-Carinae, 5 more jumps but I need some rest. Stopping between two HMC to finish the system mapping of HMCs.

Boarded the Drake class carrier FGS Soul Searching of Cmdr Scoutmaster7. On route exited the carrier a few times to have a look around in supercruise. Mapped a water world and took some pictures of the Statue of Liberty Nebula. Impressive! Most of the planets have been discovered and mapped previously. The ASP explorer with 51 LY of jump range should be adequate for some exploration and the return trip to the bubble. There are 37 cmdrs registered for the 15 waypoints and an estimated 29kly distance to be covered. After arrival thanked the cmdrs and hyperspaced into the nearest system honk, scoop, FSS, see if anything interesting popped up. First biological signal turned out to be bark mounds and 50k credit since I am in a new sector. Spent time investigating geological POIs, gathering raw materials and so far have seven codex entries. Nice view of the nebula and planets with canyons fumaroles and gas vents. And I get paid ARX for this! Life is good. The data should bring in some money once I get back in about 4 weeks. Some of the planets were more than 1g and almost crashed into one! The most exciting moment was as I was flying down to investigate a third POI on a metal planet hit the boost too close to surface and pressed the up thrusters and managed to skip on the surface and no damage to hull. Thank the maker since getting rescued in a pod would be challenging so far from the bubble. After filling up the mat storage with cadmium, nickel and other raw mats went to bed on the surface of a high metal planet.