KDT. arbilac Profil > Logbuch

Profil
Kommandantenname:
Aktuelles Schiff:
wordless void [AR-32M]
(Imperial Cutter)
 
Mitglied seit:
01.10.2017
 
Übermittelte Entfernungen:
0
 
Besuchte Systeme:
9.434
Zuerst entdeckte Systeme:
1.507
 
Kontostand:
27.409.289.923 Cr
There be ghosts

Lights

"R".

No idea who "R" is.. or was, but.... she was there before any of us; except those poor souls onboard the Zunara. Most of them... phew... I guess most of em are still there, frozen. Maybe is just me, but I figure that someone shoulda gone back out there and brought those bodies back. Surely they're brothers, sisters... mums and dads? Maybe not. Maybe it was one way for most of em. Logs don't suggest that in the whole though. Some of em; some weren't innocent. Gone crazy, like, maybe, um, a kill switch? Or somethin' worse - hell, maybe they were paid to die. Such is the thing of it.

I had me a look anyway. She's in good nick, though the primary generator is out; she's still lit up like a Christmas tree despite. I guess her engines... well, glow they do, are givin' her secondaries enough juice like a big fabulous lookin' alternator spitting out just enough amps to keep the lights on.

That's it though. Jus' lights. There ain't no air onboard as best as I could tell. I didn't try breathin' in. Cold as all hell. Heh, hell - well, I figure hell is cold. Certainly looked it.

I didn't hang too long there. Felt like I was disturbin' the dead.

This "R" woman. Well, she left a bunch of beacons on the hull. Maybe as a warning, maybe as an invitation to start poking the beast. She headed back toward the core systems - says that whatever the hell happened out here - those beacons for a start - weren't gonna get answered by dicking around the Rift. This is all precusor to the Thargoids comin' back and pissing on our bonfire, but I think... hmm... I think somethin' else. Perhaps it's part Goid, part Raxxla - look at one, solve another.

Or get dead tryin'

Twins

Either way, I'm heading onward for 1K or so of LY, kinda parallel to Colonia and then I'll head inward. I expect that to take a few weeks. Me and my pal. If he stays the course, o' course.

See, I figure that if he's here to stay, he'll carry on bein' where he is now; flirtin' with real space stuck in time. I done my math and let the ships AI do the rest; he's movin' at one hell of a slow place. Could be that he sees me like I see him, but maybe in different rates of time. Me fast, him slow - or vice versa. Per'aps he's already taken a swung at me; maybe he's doing it right now.. but he's moving. Jus' real slow, like.

My plan is pretty simple, to think of it. I stay in along the northern most border of the Rift (such as north bein' that closest to Sag A*) an' see if he stays with; then I take a sharp right and head direct for Colonia. If he vanishes, I got me a theory, an'  if not, then maybe my ship's drive is the reason. I got nothing here tangible beyond my eyes and the limited scans my ship can do inward. Ain't much.

Or... it's all in my head. A bridge to cross.

Anyway, Zurara's mysteries are probably gonna stay as much for a while. Whoever "R" was, she headed back a long time ago and I've read nothin' more on the subject (though, would I?) so maybe if I get back in one, I'll ask around. If I don't get back, then maybe someone will read these and tickle their investigative fancies, no?

Come on then, fella.... let's jump.

Edge of nowhere

If you believe my systems, then, hmm.. carry the 1, yep. I'm 374LY from the Zurara - my prize. My girl' tells me I got somethin' like 10 more times through the witch; probably a lil' more than I would need in home territory but I like to travel by the stars I can scoop, and those are sometimes a bit closer than my girl can jump. Safe than sorry.

Yeah, okay, elephants. My friend has turned up a couple' times.

A star

You thinkin', why's he not droolin' pure alcohol in the mess whilst carving alien symbols in to his arms?

Heh, me too. Me. Too.

I cannie put a finger on the why of it. I did some experiments though. First time, I did gone nearly shit my own pants, but I'm still 'ere... I think, heh, so I'll maybe tell you the story before I get to my location.

First couple' jumps I just stared straight on in to the witch. She's been a constant companion since I could afford my own ship. Hell, before then. I got me a loaner Sidey first. Who doesn't, right? You get given the chance to see the star up personal? Damn straight you take the gift horse and pay that premium tax. Tell me I'm wrong! Hah. So yeh, I got a cold sweat on. I could feel eyes on my neck that weren't there. I could, damn you! I could hear that lil' bastard chatting some goddamned nonsense right in my ear.

Well, shit. Sorry, swearing ain't my thing; I was raised right, but I'll be damned if I weren't scared out of my mind.

That went on for a few days. Couple' jumps... yeah, I sometimes held up and sat over a water or earth - a few of em out here. Can't take my girl down to these jewels though; ships prevented due to "contamination" of some such. Always figured there'd be enough of em for everyone, but the Feds disagree.

Twins not twins

Sorry; digressin' again.

Then I had me an idea. My girl, like most, can do the job herself. Failsafes in place to stop wayward ships, or more likely, terrorists, from setting a vessel off on her own an' causin' havoc. I was an engineer. I know my girls (I got a few, heh).

I put in a temporary.... fix. Let's call it. I got my girl to do a semi-blind jump without me at the helm. So that's step one. Me, out back, hoping I didn' just blow my very own self up.

Step two. I brought my bed in. EVA, gun, pointed.

Step three. Repeat.

My little fella turned up day three, same number of jumps along my safe path to the Z. Same place, just to the left of my couch and to the rear. Same place. Same... everythin' actually. Now, when I say he turned up, he only appears... he... well, I guess he's a he. Could be a she. Don't like pummelling the ladies though - like to try to be a stand-up, feels like if I'm gonna plug a man, I at least face him. Sounds a bit sexist in my head, that; guess that's my upbringin' again. Us humans don't stray too much from our prejudices I suppose, after all.

Where was I.. off again. No matter...

Anyhows, I had my rifle pointed right where he'd be.  First couple of blind jumps, he weren't there. Next one though, he popped up clear as day... sort of. See, he appeared only in.. what's the term.. bursts maybe. Like a flickerin' light. On and off; here, then gone. Took me a few jumps to work out the pattern, if there is one.

Seems, in witch space, at least from my point of view as I traverse, that my girl is passin' through stars and nebula. That ain't really the case as we ain't in normal space, but it's quite a "light show". You see where I'm goin'? Heh.. yeah, as we pass "through" a star, he pops right up.

So I'm there, pointin' ma gun and thinkin' "gotcha". Only, his appearance is somewhat fleeting.... but gotta be honest with y'all, that wasn't what stopped me. No sir.

First off; he ain't hurt me, least not yet. Just scared me a little.... a lot. Half to death, really. Second; he ain't never move.

That last bit I haven' worked out yet. Is he dead? A statue? I can't see the wood for tha trees on this jus' yet. Only thing that I'm sure of.... the littl' fella is talking to me. I gotta figure it out.

I'm tryin' to carry on regardless. Got somewhere to be. Got me some research to do; hope I get paid for it too. Geez, I shoulda asked around, see if anyone wanted an idiot to go find this hulk. Couldn't paid well, that alone. Maybe I can do a "retrospective" on it and get someone to pay up on the assumptive.

Found a shiny Earth as I said prior. This one had a moon just like home... well, not my home, I weren't born on Earth. Kinda hard to get a pass to even visit these days, but let's say the home of us "humankind". Took a pic anyway; you know, for my records an' such. No harm in sightseeing when out here. Of course, this weren't undiscovered so someone got the finder's fee on it. Feds obviously get the claim it for expansion; least for now anyway. Nothin' stopping me nose-divin' my girl in and callin' it retirement...

The moon

Next log should be at the Z. I may hold off on scannin' her though. I'm kinda done with Ghosts.

The Earth

Spiderdemons

Lonely

Over 10,000LY from home, and around... 1700LY from the Zurara.

The middle of nowhere. Quite, literally, so to speak.

I' been out here a few weeks now. Haven't spoken to anyone 'cept a long distance - and even that's delayed - call back home to check on some work for when I'm back.... if I get back. Weird how that makes you feel even more alone out here.

So far, so.... well, I'll get to that. Harder to talk about than I thought. Losin' ones marbles is a funny thing, if it's happenin'.

The girl's been treatin' me right, the past few. No further power cuts or thruster issues that I can see. Power systems are nominal and I'm maintaining a steady 58/60LY jump schedule until I get where I'm goin'. After that it may simply come down to jumping to whatever star I can get to - it's already gettin' pretty thin out here. Looking back is quite the spectical though - the whole galaxy looking right back at yah. It's unnerving. Like fallin' off the world.

I had fancied myself a peek at the Zurara, and a "head home at best power" kinda guy... but I ain't going back through the area I just left. I dunno whether it's the Rift itself or just bad luck, but there's sirens back there and they almost had me, and my ship. Can't say for sure if she had a hiccup, which is nonsense as I already said, or something in the void back there.

Well.

I saw somethin'.

First off, I was at Delta site. I heard somethin' weird on the hull. Sensors didn't show anything and I, well, I'd already been 'round the base so I wasn't about to head back out. I certainly wasn't goin' EVA for not hull scratchin'. Yet, course, you can't take off if you think your ship is compromised. I did every check I know how to do - let the girl do the rest; all came back a-okay. "Systems nominal".

Then, I saw it. A flash of something outside. Flew by, or flashed by. It was a millisecond and gone. Like the ol' "rabbit in the headlights". Could have had wings or been on legs. I dunno. It was long gone before I'd rubbed my eyes in disbelief.

But, that wasn't the end of it.

'Course, my thrusters were already as bright as the sun by the time my heart had started beatin' again and I was wishing for witchspace asap. I made a few short jumps before I relaxed.

I shouldn't have relaxed.

So, I say this outloud, in a log. Better it's recorded now.

Either there's something onboard, creeping around (hell, it could be outside for all I know), or I'm already past the point of no return and my sanity is toast. I ain't sat in the corner rockin' though. Not yet.

My old man used to say, "no point in bein' scared of something you can kill". So, well, he wasn't the brightest man but I'll be damned if I'm gonna curl up and let whatever's happening get the better.

I jumped from a lonely yellow-white, to a blue. Nothin' in either system.

Blue

I scanned my maps of local stars - what there were of them - and took my next jump, couple' of days back. As she was spoolin' up, I had a short warning blip on my right panel around heat - I'd been jumping - in, scoop, out - and had some residule heat in my modules - and just as I looked, the jumpdrive kicked in. Usual thin'; you're looking forward as you jump, right? I was looking over my shoulder and at the point of jump I saw it.

It looked human enough. Two arms, I guess. Legs. It definitely wasn't no 'Goid. I'm told thems are insectoid or spiderlike - from what little intel we have.. this was, or had been, like us. It was there and gone as my girl entered witchspace.

I damn near dropped my guts there an' then. Can't fight when strapped in and my fight or flight was stuck in a seat belt. Bloody safety be damned. Coulda' killed me!

I've searched my girl top to bottom. Ain't nothing here.

So I got a bunch theories. Neither are helping me sleep (heh, this should be funny, but I'm sleepin' in my EVA suit, rifle strapped to me chest, in my escape pod.. like to see the a-hole get me in there!).

  1. I've an alien stowaway - this seems unlikley. But we know there are aliens out there, so what the hell do I know.
  2. Witchspace isn't exactly a well known thing to us fleshy humans. We use it, but it could be more, couldn' it? Maybe aliens live in a parallel and I just caught a glimpse. I like this cos they can't scoop my eyes out whilst I'm sleepin'
  3. I'm space looney. I don't like this one as I might scoop my own eyes out....

I've taken some time out. Gone sightseein' and got me some materials. I still need to synth out here for fuel, weapons and anythin' else I need en route. Pretty place. No dark and dingy bases with spiderdemons in it.

Pretty world Fire

You know yourself

Space

You read the stories; those that don't come back from scratchin' the itch. Those that do, and have these stories to tell. Those that are found, no voice left to tell, ship in bits or worse.

You know. You read it and you say to yourself: "I could tell. If I were losing it. It'd be obvious."

Maybe it is. Maybe that don't matter. Maybe when you know, it's too late.

I'll get to my girl in a minute. She's doing me proud, despite the region we're in. Yeah, I know it in my gut. It ain't her. I ain't one to tell ghost stories round a camp fire, but I just read a few and let me say this real quick. Ghosts are real.

As you'll know, I'm finding my way to the Zurara. That's my aim. That's my plan. I know where she is, too. I ain't the first to go and I won't be the last. Funny though, that some might not get much further than this. Heh. I really shouldn' be sat here talkin the talk when them Ghosts are outside my girl, in those dusty buildings, right now. I swear if I were to look long enough, I'd seem em. Real as you are readin' this.

Let me start at the beginnin'

SRV

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. I visited them sites in that order. Seemed about right given my route. Most a jump apart; one a little farther.

All the same. A beacon or two. Nothing spectacular nearby. Probably a good place to hide a research outpost.

Hah. Research. Them poor bastards.

All the sites still had active data points. You ride up, scan em, keep on trucking and if you're lucky, you get some data here 'n there. I managed to grab a few log entries too though. They weren't always in order, time-wise, but I got my girl to work it out and play 'em back to me. First site, well, that was a show. Left there thinkin' some poor so and so got lost; maybe paid off to do a dead end job, then lost it to space madness. Second site.. well, somethin' out here seems to have freaked 'em out. Eyes watching. Systems failing - power failing. Third site.. same goddamned story. Power, death, canopy blow out Fourth. Site. Death. POWER. EYES WATCHING.

Either those Children of Raxxla are out of their minds, or they are the worst practical jokers this site of Reorte. Either way, it ain't funny.

No one got home. That's obvious now. They may all be dead. Ain't no one out here to ask, no sign of it either. From what I can tell, these bases were that alone - but they took their ships; heh, sidewinders in some cases, out in the black to deploy those unregistered beacons. I've seen 'em. More of a quaint thing than more. Nothin' to scan; no logs. Just a beacon.

A beacon.

Beacons inform. Beacons summon. Beacons.

These are warning beacons. These should be your first warning sign. Leave. Leave now.

An' I'm still sat here.

I got me two options right now. Trust that this area is that old Earth "Bermuda Triangle" area of space, and get my ass out of here with a ship that hicups, or try to work it all out.

Thing is. That noise in my cargo rack was nothin'. Not a god-damned thing.

So I'm probably losin' it. I'm aware. I can feel it happening.

...heh, I can hear it now. There's a scratchin' outside the hull... almost funny now. Funny.

....

Site

....what the HELL is that.....?

Ain't that a thing

I had... I was gonna make my logs on a site basis. You see, there are four known research sites out here on the lip of the Rift. There's some other named systems too, 'n all but these are very real, very empt... well, seemingly empty sites just, well, just left there. Abandoned. I said so last time, and I'll say it again. Creepy as all heck.

Now, my ship has been givin' me the heebies the past few jumps. She lost some thruster capability back at Gorgon, and then at Alpha I had some weirdness going on with a junction or capacitor. To be blunt, it wasn't what I "fixed" persay as things 'been getting a bit worse. I had a power outage between Beta and Gamma. Flat out, just died. Even the ol' breathers capped out and left me seein' my own air. Stupid thing is, it all came back a few minutes later.

Wanna know the weird bit? The girl didn' notice.

You know what I mean. You reboot your girl and she comes back online. Sings her song as she wakes and gets that old ring of shield pinging away happy. Not this time. Power went, power came back. Were it a blip, well, that'd be a thing wouldn't it? A hicup in a god damned space ship. That ain't a thing, by the way. Ships don't cough.

Mine did. For minutes.

My girl, she woke and her shields were still up.

Ahm.. well, I'm gonna stop there. I hear something in the cargo rack I need to go invest... what the hell is that?

Next log will stop you comin' this way. I guarantee it. D

...damn noise.

Abandoned

It's a funny thing. I'm sat here, lights blazing, looking at an abandoned... research? site in the middle of bleedin' nowhere. Some 8000LY from home and what do I see on my scanner? A high wake pattern. It's too far gone for me to scan now but someone was out here.

That probably shouldn' be weird, bein' that people lived here once upon. But it looks like it's been quiet a long time now. Dust settles' you know? And there it is, a wake. See, you heard the ol' line. Space is big, real' big. So the chances of bein' this far out and happenin' across a fellow traveller are fairly remote. I mean to say, there are bases within a klick or two, but still, it's a cold dark black out here to be just missing someone. Were they, like me, just looking? Or were they involved... in whatever this place was here for. Hell, they didn't even pack up. I might take the buggy out, have a nose around.

But prior to that, I spent the last day jumping down this way. It's a well trodden path. I gave Salome's world a looksee - it's an Amonia world some 170,000LS from arrival, so that took a bit of time to skate over to. Nothing particularly remarkable about it, but again, we all know what those bugs like, and it's Amonia. So, was she looking for them? Or somethin' else? We'll never know now I suppose.

Salome

After that, I took my leave and headed here. In this sector of space there are now, at least found so far, four bases used as outposts and research stations. Again, I'm goin' back a few on this, and I doubt there's much of anything to discover here, but it's still spooky in its own right. I figured, I got a few thousand light years to go before I find this ghost ship I'm after, and a pit stop ain't gonna... heh, I was gonna say hurt - but that's untrue. I ain't stepping foot in these places personal. No sir. Might never leave. Might catch me a cold.

Interesting thing. I landed in-system and honked. Found a couple of unregistered beacons. Ain't nothing comin' out of them though. No scans, no noise. They're there though; probably just a friendly hello to those that called this place home for a time, but I gave them a look anyway.

Beacon

Then to the prize. Or the first of em. As I say, I ain't stepped foot yet, but I landed and thought I'd write up first. You know, just in case. Gave my girl a system-reset. I'm still getting a power quirk somewhere inside. Swear last night, I heard the thrusters power up themselves, cycle and die. I was out for the count though, so probably in my head. I mean, failsafes stop that kinda nonsense out here. Unless I got a gremlin on board. Heh.

The base

Waiting

Rifts and Graveyards

Been a couple' days since I took my leave of that oddly comforting rock. Seems most travellers out this way tend to end up staying longer than they expect. Meet a same same in the bar and shoot the shiz. Come back the next evening after toiling away making the girl ready, and there they are, propping up the bar as usual. That was me, or was gonna be if I didn't haul my ass in to the black.

Thing is, I ain't in a hurry, nor am I headed anywhere. I've had my luck recently and can take some time for me and the girl, so figured I'd go sightseeing. Itchy out here.

I headed out toward the Rift; passed through a fairly well lit area, much already seen by human eyes, and then through the Graveyard. Now, that place is creepy, but not for the reasons I expected. See, as you fly through, it's dark on one side, and shiny on the other. A cluster of red dwarfs, best my maps could say, seemed to be forever on my horizon, then they passed me by, a shining beacon, tempting you in.

I didn't go.

See, the history of that place is that for some reason, ships ended up wrecked there. Not disappeared, wrecked. Now, I ain't saying these pilots took fancy to a rock and faceplanted, no. These were in space, mostly. Blown up, floating husks. Best bet is a local pirate installation or fleet took that area as their own and plundered those with a little too much curiosity in their tanks. As far as I know, those must be long gone as the wrecks have too. Don't make that area any less creepy though.

I did suffer an oddity with the girl. I lost partial power whilst out by a binary pair; came up on me real quick whilst scooping. Barely 80LS away from the Yellow was a Red, and as I came in system it was on my panel but out of sight. I swung round and it was right in my face. I guess you do this jump/scoop enough you get complacent. Silly really; that all said, I can't account for the power loss, nor the drop to normal space whilst my FTL drive decided to reboot. Odd.

I'm now in the Heart nebula; there's two almost toe-to-toe - in galactic terms at least - out here; Heart and Soul. Cute, no? Well, There's a couple of bases here, right on top of the rift. I passed the Alpha listening post.. that's a story in of itself - them "Children of Raxxla" (ain't that creepy) placed a couple out here as listening posts. For what? Thargoids? Something else? I guess they know. But, it's well hidden. I scanned the system and came up blank, so carried on my way. There's curiosity, then there's stupidity. Where was I? Oh yeah, I passed that and settled here. Around 5k LY since my last stop, and around 7500LY from home. Not small amount, to be sure, and now it gets interesting. There's a ship out here. A big one. Said to be haunted. I aim to pay her a visit and then, well, see what I see. I'll put a log in if I find her.

After that, I gotta be careful. My girl has the range I think to get me through, but there's plenty of Red out here I can't scoop.

Then do I make a left, or a right?

Gaps. Big gaps.

I'm still callin' the next part of my journey, travel. I'm gettin' from A-to-B, old style. Jump/scoop. Nothin' fancy. I could find the Neutron highway nearby, pick it up and leap frog for a bit, but I got that itch and I wanna see if I stumble across anything fancy. I got no reason to think I will, but this first leg was pre-planned. I let the girl do the plottin', as it were, and didn't deviate.

That all said, I'm about to cross the Orio-Persian Gap. Space ain't exactly flat, but maps tend to be. So, lookin' down on our Galaxy there's a lot of nothing, filled with black holes and planetry nebula. A lot of it has seen traffic in a kinda "line of sight" way towards the 'Rift, and a whole lot more of it has never seen a ship - at least, according to records. Let's say, of the human variety.

Do I.. Hmm, tricky stuff this. I could let the girl find me a way through. Plot a cheeky route and avoid anything I can't scoop, or pick my way through and keep an eye on fuel. Mmmmm. The bow-tie nebula is in my way, so I may as well go lookin. No harm in taking some holiday snaps on my road trip. Then I can go "left or right" and go visitin' well known stops and hope I come across somethin' special, or head through the dark to the next big point of interest, according to the current maps.

Or well, there is the Graveyard. Dunno why it's there, but it is. A large, multi-LY area of space that's claimed many a vessel and her crew. I can't say I'm too keen on joining the ranks, but there might be something to find ou there - and, well, it's a ghost story. Who don't like a ghost story?

Something in my gut is saying I gotta go there. I gotta see this for myself. Could be nuthin, right? I mean, what are the chances I actually find a system with a wreck in it?


I was gonna leave it there, but I stayed another night after a brief technical issue with my ship. Looks like I had a faulty stabiliser on the port side thruster array. Wouldn't have made much difference really, but I like her smooth running. I was hoping this rock had some outfitting services, since I cashed in around 6m in cartographic data from my brief run down here. Not a bad paycheck for sightseein', but alas, a repair is all I could get for my cash. Maybe one more drink...

NGC 7822 Sect.. a big rock

Figured I'd start after the travel, but my memory ain't great. I don't mean it's going - hell no, I just mean the detail, you know? Was that rock brown or red? Did I land on 3c or was it 4? I know my logs are all there. Hell, I can get my girl to recite them like a story. Not a good story, but a story all said. But, no, there I go again - heh - no, I thought, I just jumped 53-or so-times and that was travel. I saw worlds; some water, some rock - and they had names on 'em. Every single one. The girl tends to chatter away to herself in my ear. Keeps me sane and away from the scary's. But she tells me things. This star is old. This rock is close to the star. This planet has life. You know, the basics. Also tells me if it's mine or not. If I'm the first trucker out here scanning. Got me a load of those; first discoveries. All over the Codex. Thankyouverymuch. But I tell you. 2800LY and it's all been found. I ain't surprised - we humans been out here for hundreds of years; okay, that's a bit rich, decades. Most stuff that maybe got this far out (and no doubt; you read the history, there's no way - but it happened) never reported back, and here I am reading about Commander suchandsuch scanning this dusty rock.

Gorgon Research

I'm here in NGC 7822 Sector BQ-Y d12 - sat in this hollowed out asteroid; Gorgon Research. I say it's a pit stop. I've travelled. Stage one. Nice folk here; met up with a fellow last night in one of the dives the local egg heads use. Serves stronger stuff than I'd like to admit; maybe they ain't lightweights, maybe the "science" scares them. Or, the nebula we're sat in. Maybe it's that. You heard the rumours. What's in these pretty clouds. What they were, how they came to be. Nah, you know what they ARE... but do you believe it in your gut? Do you? Just messin' with you. Not sure I'd stare too close though. So this fellow says there's been ships heading in and out the rift near by. I say near, I figure I got another 7, 8,000LY of jumps. A few weeks of travel but a few more stops on the way before I leave life behind... if I go. He says the traffic's up; somethings going on. I heard there's a research vessel down there, long abandoned. I heard it, I've not seen it. I plan - heh, listen to me! plan.. there's some beacons down there. I'm gonna use them as way points, then head in to the rift. I don't know what I'm planning on finding. A whole bucket load of nothing, maybe. Or, maybe ghosts. Lots of ships coming and going. You wonder how many go.. and if as many come back? Ain't no one keeping tabs on that number, I tell you.

Anyway, I'm here on deck. Wondering if I should maybe go get another beer first. Get a night's, then head out. Space ain't going nowhere, and it's rather nice to be 'round people at the moment. Ah, getting all sentimental and such and such; it's not my thing. I prefer the cold. I like it dark. I'll head out tomorrow. She's calling again.

Travel first, explore second

If you got the right tools, the bubble ain't so big. A few hundred LY left or right, up and down. Sure thing it's expanding, oh betcha. We going great guns on spreading out little race out in to the stars. You hear about the station in core? Damned if that ain't human, what's the word, ingenuity? Seems like a word to me. For sure we just keep reachin' out.

Course, that ain't always the right thing to do. Sometimes, personal of course, you gotta take care of home. Of your own. Them Thargoids - what a word - well, they're making moves out there. Maybe it's why I'm further out. Heh, that's gotta be it, right? I'm safer out here. Damn, I can almost convince myself of it. No one would know. No one would hear. They'd scoop me right up, beat up my poor girl, and there'd be only a cloud of green lost in the void for someone, or some thing, to stumble across. Yet, safer it feels. Away.

But they're doin' it. Can't tell you why. The 'Net says we started it; rumours for decades about the previous war. Even that became a rumour to most folk. Prove it they'd say, heh, well they just come knockin'. Maybe they're... let me look it up - ah here it is - Xenophobic? They just hating on whatever ain't them. I think we do that, don't we? Right now, I probably fit that. I don't wanna wake up with some giant - you know, I got no idea what they look like. They could BE the flower - but most say they ain't. But anyway, I ain't there and we're still reachin out. Lookin' for something? THe big Corps are; it's obvious. They've been sending capitals out and freelancers to find Guardian - heh, another great word - tech to help fight the war. You know how it goes; we only find that tech when SOL is gone. I've see the talkies, I know how old Hollywood told the story.

I guess I'll build a war machine one day. When they find it, the big guns, the original war enders. Whatever the Guardians used. It's out there. We'll find it, or they'll push out first. Then, BOOM! Heh, gonna be fireworks!

Damn I got sidetracked again. Travel.

Oh yeah, so you head out.