I skipped through The Veils like a stone on water, but I managed to stop for a few scans.

The only event of note is that I got distracted while scooping fuel and crashed out of Supercruise in the exclusion zone of an O Class star.

No big deal, really, a part from a 2% damage on my Power Plant that I won't be able to repair until I dock at a Station.

But the accident made me realize two things:

• first, I'm really happy with the setup of my Phantom. Sacrificing just a little bit of range to carry both AFMU and repair limpets was a good choice. Flying halfway through the galaxy with a smashed hull wasn't fun during my last vojage.

• Secondly, I'm an idiot. I forgot to stock up on Basic Conductors before I left, so I can not synthetise any more Heat Sinks. I have just one left, so if I get out of hyperspace in the middle of two stars - as happened once during this vojage and four times during the last one - all I have left is pray.

Anyway, I've just crossed into the Formorian Frontier, and I'm about 110 jumps from the next change of course, some 6500 light years away.

I've travelled across most of Newton's Vault Now, and I'm bound to the Fomorian Frontier, which I had visited twice before.

This last sector has been full of interesting discoveries, first of which was the nice nebula right past The Conduit, known by the uninspiring name of MYOANGOOE AA-A H2.

Well, it's not exactly a discovery, since everyone and their grandma had been here already, but it was a first for me.

Look how pretty it is.

I also came across this nice ringed Brown Dwarf that made a weird effect on its ring due to the shadow cast by its A Class companion.

If I had seen the like of this before I don't remember. The upside of having a bad memory is that everything is an undiscovered wonder given enough time.

Anyway, I've reached the arbitrary landmark from which I have to turn North and connect with the route of my previous vojage.

As you can see I'm almost close to the border, I'll cross into the Veils for a short time and straight up into the Fomorian Frontier.

Once in the system I've discovered 5 months ago I'll then turn East to complete the loop of the Galaxy.

The bend I-m designing now will make sense once I'll have completed my master plan of travelling though all the Arms.

You'll see.

I'm halfway through the Conduit, due north towards the Formorian Frontier.

I was about to give up on hoping to come across interesting finds, when I started scanning a throve of Water Worlds, Amonia worlds and Earth-Likes.

Some were ringed, some had life forms, and all in all they all made this sector the most interesting of the ones I've explored so far.

At some point, I have to admit, I got distracted and fell into the graviyt well of an Earth-Like, dropping out of super cruise. Luckily I wasn't speeding, so no harm done. Even more luckily, I dropped right on the terminator, which allowed me to to take this nice shot.

For the first time in this trip I also detected some bio signals.

A gas giant orbiting the second star in the system had as many as five satellites with bio signals.

It took a 244000 light seconds trip to get there, but no good explorer would leave those unexplored.

As expected, they were fairly common Crystalline Shards. No ground breaking discovery there, but at least I filled up my cargo with high grade materials.

Also the views from the rocks were not too shabby.

I still have about 7000 light years before I get out of the Conduit, I hope I'll find more of these.

Crossing into the Outer Arm was not a big deal.

In fact, you almost can't realize there is a gap at all between it and the Perseus Arm.

The stars shine, the route planner is happy, and there is none of the complicated navigation efforts you have to go through crossing the Abyss, or the Void.

I crossed the gap in a nice straight line, without any FSD injections, and went to intersect the route I took a few months ago.

Along the way I found a beautiful ringed Earth-like world. You don't see many of those around.

The system I'm in now is called DRYAO BRAI TI-B D 13-30, and its main feature is that I was the firts to discover it:) I had flown through it right after the painful crossing of the Void, and it's here that I had started moving South towards the Formidine Rift.

It's actually the first time I see my tag in a system I discovered, it's a good feeling.

I have to say, I'm glad to see that I was thorough while exploring. This system also had two nice Water Worlds.

Anyway, the reason to revisit this milestone is that I've now closed the loop with my previous path, and I can now turn north and continue exploring the Outer Arm spinward.

I have a morbid curiosity for what's inside the permit locked zones.

In my previous trip I spent an insane amount of time scanning around the PYRIVAE zone in the Fomorian Frontier, as well as the other two at the opposite side of the Galaxy, the BOVOMIT area in the Formidine Rift and SIDGOIR in the Errant Marches.

None of them gave any clue as to what lays inside, nonetheless I decided to do some research around the HYPONIA zone in the Perseus Arm.

It was right on my path, so it did't take that much out of my trip.

Long story short, there is nothing of note, nothing at all, in the systems around the permit locked zone.

I've scanned every single body in an insane amount of systems all around the area, and there was literally nothing out of the ordinary.

Not a bio signal, not an anomaly, nothing.

The area is an almost perfect sphere about 1000 light years across, which means the neighbouring stars might be in the order of the thousands.

So it's entirely possible that if something is indeed there I might have missed it.

Nonetheless, the research returned nothing.

For the records, here is the area, with its edges bookmarked.

The center lies pretty much on the galactic plane.

After my fruitless investigation I carried on North for another 5000 light years or so before I finally turned west to meet the course of my previous journey.

I think I'm just two jumps from the border into the Outer Arm, and about 120 from one of the systems I've previously explored.

Without realizing it I'm already North-West of Colonia, and I've now crossed the (arbitrary) boundary into the Perseus Arm sector.

Right before I left Vulcan Gate I came across a system with six Water Worlds, which if it's not a Galactic record (I believe it's 7), it surely is a personal one.

Right across the border I also found a wonderful Earth Like World. So many nice features to look from afar, and no chance to land. One day..

I'll now keep heading North for another 10000 light years, until I'll cross West into the Outer Arm and reconnect with the route of my previous journey.

I'm now in Vulcan gate. Funny how being 22000 light years from home now feels like I'm just on my doorstep.

It's almost the distance from Sol to Sagittarius A*, and yet I remember the first time I got there felt like an endless odissey.

I mean, it doesn't look far.

I'm taking it veary easy, I fully scan almost all systems and launch probes around as if they were confetti.

Like I already experienced in the Outer Arm on this side of the Galaxy, I'm not finding many Stellar Anomalies or Biological Signals. In fact, I've found none so far.

I found the other side of the Milky Way to be more eventful, but maybe it's just a coincidence, and I just happen to be on a route that skips them.

On the bright side, I already found a few Earth Like Worlds, and several Water Worlds.

This Water World had massive rings, and I dropped out of Super Cruise to take a peek.

It will take a while to get out of Vulcan Gate at this pace, but I'm in no rush.

After my short time back in the Bubble I started itching for solitude and wonders, so after a few days of toying with the idea I prepared for the new trip and finally set off.

This time I decided to try a new ship, so I left my veteran, beloved Asp in her hangar and set up a Krait Phantom for deep exploration instead.

Lots of room for activities, as you can see.

The range of my Phantom is still slightly superior than that of my Asp, despite carrying a Repair Limpet Controller this time. Having travelled half the Galaxy with 50% hull has made me wiser.

Despite it being a great ship with a longer range I still like the Asp better, the view from its cockpit just has no equals.

Anyway, my plan is to fly counterclockwise this time, and connect to my previous flight path in a smaller circuit along the outer arms.

Below it's the route I'll take, in green. The red one is my previous trip.

I'm now in the Elysian Shore, about 10000 light years from Sol.

I've already found some interesting spots, mostly running Patrols for Canonn.

I'm finally home. Isn't it beautiful?

The last dozen thousand years have been a slow gradient between nothing and oh there are humans here.

I started seeing the first Commander's tag about 12k light years from sol, then several from about 10k light year off. From then on, pretty much every system I jumped to had been visited and thoroughly scanned, so I have to say I haven't explored the last few thousend light years that much.

The very first sign of civilization was about 600 light years from my destination, when I was interdicted.

It was my first interaction with other ships in almost four months, nonetheless I clumsily managed to escape.

I've landed in Shinrarta Dezra, made some repairs, then jumped around to the systems controlled by Canonn to sell my data.

All in all this trip put more than 2 billion in my wallet, which is always a welcome side effect.

Now that I've arrived, I can share some of the numbers of this journey:

• Distance travelled: 438,448.66 ly
• Time travelled: 3 months and 26 days
• Systems Discovered First: 8594
• Payout: 2,015,027,499
• Scans: 29793
• Heat Sinks Used in Panic: 4
• Mapped Planets: 522
• Ammonia Worlds: 100 (yes, a nice even number)
• Earth Like Worlds: 48
• Water Worlds: 756
• High Metal Content Worlds: 3995
• Times Landed: 70
• Of Which Crash Landed: 4
• Hull at arrival: 54%
• Scooped Tons: 25972
• Galactic Records Discovered: At least one, apparently!
• CQC hours played in the meantime: 1d 4h 52m
• Rank achieved: 34
• Kills: 374
• Deaths: 468
• Wins: 19
• Losses: 210
• Times I’ve realized I’m not that good yet at CQC: 468
• Player who has unrelentingly killed me more often: Musketeer

Paint at time of departure:

Paint after 438k ly:

I skipped to the Outer Orion Arms without the minimum effort. After having experienced the starless void between the outer arms, the gap between the inner arms is almost unnoticeable.

My only priority right now is keeping the finger on the Heat Sink trigger and spam it generously at the first sign of trouble.

As if I had jinxed myself by voicing my worries earlier, I have landed between binary stars six times only in the last day, which is pretty much twice as many times as the rest of the voyage.

I mean, come on.

Good news is, I’m now 11000 light years from the Bubble, which is pretty damn close in the context of a 400k light years loop around the galaxy.

In fact, close enough for me to set up the route directly to Shinrarta Dezra. Just 180 jumps from home!