I went on. Another 10k ly to go. when I left the exit of the crossing.

I am now about 3k ly away from Beagle Point. Navigation is tricky and the onboard route plotter unreliable. The online route plotter as well. I am trying to find a hybrid approach to manual and automatic plotting. Stars are far apart in these remote areas of our galaxy and my limited jump range does not help.

I received a note from another commander in which he outlines an approach to Beagle Point for ships wit a lower jump range. I will have to get to the entrance point of that route.

I am planning to arrive at Beagle Point by either Friday or this weekend.

I am already planning my trip back. I landed on several moons during my overnight stays, on which I could stock up on jumponium materials. I am up to 127 charges for L1 and 2, and 40 charges for L3 jumps. This shoudl enable me to use the Smugglers Route 33 on my way back, cutting back on travel time significantly.

I am planning a direct shot towards Explorers Anchorage. I will offload my scan data there and then slowly make my way towards the bubble. I will probably bypass Colonia and make my way straight to the docking port of my Asp Explorer.

I caught myself one night flicking through the pages of the ship catalogues and determined, after playing around with a fitting simulator, that I will exchange my explorer for a Krait MK II. I will then talk to my friend Felicity to see if she can supercharge my FSD and I will visit some Guardian sites to get materials for a Guardian hybrid power plant and a Guardian FSD jump extender. This shoudl give me a great ship with about 55 ly jump range, ideal for deep space explorations like this one. I sometimes regret that I did not do this BEFORE going onto Distant Worlds 2, but I had a great time in Colonia and was too lazy getting back to the bubble for that. And I had my short fling with Tracy from the flight control office at Jaques Station. She was quite a handful but fun to have around. I am very sad that she got transferred to a megaship with too high of a clearance requirement for me to visit in the area. ....or did she just make that up? I am wondering now...deep space lets you think about those things. And it is pretty quiet in my ship at my current rest stop. I can sometimes hear the rumbling of the near volcanic vents, but this is a welcome change to the regular spin up of the CO2 scrubbers.

Let's see if I have the drive to continue tonight. I will otherwise just take a day off from "honk-jumping".

I made it. I went already over half way through the Roncevaux Crossing and am only 114 jumps away from the exit at the Sublustris Beacon.

This was a major, and unplanned, detour, but totally worth. The route computer was able to plot the route to the end of the crossing. I officially made it into the Sigittarius-Carina Arm of the galaxy.

I really need some shut eye. Will get some good rest and continue my journey to the exit of the crossing tomorrow.

DW2 Expedition: I am back on track!

I made great progress when heading towards Beagle Popint until I got to plot the next leg between two neutron stars to Eowrairks LF-A d0. The automatic plotter failed. I had already plotted a detour to a previous section to get there but it failed this time saying that I do not have the jump range required.

I knew that my T-10 is not a long jumper, but my plotter was giving me a connection in that leg. Well, I realized that the plotter is becoming more unreliable in the far reaches of space that I am currently exploring.

I tried to gap the leg with ingenuity but hit two dead ends with stars too far away to get there even with a jumponium injection.

I was bummed out. I sat for some time in my pilot chair, trying to figure out where to go. I contacted several pilots on the expedition to get their input and some recommended the smugglers route 33, but I do have much less jump range than 33 ly.

I did further research, using the data relays from my fellow explorer buddies.

The only crossing available for me is the Roncevaux Crossing for ships of 29 ly range. This would mean a more than 20,000 ly detour.

I spent several days in my bunk and the crew chambers to think about it. Some comments from fellow pilots said that I should try route 33, but I do not want to risk to get into the next dead end.

So I plotted the course to the entry to the Roncevaux Crossing. Over 400 jumps.

I started last Wednesday and finally arrived at the gates today. I will now make my way through the crossing, following the instructions from a fellow pioneer Cmdr Wishblend. Let's see if I will make it. I already plotted the course from the exit of the crossing to Beagle Point. Another 360 jumps.

I stopped over night on a planet with a higher Germanium and Polonium level. I was able to increase my jumponium storage to 90 jumps with level 1 and 2 and 38 for L3. This gives me some assurance that I will make it. I will check some Germanium rich planets on the way back to attempt a crossing over the smugglers route 33 on the way back. A L1 jumponium injection into my FSD will be able to let me jump 36 ly, enough for that route.

Well, off we go. Roncevaux Crossing, here I come!

Wow, I did not think I will get here one day. At least not with a ship of that low jump range, but I am happy I got myself up for the challenge. I got up the morning. Everything quiet in the ship. The oxygen reclaiming system and CO2 scrubbers were humming far away in the belly of my T-10. No other sound.

I went up to the cockpit to have a look around. I can see landing gear indents in the area 100 meters off my left. Someone must have touched down and left again when I was asleep.

I checked the systems. I am low on AFMU charges but can synthesize some more in an instant.

This moon is amazing. It looks exactly like Earth's moon on a photo I saw in the archives, when over 1300 years ago man made his first voyage onto a different stellar object in a tiny capsule. They looked back towards Earth and shot a photo. The moon Smootoae QY-S d3-202 3 a gives you the same impression. The colours are the same and it orbits a high metal content world, a shiny blue planet. I remember that I read about another scientist, Dr. Carl Sagan, who managed to get the space agency of that time to swing around the probe Voyager to shoot a photo of Earth. He called it "the pale blue dot". I wish he could be out with us on Distant Worlds 2 and see how far mankind came and how right he was that there are other species populating our galaxy.

Anyway. I need to get the systems up and running and start my last leg towards Beagle Point. About 450 jumps and I will get there. I plotted a route for my short jump range and will also visit a planet with alien life forms. The codex speaks of one and I will confirm that they are there.

I already pondered, what to do after reaching Beagle Point. I will probably get back to civilization: first Explorer's Anchorage and then following either DW2 to the bubble or taking the neutron highway.

Probably DW2 to REALLY do every waypoint.

Anyway, time to get moving. Long day ahead. Coffee is ready and I will have to go through the system logs to make sure that CSS Tough Cookie is up for the challenge of the last leg.

It has been a while. The log computer had an issue and I did not bother fixing it right away. I have to take care of other things at the moment; primarily keeping up with the Distant Worlds 2 fleet. My sweet ride, CSS Tough Cookie, has a whopping 28.99 ly jump range after I threw out most of the stuff I grew accustomed to. And I am really proud of the .99 at the end! But I am flying with commanders with triple that jump range and that keeps me busy. And I always love to get distracted on "shiny things", especially blips from water worlds and earthlikes on my FSS. I am doing my good old tradition of jumping into a system, honking while scooping and then jumping out to the next one, but I cannot stop my twitch entering the FSS when I read that there are over 20 objects detected after a honk. There must be a water world in there, or an ammonia world... Anyway, trips get long. Pulled a recent log and saw that I jumped in 14 days 433 times and crossed a distance of 19,195 ly. Whew! But I saw incredible things! Being out in the black is what I longed for while sitting in that dirty bar on Jaques Station, waiting for my call to another exploration trip. I approached and flew through the Magnus Nebula, an impressive side this side of the galactic core. I stood with my SRV among a sky which showed the whole galaxy above me when I went to Hades Edge, 3000 ly above the galactic plane. I jumped into triple white blue star systems with amazing views or flew over rings around a water world, dipping into the asteroids and flying through the haze, dodging large rocks. This is what exploration is all about. Yes, my skills to take shots of those scenes need improvement, but I am doing my best. CSS Tough Cookie is doing fine. I will have to recharge my AFMU soon. Went out to hunt for Zinc near some volcanic geysers yesterday and almost got lost in the canyons around the landing site. Well, I found my way back and my SRV did make it with 50% hull left. Whew! I will get some good nights sleep in this canyon for now and will head on towards waypoint 11 tonight. My food rations do well as well. Good that I brought a few tons of food. About 3900 ly to go for waypoint 11. And I heard from commanders that made it to that waypoint, that it is only 13,000 ly left to Beagle Point. Soooo close! Wish me luck!

I jumped for several hours last night and the new systems worked like a charm. I developed a new way of refueling while jumping from Neutron star to Neutron star (I like the center of the galaxy). The trick is to either refuel at a star in orbit around the neutron, or to pick a system with a scoop-able planet next to the target neutron star when on route and when the tank is almost empty. Many explorers are probably running the same routine for years but I just stumbled over it. I did find a nice, small planet circling a red dwarf, for the night. The uneven terrain made it hard to find a proper place to put this T-10 down. But I managed. CSS Tough Cookie will always find a spot, even if circling might take some time.

I got up this morning, did a round around the ship in the SRV to check for damages . Nothing to report.

The trip to WP6 was uneventful. I tuned into the other explorers chatter and it kept me company, so much so, that it once distracted me and I came close to running out of gas. I was lucky that the next scoop-able star was still in reach. The neutron star system had no other sun. I better pay more attention next time. I tested the limits of my Jump Drive and found out that it starts to fail at 80%. I also tested the synthesizing of AFMU charges. I never knew how many of those charges are getting refilled when running a manufacturing run. I am happy to see that it completely refills the charges. I have still enough materials for many refills. It will bring me safely to Beagle Point (unless the AFMU fails).

I approached the meetup area announced by DW2 staff and found the hot vents in a canyon, but the ground seemed to be trippy. I did not want to risk my ship and the gathered exploration data, and landed on the edge of the canyon.

Looking up to my ship is quite impressive. The surroundings are tinted in dark black, because the dominant star in this system is far away. But he galaxy over the horizon is just beautiful.

WP6 is above the galactic plane. Not very far but you can still see the field of stars lighting up against the sharp black edge of the upper layer. Those are the moments that make me love exploration and coming out here.

I hope to see a few of my DW2 colleagues soon. Nobody in the canyon tonight. Official arrival is 22. I am early.

Some explorers went ahead to a new station near Sag A*, called Explorers Anchorage. The station was just constructed for our exploration. It is probably held together with duct tape and bubblegum, but it is enough to be a home for a short while.

I might head out there sooner than later. A bit over 5k LY to go. The Black will have me back soon.

The morning at Colonia Hub was cold and damp. The air filters must have clogged up again. I looked at my desk with the papers full of scribbels from my last night route planning to join the Distant Worlds 2 Explorer fleet. Yes, paper. I am an old fashioned guy, although most of the planning was done in the trip route planning system. The cold had postponed my launch date and I missed the fleet at waypoint 5. WP 6 was much further away but I had to catch up. That was the closest to Colonia it will ever get. My initial plan to directly fly to Sagittarius A was dropped after I saw WP5. I had now missed that opportunity. WP 5 was just around the corner. CSS Tough Cookie was as ready as it could be. I had overhauled everything in the last year when preparing for my trip alone out into the dark. I had been very happy when I learned that Distant Worlds 2 will also visit Sag A and Beagle Point, which were my destinations for my own expedition as well. I had the opportunity to join them in Sag A* and have some company on the long trip to the edge of the galaxy. Ok, get up and get into the cockpit. I jolted up. I had packed most stuff already and the ship was fueled and repaired. I did not spring the cash for the paint job, though. I call them "explorer scars". :) How nice it felt to feel the spin up of the engines underneath my feet. The ship came to life and Colonia Hub dropped away underneath us. I selected my first bookmarked system and hit the booster. Good bye civilisation. I will be back. One day in the far future.

Man, what a short night it was. The commander who rented the bunk next door had some female visitors and went at them the whole night. I packed my stuff and wandered back into the CSS Tough Cookie. My shiny T-10 got a few repairs but it was way more quiet than next to this guy in the "Lonely Drifter" hotel here on the Dove Enigma. I ran a few system checks while Bill finished the repairs. He was cheery even though he ran the night shift. But who knows out here when night is anyway, especially with the Dove circling around a brown dwarf star. "Time for a few hours shut eye", I thought and got into my bunk. The Dove Enigma landing system was busy because someone thought that starting a community goal involving the Dove would be a great idea last night, but I was too tired to stay up. What a wonderful, almost narcotic sleep I had. I really needed that after the few days of collecting materials. I checked my material lockers after getting up and noticed that I was low on Arsenic and Zinc, necessary for AFM refills and the FSD injection. Lucky me that a friendly commander told me that there is a loaded planet in a system close by. The third planet in Eol Prou LW-L c8-16 turned out to be my gold mine. Well, rather a Zinc and Arsenic mine. The surface looked smooth and reddish beige on approach. I set down in an area between the two pigments and dismissed my T-10. I found outcrops and mesosiderites full of great materials. The surface was indeed much smoother than on the first planet in that system, which already gave me several units of Polonium. All this to prepare my material lockers for a great trip into the dark. Galnet was blabbering about new Guardian sites and Thargoid attacks. Sometimes I wonder if the war will be over once I return to the bubble. I don't mind. It would be nice to have an engineer for my FSD in a local system but I will be fine with a load of Jumponium and my current range. Just need to run a few tests on my AFM refill synthesis before I can head out into the black. I calculated that I need to run a few more trips to Eol Prou LW-L c8-16, but should be on my merry way towards the center of the galaxy quite soon. Oh how I miss to be out in the black. "Soon", I said to myself, "soon".