Feb 1 3305

The last weeks have been busy. Since I had made up my mind to join the second Distant Worlds Expedition, many a thing needed to be done and cared for.

Most of my fleet is stowed away in secure hangars. These ships won't be sseing the stars for several months. Insurances paid in advance, tanks filled and precharged.

I liquidated some of my properties to have necessary funding for the modifications on my trusty Conda, The Hydra. Stripping down this battle hardened tank somehow felt wrong, as if you're stealing from an old friend. But if I'm going on a 200.000 lightyear expedition, she's the one I want to be at my side.

And turning the fat lady into a marathon runner would require putting her on a serious diet. Hull reinforcements had to go, along with all weapons and hunting equipment. Everything that wasn't needed for jumping either got torn out completely, or replaced with D-rated modules. Next up was downsizing. I paid one of the engineers to boost a too small powerplant from a cobra, to squeeze just enough juice out to run on the Conda. At the same time everything on the ship was tuned for efficiency and low weight. Added one of those new alien FSD Boosters for good measure.

Once done, the old lady was almost one of those fabled one-jump-wonders. 80LY per jump.

Now back to adding in necessities for a long exploration trip. I'll need an SRV for some surface action to stretch my legs. Well, let's take four of them. You never know, and there is no service station at beagle point. Speaking of which.. better pack a few repair limpets, and a large Field Maintenance Service Unit. And a small hangar with 6 pocket fighters for the occasional canyon run.

While the engineers were working on all this, I got in contact with the rats. They're good people, but I never spent much time with them. This was about to change. My life was taking a serious turn here, and they would be part of that. The billions I made in my carreer... what were they really doing, other than producing interest and buying new ships. But these guys made a difference. They went above and beyond to keep others alife. Others like me, when I was younger and inexperienced. I spent two weeks with them, getting trained on their values, their procedures, their parties.. I was determined to become one of them, and they were willing to accept me. It took a bit getting used to not running things like I always did, but working as part of a team again. But it seemd to work out, and I'm honored to call them my friends now.

Go figure... the billionaire who's happy to be called a rat.

Today is the day.

It's been a while since I lost everything when I slammed my Conda into the ground.

Now I'm back. My new Anaconda is fully equipped, and I just swapped most of my internals for corrosion resitant cargo pods. Palin needs Alien Resin for his weird studies, and as luck will have it, a crashed new kind of alien ship was just discovered in the vicinity of Maia. That stuff is toxis as hell, but Palin pays well and this last run just pushed me over the edge.

The Billion. I never dreamed of finding such a number in my credit account.

• Current Ship: The Hydra
• Type: Anaconda
• Situation: Upgrading

Upon arrival at Planet A5 of Hyades Sector DR-V c2-23, scans showed no radio beacons and our calls down to the surface remained unanswered. The coordinates and description we got from the dock worker prooved to be correct. Carefully circling the 15km high monolithic mountain, we could spot the mining settlement nested near it's apron at 44.8 / -31.4

The site feels much like one of those earthern american-western villages from the 1800s, that I've seen in old 2D movies as a child. But devoid of life, it's a ghost town.

We found half a dozen data cores that, albeit fragmented, tell of the last hours of the settlement. Some major earthquakes made the planet too unsafe to mine, and the corporation finally pulled the plug. But when they did, they did it hastly and with no regard to their workers well being. Appearantly the dead bodies of some mining crews still lay in wait for rescue in the caved in tunnels. We left the full data on the planet for those who venture there after us.

However, we found the chemical manipulators we came for. And since there is no one around to claim ownership of those, we got them for free. This trip gave us enough materials to pay a visit to Elvira and ask her for a nice Grade-5 upgrade for our FSD.

• Current Ship: The Wanderer
• Type: Asp Explorer
• Situation: Exploration

Today we reached the cave nebula, marking the edge of the Orion Spur... -Our on-ramp to the neutron star highway.

I'm scanning the star map for as many neutron signatures as I can find. Discovered a Carbon Star and a Wolf-Rayet that we're going to pay a visit to for the passengers amusement. Last stop before dropping them off at Sothis should be Nebula LBN 623. I've heard a lot about it's purple glow.

We're repairing all systems before flying into the stars twirling jet. 2,000 lightyears off neutron hopping will take its tall on the ship, but everyone is eager to get home.

• Current Ship: The Wanderer
• Type: Asp Explorer
• Situation: Exploration

After leaving The Wayfarers Graveyard, we headed into the Orio-Persean Gap, roughly aiming for the Coal Sack and it's neighbouring nebulas. The wonderful white-blue glowing pearl necklace of Nebula NGC 7822 cought my eye, so we decided to take the detour upwards.

As we dove deeper into the gap, the stars became more sparse. With the distance between them stretching, the flight path became more and more eratic, guiding us into all possible directions, but not any closer to the nebula. The 32LJ jump capabilities of The Wanderer, my trusty Asp Explorer just were not enough to get us there from this side of the Disk. It is tempting to try to reach one of the closer neutron stars and make a supercharged jump into the Nebula... but everyone on board knows that there likely isn't enough jumponium on board to bring us back.

• Current Ship: The Wanderer
• Type: Asp Explorer
• Situation: Exploration

After visiting Altera's Eye, and the Sagan Class Tourist Ship, I'm beginning my way home. Still 5900 LJ from Sol, I'm scanning some of the ultra rare O-class Giants on the far side of 'The Wayfarers Graveyard' and found a 3G landable Planet. 100% metal. Very high rare material concentration. With metal rich rings. Bathing in beautiful deep purple light, 2MASS JO2333009+6128540 is quite a place to visit.

• Current Ship: NONE
• Type: Sidewinder
• Situation: stranded

Flying the Anaconda is really a step up from the Python in every way. This ship is massive. And when you're sitting on the bridge, watching over your deck, you know you've made it. Of course it also handles like the bulky ship it is. When you step off the throttle, the 400 to 900 tons keep dragging you forward for a mile.. Better get some upgrades for that. Guess what ? The price tags on those little extras are also massive.

Imagine the joy when the money was earned to buy the last missing piece, the large 8A power plant. We headed to the nearest system selling one, had it installed and, with our last money, bought some trading goods to get us back into the green as soon as possible. With the ship now worth just shy of 500 million credits, on the way to a decent seller market, the decision was made to pay a visit to the engineers on the way there.

Now.. gravity on this planet was quite a bit higher than expected.. and not yet fully accustomed to the massive inertia of this ship, once we realized we're coming in way too fast, the Conda was beyond any point we could have pulled her out of the fall.

The escape system fired and shot us out just in time before the ship that was everything I owned dug a hole into the craterside and turnd into a heap of scrap metal.

The settlement was near by and we made it inside safely. Instantly filing an insurance claim, I now realized what I had done. Putting all my cash into the last upgrade and a bit of cargo, I had no money left to pay my share of the damage claim. None of the haggling, cursing and pleaing helped. Insurance company had a field day, and my life was ruined.

They gave me a Sidewinder to make my way home. And one that was barely able to jump more than a lightyear at that.

Back to square one.