April 28th, 3304

It's been a full week since I left the Conflux Beta Settlement behind and since doing so there've been no odd happenings with the ship or with travel through Witch Space... sleepless nights are gone as well. The remaining Conflux sites were rather uninteresting when compared to the Beta Site; for as much trouble as it caused it never stopped being interesting. Before checking out my first Guardian site I headed to Sacaqawea Space Port for some minor resupply, have the FSD system double-checked, and most importantly to walk amongst people again. Sacaqawea port may be in a relatively uninteresting system but the view it offers of the gas giant it accompanies is breathtaking.

While there are countless reasons to avoid crowded spaceports I have found that I actually look forward to the noise, the open spaces more cramped than any ship, the daily human drama that unfolds, and the innumerable smells. Being surrounded by thousands of people all with their own unique smells combining with the food dishes from a hundred different cultures may not seem to enticing, but compared to the sterilized air that is pumped out from the ship's recyclers it's a welcome assault on my olfactory. The artificial aromas that can be added to any modern air recycler via gel-packs are always an option but they are really more meant for the chronic vacationers who like the IDEA of space so long as they can retreat to their earth-bound dwellings afterward.

The stop at Sacaqawea also gave Virg a chance to get his feet on the ground for couple days. The odd events surrounding the Beta site created an unease in Virg that was evident through his nervous twitching, pacing throughout the ship, and mindless tapping on the co-pilot's controls; the journey so far has proven to be more strenuous on him then he, or I for that matter, had anticipated and it was showing. It's an odd thing really, even for those who grew up in orbital stations there's an instinctual comfort found in being in a planet-based station that you just can't find from an orbital one. Even with gravity lower than that of orbital coriolis stations and the hard vacuum outside, the station having an entire planet beneath your feat offers more comfort than a hunk of metal spinning in space. I didn't see much of Virg for the two days we were on the station say for a few comm-links to see if I needed anything from the ship as he dropped off, what I assume to be, more terrible coffee varieties to experiment with.

After spending most of a day basking in the simple presence of others I tried some local delicacies and stocked up on what few fresh food items I could find. With human civilization now spanning thousands of star systems and the ability to travel dozens of light years in an instant, food transport to remote stations is still limited; the profit is minimal and the risks are high compared to the well-established trade routes so the suppliers are relatively few. Same goes for alcohol, actually: it's far cheaper to just make the stuff vs. having it brought in. The few bars in the station have a relatively limited selection to work with and unless one pays for exclusive rights to a particular supplier, their offerings only differ in what wildly overpriced off-world options they might have available. A few of the local offerings were palatable but I found myself far more interested in my own supply back on the ship which, on this station, would fetch a small fortune.

The diagnostics that were run on the FSD system came back clean, with the only alerts being directly related to the numerous Neutron Star boosts that we performed. The first boost of this kinda that a pilot does is probably the scariest maneuver they'll ever perform in their life, but once you get the process down you can shave thousands, even tens-of-thousands of light years off longer journeys through the galaxy. If one wants to move up the ranks in the Pilots Federation the maneuver is practically a requirement with many high-paying missions to the Colonia region not even being possible to complete without it; but all the benefits of riding the pulsars generated Neutron Stars comes with a price: Significant wear on one's FSD systems. The auto-repair units are generally able to take care of most of this type of wear but periodically artifact from such extreme radiation cause havoc with even the most robust military-grade systems. Honestly I knew the results that would be generated by the station's diagnostic systems before they were even started, that nothing was wrong, and while that gives me confidence for the journey ahead, it makes our experiences at the Beta Site that much more unnerving.

Our next stop is the Skaudai AM-B d14-138 system which contains various sites with Guardian ruins; ruins well researched at this point and with no stories of ghosts, strange lights in Witch Space or any other oddities. I've heard that the sites actually still have active ruins that will respond to scans, almost as if they are scanning back. Regardless, this is one of the few destinations that I can say both Virg and I are excited to find. While the sites themselves have been well researched, the coordinates are not easy to come by with the Pilot's Federation not even offering them up; any commander that wants to visit needs to find someone who already has or, in my case, hire a co-pilot that happens to have a sketchy relative.

April 21st, 3304

I had a terrible night's rest. At first the excitement of learning what data might be recovered the next morning kept me restless, however as soon as I was finally on the edge of sleep I could have sworn I heard the far-end of the ship very quietly creaking which... shouldn't happen. I've only ever experienced this in Space Dock or on a high-g world and so with Virg in his quarters next to mine, little gravity, and no atmosphere outside I couldn't for the life of me understand how this would happen. The ship was used and bare-bones when I purchased it, sure, but it's had a full overhaul and may as well have been new at this point. The air and water recycling systems have very specific and recognizable clicks and hums that accompany their automated processes and the FSD was powered down for the night to conserve fuel. Whatever it might be was a problem for the morning so I had the computer pump some static into the room's audio system and finally got some rest.

The frustrating lack of sleep was exacerbated when I woke to find that the data logs were still being recovered. The ships computer had a harder time recovering the data and was estimating another 7 hours before it was completed. To further test my patience, the FSD, which had just received regular maintenance in Rohini, was refusing to stay online. After multiple reboots I had the AFMU take a stab at it but it continually reported that there was nothing to fix so that meant it was time for a hands-on approach. With some help from Virg we were finally able to get the FSD back online, though we ultimately don't know what fixed it. Every part we pulled tested as working and after about 7 hours, a reboot brought it back online like nothing had ever been malfunctioning. Convenient, since the ship's computer had finally recovered the data from the corrupted logs... I wish it hadn't.

The recovered log was... eerie. After the settlement had been established there was periodic travel to the other settlements and surrounding systems for various raw materials and supplies and nearly every return trip to the Beta Site's system was accompanied with unexplained malfunctions and weird lights in Witch Space. A few of the residents attributed this to a unique form of radiation in the system, despite their sensors not picking any up. One of the researchers surmised that there was some connection to another dimension but he was considered to be eccentric and was mostly ignored. Most residents were fine with the idea of this area of space simply being unique and didn't require a further explanation.

Shortly before the settlement was abandoned, the Witch Space lights started appearing in outgoing FSD jumps, with some residents claiming that they were even being followed for multiple jumps. Whatever it was, they ultimately didn't stick around long enough to find out; and neither did I. I'm not educated in the sciences nearly enough to explain all the odd experiences both Virg and I had while in this system but to be honest, I don't know that anyone is. We left the settlement not long after reading the recovered log entries and pointed toward the next Conflux settlements which are better traveled and don't have creepy stories to go along with them. From there we'll head over to Sacaqawea Spaceport in the Skaudai CH-B d14-34 system and then to the nearby Guardian ruins.

The one plus side to visiting the creepy Beta site is that a data collector in Colonia is willing to give me 8 million credits for the newly discovered log I found which is a mind-boggling amount of money for some simple log entries... Still, I'll take it. Goodbye Creepy Beta Site, I hope we never meet again.

April 20th, 3304

I've heard story's about the Conflux region; some stories about the brave men and women and their efforts to expand the reach of humanity, some stories about secret initiatives to find ancient technology, but most stories come off as tall-tales with the most popular ones being ghost stories. The Conflux Settlements are in relatively uninteresting star systems where beacons could be tucked away so as to not get too much attention while still being not impossible to find. As eerie as the abandoned settlements were, I mostly just found the sites to be fascinating in what they represented and how they ended up. Most of the settlements' previous residents left little if anything behind, but some interesting logs left by residents who wanted to leave evidence of their efforts. Most of the logs spoke about the challenges of the journey; standard documentary stuff but not much to write home about. That is, until the Beta site.

The Beta Site left an impression on me that I wasn't expecting. The buildings themselves were the standard ones you'd find on any settlement; it wasn't the destination that spooked me but the final couple jumps into the system of PRU AESCS HW-S B31-2. FSD Jumps are all pretty standard these days with distance having little effect on the travel time of each jump, but my jump into the Beta Settlement's system was different, lasting several minutes vs. several seconds. Fearing a malfunction I rebooted the FSD drive and ran diagnostics only to find no errors recorded. I chalked-it up to a glitch due to the engineering performed on the drive and continued onto the Beta site. While in Super Cruise I could swear I saw small white lights flying around me but the sensors weren't seeing anything; space is weird at times, so I again thought nothing of it... I've seen weirder.

I spent a couple hours driving around the Beta Settlement and ended up stumbling across some records left behind by a previous resident; being able to learn some of the history around these types of sites is a huge bonus for me so I was excited to find them. These settlements are relatively well known and the SRV tracks around each location indicate they see a number of visitors each year. I felt I stumbled across quite a lucky find then because these records had been buried, only becoming visible after I bumped into an out-building while gawking the view of the night sky; my clumsiness had finally rewarded me! I brought the records back on board the Achilles' Serpent as the lack of an atmosphere causes havoc to storage media when left unprotected for years under the harsh radiation of space and as such, the records were quite corrupted. The ship's computer estimated 11hrs to fully recover the data, so I took this as an opportunity to turn in for the day.

April 17th, 3304

We've arrived in the Rohini system and I'm happy to say that the Achilles Serpent handled the 7500ly journey very well. With the significant amount of experimental engineering done to maximize the ships jump distance, the significant modifications to most of the ship's primary systems initially raised concerns about reliability but my concerns seem to have been unnecessary. The first leg of this expedition wasn't particularly long but with a few unexpected drops out of Supercruise and a couple bumpy landings resulted in some minor scrapes. All the better then, that we have the opportunity to stop at Eudaemon Anchorage for minor repairs.

The rest stop was welcome for other reasons as well; having done a solo-run to Colonia previously and having over 100,000ly worth of travel under my belt, mostly alone, I've gotten comfortable finding ways to keep myself busy, though I can't say the same for Virgilio. It occurred to me after leaving Jameson Memorial that he aside from a singular trip out to Ceos he hadn't been outside the bubble until he came to be employed by me. More seriously, it also occurred to me that I neglected to bring along provisions for my own coffee so I've been having to rely on Virgilio's coffee to get by; a coffee that can best be described as... experimental.

Speaking of Virgilio, or Virg and he prefers to be called, I've been growing concerned that this expedition may test his patience more than he anticipated. Prior to working for me he had only done short-haul transports in the bubble but after his divorce he decided to give fighter-pilot work a try; something his wife would never have allowed. While his starting price and overall demeanor (did I mention starting price?) are what caught my attention initially, he has proven his worth by growing his piloting skills to a point where he's surpassed me in just under a year's time; he's also pretty damn hilarious.

After a few days on-station here my next destination is one of the abandoned Conflux Settlements in the Pru Aescs HW-S b31-2 system. I've always been fascinated with the efforts of humans and our drive to push our limitations but sometimes we expand with too much ambition and too little thought and these ghost-towns are the result. Interesting destinations may be my excuse for this Expedition, but what really drives me to head into the unknown is the unexpected beauty offered by the universe.

April 14th, 3304

Today marks the start of my 3rd personal expedition; I'll be leaving Jameson Memorial station with a quick stop in CD-33 8748 to turn in misc. bounties and then it's out into the void. While this won't be the first time out to the Colonia region it will be the first time I'm not alone in doing so with a pilot-for-hire accompanying me this time around; will be nice to have someone to talk to.

My first trip to the Colonia region was in my trusty ASPiring Beefpile (ASP Explorer) and the trip served as a lesson that I hadn't quite prepared for the journey as well as I thought I had. While the ship made the journey to Colonia in one piece the wear on the FSD led to regular malfunctions after about 10,000ly of travel (less than half the distance I needed to travel). My excitement to explore led to poor planning and leaving The Bubble without an AFMU; nothing like rebooting the FSD every few jumps on the home-stretch... Expedition #3 was a chance for me to explore even further and, most importantly, do it right.

As reliable as the 'Beefpile is, it's limited size meant limited options for long-term exploration if I wanted to keep all the exploratory splurges like 45ly+ Jump Ranges, a Planetary Rover, and it completely eliminated the option of a fighter-hanger for fun in planetary rings and canyons. With all that in mind an Anaconda was all that would do. The challenge with purchasing a ship like an Anaconda, however, is that properly equipping one is expensive, and properly engineering it for maximum jump distance is incredibly time-consuming.

A fellow commander tipped me off on to a significantly discounted Anaconda at a Li Yong-Rui controlled system to help me get my start. The ship was stripped down and had already seen tens-of-thousands of light years in it's history but I wasn't going to be keeping any of it's equipment anyway. After spending the better part of a year purchasing the best equipment for the job and getting in the good-graces of a number of the galaxy's best engineers; the Achilles' Serpent was ready for her maiden Expedition. With the addition of way-point stations now populating the route to Colonia I expect the trip there will be significantly more relaxed with numerous opportunities to perform maintenance.

I've set my destination to the Rohini system and start my journey.