Two days ago while I was in the Cocoyet system I received a tip off:

We've heard about a crash site with a reported treasure trove of cargo canisters. But the real prize is the ship's data core. Our contact mentioned that a recovery crew is scheduled to be sent out in a couple of weeks. So you have until then to scan the core and pick up the data.

You'll find the site at Lat: 5.19, Lon: 143.15. on the surface of Pleiades Sector IH-V c2-16 D 2 in the Pleiades Sector IH-V c2-16 system. You'll need the encryption key for the data core, so I've uploaded it to your ship's systems.

When I got there the site was in darkness:

The site is private, and entering incurred a 1000Cr bounty. I found the Crew Log message:

I know they say space travel is a lonely business, but nothing prepares you for being totally alone like this. No comms, no ships. What I wouldn't give to hear another person's voice right now.

Very sad, but worth 1.5MCr.

As I was leaving the system to visit the nearest Interstellar Factor (in Maia) I got jumped by some locals:

Thankfully, they just scanned me and moved on.

The site is persistant (edit: no, it isn't - it has since been 'cleaned up' and is no longer there), so the next day I was able to return to the tip off site and found the local star had risen, giving a much better view of it:

One of the last Guardian items to unlock were the vessels (ship-launched fighters). I found a beacon in the Codex in the HIP 36823 system. When I got there I found an amazing view of the nearby gas giant and local star blurred out by the clouds surrounding the beacon:

To minimise time travelling around, I have been visiting the Guardian Technology Broker in Synuefe EN-H d11-96. It's possible to unlock all the vessels and the small weapons with only Guardian materials. Unlocking modules and larger weapons requires extra commodities found only in the bubble. By unlocking as much as possible while out in Guardian space, it's possible to load up enough Guardian materials to unlock the rest when you get back to the bubble without needed to fly back out.

I'd landed at the Guardian Structure on Synuefe EU-Q c21-10 A 3 while it was dark. I'd done a couple of 'loops' collecting materials and weapon blueprints. Suddenly, the whole site lit up with glowing clouds of mist! It was the local sunrise. Sunrise/sunset is the best time for surface mists to show. The next time I activated the data link, I took a photo:

The final unlock of the Human Tech Broker was the Enzyme Missile Rack. That required some Thargoid materials, so I used the galaxy map to locate a Thargoid Civilization system close-ish to the bubble. Once at the system I proceeded to scan the landable bodies and found the site on Aries Dark Region IM-V c2-5 12 a.

I spent an hour or so there killing Scavengers and scooping up the bits. That was plenty to unlock the missile.

Now it's back to a Guardian site and collect materials and blueprints.

For the last few weeks I've been pottering around the bubble. First unlocking the Guardian FSD Booster, then doing some Federation and Empire rank, then unlocking access to most of the permit-locked systems.

Right now I'm working on unlocking the various Human Tech Broker items. I needed some Technetium and Eta-1 Pictoris 1 happened to be close by. While gathering materials at one of the geological sites I noticed that Eta-1 Pictoris 2 was silhouetted by the galactic clouds.

Next will be to return to the Guardian sites and gather what I need to unlock those items.

A week ago I set out from the Bubble on a bit of a multi-purpose expedition.

One objective was to meet the 5000Ly requirement to unlock Professor Palin and Chloe Sedesi.

A second objective was to see what EDSM badges might be able to be unlocked at the same time.

I decided that unlocking the Formidine Rifter badge would be suitable, and so I searched the Galaxy Map to find the closest "Eafots" system to the bubble. I found Eafots RD-U b58-2 - a bit over 7100Ly from Sol.

After flying for a week, I've arrived on Eafots RD-U b58-2 5 a with a view in the direction of Sol (approximate position arrowed).

The Python has a 35.73Ly range, which isn't huge, but a lot more than the Asp Explorer my main account flew to Beagle Point for Distant Worlds.

I haven't been rushing. I've been keeping an eye on the EDSM Dashboard while I travel, scanning systems and mapping anything green (high value) that turns up. According to the EDSM Dashboard, I have over 200MCr of exploration data pending. The closest station is in the Heart Nebula, about 400Ly away. I plan to sell some data there and at the station in the Soul Nebula, before heading back to the Bubble. I'll be returning via the Pleiades since I need 50 Sensor Fragments for Palin and Chloe.

I was doing some prospecting on Gliese 3095 B 1. On visting "Geological (5)" I found a system of canyons that demanded driving:

The canyons are deep, narrow, and have smooth floors - it's a really nice relaxing drive.

When I was done driving, I returned to the Geological site and found another beautiful screenshot:

For a change of pace I decided to get a Guardian FSD Booster. I picked a site that was in the Codex: IC 2391 Sector HG-X b1-8 C 2.

Naturally, this particular site gives out vessel (SLF) blueprints, not the module blueprint I was looking for. Still, it made for a nice screenshot and I picked up all the materials that were available.

Canonn Research provided the answers I needed, and I found a nearby system for a module blueprints.

Once I'd collected the minimum requirements to unlock the FSD booster, I finished up by completing the Ram Tah Mission : Decoding the Ancient Ruins and picking up the 111MCr payout. I won't bother with the other Ram Tah mission - too much hassle right now collecting the various tissue samples.

For this run through the mission, I filled the Obelisk Data buckets for Alpha, Beta and Gamma types, 129/150 Delta and 114/150 Epsilon. That's exactly enough Epsilon Data to unlock all the Guardian modules and more than enough of the other required data types.

Still unlocking engineers. This time, just doing trades here and there to unlock Lei Chung and then Ram Tah. I'm fairly sure Ram Tah needs to be unlocked before I can get the Guardian missions, assuming they're still a thing.

I noticed I was just a few jumps away from Upaniklis where the generation ship "The Golconda" was recently found.

I'm now flying a Python. I just didn't like the feel of the Krait. Then I tried an Anaconda and liked that even less. Somehow, the Python just feels right.

It's weird. Lots of people moan about how hard Modular Terminals for Marco Qwent are to find.

I'm currently in the process of unlocking engineers. I've already got Felicity and Elvira; today was Marco's turn. Once I'd allied with Sirius Corp and done the invite mission, I needed to find 25 Modular Terminals for the final unlock.

In the same station that was the destination for the invite mission, I perused the Mission Board looking for missions with Modular Terminals as a reward. The first one I found was a data delivery mission for 6 Modular Terminals. Easy! The next one was a pirate massacre mission for 20(!) Modular Terminals. How many kills? Two.

And so just like that I got 26 Modular Terminals from two missions from the same station I got the invite.

Grind? What grind?