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Nom du commandant :
Vaisseau actuel :
CSS Celestra [KP-47X]
(Krait Phantom)
 
Membre depuis le :
20 déc. 2016
 
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0
 
Systèmes visités :
8 966
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3 388
The Abyss...again!

Well, well, well. The fracking logbook was broken again and they had to ship in parts. Anyway.

The Odyssey Galactic Expedition is going quite well. The Phantom is performing incredibly well. I have never seen jump ranges like this, outpacing 240 Ly when neutron charged. I have no problems keeping up with the fleet.

I had a few weeks of laziness and docked at one of the expedition carriers and let me drag along. I befriended some folks working on the carrier, especially the first officer Karen. She is quite sweet. Her first big jump into the black as a first officer and she sees space with the fright and admiration mix that I saw it when I first headed out to Beagle Point.

We got talking. I liked her voice on comms when logging my position during the expedition and we got talking when she was on night watch on the bridge of the carrier. Sweet girl. I spent some time on the carrier, and was so distracted that I did not notice that I had missed a waypoint. So I said good bye for now and headed out into the black, flying over 5k Ly back to the waypoint, and then 10K Ly to the new waypoint. Took me two days. Man, I love my Phantom.

Stars are getting scarce again. Had to circumnavigate the large permalocked area on the direct way to Beagle Point, but it was not a big issue with a ship with a jump range of over 60 Ly.

I am now docked at Karen's carrier again. I entered my navigation into the Phantom's navigation computer and am ready to go. Will head out tonight. A little more than 5k Ly to get to the carrier at Beagle Point, marking the half mark on the expedition, although the way back to the bubble will follow the Sagittarius-Carina arm of the galaxy, transitioning over to the Scutum-Centaurus arm when the system density is increasing between the arms. So it may still be a very long way home. But this course is actually following a course I was exploring the last time when out here with my T-10.

But The Abyss is in front of me today. My arch nemesis, which caused me a 15k Ly detour the last time. I am confident that my high jump range Phantom will not have an issue with it. But I will report on that.

For now: fly safe! See you on the other side!

It's me again

Well, hi there, beloved Logbook. Haven't touched you in a while.

Well, it is time again. I signed up for the Odyssey Galactic Expedition. Haven't sniffed Beagle Point filtered air in a while and need to visit the carrier out there.

What happened since my last entry? Well, the bubble had me back and I spent some time making friends with a few engineers. I amped up my Krait Phantom beyond 60 Ly jump range and then started to hit the mining craze. It was fine for a while until the mining spots dried up. I hit Pianite surface mining after hitting LTDs.All that helped me to fill up my accounts and finally buy my fleet carrier, the Deep Space Explorer (DSX) vessel Black Hole Sun. I love it. Spent good time on it already, getting the crew up to speed.

I did run a few sightseeing trips from Robigo Mines for a while. My good old friends from the Sirius Corporation hooked me up. I bought, and fitted a Python and folks loved the stay in my cabins.

But I need to see the black again. So I was happy to see the expedition announcement for the Odyssey Galactic Expedition to Beagle Point via Sagittarius A. I will have a stop at Explorers Anchorage, which I helped to build during Distant Worlds 2. I may even run into a few friends out in the black.

I will get Charly to work on my Phantom and to prepare it for the black. Getting out there again! And VERY soon!

Love it!

Finally the part I was looking for

Well, I have not logged in a while and that had a reason. The crappy storage unit of the logbook gave up half way towards Colonia and my friend Buster and his glorified junkyard that he calls a "special equipment shop" did not have the part I was looking for.

He said that this unit has since been replaced with something else. He handed me pen and paper with a smile on his face. Thanks, mate!

Well, I enjoyed some time in Colonia and then headed on to the Vihara Gate, Caravanserai, Sacaqawea Space Port, Eudaemon Anchorage and now Hillary Depot, where my shipment from a Lakon trade ship on its way to Colonia, met me.

So I can finally update my logs again. I will have to get this logging system replaced first thing back, but my plans to fit my shiny new explorer will maybe put a stop to that plan. Why replacing my logbook system in this T-10 when I get a Krait Phantom?

Anyway, a few days here, commemorating the loss of my beloved T-9 heavy tanker during my first visit to Hillary Depot during the Christmas Carrier Convoy a few years ago, and I will be heading over to Tarach Tor to get my Krait.

And it will be back to the grind to schmooze some engineers and hit some Guardian sites to finally get this jump range extender that people are raving about. More than half of the ships I encountered during Distant Worlds 2 had this expander and did not have to do the Roncevaux Crossing detour across the Abyss.

I could have, however, if I would have been more brave, tried the Smugglers Path (or Route 33) first, which actually was not that hard to cross with my T-10 and a few FSD injections.

Well, there will be a next time. For sure.

Let's jump back into the crowd in the bubble. Yeiii! I cannot wait to get back out into the black.

I am back among folks

It was quite a push but I made it into Explorer's Anchorage early morning today. Phew! What a flight. What interesting things to experience out there in the black when the router send me into a dead end, or when I had to use the Roncevaux Crossing after already shooting for the regular crossing in the Abyss.

Well, all this is behind me. I am in my hood again.

I got them to fix my ship and paint. I then got the folks in the dock to paint my new Distant Worlds 2 logo onto my wings. Looking good. I will fly those decals proudly.

I then got into the Cartographers Office and it took my quite some time to submit my database. I am happy that the amount of data loaded did not fry their transmission module. But it was totally worth it. Submitted about 380 Mio credits of data (including bonus payments). I did not think that I would have that much.

It will be easy for me to fit out my Krait Mk II Explorer vessel back in the bubble. I might even keep my T-10 for a while. I spent so much time in it by now and it brought me to Beagle Point and back safely.

I also got the guys to look at that AC. They told me that they had never seen a triple failure like that before. But Lakon wire the instructions and money to fix it under warranty. Nice of them. I said it before and I will say it again: Lakon all the way. Those guys make nice ships for explorers. My first trip to Colonia in my Asp Explorer (after attempting it in a T-9...what a failure) and now the trip to Beagle in the T-10. Awesome and reliable ships. It will be tough for me to transition to Faulcon DeLacy. I flew the Krait Mk II after launch for a quick tour around the block in Colonia. The ship trader was so nice to toss me the keycode for one of their ships in the hangar. Very nimble and great handling. Will be quite a change from the hefty T-10. I could go for the Phantom model, getting another 8 ly jump range, but I love my fighter hangar and cannot do without. I do not take the fighter out often, but it is a blaze when I do.

Anyway, I will relax for a few days (or more) and enjoy the view from my bunk to the beautiful earthlike that Explorer's Anchorage circles. I might even take a shuttle down to enjoy some sun and a beach, although the planet is only in the process of being adjusted to support human life. I might even pay Saggitarius A another visit. It was quite impressive the last time I saw it. I cannot believe that this was a few months ago.

Anyway! I have to go down to the tavern to get a cold beer. I really missed the taste of it. I ran out of brew half way towards Beagle Point. This will never happen again! I will install a well running cooling unit inot my new ships cargo bay to always have beer at my finger tips. :)

Fly safe, commanders out there! Fly safe!

Never trust the Neutron Router in the rim

Whew! Over a week of trying to fixing my ship. The last time I submitted a log I was happily on my way after passing the Abyss through the Smugglers Path.

Well, the night after sitting down on that rock for a rest I woke up in a soaking bed. No, I did not wet myself, but in a way I did. My AC systems that cool my ship to a nice 18-20 degrees Celsius, failed and the temperature on board rose constantly.

I had to dig in the furthest crevices of my hull to find the AC spare parts that I had stashed there years ago. Yes, Lankon's AC have several backup systems and therefore have a lifetime warranty. That sadly does not count crap out here in the rim, with over 25k ly to go to get to the next settlement.

It took me over a week, with some flying with a sweat band strapped to my forehead, to get to a cool planet that was able to better release the heat stored in my atmospheric heat exchangers.

I then was able to touch the components and replace them. Well, it cooled down a bit so flying is nicer than it was a week ago. Nobody likes to touch a soaking throttle after the sweat from your forehead is just dripping down onto the console.

Anyway, another problem arose. I followed the recommendations of the Neutron Router, sending me on my merry way about 1.5k ly under the galactic plane. Well, guess what, star density is getting really low out e, especially in the gapes between galactic arms.

I suddenly was stuck, with the danger of becoming completely stuck if I jump into a dead end where even a L3 jumponium jump would not have saved me.

I checked the star maps back and forth, realizing that a more denser area was just above me, about 1.3k ly. Problem was just, how to get there. I manually plotted every jump, trying to see if there were enough stars around the destination system so I can move on. Quite an intense time.

Every jump could have been my last. The internal routing computer did not help, because the calculation of jumponium jumps is broken, and is therefore never used for course plotting.

I managed to get up to the denser areas and plotted my path to one of the rest stops of the Distant Worlds 2 expedition, which was 2/3 into the route for WP11.

What can I say, I am now on my way following the DW2 waypoints and am close to WP10. I think tat it will probably take me another 1-2 weeks to finally meet other folks at Explorers Anchorage again. Man, do I look forward to that thing they call a bar on that station. ...and a chat with someone else than the COVAS. The DW2 voice channels are dead quiet these days. I tuned in some music to kill the time while jumping.

I think that I will have some weeks "vacation" on Explorers Anchorage. And I will probably take a day to submit all my exploration data. Got a few more water worlds and an ammonia world under my belt.

So long. Let's see how long it will take me to get the next leg done.

Damn you, computer core!

Well, my plan to get a head start fell flat last night. I fed the course computer with the first waypoints (neutron stars) towards Explorer's Anchorage and wanted to initialize the system when the authentication core collapsed and locked me out of my own ship.

Some smooth talking (and hits with the wrench) got me through the sealed housing (security after all) and reset the server. It might have just been time. One board shortened out from some condensation on the chips. Lucky me that I had a spare in my cargo rack. Whew!

The system initialized and I was allowed back into the ship controls.

But over 2 hours had passed and I decided to just take a quick tour around the hot vents around my ship. Picked up some great stuff. Some Arsenic and Phosphorus. I also found a new element, which is needed for synthesizing ammo (not that I need it out here - on that note...I wonder if my rounds in the multi-cannons are still working or if they seized up as well. Hmm, better hope that I do not need to test that).

Anyway! One more night of sleep and I am off this rock. Will do some flying for a while and then take another brake. I wonder how long it will take me to cross the over 32,000 Ly towards Explorer's Anchorage.

The life of an explorer. Man, am I looking forward to the lousy food rations in Explorer's Anchorage. The "Last Bar before the Abyss" shanty was quite a rough and dirty place, but I heard that they cleaned it up since the Distant Worlds Expedition helped to deliver some more materials to make it a permanent, and hopefully nice, station in the middle of the void.

Why didn't I have the guts to do this earlier?

Ok, the past two days was plotting my way along the Smuggler's Path (33 LY Abyss crossing) with the occasional jumponium injection.

It was incredible and absolutely easy? Why did I do the 15,000 Ly detour via Roncevaux Crossing on my way to Beagle Point? I could have saved soooo much time! This crossing is easy even with 29 Ly jump range and just about 50-60 charges of L1 jumponium. I splurged sometimes on L2 or L3, but that was not at all needed.

The whole trip was only about 360 jumps. Compared to the over 1000 jumps I did for the other crossing.

Well, I arrived in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm of the galaxy and Am off to the races. I plotted my path directly to Explorers Anchorage, where I am planing to refill my stock on food, hand in my scan data, and get some days of rest while they touch up my paint and fit my beautiful new Distant Worlds 2 decal. I also hope to get my rank as Elite Explorer awarded, but I am not sure if I have enough scan data. I am doing some scanning but not as much as on the path to Beagle Point (before I hit the Abyss...friggin' Abyss!).

Let's plot the next course into the navigation computer. After all, I have to cross a bit more than 32,000 Ly to get to Explorer's Anchorage (sigh!).

I stopped at a moon, circling a gas giant in the system marking the end (or beginning_ of the Smuggler's Path. Very pretty here. The moon has some hot vents and geysers.

I will feed the course computer the new jump systems and then take the SRV out for some exploration of the vents. I wonder what materials I can grab.

Ok, enough writing logs. On with it!

Off to Smuggler's Path!

A few days of rest were exactly what the ship and I needed. But we cannot sit here forever.

I received the message from Dr. Kaii that I am now an official Distant Worlds 2 veteran and that I am allowed to use the DW2 decal. I will put it onto my ship with pride as soon as I arrive in Explorers Anchorage.

But it is still a long way until there.

I played around with my navigation computer and started to type in the smuggler's path information. I accidentally found a shortcut to jump system 49 of the smuggler's path from my current path. That saves me quite some time. Only 109 jumps to get there.

I plotted the course up to system 149. Let's see if I can make the 200 jumps today.

CSS Tough Cookie is in excellent condition. Ok, ok, the power plant got a hit when I kissed a star...twice...but it is still at 98% capacity.

Ok, on we go. A fresh cup of coffee and I am off this rock!

Farewell and good bye, Beagle Point! See you next time!

I dabbled around here in the Beagle System for a while to fill up on jumponium. First Germanium and then Vanadium. Germanium was easy to get on Beagle Point 3 and Vanadium at Beagle Point 2, right in the crater next to the meeting point for the end of Distant Worlds 2.

Not many commanders around so I decided to plot my way back. Followed the breadcrumps that my fellow commander dropped for me on the way in and made it to the end. Plotted my way to the entrance of the Smugglers Route 33 and started my way there.

It will be a long way back but I will take my time and might stay for a while on one of those planets, leading a life of an hermit.

I will be back one day, and that time with probably a Krait MK II with nearly double the jump range.

CSS Tough Cookie did well on the expedition to this area. It will have to keep together until the end in the bubble. I am very confident. The T-10 is a great ship with lots of storage and wiggle room. I will probably not sell her but keep her in storage. You never know what to use a T-10 for in the future.

The voyage home!

MADE IT!

Well, I did take another day off. Did some maintenance all around the ship and got it ready for the final leap.

I plotted the course another commander had sent me into the navigation computer and followed it. It was a nice hop and go and I used quite a few jumponium charges to gap some distances, but I linked up with another commander and arrived at the second planet off the Beagle Point star right at the meeting point.

The commanders there welcomed me and we did some shananigans. We did a few quarter mile races and a few laps around the circle of ships. Took some photos for the data log and then went our merry ways.

Made It!

I hopped over to the 3rd planet in the system to collect some more Germanium for my L1 jumponium charges. I am up to 184.

I then went back to the 2nd planet and started collecting Vanadium. I still have to find 8 blocks of Vanadium to bring my charge count up to the 184 mark.

I already plotted the way back from Beagle, using the arrival path, towards the entrance of the Smugglers Route 33 across the Abyss.

I will stick around here at Beagle Point for a day or two until I will start my long way back. I will take my time....or not. Let's see.

I heard some chatter on the channel that some commanders already returned to their home stations in the bubble. Well, it will take me a while to get there, but I will be back one day.

For now I enjoy the breathtaking view of the edge of our home galaxy. I wonder what lies beyond. :)