After my last log I really got into the exploration flow. I forgot the time, forgot to eat, to sleep. Just hopping along from one undiscovered system to the next, scanning the systems, mapping the valuable bodies, sampling the biological signals. And all the time I got closer and closer to my destination on this trip: the Colonia region.

Aside from a lot of beautiful sights, I found an undiscovered binary Earth Like World in a system that also contained two water worlds, one of them terraformable, and a landable terraformable Hight Metal Content world with biological signals. That's what I call a bingo system :-)

And one point when I got closer, I began to see signs of my fellow humans out in the black: a few discovered systems, or crash sites and wreckages. In an undiscovered system found 6 occupied escape pods at a distress beacon, and 2 wreckages on the other side of the planet. I wonder what happened here... After that I found a lot more crash sites and I arrived in the Colonia region with a hold full of them. And you know what? In the first inhabited system in the Colonia region I immediately got interdicted by a pirate that wanted to have them! Luckily the pirate was no good and I managed to evade the interdiction, even in my slow and ponderous Anaconda.

The only hiccup I had on my journey was that when I was only a few systems away from Colonia my Flight Control System got the update 12 and I couldn't land my Anaconda anywhere anymore. No more exploration on foot or in my SRV, no more scanning biologicals... But Colonia wasn't far and even so, by the time I got to Colonia, the Pilots Federation already issued update 12.01 and the problem was solved.

When arrived in Colonia, I dumped my exploration and Vista Genomics data in Giles Station, Deriso, because I have a soft spot for the Hutton Orbital Truckers and Giles Station is controlled by their sister-faction HOTCOL. They were in Outbreak, so they could use a bit of support.

I had a few last bits of engineering to be done on my Anaconda, so I gave the occupied escape pods I picked up along the way to Etienne Dorn in exchange for access to his services. I don't know why he needs them, but I presume that he will take good care to the people inside those escape pods, right? Now I only need to get hold of 100.000 credits worth of bounty vouchers for Mel Brandon. I have to think about how to get those in my "Explora-conda"; not really the right ship to go bounty hunting in.

For the rest, a bit of R&R here in Colonia and then back out again. I'm thinking about going to Star One and then along the rim to Beagle Point... z

I haven't been in touch for a while. What happened since last time? First the colliding moons of Ellairb SJ-B b42-10. It turned out I only had to wait for a few days. The moons didn't do a whole head on collision, but they just clipped each other. But still it was an extraordinary experience.

After that I went further. Next waypoint was the Collection of Wonders, Skaude AA-A H294. Yes, I know, not really a destination for a seasoned explorer, but you've got to have seen that. It is one of the only ringed M-class stars, a most beautiful sight.

The way to the Skaude sector still has a lot of undiscovered systems. One system has 10 bodies of which 5(!) are terraformable. I put everything in the system on my name, including the first footfall on the only landable body.

Let's see, anything more worth of note? Mostly just a lot of systems, a lot of planets, a lot of biological scanning. On my first expedition I didn't have this genetic sampling scanner, but now I have, I like to scan at least a few biologicals if I encounter them. A lot of the same species in this sector, but sometimes there is a rare one. I wonder how much I've collected by now and how far I will get with my exobiology rank.

Last notable stop was the glowing green gas giant in Blua Hypa HT-F d12-1226 and from there further on to Colonia. It is a bit out of the regular route people take to Colonia, so a lot of undiscovered systems.

Arrived at my first way point, Ellairb SJ-B b42-10. There are two moons here orbiting the first planet in the same orbit. They are said to collide once every two weeks and mysteriously "clip" and then continue on without being destroyed! That's something I would like to see. But they are now some distance away from each other, so I'll have to wait at least a week if I want to see it. I will have to think about it if that is the worth the delay. But on the other hand, I have nothing else to do and nowhere to be on time...

But that's not the only strange thing I saw. Found a pyramid-like (from a distance at least, it actually had two peaks) mountain found on otherwise pretty much flat planet Prielea BS-I d10-33 A 2 at 31.6 by 97.2.

At one time I thought I found an undiscovered Earth-like world, according to the signal frequency in the system scanner, but it turned out to an ammonia world. And the system contained a terraformable water world. So overall a nice find. Oh yes, in my last log I mentioned that I was on my way to Ploi Aerb RT-F c25-0. It was reported to have a quite nice mountain range on the south pole, but there was nothing there anymore. I wonder why. It looks like the whole planet was done over some way...

For the rest more and more undiscovered systems. I'm really outside the influence sphere of the bubble now, out in the black.

It has been a nice and quiet exploration week. I found crystals and mineral spheres in stellar phenomena, seen some Wolf-Rayet stars and planetary nebulae. Been to Amundsen Terminal and Attenborough's Watch in the Lagoon nebula. Seen the green glowing gas giant in Bleia Dryiae HF-W b35-1. That was awesome! Also been to a moon that almost touches the rings of the gas giant it is orbiting, in Pyramoe XR-W c17-9. A few first planet discoveries, first mapping and first footfalls, but no systems first discovered. The systems all were visited at some time. But some were only and honked and the commander didn't take the time to do a proper scan. Not even mapping the terraformable planets. I always feel like that the first discoveries of planets in systems that were honked before my someone else are second hand, even if I get my name on them as first dicovered. Feels like cleaning up after someone else. Now on my way to Ploi Aerb RT-F c25-0. I'm cursious to see if it has changed much since it was first discovered.

On my way to the first way point of my second expedition, Ellairb SJ-B b42-10. Just left Blu Thua AI-A c14-10, Hillary Depot and the megaship there. Came past Bleae Thua YE-H d10-29 for some sight seeing. Didn't make any real first discoveries along the way. Only a few planet nobody had bothered to properly scan or map. Did made a few first foot falls and scanned some more genetic samples. Also found a lot of distress beacons and wrecks. Some were guarded, so I left those alone. If you don't want to be rescued, who am I to argue? I never found any of those on my first expedition. And on my first expedition most star systems were first discoveries. At some point I even got disappointed when a star wasn't a first discovery and that some had been there before me! I must still be too close to the bubble now. I picked some more occupied escape pods, but I can't take too many. I even had to recalculate my route because of the weight of all those escape pods in my cargo hold. Don't they teach people how to fly these days anymore. Why are all those people crashing into planets by the dozen, 3000 ly from Sol? They are probably not Pilots Federation commanders I assume. They should know better. And the Pilots Federation takes better care of their commanders, returning them to the nearest station quite quickly should they crash. I am glad the Pilots Federation is having my back should I crash. Not that I ever needed them, but I wouldn't feel easy going out into the black, knowing your escape pod could by lying around on a planet or floating in space maybe for years before someone by chance passed by and maybe would be so kind to pick you up and deliver you at station...

Just a quick update. Landed at Hillary Depot, but the Search and Rescue contact is not available to drop off the two escape pods I picked up yesterday. I don't know why. The controlling faction, Brewer Logistics, is not bust or something... I did sell my carthographic data and my very first genetic data to Vista Genomics. I even got my first rank up in Xenobiology! Then I went over to the megaship CB-6 Carbis Bay, controlled by the same faction and there Search and Rescue was available and I offloaded the two escape pods. Maybe something political or the other. I never really had much interest in politics.

I am known as cmdr Farout Grouse. This is the log op my second expedition. My first expedition was in a wide arc below and around the Colonia area, around the galactic core to the opposite side as seen from Colonia and then through the core to Colonia. I used this Star Map to hop from Point of Interest to Point of Interest and made quite a few first discoveries along the way. At some point I became a sort of disappointed when I was not the first to enter a system. In Colonia I met up with my brother Famous Grouse and his Fleet Carrier, the Gronovius. He visited there from the Bubble with his son and a few friends to unlock the engineers there. I sadly couldn't join in, because my ship was only lightly engineered when I set out from the bubble and didn't have enough status with de Bubble engineers to be invited by the Colonia engineers. I did transfer the credits I earned from my exploration data, some 3 billion credits, to his Fleet Carrier account, for his up keep, and I have no use for the money. And I hitched a ride with him back to the bubble. There I unlocked the rest of the engineers in the Bubble, with a minimum of combat, to keep my Combat ranking low as not to attract attention from more skilled pirates. I also engineered my ship, an Anaconda named the Esploratore, a bit further to increase the jump range a bit more (from 67 ly to 71 ly). I also managed to join in one of Community Goals to earn a double engineered FSD for my Anaconda. And I picked up a grade 3 pre-engineered Artemis suite. Upgrading and modding it more takes a bit to much violence for my tastes, so I'll make do with this one. Now I'm setting out for my second expedition. I will go in a roundabout way back to Colonia. There I now can unlock the Colonia engineers to finish the engineering of my ship, for the engineering blueprints that require to do a lot more combat for the Bubble engineers but hardly any for the Colonia engineers that provide the same services. Along the way I will visit some more POI's from the Star Map and try my hand at exobiology. My first way point is Ellairb SJ-B b42-10 and it's colliding moons and then to the Collection of Wonders in Skaude AA-A H294. And after Colonia I think I will visit some more far flung places, like Star One (from one of my favorite old Earth legends) and Semotus Beacon and visit Beagle Point in passing. Today I passed M7 Sector IF-S b19-4, Haldane's Hypothesis, with its four ammonia worlds. I also stumbled upon a distress call on the surface of the moon of planet 6. A small ships crashed there and there were two occupied escape pods. Probably smugglers or the like considering the narcotics containers also laying around. But nonetheless I picked the escape pods up and will hand them in with Search and Rescue on the next outpost I come across, most likely Hillary Depot in Blu Thua AI-A c14-10.