After honking, scooping, scanning, rinsing and repeating for 7,500 light years, a pilot may get a little nervous when it comes time to dock at a Coriolis without a DC. However, the approach to pad 7 at Base Camp in the Soul Sector went off without a hitch.

So, it is just like riding a bicycle.

At the end of the day I had turned in over 108 million in cartographic data and over 400 discovery claims while sustaining only 48 percent hull degradation. I would say that Pilgrim-5 performed her duties marvelously. She carried me from the bubble to the rift while forgiving me, more than once, for the occasional bumpy landing. I'm right proud of this ship and I'm looking forward to the next leg of our journey together.

But for now, it's time for a real shower, real food, and a real bed.

Light Speed Commanders! o7

Roober the Stroober | Commanding Officer | 03-ASX "Pilgrim-5"

"Shiny."

That's the first thing I thought when I stepped off the elevator to see brand new Asp Explorer. I would be piloting her on the Pilgrim's Progress solo expedition. A dock worker unceremoniously handed me the transponder chip, muttered something about, "She's all yours..." and walked away. I stared at the chip for a moment. On the little black card was inscribed, "03-ASX Pilgrim-5."

Pilgrim-4 - the DBX that had served me so faithfully was unceremoniously blown out from under me by a group of pirates that had nothing better to do except fly around and send out fake distress calls. Lesson learned - if you're in trouble and can't send a transponder ping - you're on you're own.

The flight computer recorded the vessel as destroyed but the Navy managed to get me back to port and the mechanics at a Li Yong-Rui owned shop actually worked miracle in getting it back together.

But alas, for where I'm going, I will need a little more ship so I pulled the trigger and upgraded.

We all see countless Asp-X ships every day. Even the tactical ice paint isn't all that new, nor is it fancy but, I've never been much for fancy. Getting me out of a bad scrape 10,000 light years from home is what I want.

There's nothing fancy about P5. Just an Asp-X with and engineered FSD, a spare fuel tank, and everything I need to spend the next 4 months in uncharted space. Well, almost everything...

So there you go. No drama. No hidden agendas or meanings. No plots and such. Just me and the black - face to face. Get my name on a few high-value worlds and get back in time for DW2.

It's shaping up to be a long, quite, lonely ride. Then again, you never know what's out there, and that's why I do it.

Light Speed Commanders! o7

Roober the Stroober | Commanding Officer | 03-ASX "Pilgrim-5"

All of the ships I have had the privilege of commanding have served me well. The Sidewinder loaned to me by the PF was a great start. The Cobra MkIII and Vulture were both capable combat ships that allowed me to make my mark as a bounty hunter along the edges of the bubble. And, my faithful DBX has gotten me through many a mission while working for UC, updating records on commercial mining and terraforming sites.

The only ship I miss though, is the one I can't remember - the one the Feds have locked up in some lab hangar somewhere. I'm guessing they're trying to get something out of it that will help with the space-cabbage issue. I'd love to help but it just doesn't look like my memory is going to return any time soon. That's okay though. I'm actually loving the peace and quiet of exploration. Sure I run into a binary every once in a while that almost gets me into grav-lock and heat traps, and I've seen neutrons that will melt the face off of a grokolite at a thousand ls. But, all in all, it's been a great way to spend my days.

I'm docked at Ising now while Pilgrim-4 is refitted for material collection missions. Pilgrim-5 (Asp Explorer 03-ASX), is in dry dock being engineered for her first long-range solo expedition. I look forward to taking command of this beauty in the next couple of weeks.

It's going to be a long, lonely haul but I hope; in the vastness of boring this, and routine that, that I can find something truly remarkable in this huge expanse of Milky Way - then return safely to share my discoveries with you all.

If I plan well enough, I should be able to complete the mission in time to catch up with the Distant Worlds 2 fleet before they get to the core.

Fly Dangerous Commanders! See you in the black...

o7

Roober the Stroober | Commanding Officer | 14-DBX "Pilgrim-4"

o7 All,

When you move around in the bubble, you hear things - the latest scam, the hottest tactics, the choice rewards. When you hear about it once, file it away under "whatever." When you hear it from three or four different pilots from a couple of distant systems, you start to notice.

Such was the case with the latest civil war brewing in the Orion Spur. The Mussche Clan decided it wasn't happy with staying in their own system so they decided to try and horn in on a corporate operation in the next system over. Now, I don't normally get mixed up in such things however, when the Mooshies start hassling passenger liners and tour vessels, I figure it's time to let "Old Painless" out of the hangar. Besides, the controlling faction at the corporate facility has big contracts with the Federation military to protect so they'll pay big bucks to put an end to their trouble.

So I arranged with UC to table my current survey mission and a contact in the Federation got me a quiet gig as a "test pilot" for the latest experimental Vulture from their Skunkworks division. They rigged it up for ground strike work with reactive this, and overcharged that. I've got plenty of hours in a regular Vulture (actually there is nothing regular about these sweet rides.), so when I slipped out of the Core Dynamics "playground" hangar - let's just say that this thing re-defines "heavy fighter." It's a heavyweight sure enough, but it's very light on its feet. I couldn't wait to try her out...

The folks paying the bill wanted someone that would be discrete and not talk too much, at least until the hot war made the news. Yeah, it didn't take long. The local systems are all abuzz over the strange blackbird that took out a Mooshie security facility and all of it's security vessels single-handed.

My Fed contact is also keeping the details with the Security guys on the down-low so that they won't put two and two together regarding the hunk of alienware they have squirreled away at their own secret R&D facility. He's almost got a line on where it's at.

The little war is over now and the corporate bosses got what they wanted. Now I'm a survey mission for UC around the edges of the bubble. I noticed I was near a couple of friends today. If you see me floating around near you look me up.

Fly Dangerous everyone!

Well, after having a couple of Sidewinders shot out from under me I think I may be getting the hang of these ships now. I'm still getting use to the way these controls work. I still can't remember much about my past but I can tell you that I much prefer the twin-stick controls of my old ship instead of the stick/throttle combinations you have around here. I just have vague impressions of the thrill of instant 180 yaws when the guy on my tail thought he was about to win. Oh well, maybe the Feds will let me have my ship back someday.

I'm not going to hold my breathe though. I've been told that I need to be careful around the Feds, especially the military. It seems they would very much like to speak with the pilot of the strange craft they found so that they can understand some of the systems they seem to be having trouble with. I hate to break it to them but it doesn't seem like I'll be all that helpful anyway unless I can get some memories back.

In the meantime I'm just laying low and banking some cred anyway I can until something clicks. Please forgive me, dear reader, if I throw an “inaccurate” location out there from time to time. Just moving around to keep the dogs off the scent you understand.

I'm not looking for trouble, I'm just looking for home...

Thanks again to the Expedition that found my crash site and saved my life. However, by the time I recuperated and hitched a ride back to my ship, the Feds had carted it off to some secret base and they won't let me have the darn thing back! Something about not being from around here or something.

I'll admit these stars don't seem familiar at all but then again, I couldn't have remembered my name if it wasn't on the optical chip I had in my pocket.

Lost, stranded, alone, and can't remember. Kinda scary, eh?

Oh well, that's life in space sometimes. The expedition crew scraped together a few credits and found me an old, cheap Sidewinder to knock around in until I can make some dough and start looking for some answers.

See ya around the galaxy!