Log: 3304-12-04 15:39:44

 While I have been a Commander for many months now, I have made no record of my journeys and missions thus far. This first log will detail my experiences over these first few months up until now. 

 I got my first ship back on June 23, 3304, fulfilling my greatest dream of flying amongst the stars. It was a cheap but sturdy Sidewinder, which I named "Schneefahren" which is German for "driving in the snow". Driving in the snow can be dangerous at times. Concentration is essential and one must be alert at all times to ensure safety. However, as anyone who has experienced it can attest, it can be an extremely beautiful and mesmerizing sight. As any Commander knows, this is also true for space travel. 

 I started in the Dahan System, but quickly found a home at Beagle 2 Landing in the Assellus Primus System. I'm not sure why, but I liked that system from the start. I began by flying mostly boom data missions for various minor factions inside Federation space. While this did give some money and increased my reputation with the Federation, it got repetitive and boring quickly. I didn't buy my own ship to run other people's errands. Nevertheless, I continued. 

 The jump distance on the Sidewinder was laughable. I often took long looping routes just to get to stars just outside my range. I saved up for a Cobra Mk III, which my friends Cmdr. DROCK D (Damon) and Cmdr. rparent (Reilly) had recommended as a decent upgrade from the Sidewinder. With this ship, I was able to jump to most systems in a straight line, and travel time was significantly reduced. Before long, I met up with Cmdr. Damon, Cmdr. Reilly, and Cmdr. Prime13576 (Alex) for a training session. Cmdr Damon and Reilly were both already experienced pilots, so they had a lot to teach Cmdr. Alex  (who was also a new pilot) and myself. 

 We met up in the Eravate System (I think) and headed down to the surface to one of the planets' ice moons, as we all had SRVs outfitted in our ships. We spent an hour or two learning the ropes there and had some fun riding over the icy hills in the low Gravity. Everything was going well, and I had learned a lot. I, however, had totaled my SRV and had to leave its remains on the surface. We flew back to a starport and signed off for the day.

 I had a few issues with ships destructing. Once, I was near a star in a wing with Cmdr. Reilly and accidentally bumped the silent running control. I panicked, looking for the toggle in the right panel, but it was too late. My ship got to more than 200% heat before the hull melted and the ship destructed. I also was accidentally destroyed by Cmdr. Reilly once. 

 With the insurance claims on those destroyed ships, I was low on money. I decided to experiment with trading, so I loaded up my ship with some goods and found a suitable trade route. My Cobra Mk III didn't offer much cargo, space, however, so I bought a Hauler for trading. I earned enough there to get the Merchant rank before I bored.

 I used the money I had racked up to buy an Asp Explorer, the same ship Cmdr. Damon and Cmdr. Reilly have. It was quite expensive, but it was another giant upgrade. With it, I could cross the bubble in less than half an hour. It also had much increased combat capabilities from the Cobra Mk III, so I spent a couple days bounty hunting in the rings near Beagle 2 Landing to secure a few rebuys just in case.

 After earning a few rebuys (about 2,000,000 in bounties), I set off on a longer distance test of my ship. I, along with Cmdr. Reilly set off for Betelgeuse and the Pleiades. I had bought an advanced discovery scanner, so I learned to honk at most/all systems. We flew to Betelgeuse then the Pleiades, at which point I got tired of the grind of jumping so much and took a break . . . a long break.

 Skip forward 3 months, it was the week of Thanksgiving. I felt like going on an expedition. I still hadn't returned from that Pleiades mission, so I made my way back. It was only maybe 40 jumps but it felt like it took forever. I arrived in Assellus Primus and docked with Beagle 2 Landing. I only did a few missions in the bubble before setting off into deep space again, this time targeting the Lagoon Nebula. I hadn't optimized my ship at all, having full weapons, full shields, and an unengineered FSD, so its jump range was an abysmal 26 ly. I also had a rather slow fuel scoop, so every 15 stars or so, I would have to refuel (I set a filter for only OBAFGKMs) I made it there and back in a little over 2 days, and made a decent amount of money. I had scanned a few planets, but not every potentially terraformable world. Even so, it had ranked me up to Pathfinder. I decided to do another mission . . .

 I set off for VY Canis Majoris on 3304-12-02. I had gone to Deciat the day before to slightly engineer my FSD, and I optimized my ship for exploration, squeezing out a 37 ly jump range. I arrived at VY Canis Majoris soon after, using a few neutron stars/white dwarves on the way. I was scanning most high metal content worlds and all water worlds. I hadn't been out that long, so I headed out to the Omega Nebula, which brought me just to the "Northeast" of the bubble, where I found an Earth-like world relatively close to Sol and unexplored. It was my first one, so I got excited. I made it most of the way to the Omega Nebula in the next day. 

 After arriving at the Omega Nebula, I wondered what to do next. Looking at a map of explored systems, I saw that there were significantly more in the triangle between Sol, Sagittarius A*, and Colonia. I decided to make a sharp right turn and move towards the lesser explored areas East of the Sol-Sagittarius A* line. This worked out well, as Cmdr. Damon was on his way back from the center of the Galaxy. I figured I'd meet up with him in the middle of nowhere and loosely fly back together. 

 At this point, this journal entry is up to the time of writing this. 

Current System: Ploi Aewsy NC-D d12-106 Galactic Coordinates: R: 7,689.515 / l: 2.053 / b: 0.257 Distance to Sol: 7,689.52 ly Time: 3044-12-04 19:44:09