It is time to move again. After the mass jump, I spent a few days resting near the HMC I've scanned, it is now time to go low and ahead yet again. 400 ligtyears down, within five jumps thanks to the densely packed neutron stars over here. Hell, the first one appears to be the same star I jumped into the Waypoint 2 from, since it was already scanned by me. And someone called Littlefoot before that. Oh well.

So far I've already made it further in than on Mercury 7. Back there I gave up on the second waypoint. This time, I'm intending to go through the entire expedition and earn myself the Elite explorer status while at it. I can make it and-

Holy crap, I was just booted off the witchspace next to a colossal red giant. 28.7 the size of Sol's star. That sure was a frightening sight on entry. Not the largest star ever, but caught me by surprise.

Anyhow. This time I can, and will, make it to the end. Back to Colonia, with detours for Beagle and Sag A*. That's going to be one entertaining expedition, that much is certain. Now, time for another 119 jumps to get through the 7.8k lightyears to the next waypoint. Lots of neutron stars on the way if it's this short.

Good thing I refilled the AFM.

Notable finds:

• A terraformable water world. 50k ls away from the entry star - this time I didn't forget to supercharge in the jet cones before going to scan it. That'd be an annoying trip back. Another planet that looks earth like, but upon closer inspection, isn't. I need to learn what sounds do earthlikes produce in the system map.
• An earth like world! First time since the expedition and I believe third found by me overall? A lucky find indeed. Untagged, twice the Earth's mass, orbiting a neutron star - and neighbouring a water world. This system should net a pretty penny.
• Binary water worlds. Neither terraformable, unfortunately, but it makes for a nice view anyhow.
• A terraformable water world with a terraformable moon. Sadly I can't land on the latter, making it impossible to scan for whatever materials are collectable there. Oh well.
• A terraformable water world orbiting a neutron star. That pale blue light makes for a pretty neat sight.
• More water worlds, and a high metal world that looks like a ball of pudding, with lava streaks here and there mimcking the sauce. I miss real food.
• Two big suns as an entry point, near them a gas giant that looks like it's composed entirely of blood. Eerie.
• A neutron star... which I flew too close to and dropped inside the jet cone. Ship internals took some serious heat damage. Man am I glad for that AFM refill now.
• At this point, I've had a system error, which devoured quite a few of my last entries. A few more water worlds, including a terraformable, two of which were orbitting a neutron star, both frozen over and with ammonia atmosphere. One neutron star with those huge cones that I hate and one metal rich body, slightly less massive than earth, with 4 2/3 thousands kilometers of a radius.
• Starting to fly straight up to the waypoint. Found a metal rich body again, almost completely black from all the iron it contains.

Reached the waypoint. Smaller one this time, it won't take long to scan it all. Then to land on the meeting spot.

Addendum. The landing was actually made quite simple, thanks to CMDR Deonon lending a beacon.

Made it this time. I've set off on a trek with my SRV earlier today, grabbing materials for the AFM refills - enough for eleven refills total, should hold until the end of the expedition. Even with the frequent frame shift repairs due to neutron stars, I shouldn't need another of these trips. Not that it wasn't fun. I might look around some more just for the fun of it on the next waypoint. And I've seen that white Type-9 land as I was exploring, as well as an anaconda - it was interesting to see others land while I was already there and bumming about in a recon vehicle.

There's noticeably fewer people in here than there were before, but that was to be expected. Still way over twenty ships in here, though, mostly larger ships like Anacondas or Type-9's, a few Diamondbacks and Asps as well - including mine. Waiting in this group reminds me of Colonia. Back when I joined the exploration wing in the map project, when it was still the Colonia Nebula Project. We were a few enthusiasts, working on public spreadsheets before we moved off to the network database. Or they did. After initial scanning of the 20 ly distance worlds, I've moved back to the bubble due to the Christmas convoy, which I never attended due to family maters. Come to think of it, this solar year I'll spend it in space, a day after jumping with this merry bunch from one of the waypoints. A celebration as good as any, as long as I enjoy it. And I sure do.

Mass jump done. Nobody seems to have crashed into another ship, so we're all alive and ready to roll. I'll rest the night here, next to this terraformable HMC discovered by Brother Sabathion. Tomorrow it's time to chart the way down the galaxy before the next waypoint. IT seems pretty close to Sagittarius A* from here, but I think I'll hold off until one of the final waypoints, it's the closest from 14th I believe. Between that and the Beagle Point detour in January, I'll hit three milestones of an explorer within a single expedition - Beagle, Sag A and 100k lightyears worth of data sold at once. Looking forward to that.

Time to resume the course. A pristine water world was definitely a good sight to wake up to, especially after fixing the battered frame shift drive after all the tumbles in the neutron jet cones. It's definitely just my imagination, but it appears to even sound better. Happier, more lively. I can probably chalk that up to being alone in space too much, but sod it, a little bit of weirdness can't hurt.

I've been noticing that I enjoy each notable find much more even since my last trip to Colonia, to explore the neutron fields way beneath the mini bubble. It's been quite a fun run, and the first one in which I've checked all the systems on the way for interesting finds rather than just blitzing through half the way. It felt good and so does this. Plus, it might finally be an expedition I finish after dropping out of Mercury Seven after waypoint two. Somehow, both those things make me feel really damn good. I definitely don't mind, especially that this keeps me level-headed while the neutron stars thrash me about. Which is good, last thing I want is to panic again and write some complete bullshit in the logs, like that hyperdiction off Sothis, where I mentioned being hyperdicted in the bubble, which that area clearly isn't.

That said, it was still the first time I've ever heard of a thargoid outside of their usual hidey hole in Pleiades, let alone this close to other inhabited systems. Think I've botched up some potential recognition by not mentioning that wider. Just as well. Being a coward isn't what I want to be remembered for.

Notable finds:

• Starting off with a neutron star, followed by another a few systems later. I'll probably continue not mentioning them, they seem fairly common in this region.
• A water world. Looks like it's completely frozen over, with the water trapped underneath thin sheets of ice - I say thin, because the ice caps are still clearly distinguishable fromt he rest of the planet, but I have no way of telling just how dense the ice actually is.
• A lone neutron star, with noting else in the system. Not something I see often.
• A water world orbiting a neutron star. It's one of those space marbles, with water and nothing more bar the ice caps, but if someone slapped a few tons of land on it, we'd have a nice earth-like. Especially that it meets the conditions for terraforming.
• A HMC world that looked a lot like a dessert - yellow-ish surface with black, chocolatey ash caps. Even some lava visible, which is pretty neat.
• Another lone neutron star. Wonders never cease.

Reached the destination point below the second Minerva waypoint - a neutron star system. I've checked the galaxy map to find out how far away it is - and it's only 200 odd LY from my location. Sure lower than the first. Since I'm in the neutron fields, it'll take a whopping amount of two jumps to get there. Might as well.

The system is huge. Two stars and 37 bodies to scan. I'm starting to regret making up that idea of scanning everything on the waypoint systems, but hell, a word is a word. Even one given to myself. I better get on with it.

I've decided to use the draft mode of the ship's log to save up on space, rather than spew out three or four logs between each checkpoint. I might share these with the public database once I return, so better not to spam the bastards with a lot of short, worthless messages like the last two. We're back to the edge of the galaxy. Huge, bright cluster on one side and a dark, transparent fog on the other. Doubt I'll get bored of this sight anytime soon. It's something to watch while the discovery database synchronises with my systems. Discovery log:

• Terraformable HMC with a nice looking atmosphere. A secondary system with more atmosphere-having metal contents, but none terraformable.
• A neutron star. Neat. Two more suns in the system and nothing else.
• A terraformable, icy water world orbiting another neutron star. Not too shabby.
• Yet another neutron star. A mini highway, it would seem, each of these was in between a scoopable star. This one's tagged, though, by someone named Halvarth.
• Another neutron star, again, tagged... by someone whose name I won't ever memorise. OEFBLUE1GOLF... this seems like someone used a random name generator for their CMDR handle, took a few and glued them together.
• A terraformable HMC, orbiting a scoopable star. Pretty neat looking too.
• ANOTHER neutron star, untagged, with two neighbouring stars and a bunch of planets orbiting one. Hell if I'm traveling 480k ls for a bunch of rocks and a gas giant, though.
• Another neutron star (I think I'll stop mentioning those on this segment), but this one with almost dormant cones. They barely moved and were thin, felt like some ships wouldn't even fit.
• ...and just as if to spite me, the next neutron star I meet has those hyperactive, fuckoff huge cones. Lovely. The feeling of panic when the FSD is already supercharged, and yet I get drawn into the bloody cone is not one I want to feel too often.
• Two ammonia worlds! Within the same system, quite close to one another. Assuming we take distances like 1800 ls as close.
• Neutron entry star, terraformable water world orbiting a neighbouring one, a regular water world 700 ls from it. Should net a nice income altogether.
• Terraformable water world next to a HMC, a scoopable star and an asteroid belt. Pretty nice location for it.
• A system with a neutron entry star - full of gas giants that look almost identical. A place where God invented the copy-paste command.
• An asteroid field. That's all. Gotta love when the discovery scanner prompts six finds, two of which are suns and the rest are loose rock clusters.
• Found a star scanned by someone called Kilandor. Neutron, with moderately wild cones - not the massive, rapid ones that make my stomach turn on the sight alone, but not the small, dormant ones either. A middle ground between the two.
• Another terraformable water world in a system with a neutron entry star.
• A tagged star. Someone actually named themselves "TooTiny" out there. Hah.
• Terraformable water world, with ice caps to boot. Next to more HMC worlds, ready for mining.

That was more jumps than I intended, also more finds than I thought I'll get. Worthy of a log entry.

Dammit. I've missed the waypoint one launch and have nobody to blame but myself. I've got too entangled in the commander network and didn't notice the time - and before I prepared my ship for liftoff, everybody was already gone. A major screw up, got to make sure nothing like this happens on the second waypoint. Time to synch back with the starmap and make a few discoveries. First off, a jump one thousand lightyears below the course level... Notable discoveries:

• Already found a couple water worlds. Both could be earth-likes, by the looks of them and the area they were in, but a look on the holoboard crushed those hopes. Ah well. Water worlds are important too. One terraformable, one about 370k ls away from the other... bloody long trips.
• A system with a high metal content world that looks exactly like a water world would like, and a water world that looks like a metal content world. How bizarre.

Not too much, because it's only a thousand lightyears. Charted the next course for an 8k run, with two neutron stars at the end of it. That should yield more fun finds.

Break time's over, back on track. First book's almost finished, too. I think I'll fly a little closer to the planets this time, look for decent views.

Notable finds:

• A neutron star. Neat. I'll never get used to all the ship flinging, though. Too damn used to zero G, turbulence isn't my friend. First time ever I managed a drive supercharge in a single attempt, though. Not bad.
• A water world with pretty nice looking ice caps. Sadly, not much of interest there except pretty looks.
• Another neutron star, with a couple volcanic planets around it. Metal content, but not metal rich. On a side note, neutron boosted jumps take a horrifying amount of fuel.
• Another water world, with pretty amazing clouds and cyclones on it's surface. It looked earthlike from a distance, trolling me into thinking I found something really valuable. Oh well, this should sell pretty decently, too.
• Full metal planet spiked with volcanoes, with an ashy gray surface and black spots around the active lava pits. Quite a contrast to a lively, water planet.
• A system with three suns and one volcanic planet. Not really worth much, but an interesting sight nonetheless.
• Another water world, in a system with a ton of planets. Few deceitfully alike to water or earth likes, but in fact being just high metal.

Waypoint system reached. I've decided to scan it entirely - because might as well. Metal rich body on the start - even though one of the other expeditioners will definitely have tagged it before, it's worth scanning anyway - and exploring all there is to explore on a waypoint system sounds like a good tradition. Yeah, I'll do that.

Entry over.

Restful sleep in the cabin, with the systems shut off to avoid defueling. Always feels good the first time out on an expedition. Hopefully it won't turn into utter hate before the expedition ends, never been so long in space before today.

Second jump sequence begins now. It seems the course re-plotting actually chose a different path this time around, since it had 121 jumps to go, rather than 120 I left off at. Curious, but irrelevant. Noteworthy discoveries:

• Untagged water world. Terraformable, with ammonia atmosphere.
• Untagged metal rich body - "metal rich", sure. 100% of the planet is metals, plus the surface is full of volcanoes. Looks pretty neat.
• A few systems a row tagged by someone called Exil. Following someone's trail again, I see.
• More tagged systems. I might need to drop lower if this keeps up.
• A pair of untagged water worlds, one system, almost 100k ls apart, though. The further one has a bunch of metal content worlds around it, good for resource extraction. And it's terraformable, too.

Nothing else of interest. Entry over.

One hundred seventy six jumps to go. I've decided to segment the trip into three parts, each with roughly 60 jumps. Discovery log for segment 1.1:

• Tagged water world, x2
• Water world, uncertain if tagged, x1
• Untagged water world, x1
• Untagged ammonia world, x1
• Untagged water world - system Aucoks WT-A D2, contains five high metal content bodies, seems like a decent expansion point - as long as someone can not snicker at the system name. I love random name generation for some of these.

Nothing more of value. Entry over.

It begins.

First we met up just outside Kippax Ring, twenty five kilometers dead ahead from the station airlock. There's been so many ships there. At least two Belugas - yellow and red, I've parked myself in between them, several Anacondas and Asps, several Cutters and Clippers, a few Pythons as well as a bunch of interesting participants - a Federal Assault Ship (knew I didn't imagine it yesterday), a Fer-de-Lance, a Type-6, a Type-7 and at least two Type-9 ships. Hell, there was even an Eagle. I wonder if it's actually following us all the way.

The sight of so many ships jumping to the same system is just stunning. Even though I've been spearheading right behind Yanick and the red Beluga, someone made a point of recording the exodus and sharing that view over the comms. Pretty damn amazing. Not my first mass jump, I've done a few on Mercury 7 alongside Baradoen before I had to head back, but there was nowhere near this attendance. And that was before engine exhaust dyes were developed, so it was far less colourful than today's. A sight to behold.

Right after the first jump, I've immediately charted course a thousand lightyears into the bottom of the galaxy. From that level, I'll chart underneath the first waypoint and explore this part of the arm - few commanders will bother dropping this low, so by doing this, I'll contribute to the goal better than I would just going straight there. Also, more potential first scans on the way.

Findings so far: two water worlds and a system with three suns as an entry point. Damn glad I've got an efficient power plant.

That was one interesting crew we've gathered for this.

Today I reached the destination system for the expedition's start, HIP 72043. More widely known as Institute of Galactic Exploration and Research, or IGER, due to that faction being in charge here. We've gathered up on the first moon of the first planet, on a rather flat ground next to a canyon. Few of us got lost and we've had to be winged in, but all in all, most of us managed to get there. Even though my systems suffered an unexpected crash, so I couldn't join the fun for long, I saw a lot of interesting ships. A golden beluga, couple purple cutters, a black Gutamaya ship with red exhausts - the edgiest imperial vessel I ever saw. To each their own, I prefer purple exhaust myself. Hell, there even was a type-7 and what I think was a federal assault ship.

A few folk brought fighter bays, so we've had a lot of shenanigans happen. Beam and burst lasers firing left and right, SRVs crashing - I even managed to blow up the only SRV I personally have. Good thing we didn't set off yet, I'll resupply before we set off. There was even some really persistent pirate, scanning everyone that came in, in hopes of tasty cargo, but alas, it's an exploration gathering. Shame I don't have a kill warrant scanner, I'd go and screen him just for giggles, maybe one of those armed explorers would've shot the bastard down.

Sadly, my telepresence beacon failed soon and I've had to do a hard reboot of the ship systems, so I didn't get to do all that much. On that note, I've synced with IGER broadcast satellites and finally updated these, so it should be less problematic on the way. Now I've got to launch and fix my SRV, as well as stock up on lecture and non perishables to eat. We'll be out there for at least a third of a year, if nothing unexpected happens. Gotta have something to do so that I don't go insane in the breaks between exploring.